Gazala - The Cauldron 30th May to 5th June 1942

 Next up in my Gazala series is the infamous Cauldron - a series of engagements which took place in late May and early June 1942 as the Axis forces found themselves trapped behind the British minefields and frantically tried to clear their lines of communications while 8th Army made rather disjointed series of attacks from the east. This scenario attempts to cover the attacks made by 1st Armoured Division on 30th May AND 'Operation Aberdeen', a much more formal assault which took place on 4th/5th June.

Battlefield from the south. The main British minefields and (the well defended 150 Brigade box) are to the west (left). There is a minefield switch line just creeping around the broken ground to the south. The Axis exploited the British mine switch lines to secure their southern and northern flanks. Sidi Muftah is just visible in the north, as is a section of the Trigh Capuzzo, leading back to Fort Capuzzo in the east. Gazala is to the northwest and Tobruk is to the northeast. 

Otherwise the ground is fairly featureless with various low rises and odd patches of bad going and wadis. I've just realised I forgot to put the wadi on the table, it will appear in later photos.

The Axis defenders, in this case elements of Ariete and 15th Panzer Division. 21st Panzer Division is off to the north with its flank resting on another minefield. The Axis set up a pakfront facing east, while all the units they could spare (mainly 90th Light and Trieste supported by elements of Ariete and the two panzer divisions) tried to reduce 150 Brigade to the rear. I'll do the last stand of the 150th  as a separate game.

In the north is 115th Rifle Regiment, now reduced to two battalions after heavy fighting in the vicinity of Knightsbridge, supported by a battalion from 8th Panzer Regiment. II/115 dug in on the ridge has the divisional AT battalion attached, while I/115 is dug into a strong point (Stukzpunkt 1)  reinforced with more AT guns, heavy weapons and 88s. This strongpoint (SP) is one of the objectives. John A commands 15th Panzer and is overall CO.

In the south is 8th Bersaglieri Regiment and a battalion of M13/40s from 132 Armoured Regiment. I've rated all the Itailans as regular as Ariete was a pretty good division by 1942. Like their German pals, one of the Bersaglieri (5/8) has AT guns while the other is in a strongpoint (SP2) reinforced with Heavy AA/AT guns - self propelled 90mm and guns and German supplied 88s. Ariete had to two batteries of 88s along with its 90mm guns. SP2 is the other objective. Tim commanded the Italians as he has a magnificent Italian desert cap.

In support are the Luftwaffe and Reggia Aeronautica. The SM79s are for interdiction and the Ju 88s for close ground support in their dive bomber configuration. There are also a couple of artillery battalions, the rest are shelling the British to the west.

The Axis have two supply columns, but at first they only have one available - 150 Brigade covered the minefield gaps with artillery so the Axis could only bring up supplies at night. Later in the battle, the availability rises to two as the British pocket is reduced.

To win the axis need to control at least one of the strongpoints at the end of the game.

And over in the east we have to British horde! These will come on in two waves, the first being 2nd and 22nd Armoured Brigades, the second being 10th Indian Brigade and 4th Armoured Brigade. Between the attacks on 30th May and Operation Aberdeen, the Germans laid minefields and pulled their defences in tighter. Aberdeen was preceded by mineclearing operations and a heavy preliminary bombardment, which missed the Axis positions as they fell back beforehand (those handy signal intercepts!). So for game purposes we will ignore the German mines and the Allied heavy artillery.

Fans of One Hour Wargames will of course realise that the scenario framework is the 'Fortified Defence' scenario, based on the Battle of Fontenoy! I previously used it for Grossdeutschland at Kursk a few years ago. It works well for massed assault type games and is pretty brutal loss wise.

2nd Armoured Brigade. By now the British armoured units were understrength and units were already being intermingled to maintain fighting power. As far as possible every Regiment had at least one squadron of Grants, who ended up doing much of the fighting, while the lighter tanks did what they could. I've given them two armoured regiments (100-120 tanks in the Queens Bays and 9th Lancers), a mix of Grants and Crusaders, plus their integral motor battalion, in this case 1 Rifle Brigade finally equipped with 6pdrs. They are are supported by 11 RHA with 25 pdrs. Jerry commanded these, with Terry taking the Motor Battalion.

22nd Armoured Brigade is similar to 2nd, two Regiments with a mix of Grants and Crusaders (2 RGH and 3/4 CLY) and their Motor Battalion. Unusually this is 50 Bn, Recce Corps configured as a motor infantry battalion and supprted by the brigade AT company with 6pdr. Their artillery support is from 107 RHA with 25 pdrs. Russell commanded these, with John B and Ian taking over on Wednesday. Terry took this Motor Battalion too. I separated the tank and infantry commands because the new Armoured Brigade Groups were really rubbish at armour-infantry cooperation to start with,

In the original battle, 4th Armoured Brigade was supposed to take part but got lost in a sandstorm on the way!

At any point the British CO can withdraw the 1st wave and replace it with the 2nd wave, which then enters from the east edge. In the interim the German supply capacity rises to two LOG.

The second wave consists of a hastily reorganised 22nd Armoured Brigade with two Regiments of Grant/Crusader (2 RGH and 3/4 CLY) and one of Grant/Stuart (3/4 RTR) supported by 107 RHA. I'll swap the models in from the first wave.

It also has 10th Indian Brigade Group with three infantry battalions, 2nd Highland Light Infantry, 4/10 Baluchi and 2/4 Ghurka supported by 28 Field Regt with 25pdrs. 2HI are supported by the brigade MMG company, 4/10B have the brigade AT company with 2pdrs while the Ghurkas are Ghurkas. I gave them a bonus in close comabt. 

In support we have P40 Warhawks from ground attack, and some B26 Marauders for interdiction. The latter wont have anyone to bomb until the Germans open up their daylight supply routes. For LOG there is the inevitable Austin ambulance and a huge captured Italian lorry. Terry was the overall CO for both evenings as well as running some of the ground units.

OK, that is the setup, off to battle!

Unsurprisingly 2nd AD mounted an assault on the northern SP, essentially an armoured charge straight forward. There isn't enough room to deploy everything side by side so the motor infantry stayed back. The Marauders turned up but had no-one to attack.

The M13s on the hill called in the Italian artillery, while the German artillery and bombers attacked to support the SP. Once again the Axis used their indirect fire assets on the least vulnerable targets - artillery not being very good against armour. The AT guns opened up ad knocked out some British tanks however.

In a bold move, the Panzer battalion moved up to support the hull down M13s. That put 50 Pz IIIs and IVs out in the open within range of 150+ Grants and Crusaders.

The British split their fire between the SP and the Panzers supported by artillery, while 50 Bn engaged the M13s with their 6pdrs. The 6pdrs missed the hull down Italian tankers, but the SP took a couple of hits while the panzers were mullered, taking four hits and becoming disorganised.

In return the Axis concentrated much of their fire and the Ju 88s on 3/4 CLY which disintegrated under the weight of fire and the SP managed to disorganise 9th Lancers. The panzers chose to to continue to engage rather than reorganise. The SM79s ineffectively bombed the Allied rear echelons.

With the destruction of 3/4 CLY, 50 Bn now had a clear LOS to the panzers and combined with P40 ground attacks artillery and 2 RGH to finish the Germans off. In the north Jerry focused on the SP and inflicted another hit.

The German infantry and 88s supported by the M13s now focussed on the 9th lancers, and another British armoured regiment went up in flames.

However the way was now clear for the British infantry. The tanks and artillery disorganised the defenders and both Motor Battalions closed in to conduct an assault next turn.

The Axis wisely reorganised the units in the strongpoint and called own artillery fire on the British infantry, inflicting some hits. 50 Motor Bn was suppressed by the artillery. 

