I have been to.... Mauritius

 We fancied a bit of winter sun, and were drawn to Mauritius after our younger daughter had her honeymoon there, so I've been away for a few weeks. As ever I'll try not to bore you with too many holiday snaps and instead focus on things of historical interest.

We stayed in Chamaral in the southwest corner of the island, which is still largely mountainous tropical jungle (the rest of the island is largely given over to sugar cane production) . This the view from the mountaintop near our hotel, which we slogged up in 30 degree heat and 80% humidity for the excellent view. That big rock in the distance is Le Morne Brabant, tucked in behind the coral reefs. 

Le Morne Brabant from sea level. It was a holdout for escaped slaves on the island prior to the abolition of slavery. Originally colonised by the French, Britain captured Mauritius in 1810 although French (and Creole) is still very much the lingua franca.

We stayed in Chamarel for a few days and then relocated to the capital, Port Louis (named after Louis XIII iirc)

Port Louis features a combined natural and military history museum!

It is pretty easy to spot thanks to the large mortars on the grass outside. 4.2" perhaps?

The military museum is on the upper floor, and features various uniforms like this WW1 one.

And this WW2 one. This was typical of the uniforms worn by the Mauritian defences forces. 35,000 Mauritians served in WW2. Who knew? The majority (27,000) were pioneers.

But many of then weren't. Being French speakers, some ended up employed by the SOE.

There was a nice array of 1/35 scale models.

And some sections on Napoleonic naval warfare.

The natural history museum wasn't huge, but inevitably featured a section on the Dodo.

Including this rather nice reproduction. The museum has some of the few remaining complete skeletons.

Up on a hill in Port Louis is Fort Adelaide, constructed by the British in the 1830s after the island was captured from the French. It is a fair old slog up the hill as it is quite steep.

But is is pretty spacious inside. This is the main courtyard. Even though it is cloudy weather the day was very hot and sultry. Not much fun for the garrison I imagine.

There are various random muzzle loading artillery pieces scattered around. I do like a metal gun carriage.

On top of the bastion is the site of a swivelling gun carriage. The post in excellent condition considering its age, location and weatehr conditions (the island is often hit by cyclones). The carriage wheels would have run around the raised lip below the parapet.

This lengthy battery faces the hills inland, probably its most vulnerable spot, although the fort is in a very commanding position over the city and port.

Courtyard from the ramparts. You can see the hills behind.

After a week in Mauritius, we took a cruise across to South Africa via Reunion and Madagascar.

Reunion was fairly remarkable as it is a French overseas territory, so it is in the EU and treated as metropolitan France. It was settled as an alternative to Madagascar, which proved to be very difficult to subdue, and was originally under the inhabited iirc. 

This battery is along the waterfront in the capital, St Denis, near the site of the original settlement in a natural harbour. 

This rather magnificent monument commemorates General de Gaulles visit in the 1960s.

But really, you could be in any town in the south of France. This is the Great War memorial outside the town  hall. The main difference between Reunion and mainland France are the enormous volcanos on the island. The ones in the centre are dormant, and the active site has moved to the eastern coast. It erupts fairly regularly. The sea is 4000m deep here, so you can imagine how huge the volcano is

After Reunion we had a brief stop in Madagascar, docking at Port Dauphin. Site of the first French colony, the Dauphin in question being the future Louis XIV. Due to a rebellion, Mauritius was a no travel zone until fairly recently, but a military coup has restored some order.

This is Fort Dauphin near the site of the original settlement. It is used as family accommodation for the nearby military base.

The old fort walls are still in evidence. 

It has dominating views across the bay (similar on the other side as it is on a peninsular).

There are still some surviving bastions with rusty cannon placed in them.

There is an interesting museum distributed across some of the buildings on the site. In this case a dugout canoe and fishing gear.

Weapons and other artefacts. The French initially  evacuated Madagascar after fierce local resistance.

Various types of woven goods.

Accommodation blocks in the old fort.

Fort Dauphin commemorative plaque. 

I know I said I wouldn't put up any general holiday snaps, but we were in Madagascar so Lemurs....

They were all very interesting places, although it was very much a whistle stop visit to Reunion and Madagascar (you can hardly do an island the size of a small continent justice in one day!). I'd recommend Mauritius to anyone, lovely place and direct flights from the UK. 

Reunion has no less than four direct flights a day from Paris which also makes it attractive. It has amazing hiking trails and there is a large off grid community living inside one of the old craters, who are supplied by helicopter. 

 Madagascar? Well, one of our friends lived out there for a year working on development projects, and as one of the poorest countries in the world (most of the population live on less than a dollar a day), it is much as you'd expect. We didn't feel unsafe, but the grinding poverty was everywhere, and pretty miserable.

Devils in the Dark

 In a change from the Normandy hedgerows, our plucky US Paras are now in sunny Sicily in 1943, although perhaps not very sunny as it is night time. This is another Fireball Forward scenario converted to Tigers at Minsk, and originally it was published in one of the Skirmish Campaigns book. The map in FF seems to have been lifted straight from the original scenario book.

