I have long been fascinated with the Battle of Gazala in 1942, yet it often seems to get skipped over in wargames. I was very excited about the release of AHGCs 'Tobruk' back in the late 70s only to be crushingly disappointed with what a boring dice fest that particular game was. I did play all the scenario but in the end I switched to using WRG 1925-50 with the Tobruk counters!
Anyway, I thought it was about time I gave Gazala the One Hour WW2 treatment, and as a large engagement, I think it deserves at least six scenarios. To start off with I'll run a trilogy of games covering key moments from the first half of the battle. First up will be 7th Armoured Division fighting the entire DAK and Ariete all on its own (Trieste having got lost on the way).
Battlefield from the south. DAK and XX Motorised Corps have advanced around the end of the Gazala line and are now moving northwards. Ariete on the far left tasked with clearing Bir Hacheim, then 21st Panzer, 15th Panzer and 90 Light on the right.
I've chosen to focus on 15th Panzer Division as the engagement between 3rd RTR and 8th Panzer Regiment is a classic.
Fans of Neil Thomas will notice this bears a strong resemblance to the 'Surprise Attack' scenario, as it seemed to replicate the flow of the action well.
Having received news of a German advance, 4th Armoured Brigade is busy moving up to its battle positions. 7th Armoured Division had recently reorganised into Brigade Groups, so 7th AB was assigned its own infantry, artillery, engineer, AT and AA elements. To the west was 7th Motorised Brigade (who were overrun by Ariete) and to the east 3rd Indian Brigade (who were overrun by 90th Light).
The leading unit was 3rd RTR. All the Regiments of 4th AB were 'Grant heavy', having two squadrons of Grants and one of Stuarts. I've modelled the Brigade as having two Grant (heavy tank) and one Stuart (normal tank) regiments. The Grants came as a horrible shock to the Germans who had largely uparmoured their Pz IIIs and were essentially immune to 2pdr fire from the front, but not 37mm and 75mm fire.
8th Hussars with Stuarts is a couple of miles to the rear. Historically they were more dispersed but I wanted to make a game of it.
Also on table we have the Brigade HQ - HQ in a Dorchester ACV, plus an ambulance and repair column. The objective is the track crossroads, last to occupy at the end of the game is the winner. Historically the track just ran east-west between Bir Harmat and El Adem. The tracks have no effect on the game as they are just hard packed sand.
Moving up from the rear are 1st RHA and 1 KRRC. I've split the KRRC into two elements as they have an attached AT battery, which at this stage is still equipped with 2pdr. They received 6pdr while the battle was in progress. This element has 2pdr portees, but they will be relatively ineffective against the uparmoured German tanks. They will arrive from the north on turn 4.
On turn 6, the other half of 1 KRRC also turns up from the west, along with 5th RTR, also with Grants.
Historically 5th RTR was overrun by the entire 21st Panzer Division, but I added them too as I wanted to make a game of it.
The 25pdrs of 1st RHA can only fire if on table - this was a mobile battle on featureless terrain, and indirect fire was quite ineffective unless directly spotted. It also makes the unit count up. Ahem. All the British units are regular.
The Desert Airforce has P40 Warhawks for top cover, Blenheims for interdiction missions and some Hurribombers for ground attack.
John A was the British CO, Ian took 3 RTR and 8th Hussars, Russell 5 RTR and B/1 KRRC, the others were variously taken by Mark and John B.
Motoring up the track towards them is the entire 15th Panzer Division! Not actually much bigger than one of the new British Brigade groups.
In the lead is 8th Panzer Regiment. I've given them three battalions as both Panzer Divisions had over 160 tanks each at the start of the battle. All the Pz IIIs have been uparmoured to at least H standard, and 15th Panzer has a small number of Pz III J, including three with 50L60 guns (21st Panzer has most of the Pz III lang). These guys are all veterans.
Then we have 115th Rifle Regiment, three battalions of motorised infantry, all with various attachments. I/115 has (50mm) AT guns, II/115 has infantry guns and III/115 has attached 88s. Assume the divisional engineers are factored in somehow. These guys are all regular.
Bringing up the rear we have the HQ and LOG, including a fuel lorry and Bergepanzer. There is a battalion of the artillery regiment with towed 105s and the same restriction as the British, with the exception that there is an FOO who can call the fire indirectly from off table too. The command halftrack is accompanied by someone who looks suspiciously like Rommel (but is actual General von Vaerst).
The Luftwaffe have Bf 109s for top cover, Ju 88s for interdiction and Stukas for ground attack. Terry was overall CO with Tim commanding 8th Panzer Regiment and variously joined by Simon and Micheal on different nights.
The whole division comes motoring up in road column along the track. Historically the lead elements were ambushed by 3rd RTR and much confusion reigned. In the scenario they will come on right under the guns of the Grants, so lets see if they respond in the same way von Vaerst did in real life.
Very wisely the Germans lead with one of the motorised infantry battalions as a sort of armed recce unit. They pile on up the track and come under withering fire from 3rd RTR and 8th Hussars which inflicts so many losses they become disorganised.
8th Panzer Regiment, deploys into battle formation instead, but of course is delayed by having to shake out from column. The Germans are right to be cautious as the Grants have 50% more firepower at longer ranges and are twice as hard to damage, so a combat differential of 3:1 compared to a normal tank unit.
8th Panzer Regiment rushes 3rd RTR en masse, closing the range and attacking at 3:1 odds gives them a 3:2 combat differential, although the left hand battalion can still be shot up by 8th Hussars. Both sides throw in their ground attack planes, and the Hurricanes manage to actually knock out some Panzer IIIs.
The battered German infantry get out of the way to reorganise in peace.
Bf 109s intercept the RAF Blenheims and drive them off. Those desert camo schemes make the planes very hard to see!