The British tanks, air and artillery pounded the strongpoint, which was then assaulted by 1 Rifle Brigade. The assault failed and 1 RB fell back, but the Germans were left disordered and unable to reorganise (having been assaulted).

The Axis concentrated everything in range on 50 Motor Bn, but the fire from the disorganised SP was fairly ineffective. Even so, the weight of fire took 50 Motor Bn to five hits, disorganised and one step away from disintegration.

The British were not to be stopped however, the remaining armour and 1 RB poured devastating fire into the strongpoint, which was enough to finish off the defenders, enabling the few troops from 50 Bn still on their feet to occupy the position, overunning the 88s. The strongpoint had fallen! 

The Axcis response was fairly muted as by now their units were mostly out of range. The M13s had fallen back to the northern rise with the last German anti tank guns, and could just see 50 Bn clearing the strongpoint. Fire from the ridge sent them packing, reducing 2nd Armoured Division to three effective units.

They clearly didn't have the strength to push on, so the Allied CO called 'Operation Aberdeen'. 2nd AD withdrew and a few days later, 10th Indian Brigade and 22nd Armoured Brigade entered the fray.

Given the significant change in the situation, the Allies were a bit hesitant about what to do. They ended up with the infantry and armour interspersed on a broad front. The general scheme was for 2 HLI and 3/4 RTR to secure the northern SP and stop the Axis retaking it, while everyone else would attack the southern SP.

The Allies pushed on for another turn. This brought 2 HLI in range of the ridge where it was duly shelled and bombed and took some minor losses. In the south, 4/10 Baluchi wandered into range of the Ariete 88/90mm guns and took some losses too.

The Allies had six turns left to take the southern SP, and as we had new players joining the following day, we left it there for the evening, giving the players a chance to ponder their moves for tomorrow.

Pleasingly the situation replicated that in real life, where the Axis had pulled their line back before the Allies could make contact - dodging the heavy preliminary bombardment. An attack with leg infantry supported by armour is a very different business to two armoured brigades attacking side by side.

Having had a bit of a think, the Allies shuffled their forces around. The Indian infantry battalions headed for the rough ground in the south as a covered approach, while the armour concentrated more centrally. The HLI remained in occupation of the northern SP. The Axis shelled the units which were in range and the Ariete tank battalion shifted position to a new location further south.

As the Indians moved slowly through the rocky ground to the south, ambulances helped reorganise thr HLI who were taking heavy losses from German shell fire. The Bays took the southern strongpoint under fire from its elevated position and called in 25pdr fire.

The Indians prepared themselves to attack, receiving more supplies before doing so while the Allies contiued shelling the strongpoint. This was a much more deliberate operation than the first phase.

The Ghurkas, Baluchis and Bays moved into attack positions. 3/4 CLY made a very aggressive move indeed, right into the heart of the Axis fire sack, to maximise the fire lanes onto the strongppoint.

Having had several turns to prepare and resupply, the Axis put out a storm of fire from every unit in range. The Baluchis were hammered by artillery and airstrikes, but the bulk of the Axis fire hit the CLY, which took five hits and become disorganised, one hit away from outright destruction. They had however protected the main assault units.

The CLY pulled back to safety while the Baluchis reorganised. The other allied armoured units, air and artillery pounded the strongpoint, inflicting enough damage to disorganise it. The Ghurkas tried to dislodge the Bersaglieri among the rocks, but unsupported, the task was beyond them.

The Axis resupplied the strongpoint while the Axis guns and bombers turned on the Ghurkas. The extra supplies coming through the minefield gaps to Rommel were proving very useful, and the Luftwaffe was successfully holding off the Desert Airforce. The Ghurkas took enough damage to become disorganised. 

Time was running out very rapidly and unfortuately the Allies didn't have any units in position to assault now. Their only hope was to shoot the Italians out of the position, and have one regimental mobile to occupy it. Sadly the battered CLY were too far away to do it, which meant the 9th Lancers would have to charge.

