A soldier dashed up to him clutching a piece of paper.
"Good news sir, the war's over. We've surrendered."
"Turn the paper over," suggested Carburetta. The man did so and his face fell.
"And we've declared war on Germany? Oh dear god! Hey, what are all those Japanese doing?"
"What do you think?"
"Are we really going to fight them?" asked the soldier his face going paler than the sheet of paper in his hand.
"Not really, this is largely a hypothetical scenario," replied Carburetta checking to make sure that his pistol and emergency white flag were in place.
"Does that mean we can only be hypothetically killed?"
"If only it were that simple."
So finally here it is; Scenario LFT245 - Ciao Cina. A riveting tale of combat, heroism and sacrifice that didn't really happen in two action packed installments.
If you've ever wondered why the Italian armed forces performed so poorly in World War II the answer would appear to be because their finest troops were deployed to garrison a minor economic concession in Tianjin, China. Not only does this mix of first line and elite troops have a plethora of automatic weapons including a heavy machine gun and three mediums but they also have a pair of 75mm anti aircraft guns. As if that wasn't enough they have armour support, admittedly in the form of a pair of the decrepit armoured cars that have been serving me with varying degrees of inadequacy in my last couple of Italian scenarios. These mighty machines of death and a surprisingly motivated Italian garrison are mine to command.
Opposite them Mike Sexton commands what can most kindly be described as "not the Emperor's finest". A second line formation, flabby from occupation duty, replete with overage reservists and reluctant Korean conscripts. Nevertheless today is their opportunity to cover themselves with glory. In addition to a pair of medium machine guns and a trio of 50mm mortars these Bento Box Banzai Boys have a couple of artillery pieces to shoot themselves forward, a pair of armoured cars even larger and clunkier than mine and three tiny tankettes thus giving them armoured superiority for a generous definition of both those words. Furthermore they have what at first sight appears to be an oversized shoebox but on closer inspection turns out to be a Daihatsu landing craft capable of depositing the, no doubt, blood crazed soldiers of the emperor in my rear via the river.
I have fourteen squads (nine elite and five first line) with which to defend the only three buildings in China that the Italians apparently care about. Mike's seventeen second line squads have to push them out. The Italians win by keeping two unbroken (non conscript) squads in the buildings as long as the Japanese haven't captured more than one of them. By extrapolation that means that capturing two is a Japanese win.
I'm not sure I should bother mentioning my plan as it fell to pieces pretty much on turn one. I stacked the victory building on the left with significant firepower including the hmg and an mmg manned by elite squads. The forward building on the right was deemed expendable (after a long and ferocious defence of course) while the survivors would conduct a skillful retreat to the rear victory building for a desperate last stand. In my rear a few squads stood guard to protect against any troops who might land from the river and the AA guns set up on the road where they could prevent his armour circling around behind. My own armoured cars I split up to assist in the defence.
 |
| At set up, Mike's tankettes are preparing to enter on the left |
Things didn't start well for the Italians. In fact "not well" would be a much better description of how things started for the Italians. Sneering at my firepower the doughty (or should that be doughy) soldiers of the emperor pushed through the forest on the left and plunged into the leftmost victory building. Over the course of the next couple of turns they would butcher and bayonet their way through my defenders without my being able to do much about it. His tankettes rolled up to help positioning themselves behind a convenient wall and starting the most pathetic gun duel in history with my defending armoured car. We proved virtually incapable of hitting each other and when we did hit we achieved nothing still it kept them busy and provided employment for the munitions workers back home and that's the important thing. More significantly a couple of squads drove out an outlying defender on the left and chased him all the way back to the victory building.
In the centre his 70mm artillery piece dropped a smoke round on my rear defences while his troops sidled crabwise across my front looking for a way forward. The reason for this less than enthusiastic advance was because none of Mike's mortars turned out to possess any smoke or WP rounds and the appeal of charging out into flying metal failed to impress itself on his troops. Besides it didn't really seem that they needed to. Mike rolled one of his armoured cars forward behind a wall and started another duel with my other armoured car. In defiance of rational probability this actually had a result when he shot my antique vehicle to pieces. His other armoured car came on on the right shepherding forward some flankers who started threatening the forward building on the right. Finally, despite the presence of battlecrazed defenders his landing craft managed to unload a pair of squads in my rear which would keep them occupied for several turns.
 |
| Things have only just started and they're not looking great |
Things proceeded to get worse with great alacrity. On the left Mike continued his sweep through the victory building. Things weren't helped when my armoured car broke its MA. Not that it was achieving anything but its threat level was significantly reduced. In the centre another smoke round choked the defenders in the forward victory building while those of my forward defenders who hadn't already surrendered fled for its rather dubious security. With the left building (and an hmg and mmg) definitely gone suddenly holding this unloveable structure became terribly important. But holding it seemed problematic when Mike poured in troops, including both his mmg crews and a 9-1 leader with little in the way of defence from my choking and out of position troops. To make matters worse he rolled his other armoured car forward to sleaze some of the building defenders. This decision would come back to bite him later.
 |
| Definitely doomed |
Meanwhile over on the left the mopping up of the last remnants of my force in the victory building there proceeded apace. Along the way Mike collected enough Italian support weapons to open a shop. To provide some totally unneeded assistance he had brought in a pair of squads with an lmg on the left who sneaked behind my armoured car and blew it apart at point blank range. My armour was gone.
The only ray of light was in the south where his troops who had landed from the river were being ably held up by my defenders down there (I even killed a squad in CC) until Mike realised he could just go around them. Mike wanted to roll his tankettes around to the south but feared to do so while my 75mm guns ruled the street. He had pushed one of his own guns along the road and this was engaged in a duel with one of mine where Japanese and Italian gunners competed to see who could miss the other the most.
Things looked bad for me. On the left the victory building was "garrisoned" by a broken squad and a 9-1 officer while Japanese soldiers relentlessly hunted them down. His capture of the support weapons in that building had enabled him to set up fire positions down the streets I would need to cross if I wanted to reinforce or evactuate the other two victory buildings and he now had a total of five AFVs unchallenged by any remaining Italian armour. Mike seemed to have this in the bag, what could possibly go wrong?
Tune in next time to find out what could possibly go wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment