Silly After Action Report

The Italian front was a theatre of secondary importance for both the Allies and the Germans in the Second World War.  As such, particularly as the war drew to a close there was an increasing effort by both sides to get third parties to take as much of the strain as possible.  For the Germans this involved herding their reluctant Italian allies to the front.  For the Allies this involved herding their reluctant Italian allies to the front.  In April 1945 these two shepherding operations ran face first into each other.

This is ASL Scenario FT 252 - Fratelli which pits a group of British equipped co-belligerent Italians from the Cremona battlegroup taking on a distinctly third rate gaggle of Germans (actually from Turkmenistan) only to be counter attacked by a suspiciously enthusiastic pack of fascist Italian paratroops steaming to the rescue.  Richard Weilly will command the Italians and I will command the Italians (plus a bunch of disinterested Turkmenis who by this stage had come to the realisation that whoever won the war they had definitely lost).  Richard has to launch his Italians across a canal and snatch a bunch of buildings from my Turkmenis.  I would have to try and hold the buildings or, with the aid of my battle crazed Italian paratroops, recapture them.

To do the snatching Richard had a force of fourteen first line Allied Minor squads with three bren guns a pair of 51mm mortars and one honking big 76mm mortar plus a PIAT.  On turn three he would get another four first line squads as reinforcements coming up from the south and on turn four he would get "armoured" support in the form of four bren gun carriers one of which was also toting another 51mm mortar.

Grimly holding the line (because Turkmenistan was too far to walk and anyway Stalin wanted to give them a severe talking to) I had eight second line "German" squads with a medium machine gun and two lmgs plus a 50mm mortar and ten concealment counters to spread the love.  Starting on turn two there was the chance that three slightly higher quality German squads would turn up on bicycles supported by a pair of Italian built (but German manned) armoured cars.  On turn three I would get eight elite Italian squads hauling a hernia inducing 81mm mortar, a pair of heavy machine guns and two lmgs.  This was my counter attack force.

Richard had to set up west of the canal and move east.  By SSR only the bridge 23P7 existed if Richard wanted to cross anywhere else he would have to get his feet wet.  The victory buildings were all those located within five hexes of the bridge on the east side of the canal.  With that in mind I set up the bulk of my initial defenders to defend those buildings against a full blown thrust across the bridge and placed a couple of outliers to the north and south to delay any flanking movement Richard might attempt.

My set up (north is to the right)

Richard, of course didn't charge across the bridge into the teeth of my defences.  Instead he set up a small force in the buildings opposite the bridge to keep my boy's attention while the bulk of his troops splashed across the annoyingly shallow canal in the north.  All three of his mortars were set up to fire smoke rounds to ease this advance.

It has to be said that the mortars in this scenario were a big disappointment for all concerned.  Richard's first three shots were attempts fire smoke rounds and not one of his mortars turned out to have any.  My own mortars when they got their opportunity would prove equally useless.  We eventually wound up breaking or dropping pretty much all of them.  Nevertheless despite the absence of a smokescreen Richard's forces splashed across the canal without much opposite from the mere two squads I had defending the area.

Richard is across the canal with barely a shot fired

His attacking in the north did give me enough time to shuffle squads from my main defences to the right and by the time he had pulverised one defending squad and bypassed the other I had a reasonable defensive line in place.  This was augmented when I got my bicycle troops and armoured cars on the earliest possible turn and was able to slot them into my defensive line.  Of course I couldn't forget that his reinforcements would be turning up from the south.

I totally forgot his reinforcements would be turning up from the south but for the moment things didn't look too bad despite the fact that one armoured car broke its MA virtually immediately.  My own mortar crew broke its weapon pretty much immediately and then destroyed attempting to make repairs.  With the useless ironmongery out of the way I had another half squad to add to the defence.  I had every confidence of being able to hold until my paratroopers arrived.

Then it all fell apart.  My Turkmenis proved incapable of hitting a barn from the inside and Richard calmly and methodically dismantled my defences and pushed through getting to within shouting distance of the buildings he needed with virtually no casualties.  His reinforcements came in from the south but took sufficiently long to get into position that I had defenders ready.  They proved equally useless at shooting and things became a little tense.

Yep, definitely a little tense

Things looked bad but I wasn't too down hearted, my paratroops had come on and were puffing their way to the battlefield, surely when they arrived I would be able to turn the tide.  Well, not so much.  With his northern force gobbling up victory buildings while my Turkmenis fired into the air and looked for places to hide and my southern troops losing a battle with his reinforcements his carriers swooped in to seal the victory.  I'm always a little nervous using armour, particularly open topped armour around infantry but Richard showed no such qualms.  The carriers raced through my position, stunned one of my armoured cars and generally played merry hell with my defence.  Now his troops in the centre who had lurked modestly on the other side of the bridge charged forward against an attenuated defence and suddenly every single victory building was under threat.

Oh well, I'm screwed

My paratroopers did eventually come up and reestablish a solid line slowing Richard down in the last couple of turns but with the victory buildings in hand he didn't actually have to move very far.  With a turn to go, my original garrison in shreds and nasty amounts of open ground separating me from the victory buildings I conceded.  If I had a couple more turns I may well have been able to mount an effective counterattack but Richard had ripped through my defences and established himself solidly leaving me with no time to react.  Congratulations to Richard who handled his forces with skill, fewer congratulations to me who didn't.