In the event, it was too little too late - the Allied tanks and artillery reduced the Italians to 2 hits. The Gurkas had two shots left, but a disorganised unit firing at a hard target needs sixes to hit, and the rolled.....6,3. So the Italians survived, and with the Axis holding the last strongpoint at the end of the game, Operation Aberdeen had failed.

That was of course the historical result, but once again it went down to one last hit, so close to the wire (although that final fire attack only had a 1:36 chance of working). Even if the Allies had taken it, they would have advanced into a ring of fire, and I'm not sure they would have held it.

In the end that wasn't as hard to manage as I expected, partly because there were a few turns of non contact movement. I was pleased to have replicated broadly the historical flow of events. The most pleasing thing was the very different feel between the mass armoured assault in the first wave and the much more deliberate infantry/armour assault in the second. When I used the same core scenario for Kursk, there wasn't that level of difference, presumably each of the German waves had a similar composition of tanks and mechanised infantry.

Brigade Models 2mm buildings

 Regular readers may recall that I picked up a couple of 2mm buildings from Brigade Models at Hammerhead earlier this year. I finally got around to painting them.

A Roman Temple and 'Fort St Antonio', which I assume is a real place but Google cant find it anywhere. 

The fort is rather more substantial than my 2mm Irregular 'Eighteenth Century Fort' with four well defined bastions, courtyard and buildings. Interestingly it only has gun embrasures on three sides, so I assume it was part of a larger fortified system.

On the rear side are just ramparts and the entrance. The Brigade buildings are printed with quite a rough texture, which is great for repeated layers of drybrushing. I did this in various sandy shades with the walkway and courtyard in khaki and brick tiled roofs. The whole thing was finished off with a very light drybrush of pale sand.

The Roman temple is different to my Langton Greek Temple as it has an enclosed area at one end (shown by the low depth of the recesses between the pillars).

I did this in desert ochre with various extra layers of drybrushing. The recesses between the pillars I just emphasised with black paint. Like the fort this was also cast with a fairly rough surface finish so the texture got picked out nicely.

You can see the contrast with my Langton greek temple, which is hilariously small in comparison (and is done in white marble, which the Greeks favoured).

So while it is still quite small, I can probably get away with using this as a side terrain piece with my 20mm Ancients, something I certainly cant with the Greek one.

The fort will work fine with both my 2mm and 6mm stuff, although normally I'd have it tucked away in a table corner for Almeida or something like that. Here it is with some 6mm H&R frenchmen.

I'm pleased with both of those and impressed with the quality of the Brigade stuff. They make some lovely buildings and I can see I'm going to be buying more of them.

Unconditional Surrender France 1940

 Right, on to the third training scenario for Unconditional Surrender, France 1940 this time. This uses everything in the rules and the opening turn features in a blow-by-blow account in the players handbook which was very helpful. I'm fairly happy with the air and ground combat systems, but all the extra stuff like production and replacement, naval operations and even the operation of multi-country alliances needed a fair bit of reading up. Unusually this game also lasts several turns, so I had to read up on the turn end sequence, which is quite nuanced. 

The basic setup. There is a lot going on in this one, despite using Army sized counters. The standard scenario lasts from May to September 1940 and there are many scenario specific rules (eg the Germans cant mount an amphibious invasion or airdrop on Britain. Thankfully the British and German National (NW) Will and production is ignored, but it isn't for everyone else. The Germans need to conquer the Netherlands, Belgium and France by September 1940 or they lose. Conquering is done by reducing NW to zero by capturing cities and destroying field armies. the French start with 20 NW, so will be very tough to defeat. The Belgians and Dutch start with 2 NW, so won't be quite so hard....

The game control sheet has a ton of stuff on it, tracks for Will and Production and for the various events as well as weather and turns. The Allied events include strategic movement and two generic ground support events, while the French get 'tanks' and the British get both surprise attack and naval evacuation as well as 'tanks' of their own. The tank events temporarily add an armoured bonus to one combat.

