Sixth Fleet: Crisis in the Middle East - Day 1: PM Action Phase

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Silly me, it seems my first posting on my ongoing Sixth Fleet game is wrong.  I believed that the whole first day was over but apparently I've only covered the first action phase of Day 1.  Continuing with Action Phase 2 (PM Action Phase) on Day 1 here:

The Soviets roll initiative for the afternoon and immediately set off to take out those pesky Israeli patrol boats.  The Turks have declared war on the Russians already and will be in the game from tomorrow so there's no need for the Soviets to tread gingerly.  They immediately send off three squadrons of T-16 bombers to fly from the Crimea south through Turkey and into the Eastern Med, where they promptly and easily dispatch three flotillas of Israeli patrol boats.

Soviet bombers devastate the Israeli fleet near Lebanon.

The Americans activate their surface ships and decide that the Egyptian task force along with the remaining Israeli surface ships will team up with the American carrier task force in the area for protection and try to wait it out near Cyprus before attempting an amphibious landing tomorrow morning.


The Soviets let their subs go to work around the Med.  The Nezhin creeps up on the US and Egyptian task forces but is soon chased off and its torpedoes find no purchase.  However, a group of US ships near Sicily suffers a horrible loss when the replenishment ship Detroit is hit and damaged by a Soviet torpedo.

Combat action near Sicily:  A Soviet sub scores a hit on the Detroit.


The American submarine, USS Boston, tries to take on a Soviet submarine.  Both of them maneuver for a killing shot but there's no joy to be had.  Way over in the Atlantic, the USS Drum fires a torpedo at the Russian sub, the Shuya, and damages it.

The Soviets activate their surface fleet, sending a small task force of ships from Benghazi out towards Malta. This could be interesting as it's about to run smack into the group of US ships (with the unfortunate Detroit) near Sicily.  Soviet Task Force 3 with the damaged Minsk withdraws from the eastern Med and decides to chase after the same group of US ships near Italy.  Libyan patrol boats fire missiles at these same US ships but poor aim and lots of good AAA coverage provides a nice shield against the incoming SSMs.

 The Syrians move their patrol boats out to harass the nearby US carrier task force.  The Soviets keep their Task Force 4 in port, sitting under protection of air cover and fighter CAP.  The task force consists mostly of amphibious ships with some light escorts so there's no need to be picking fights with the Americans. This Soviet invasion force is still not detected by the Americans and it makes no move to blow its own cover.  The Israelis have sent out their subs to find out what's going on and so now the Eastern Med is getting crowded once again.

The Eastern Med is getting crowded again...



The US has final activation in this action phase and sends out its air units toconduct a daring daylight carrier raid against the Syrian base of Latakia.  The Nimitz launches two escort flights of A-7s with EA-6 Prowlers and some A-6 Intruders.  Several MiG-21s on CAP meet the raid but they are sent scrambling off as the A-7s provide excellent air cover.  The damage to Latakia air base is light but it's a start.

Next up, the night phase!

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