33rd Battle of the Isonzo

 Tim put on another magnificent 54mm Italian Front game at one of our recent Tapton days. This one featured the 33rd Battle of the Isonzo! The previous Italian assault had been repulsed, and they were trying again.

The target of their assault was this huge snow covered mountain. It isn't a pile of chairs with a white cloth over it at all.

The mountain was dotted with Austrian bunkers and trenches. The precipitous terrain left lots of dead ground downhill though.

The Italian HQ down in the valley, with the all important Minestroni cook.

The Austrians had this very luxurious officers toilet.

Lloyd and I were the Austrians. We had a battalion of infantry and some support weapons, with a company of Stormtroops in reserve. We put the MGs in the bunkers and supported each with a company of interval troops.

Up on top of the mountain we had this little Mountain Gun. It would prove to be very useful indeed.

The opening barrage! We both got to have a crack, including gas in the mix. The catch was that as it was so mountainous, we had to fire the matchstick guns from behind screens at a very high angle of fire. This made even hitting the table a challenge, and shells landed all over the place. The wood nearest the camera received loads of HE and gas, but sadly there were no Italians in it.

The first Italian battalion followed up the barrage. These guys are Alpini, so should be at home in the mountains.

They had a real mountain to climb this time!

As I mentioned earlier, the view downhill was really quite restricted, but the Mountain Gun was able to pop a few shots off, spotted by a brave observer on the ridge. This was way more accurate than the indirect fire from behind the mountain.

Our troops on the right were largely unengaged, and in fact masked from the assault. I'd planned on using them as a reserve until this random Italian heavy shell landed right on their trench and killed two thirds of them. Ouch.

The remains of the Italian first wave finally got to the Austrians and were bloodily repulsed.

Now it was the turn of the Arditi who stormed up the mountain in fine style.

They got a lot closer than the previous wave and managed to inflict serious losses on the defenders and captured the first position.

This was followed up by a horde of Bersaglieri!

Who were encouraged by this lovely Bersaglieri band.

Time for the Stormtroops to intervene. I also moved over the remnants of the reserve company.

The Austrian Stormtroopers charged down the mountain, and vicious fighting ensued.

The Arditi were driven off the the Austrians reoccupied the trenches.

But the Bersaglieri were storming up the mountain in fine style, feather hats and flags blowing in the wind.

The first wave fought a battle of annihilation with the Stormtroops.

Which left the second wave free to ascend the rest of the mountain. The seriously weakened reserve company couldn't stop them. If only that shell hadn't hit them earlier, as we were basically swapping one Italian battalion for each one of our rifle companies.

The battalion CO was busy helping the Mountain Gun retire to the next position. It had fired off all its ammunition in any case.

And the Italians were left in possession of the mountain! A glorious victory!

That was brilliant fun as ever, and the genuine 'indirect fire' was very entertaining. The toys were lovely too, and Tim has been busy painting even more Italian Front stuff for the upcoming 34th Battle of the Izonzo.