Himeimat, August 1942

 I originally started doing a version of this scenario based on the one in the Rapid Fire 'Montys Eighth Army' book as I was very taken with the idea of using four(!) German/Italian recce battalions together, and I also wanted to trial my minefield rules for OHW WW2. The real battle featured 4th (Light) Armoured Brigade screening the southern half of the Alamein position vs assorted Axis recce units while most of DAK charged to its doom at Alam Halfa.

I realised fairly quickly that the battle described in the scenario book bore a very strong resemblance to OHW scenario 20, 'Fighting Retreat', but instead of a stream it had a minefield with a couple of gaps, the various woods became soft depressions, and I kept the big hill on the baseline as the objective (Mount Himeimat). As the OHW victory conditions were more interesting than the RF ones, I modelled the game on the OHW scenario, but transposed the named terrain features onto my new desertified-version.

Battlefield from the south. The Quattara Depression is just south of here, El Alamein 20 miles or so to the northeast. The N-S track is the so called 'Barrel Track' and the first British minefield is off to the left. The second minefield is offtable to the right, the gaps dominated by Mt Himeimat, the big hill on the mid right.

The mighty Germans!

In the lead we have the 3rd, 33rd and 580th Recce battalions, from 15th Panzer, 21st Panzer and 164th Afrika Divisions. These boys are all Heavy Recce units and all rated as veterans.

And we also have the Italian RECAM with the Novara and Nissorio Lancers riding in AB41s and L6 Light Tanks, plus a wandering Pz III battalion from 8th Panzer Regiment which will rock up later. Some 105s in support, and a single logistic column as the Afrika Korps was desperately short of supplies in August 1942.

Tim and Russell commanded the Germans, with Pete taking over from Russell on Wednesday.

Part of 4th (Light) Armoured Brigade, L-R, a company of 44th Recce Regt in carriers, 4/8th Hussars in Stuarts, 1st KRRC supported by Portee 6pdrs, a battery of 25pdrs (3 RHA?) in support and two logistic columns. In the original RF scenario both the Hussars and KRRC had dropped a company, but I beefed them up to battalion equivalents again as all the German units in the scenario were quite weak.

John and Simon commanded the British.

The Axis and Allied airforces also put in an appearance. This bodged up 'SM79' with two missions and the rather nice RAF B26 Marauder with three missions.

The Allies had to start with two units west of the minefields, but ultimately the game would be decided by who controlled Mt Himeimat.

Simon went for a very upfront defence in the north! The Hussars parked in the minefield gap and 1 KRRC dug in just behind it.

In the south the gap was screened by 44th Recce (light recce) in their carriers.

And the 25pdrs dug in on the edge of the depression SW of Mt Himeimat.

The Axis piled on in strength in the south. The British called in artillery fire and the carriers fell back. All the recce units made use of their ability to shoot/move or move/shoot and various hits were inflicted.

This prompted something of a mad dash south by the Hussars and KRRC.

The carriers took a bit of a pasting, became disorganised, and fell back. The British artillery and air pounded the gap. Even if they didn't hit anything, it would slow movement through the barrage. 

Meanwhile the sneaky Italians were driving for the northern minefield gap, prompting the Hussars to halt.

German artillery and air pounded the Stuarts as the Italians pushed into the gap, covered by 33rd Recce.

The rest of the Germans pushed cautiously through the gap in the south, under fire all the way. 1 KRRC arrived to support the carriers, who reorganised.

Hard pounding in the north! Recce units aren't very good against tanks, even Stuarts.

John noticed that the aircraft were casting photogenic shadows, so I took a photo. 

The Desert Airforce joined in the battle for the northern gap. 

But the Stuarts fell back disorganised and the Axis pushed through the northern gap. As the Italians edged forward, the Stuarts reorganised.

In the south, the 44th carriers fell back as the Panzers arrived, and then finally disintegrated and the survivors retreated offtable back through the second minefield. That left the Royal Artillery to hold the line. 

Then it was the KRRC turn to get hammered. The 6pdrs took a heavy toll of the Panzers.

The Panzer assault was repulsed, but it left the KRRC shaken and disorganised.

The intervention of the Desert Airforce wasn't enough to save them, and concentrated German fire sent them packing back to the Delta.

By now the 25pdrs were firing over open sights and more Panzers were destroyed. 

And three German/Italian battalions rushed the hill. The Hussars became disorganised again, but RECAM took such heavy losses they had to reorg,

The Royal Artillery stuck to their guns!

The Desert Airforce intervened again in an attempt to hold off the Axis. 

But it was all too little, too late and the 580th overran the disorganised Hussars. The remaining Stuarts withdrew to the rear.

The gunners were down to their last hit, so we called it a day at that point.

Well, that was a bit of a wipeout. I can't help thinking the Allies tried to defend everything rather than concentrating on smashing one Axis unit at a time, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Another good scenario which warrants a replay at some point, and once again, it was interesting how well the original RF scenario mapped onto a OHW one. 

The minefields seemed to be suitably scary as everyone avoided them, and I was pleased with the way the Heavy and Light Recce units worked. The supply/logistics system seems to work well too. I've got another scenario with minefields, so we'll try that in a few weeks/months and see how we get on.