As part of the Allied invasion of Sicily, the 82nd Airborne dropped at night prior to the main landings, tasked with taking various key objectives inland. One of them was a fortified winery, held by Italian coastal defence troops.

Battlefield from the south, the winery is the three hexes of tall buildings in the middle. There are a few orchards and some low scrub around, the latter only gives cover to stationary units and doesn't block LOS.

The winery is heavily fortified with no less than five pillboxes, connecting trenches and lengths of barbed wire all around. Fortunately it is night and most of the defenders are in the buildings asleep! The pillboxes have a 180 degree arc of fire only, indicated by the position of the firing slit. 

A slightly more atmospheric view from ground level. The winner is the last side to have sole control of the winery. I made the bunkers ages ago and have used them in one or two games but it is nice to get them out again.

The game lasts 60 minutes and the sun comes up after 45 minutes, until then visibility is one hex.

The defenders, there seem to be an awful lot of them.

Two Italian defence platoons each of two rifle squads and an MG squad, plus an MG platoon with two fiurther MG teams. I've used Breda 20mm AA for the latter as I'm a bit short of Italian tripod MGs.

There is also an attached German liaison team, done as a German rifle section. The Italians are poor quality and the Germans average, force morale is 3 chips.

The mighty 82nd All American. The drop was complete chaos and only around 45 paras assembled for the attack. Here they are done as five rifle squads in two platoons, plus a .30 cal MG and a 60mm mortar team. These guys are all superior troops and have a force morale of four.

The Italians all set up in either the winery or pillboxes. The must put at least one MG team up in a pillbox, but tbh I cant see why you'd bother setting up anywhere except in the main building. So for this run I did the hedgehog defence, three MGs and four squads in the main building, a fourth squad and an MG in the bottom right pillbox. I plan to run it back to safety once the fighting starts. 

I guess the alternative would be to garrison four of the pillboxes with an MG and a squad each leaving one in reserve, and occupy the interval trenches once the shooting starts. That alternative plan looks like a really good way of losing the winery to me. Against a day attack, it would work fine, but not a sneaky night attack. 

The US troops can come on anywhere, but if they enter from the east or south there is a 15 minute delay, so they simply rushed the first line of fortifications using a double move as they are out of sight. Historically they overran an MG position here, captured the gun and used it against the defenders.

That is a scenario option (the US can capture MGs) , but the Italians have hidden all their MGs well out of harms way. 

The Italians know where the US are now, so redeploy, occupying the lower building with a squad and MG too. The pillbox garrison come running back to home.

The US don't have time to waste so drop 60mm mortar smoke in the scrub next to the winery and simply charge into the cover of the smoke. The Italian MG guns down one squad but another takes its place,

The Americans rush the northwest corner of the winery covered by the .30 cal.

And after a brutal fight, take it. Another US squad goes down in the fighting, but the Italians are pushed back. They have a number of pinned squads but none lost so far. The Italians are having problems with stacking limits, which is why two MG teams have ended up with the DAK guys in the bottom building hex.

In real life the entire garrison surrendered at this point, but that wouldn't be much of a game would it?

The garrison pours point blank fire into the Americans. Even though some Italian squads are pinned, the fire is devastating as the US are so bunched up,

Another US squad goes down. Only two left and just one morale chip!

The Paras keep going (view from the north to see better) - they conduct another assault covered by the .30 cal and drive the Italians out of another hex, routing no less than two entire sections. The Italian morale drops to one chip.

There is nothing for it but to counterattack, the DAK assault the Paras covered by all the Italian MGs.

And overrun the Paras! The US force breaks and the .30 cal and 60mm fall back into the scrub. The last Para squad is still hanging on though.....

Using the cover of the buildings, the last Para squad takes on the Italian MG teams. MGs don't do well in close combat...

And the Italians are driven back to the outhouse.

In an astonishing feat of arms, the Paras then drive the Germans out of the northeast corner! The defenders are in disarray with numerous units pinned and/or out of command. It is nearly dawn now.

As the sun comes up the Italians reoccupy the southern part of the winery and launch a desperate counterattack on the Paras.

Supported by the 60mm and .30 cal, the Paras managed to throw the assault back although all the defenders are pinned in combat.

As the clock ticks over 60 minutes, the US were the last side with sole occupation of the winery so they win! Gosh that was a glorious fight, the Paras won with 80% casualties and the Italian morale never actually broke, they just kept losing close combats.

Well that was a really tough battle, when we played the Skirmish Campaigns version the US were roundly defeated and I'm not surprised as it is very difficult proposition for the attackers. I'm glad quality triumphed over quantity and position in the end, but it was a very tough fight for the Paras unlike the real battle where the Italians basically just gave up after losing one MG team. As I said in the commentary, it wouldn't be much of a game if they did though. Well done to the 82nd for pulling that off.

That was so tense I didn't have any particular inclination to fight it again, partly because I dont think it is tactically interesting. I suppose at some point I might try a perimeter defence and see how that pans out, but the Axis were pretty unlucky to lose and I think the hedgehog defence is the optimum one given the victory conditions.