Luftwaffe Ju 88s manage to bomb the British supply lines though.
8th Panzer Regiment opens up on 3rd RTR at close range, supported by artillery and Stukas and manage to disorganise them, despite having suffered tank losses themselves.
One of the German infantry reorganises, but the rest of Rifle Regiment 115 keeps 8th Hussars busy.
The Blenheims make it through this time and hit the German supplies.
3rd RTR decides to pull back and the Germans follow closely. The 88s occupy the vacated position, and one of the shot up Panzer battalions reorganises. Another follows the Grants while the third outflanks the salt marsh on the far right. The other two infantry battalions push up as much as they can but both are now carrying a couple of hits.
The cunning German outflanking move. The bits of lichen mark soft sand which is impassable to vehicles.
3rd RTR decides to keep falling back rather than reorganise in place and 8th Hussars follow, falling back to the rise. It is hard to say if that is a good move or not, it gives up an awful lot of ground the the Germans early in the game, but saves the Regiment, for now.
Hurrying up from the rear comes A/1 KRRC and 1st RHA. The 25 pdrs unlimber north of the track junction while the KRRC rush forward to block the road. tbh I think I'd have held the armour forward another turn to give the KRRC a chance to dig in on the junction.
The Ju 88s brush past the P40s once more and hit the Allied supplies.
The Germans come on in a mass once more, and the KRRC get shelled and take a few hits. On the left the British are retreating faster than the German infantry can advance! One of the German infantry battalions dismounts and starts to pick its way through the broken ground on the left.
The Grants finally have to stop and reorganise, and the Scammell tows away damaged vehicles etc. The 8th Hussars and KRRC inflict some damage and the Hurricanes and 25pdrs open up too. Almost every German unit is now carrying some hits, but none of it is decisive.
The KRRC take enough casualties to disorganise them as the German infantry engage them, but the Germans concentrate most of their fire on the Grants at close range, despite one Panzer battalion being suppressed by air attacks.
The close range fire and Stuka attacks inflict enough hits to disorganise 3rd RTR again. One panzer battalion sees an opportunity....
And overruns 3rd RTR! The assault succeeds (disorganised units are quite vulnerable to assault) and 3rd RTR falls apart.
Help is on the way however, as 5th RTR and B/1 KRRC arrive from the west. 8th Hussars fall back behind the rise to hide from the 88s, but the Grants of 5th RTR take up hull down positions. A/1 KRRC moves into full cover behind the rise to reorganise in peace.
At some point the Germans brought their artillery on and deployed it on the table. This allows any unit to call the guns in (as the guns are much close to the action and can engage targets more quickly in the featureless desert).
We could perhaps have played another turn, but with the arrival of the British reinforcements, next turn is going to be a big one, so we broke for the night at that point. Tomorrow Mark will be leaving us and John B takes over his British troops, while Micheal and Simon join the Germans so I'll have to reshuffle the units.
The Germans followed up their advantage and pressed in close. The restricted terrain meant they ended up with some units unable to engage. The 88s very bravely occupied the opposite end of the rise from 5th RTR, but most of the German fire landed on 1st RHA.
The British response saw the 88s thoroughly shot up, so much so that they became disorganised. The northernmost Panzer battalion also took a bit of a beating as the 25pdrs fired over open sights.
Despite their losses, the panzer pushed on and overrun the guns of 1st RHA! In response 5th RTR and 8th Hussars finished off the 88s on the rise. A/1 KRRC was busily reorganising and digging in, while B/1 KRRC fell back out of range. The Ju 88s had hit the British trucks again so they were short of resupply.
The Germans focussed two of their Panzer battalions with Stuka support on 8th Hussars, at close range the Pz IIIs blew the Stuarts apart and the third Panzer battalion overran then survivors. 115 Rifle Regiment was meanwhile chipping away at the Grants with little success.
With scores of enemy tanks a few hundred yards away, A/1 KRRC finished digging in!
Rommel was on a roll. Now 5th RTR was on the receiving end of concentrated tank, infantry, anti-tank guns, artillery and Stuka fire. Under the weight of fire, 5th RTR finally disintegrated.
An unengaged Panzer battalion rolled along the ridge to occupy the position.
The KRRC opened up at point blank range and reduced the tanks to just 1SP! They fell back in disorder and a panzergrenadier battalion moved up to take their place. 'Mincemeat Ridge' was proving to be a key piece of terrain.
The German response was rather muted as the KRRC slit trenches largely protected them from fire although they did become disorganised.
Something of a stalemate now set in, both sides were busily firing at each other, and reorganising where necessary, but no-one had the strength any more for a decisive success. Every German unit was now carrying significant damage and von Vaerst was rather reluctant to expose more units than were required.
Matters weren't helped as the RAF slipped past the German fighter screen and bombed the German supply columns.
Whereas after a prolonged absence due to an untimely sandstorm, the P40s saw off the Ju 88s.
The shooting and reorganising continued a bit longer but the flames of battle were starting to die down. The German attack had reached its culmination point.
And as the clock ran out, the Germans were firmly in control of the track junction, but 1 KRRC were gamely hanging on, covering the retreat of the battered armoured Regiments. Totting up the losses, 8th Panzer Regiment ended up with 7 hits (out of 21) despite many turns reorganising, and irl the German lost about a third of their armour in the engagement, which was a nasty surprise for Rommel.
That was very enjoyable and the players seemed to have fun. I've actually played this scenario in different guises several times now, and that was the fastest the attackers have been fighting close to the objective. The Germans managed to concentrate their forces well and maintain the initiative, whereas the Allies perhaps fought a bit too reactively. I cant help wondering how things might have gone if the KRRC had dug in at the junction early on, their later resistance shows how tough entrenched infantry can be. Anyway, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Another instalment coming soon.
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