The Germans get strategic movement, surprise attack and airdrop. Oddly these aren't available until August 1940, despite some of the most famous airborne operations of the war and the Ardennes surprise attack happening in May 1940. Perhaps it is for play balance? As usual there are various scenario options offered.

In May there is a 50:50 chance of Fair weather, and the Germans duly roll fair weather. That will greatly aid their initial attack.

The setup is much as you'd expect, the German Army massed to strike west with no less than three Air Fleets in support. The Allies have two air units (the RAF and French) but the RAF are restricted to base within three hexes of Britain. An extra French unit arrives at the end of May, but carrying 4 'sorties' aka hits with it. One of the German units starts with 2 sorties, presumably from the invasion of Denmark and Norway in April. The balance of airpower is nothing like that in Third Reich or AHGCs 'France 1940' where the Allies are outnumbered 3:1, although in this game the Germans do have a quality advantage.

The offensive opens in the fair weather in May, with waves of airstrikes on the French air force to write it down. The Germans rapidly exhaust the French in these initial attacks, leaving the air to the Germans apart from the RAF. 9th Army rolls over the Netherlands quite easily - the Dutch army is reduced strength to start with, and with air support the Germans knock it out straight away then roll into Amsterdam. The Dutch and Belgians aren't eligible for French or British air support.

The attack into Belgium is slower, the Belgian Army is stronger and the terrain worse (marshland behind a river). There isn't any Eban Emael fortress, so I assume its reduction by Fallschirmjager assault engineers was factored into the scenario. The Belgians are just pushed back to Brussels.

The Germans just keep coming in the Low Countries, the Belgians are pushed out of Brussels and with the loss of their capital, immediately surrender. Well, that is the diversionary attacks done!

The Germans smash French 2nd Army at Sedan with their Panzer groups and push 9th Army back over the Marne, then exploit west, taking Paris en route and surrounding French 1st Army southwest of Antwerp. Mon Dieu! The BEF and 7th Army are pushed back to Calais.

Finally the remaining German infantry armies stretch their line westwards to keep the Maginot Line in ZOC but also to protect the southern flank of the Panzers. With so many infantry in the north, they re looking rather thin! The German infantry in the north attack 1st Army, but even though it is isolated, it survives and retreats into Antwerp (ZOC don't extend into enemy controlled cities, and although Belgium has surrendered the Germans didn't have enough MP to take Antwerp).

The units in the Maginot fortresses don't have any ZOC, so the Germans can slip along the frontier.

That looks like a pretty successful offensive to me, particularly capturing Paris, although the BEF and 7th Army can draw supply from  Calais. The Germans burned all their air support getting this far.

Of course with all the German air used up, the situation is ripe for a counterattack. One of the armies comes out of the Maginot line and joins 9th Army supported by French tanks in a counterattack using 'assault' mode which allows units to combine. That pushes the Germans back and cuts the rail line west to Paris.

In the north 1st Army evacuates by sea from Antwerp to Le Havre (what a rotten trick!), 7th Army falls back to Calais  but the BEF, supported by the RAF and British tanks counterattacks Paris! The Germans are surrounded, unable to retreat and after two assaults are first reduced and then eliminated. 2nd Panzer Group has been destroyed! The BEF retake Paris and the French get four Will Points (WP) back.

Well, that is what happens when the 'sickle cut' offensive doesn't quite make it to the sea. What a disaster.

Naturally in June the weather turned bad, restricting the effectiveness of all units but particularly air and armour, while restricting all combat to assaults only. The Germans occupied the reduced Maginot Line hex SE of Sedan but Metz and Strasbourg were still solidly defended. They then assaulted Paris and pushed the BEF back out again.

In the north they assaulted Calais, but the French held them off.

