  Custom Scenario Name:            AZORES
Scenario Starting Date:            August 15, 1943
Maximum Scenario Duration:         27 turns (1days/turn)

Scenario Author:                   Paul Bickford
Author's E-mail Address:        umbickfo@cc.umanitoba.ca
Last Scenario Revision Date:       March 6, 1999
Version 1.2                                         


"PLAY FROM AGHEILA...2 SLOT"

Background:
----------
The Allies in 1943 pressed forward with efforts to acquire air
 and naval bases on the Azores islands. The battle in the Atlantic between 
 the Allied convoys and the growing German submarine fleet reached its peak 
 in the spring of 1943, and the need for Allied anti-submarine air bases 
 from which to patrol the vulnerable southern Atlantic convoy routes to 
 Europe became acute. 
	The British, for whom the Azores were so critical, had not seized 
 the islands because of the fear that Germany would retaliate by invading 
 Portugal or the entire Iberian peninsula. By the middle of 1943 the British 
 Chiefs of Staff felt that risk of German reaction to the occupation of 
 Portuguese bases had essentially passed.
	The acquisition of bases in the Azores was discussed by President
 Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and their military advisers at their
 meetings in Washington, May 10-25, 1943. Toward the end of the Washington
 Conference, Churchill summed up for the British Cabinet (which opposed the
 military seizure of the Azores on moral grounds and out of concern for 
 negative political and economic consequences) the justification for acting
 swiftly to occupy the Azores:

	"My estimate that 1,000,000 tons of shipping and several thousand
 lives might be saved was regarded by the Combined Chiefs of Staff as a
 serious underestimate. In short, military necessity is established in the
 most solid manner. I cannot see that there is any moral substance in the
 legalistic point involved in overriding the neutrality of Portugal in
 respect of these islands which are of no peace-time consequence but have now
 acquired vital war significance. The fate of all these small nations depends
 entirely upon our victory. It is a painful responsibility to condemn so many
 great ships of the British and American flag to destruction and so many of
 our merchant seamen to drowning because our inhibitions prevent us from
 taking the action which would save them. In this case the issue is far more
 precisely pointed because the rate of new buildings over sinkings is the
 measure of our power to wage war and so to bring this pouring out of blood
 and money to a timely end."

	Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to give diplomacy a chance to succeed.
 While the British and U.S. military chiefs readied plans for forcibly seizing
 the Azores, British diplomats invoked the 600-year old Anglo-Portuguese
 Alliance and succeeded in concluding an agreement with Salazar and his aides
 on August 1, 1943, that permitted British forces to land in the Azores.
 American military leaders were distressed that the Anglo-Portuguese Agreement
 failed to provide for U.S. bases, and Roosevelt and Hull refused to support
 the British pledges to abandon the facilities at the end of the War. Instead
 the United States pressed ahead with its own separate negotiations, although
 with little success initially. 
	Charg George Kennan described the circumstances in Lisbon as follows:

 "He [Salazar] feels that he has strained his relations with the Germans to
 utmost already and that we will be lucky if he gets off with sinking of a
 ship or two and possibly some reprisals in the Azores area. The idea of giving
 the Germans further cause for offense at this moment would appall him. I cannot
 disagree with this analysis. German-Portuguese relations seem indeed perilously
 close to the breaking point. Any further strain may well cause complications
 which would run counter to our desire to keep the Peninsula quiet at 
 this juncture."

 To keep German reprisals to a minimum, Dr. Salazar agreed to give the Americans
 access to the islands on a clandestine basis, to maintain the illusion of
 neutrality. 

					AZORES43:
				  OPERATION "LEAPFROG"
	
 AXIS:	Our spy network in Lisbon has determined that approximately 2 weeks ago,
 the Portuguese government agreed to grant bases to the Allies in the Azores.
 Your mission, Herr General, is to aquire control of these bases by a combined
 Air and Naval assault on the islands.The Allied bases have been in place for at
 least 2 weeks, so expect them to be well fortified, especially the American
 bases, as we have seen increased American Naval traffic to the islands in the
 last few weeks. Mussolini, always hating to be left out, has sent a small force
 to assist you, and they will land on the Southern island of Sao Miguel.
 Their force is quite small, so an effort should be made to assist them as soon
 as possible. The British are rumoured to have sizeable Air resources already in
 the islands, so we have provided you the necessary air cover for your landing
 force. You must capture all the Allied bases and several key Portuguese cities
 on different islands in order to control the area. Paratroop landings have been
 made on the islands of Flores and Corvo, which we now control and is to be your
 staging base. Try and keep your forces island hopping, before the Allies have
 time to entrench reinforcements in the mountainous terrain.

 Allies:Increased German submarine activity had been detected in the Azores,
 leading us to believe the Germans had knowledge of our bases. This was
 confirmed last night by the attack of German paratroop divisions on the
 islands of Flores and Corvo, which is now in their control. Try and keep the
 enemy landing forces occupied on the beaches, before they have time to secure
 staging areas inland. American forces dispatched last week from New York
 to garrison the American base are en route to the islands now, and are expected
 to arrive in a few days. Use your naval forces wisely,as we expect heavy German
 submarine traffic in the area to continue.

	PBEM Settings: Allies +1 Prestige.

	Comments, questions, or criticism: Paul Bickford paulsbic@mb.sympatico.ca

	

Scenario Prepared for Tortoise Page
 http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/oxford/285/tortoise.html   
		