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.

Operation Battleaxe with Megablitz

 Many years ago when Megablitz was still relatively new, I wrote up Operation Battleaxe as a training scenario with a detailed description of how to design an operational game, point up the units, sort out the terrain, logistics etc. I think it ended up on the old Megablitz yahoo group, and who knows if it survived the transition to groups.io.

Battleaxe is a great operational game as the forces and area involved are quite limited, and the real engagement only lasted a few days, but it contains scope for both broad manouvre and formal assault and obstacle clearance, reinforcements, supply, air power etc etc. It is the training scenario in Sam Mustafas 'Rommel' and regular readers will recall I also ran it using NQM when that was published last year.

 I first ran this scenario with Megablitz decades ago at the Sheffield club with my 6mm stuff and we got through the entire thing in a couple of hours, I'd planned to resurrect it for COW in 2025, partly for historical interest and partly as an introduction for people who'd never had a chance to play it. Sadly I couldn't go to COW last year, so I put it on at CALF 2026 instead.

At 1" = 1km my planned layout was something like this (one foot squares). I didn't bother to include Tobruk and Bardia as the battle was mainly fought around and west of Halfaya and Sollum. The battle starts on 15th June 1941 with Axis frontier defences at Halfaya, Sollum, Capuzzo, Point 206 and Hafid Ridge and 8th Panzer Regiment and a mixed battlegroup from 15th Panzer Division in reserve around Sidi Aziz in the north west. One of 15th Panzers rifle regiments (the 104th) had been distributed around the defences, along with various Italian units, and the divisional recce battalion was in a screen from Halfaya down to Bir el Khireigat along the frontier with Egypt.

Western Desert force had committed 4th Indian Division and 7th Armoured Division to write down the frontier defences and armour in the immediate vicinity although both divisions were still understrength after Operation Brevity. 4th Indian could only commit one brigade (!) and was reinforced with both 22nd Guards Brigade and 4th Armoured Brigade, somewhat improbably equipped with Matildas. 7th Armoured Division only fielded a single Armoured Brigade (4th) with just two Regiments of cruisers, although one had brand new Crusaders. between them they outnumbered 8th Panzer Regiment though.

This is how it ended up on the table. 7th Armoured division is down in the desert on the left. Half of 4th Indian is up on and behind the escarpment (Escarpment Force) while the rest are wending their way along the coats road in a huge traffic jam (Coast Force).

On the day I had four players for the game, Chris and Ian took the British, while Alex and Rob took the Axis. Only Chris had any experience of the game before, so I treated it very much as a tutorial session showing how the various mechanisms interacted.

View from the northwest. 8th panzer Regiment is around Sidi Azis with bits of 15th Motorcycle battalion and 33rd AT battalion. I left most of the Axis units offtable so the Allies could try and find them using their recce units.

The players soon got the hang of manouvering and 7th Armoured Div set off across the desert, being bombed occasionally by the Italian airforce while the various armoured car units probed and clashed with each other.

At Halfaya, the Indians discovered the Axis defences and bombed them while the various portions of 4th Indian ponderously deployed for a formal assault. 4th Armoured Brigade resisted the temptation to press on to Fort Capuzzo.

While the Indians deployed, 7th Armoured motored across the desert, uncovering the defences at Point 206. 15th Panzer had been unable to resist intervening though, and had already set off across the desert so the British armour headed in their direction (which of course was exactly what Wavell had originally wanted - to tempt the German armour into battle on unequal terms).

Halfaya descended into bloody chaos as the Indians attacked. Ian got a chance to find out how minefields worked, and despite the best efforts of his engineers, losses were heavy. The Axis held off the first two assaults but as night fell they were looking very battered. I don't think I've ever played Battleaxe without Halfaya falling eventually, although the Allied losses are usually grievous they assault before isolating the garrison.

And in the desert a great armoured clash took place, which given the force ratios (7th Support Group was well up supporting 4th Armoured Brigade), wasn't really going the Axis way.

It was fairly obvious after some time that we weren't going to make it to the 16th June, so we just ran through the overnight sequence (resupply, redeployment etc) as night fell, but didn't bother deploying 5th Light Division, which arrived from Tobruk overnight. Instead we finished early and had a washup about things worked, areas which might be improved or applied elsewhere etc. It probably wasn't the greatest game session I've ever run, but I think it achieved the aim of introducing the game mechanisms, even if we didn't finish the scenario. 

I suspect that is the last Megablitz game I'll ever run, as the world has moved on to a certain extent, but it has rekindled my interest in my own operational rules which borrow heavily from MB, and I've got plans for a couple of large scale games I'd like to run over the next year.

Gazala - First Clash, 27th May 1942

 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.