152 - Wehrmacht Conquers 250 Miles of Nothing - WW2 - July 24, 1942

by Panzer
He says Norway, huh?
Northern Norway.
That’ll show ‘em, he says.
So what do the Yanks say?
No, you’re right, you’re not allowed to print that.
Okay… yeah, see you.
July 24, 1942
It’s cheating, isn’t it?
When you send out your mobile units in sweeping maneuvers to go around the enemy while your
infantry keeps him tied down so you can surround huge numbers of his forces and take them prisoners-
but he doesn’t stick around for you to do that, and you surround a lot of empty space.
That’s not fair.
But what do you do then?
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last week the second phase of Fall Blau, the Axis summer offensive in the Soviet Union,
really got going.
It took plenty of territory, but Adolf Hitler began changing the orders almost daily and that
led to confusion and traffic.
The Soviets organized a Stalingrad Front to try and stop the enemy before he can reach
that city, which has assumed greater and greater importance.
And the stalemate at El Alamein is seriously depleting the Axis men and resources.
The British 8th Army makes more attacks there this week on the Axis forces at Tel el Eisa
and Ruweisat Ridge, but again they fail to dislodge or destroy the enemy, even though
the Allies have a huge advantage in men and equipment.
The British also know Axis positions from Ultra intercepts, but like pretty much always,
the armored support does not arrive at the right place at the right time.
Apparently, The Australian and New Zealand infantry grow increasingly disillusioned because
of these failures.
They might have some action soon in their own backyard, relatively speaking.
Back on the 10th, the coast at the northern end of the Kokoda Trail was surveyed, right?
This trail winds like 150 km over the Owen Stanley Mountains of New Guinea.
Operation Providence is to be a defense plan to send 3,000 Australians over the pass to
open the airstrip and set up defenses with the local militia.
On the 21st, though Japan’s Tomitaro Horii’s South Seas Detachment lands on New Guinea.
This sabotages any chance of Operation Providence being put into action.
B-17s flying at their extreme range are not able to disrupt the landings at Buna, which
over a few days are extended to Gona, and land some 13,000 or so men.
The airstrip at Kokoda is like 80 km inland in the foothills of the Mountains, after which
the trail climbs over 3,000 meters.