In the Allied turn the BEF assaulted Paris, supported by all the adjacent French armies and the RAF (as the Allies had air parity now) and although they didn't destroy 1st Panzer Group, they reduced it a step. With 2nd Panzer Group still rebuilding in Germany, I called it at that point as I'd managed to wreck both the entire Panzer arm as well as the Luftwaffe in a reckless assault. A well deserved Allied victory, but at least I'd got more idea how things hung together in a longer game. I was too used the very short Poland and Norway games.

Armed with better knowledge and aware of the various bits of the rules I'd got wrong, time for a better go.

This time I rolled up bad weather for May, but in some ways it was a blessing as it forced a more measured approach. Once again I wrote down the French airforce, but launched a series of limited attacks to take Belgium and Holland. The French had availed themselves of the strategic move option to rail a unit into Antwerp, which was annoying. 

Restricted to just one attack per unit, it was slow going but the Germans got there in the end, although I was forced to commit one of the Panzer groups to take Brussels. I tried to keep as much air back as possible for future use (you can recover a maximum of two steps per unit in the production/mobilisation phase) but I took the opportunity to capture Sedan with infantry.

The Allies were content to deploy into a strong defensive line. Leg infantry in the front, with the mobile BEF and 1st Army in the second line as well as a garrison in Paris to provide extra ZOC and a counterattack force while the RAF staged to Calais. The French air reinforcements appeared in Paris - Calais and Paris being at  extreme range for German counter air missions.

The Allies went into June quietly confident that the Germans now faced a WW1 style slogging match.

Sadly they had reckoned without the power of the Blitzkrieg in clear weather. June rolled up clear weather, and the panzers and Luftwaffe swung into action. The Luftwaffe smashed the French airforce, then both Panzer groups pushed forward and set up a series of encirclements which allowed the following infantry armies to annihilate most of the French front line.

They didnt attack Paris this time as it was so exposed, and ignored the BEF entirely to avoid a battle with the RAF, instead they tore a huge hole in the French line along the Marne and poured south through the gap, taking Dijon and Vichy, and isolating the Maginot Line!

The western end of the Maginot Line held out however, so the German forces south of the Marne outran their supplies (2nd Panzer Group is under that low supply marker SE of Paris) as the rail line remained closed.

There wasn't a great deal the Allies could do about this catastrophe with several field armies now in the 'eliminated' box and waiting to be rebuilt (a two turn process). One of the French armies sallied from the Maginot Line to threaten Dijon, otherwise the rest just tried to form a line along the west to avoid losing more cities. I've put the air sortie markers on top of the air units so you can see the state of the air forces - I think you are supposed to do that anyway.

The Germans didn't have enough MP to take Lyons last turn so there is an Allied marker on it. Next turn the French will be able to put a replacement unit in there.

July to September is guaranteed Fair Weather, so in July the Germans took Paris while launching an assault on the western Maginot Line to open the rail line south led by Panzer Group 2. The attack managed to reduce the garrison but not eliminate it - forts are tough.  

They also managed to reduce the fort at Strasbourg but not take it - the writing was on the wall for the Maginot Line now. The fall of Paris also allowed the Germans to isolate the BEF east of Calais. If only they had retreated into the town when they had the chance. Instead they were surrounded, isolated and destroyed by a series of concentric attacks. Finally the starving Germans in Vichy stumbled southeast and captured Lyons - coupled with the fall of Paris and Calais, that was enough to reduce the French Will to zero and France surrendered.

Given the game length (May to September) I suspect France is always going to lose this one in the long run barring an early German disaster. The France 1941 scenario is more balanced, but this is excellent as a training scenario as it exercises all the mechanisms - I'm just sorry I never got to player the British 'naval evacuation' event. I actually felt like I was playing the game in that second run rather than just being buffeted by events and scratching my head, so I'm getting there I think. The Italy and France 1944 scenarios are both pretty big, so I need some more practice before then. The invasion of the Balkans beckons.