Silly After Action Report Part 4

In response to the increasingly desperate prayers of the hapless readers of this blog I can announce that this is the final part of my latest after action report.  Here the final moves are made, the final shots are taken and the final apologies given to Ivan for my inability to use VASSAL with anything like competence.

But let us return to the desert where the somewhat battered remains of an Italian assault force were hoping to survive long enough to wipe out lingering pockets of British resistance.  A desert where the keen eyed, grim faced (or possibly grim eyed, keen faced) crew of a 25 pounder gun stare down a charge by enough trucks to do a remake of Convoy and calmly shoot tanks to pieces while surrounded by thundering vehicles.  A desert where hope shattered troops cringe at the bottom of foxholes while their opponents look at the sand and the minefields and mutter "bugger this for a game of soldiers".

Once irritating preliminaries like checking for wind change (it didn't) and rallying terrified British (they didn't) it was time to get on with the shooting.  Full disclosure compels me to admit that the broken Italians didn't rally either but I had more of them.  Their keen (or possibly grim) eyes narrowed as they peered through the smoke the 25 pounder gun crew fired once and destroyed an M11/39 in the east.  I'm not ashamed to say I wept.  I had been hoping these losers might survive, a vain hope indeed.

In the centre the remnants of Ivan's kill stack destroyed an L3 with a light machine gun but the other survived a rain of anti tank rifle projectiles rattling of its armour.  In return the surviving L3 broke one of the remaining squads, sadly the destruction of its comrade had given Ivan a narrow escape route.

Three distinct battles had developed.  In the east my tank force, now reduced to a single L3 and an M11/39 were dealing with the single remaining concealed half squad lurking in foxholes.  A British armoured car was sitting around but having been shocked the previous turn wasn't doing much.  In the centre an M13 and an L3 were slowly but remorselessly grinding down his kill stack while over in the west a pair of M13s lurked on the flank while the bulk of my infantry had closed up as close to the British foxholes as they dared and were peppering the occupants with largely ineffective mortar and rifle fire.  Far in the British rear the single remaining 25 pounder was killing pretty much anything it could see but the increasing amount of smoke from burning wrecks was reducing visibility to the quality of a London fog.

A triumph finally came my way in Ivan's movement phase.  He started up his recently unshocked armoured car whereupon one of my M13s finally earned its pay by putting a 47mm round straight through it and starting yet another blaze.  I smiled, my remaining M11/39 and its accompanying L3 were a little safer.  Not much else happened except that my other gun truck managed to break its main armament as well.  The subsequent repair die roll would see it trundling off board in the wake of its companion.

My next turn came and I was ready.  Protected by smoke from burning vehicles my M11 and L3 sidekick would monster Ivan's remaining troops in the east.  I started them up to roll the two or three hexes needed to make his escape impossible.  Whereupon the 25 pounder scored a critical hit through two lots of smoke and blew up my remaining M11.  I was distraught but vengeful, the M11 was down but the L3 was in motion.  It rolled up onto the sand dune, moved forward and promptly bogged up to its bogies in sand.  Ivan's boys would survive another turn.  More in desperation than anything else I moved forward a pair of lmg toting bersaglieri squads (accompanied by a wounded leader encouraging them with shouts from the rear).  My tank force in the east was reduced to one bogged L3.

My eastern tank force has been smashed but so has his position and my infantry come in to clean up.

In the centre my last L3 finally succumbed to the positive hail of antitank rifle shots coming its way but not before breaking his last squad in the kill stack.  Sadly with both L3s gone his broken squads could crawl away using them as cover.  Then I played my trump.  Six trucks thundered down at his gun position and took it in turns to overrun it.  Result?  Nothing of course, its a 1+2 attack.  I did get one pin check but the gun crew passed it.  Still it was a bit of fun and gave Ivan something else to think about.  Then I moved my one remaining truck that still carried infantry forward to menace his broken squads in the centre.  I'd like to claim this was skillful tactics on my part but the truth is that I had simply forgotten about them until this point.

In the west were more futile mortar shots followed by an impressive amount of infantry fire which managed to break his one remaining halfsquad in the foxholes.  The trouble was getting to them as they were well protected by minefields.  Eventually I infiltrated to the west and found the edge of the mines and sneaked around behind them.  I actually managed to take a half squad prisoner.  My remaining pair of M13s rolled forward, risking bogging in the sand to take up a nice position behind a dune.  The two armoured cars which were the bulk of Ivan's remaining force (and the VPs I needed to win) were now under direct threat and my infantry were creeping around both edges of his position (although a foolhardy attempt to snatch a foxhole was punished with a broken squad).

In Ivan's turn it was obvious that only precipitous retreat could save him.  He had to pull back and force my armour to chase him into the sights of his 25 pounder.  Naturally it made my life more difficult shooting up the troop carrying truck and destroying it but the infantry within leapt heroically from the shattered wreck without loss.  The remainder is soon told.  In his movement phase Ivan attempted to pull back.  His half squad in the east emerged from its foxhole to be shot up by the immobile L3 and my infantry, breaking under the last shot but it was in the centre west that the game was decided and my M13s finally sealed the victory.  He started both his armoured cars and with as many shots two M13s shot them to pieces.  Neither crew survived and the points gained were enough to give me the win.

The end in the west.  Broken vehicles everywhere.  The three M13s in view are my only functioning tanks

Thanks to Ivan for a great game which went through some wild swings of fortune as first Ivan then I snatched at the gifts of the Goddess of War.  Ultimately I was fortunate that one of his 25 pounders went down.  Considering the execution the surviving one did I would have been hard pressed to deal with both of them.

Depressing Historical Sidebar

Marshal Rodolfo Graziani who had managed to get his entire army smashed to bits sent a desperate mesage to Rome begging to be relieved on the grounds of "nervous exhaustion" a diagnosis which was probably half right.  He survived the war, evaded Ethiopian attempts to charge him with war crimes, was sentenced to nineteen years gaol by an Italian court but only served four months.  He lived to a ripe old age, died peacefully and in 2012 the local authorities helped to fund a monument at the murderous bastard's tomb.

General Guiseppe Tellera died in an M13/40 tank leading the last attack against the British at the Battle of Beda Fomm in 1941.  Who says Graziani was a lousy strategist?