If damage is assigned to AAA during bombardment, can it defend before general combat begins in the territory or is it removed?

Question

Question pertains to Axis & Allies 1942, 2nd edition.

If a defender assigns damage to anti-aircraft artillery units during the bombardment phase of an amphibious assault, do the AAA's still get a chance to defend prior to beginning the general combat phase?

For example, UK forces conduct an amphibious assault (with 2 cruiser, 1 transport carrying 2 infantry, and 1 fighter flies in for land combat from another territory) on Italy (defending with 2 AAA's and 2 infantry). There are no defensive sea forces in the sea zone, so skip sea combat and begin bombardment phase - cruisers roll twice and get 2 hits. Defender wants to assign one hit to one infantry and other hit to AAA.

I know the one infantry is removed from the remaining land combat, but is the AAA also removed or does it first get to roll against the fighter before it is removed?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

On page 15 of the Axis and Allies 1942, Second edition rulebook, it is stated:

"Roll one die for each battleship and cruiser that can conduct bombardment…For each hit, the defender will move a defending unit behind the casualty strip. These casualties will be able to defend during the land combat step before they are eliminated".

This means that not only does the AA gun in your scenario still get to fire, but so does the infantry unit that got knocked out by the bombardment as well, at least for one round of combat. In addition, even if the lost AA gun didn't get to fire due to its destruction, the other still would, and the destruction of the first would therefore be irrelevant because in the description of AA guns, it says,

"Only one antiaircraft gun can fire in a battle, no matter how many are in the territory".

In sum, both of the destroyed units in your scenario would have the ability to fire after naval bombardment phase.

Answer 2

Yes, the AA can fire back. That's because in reality, the firing is "simultaneous."

The defender's losses are removed as they are hit in order to keep them "separate" for removal. But the fact of the matter is that the whole defensive complement fires on the turn, including the units taken as casualties.

After all the defenders fire, the attacker's casualties are tallied and removed.