Colonello Pietro Seraglio stared with an air of dissatisfaction at the hilly terrain spread out before him. In front of his observation post he could see his Alpini moving into position, assembling mortars, fixing bayonets and kicking mules. A little further on he could see the vague outlines of buildings and French troops. Seraglio was not a happy man, in a short while he would be attacking a well defended French position (to be more accurate he would be watching while his men attacked a well defended French position) and he had just heard that his request for L3s had been refused. Apparently there had been some difficulty loading them on to the mules.
"I need a diversion," muttered Seraglio, "something completely expendable." A sudden noise disturbed him and, suppressing the urge to surrender, he turned to find the reason. A somewhat paunchy man in a black shirt and an approximation of military uniform entered the room and gave a fascist salute.
"Torino Blackshirt legion reporting," announced the newcomer in a tone that implied this alone was worth a medal, "here to carry the banner of fascism into foreign lands." He looked like the furthest he had ever carried the banner of fascism was the nearest restaurant. Seraglio's face split into a broad smile of welcome.
"What a coincidence, I was just thinking about you."
After Dave Wilson stomped me into the ground in our previous meeting I turned to my faithful Italians to redeem my pride. The previous sentence alone should give you an indication of how seriously I take this game. 1940 was the best year of the war for Italy because for five glorious months they weren't involved in it. Then Mussolini invaded France and things started to go downhill. In fact "invaded France" isn't really the best term. It would be more accurate to say Mussolini dicked about on the border of France and got a bunch of his troops killed. Part of said dicking about includes this scenario; FT225 - Blue Hell at PA Abries.
There is a pillbox somewhere in the area and my troops want it. Seizing this pillbox will be an appropriate response to the German occupation of Paris and announce to the world the might of Italian arms. To do the seizing I have twenty Italian squads, eight elite (the alpini) and twelve dubiously first line (the Blackshirts). Bulking out these numbers five light machine guns, two medium machine guns no fewer than four 45mm mortars (who needs L3s?), and five officers ranging from deeply mediocre (7-0) up to quite good actually (9-1). I also have a battery of 80mm artillery for what that's worth (absolutely nothing). Oh I also had four half squads to man the mortars.
Determined that predatory Italian hands shall not be laid upon their precious pillbox are the gallant French defenders. Sixteen squads in all, six elite squads of the Sections d'Eclaireurs a Ski and seven first line squads and three green squads from the 82eme Battailon de Chasseurs Alpins. These troops are supported by six light machine guns and are led five officers including their own 9-1. To give these troops something to hide behind there are also fortifications in the shape of a single pillbox, a single sangar, a fortified building location and two lots of barbed wire. The French also get artillery in the shape of a disturbingly accurate 60mm battery.
The Italian forces are divided up into three groups (one with the elite squads and two groups of six first liners each). There are four set up locations and each group has to set up within five hexes of one of them. This means that Dave can't be entirely sure which locations I will choose. To win I have to gain more victory points than the French. Victory points are gained by the usual killing the enemy method but the Italians also get two points for each building captured on board 41 south of hexrow Q and two points for taking the pillbox. At least six points of the Italian total must come from buildings/pillboxes so it isn't enough just to kill the French, territory must be taken too.
I was in an agony of indecision over my set up. At first I set up quite boldly then, taking counsel of my fears I changed my mind. At the absolute last minute I changed it back again, I hope Dave was as confused as I was. It seemed to me that Dave had left his rear vulnerable to a bold attack if I somehow made it across the open ground without dying so I set my alpini up in that area. A bunch of blackshirts I set up to charge across the valley and hopefully occupy the attention of Dave's troops while my alpini were performing acts of heroism in their rear. In the north my second group of blackshirts were set up with the simple objective of keeping those troops opposite them sufficiently occupied so that they couldn't leave.
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| Set up my alpini are on the left facing the open ground with alarm |
I thought I lost this game on the first turn. I had set up all four of my mortars so they could pepper French positions but by the end of the first turn every half squad had fallen to long range French fire. On the far right my blackshirts moved boldly forward, lost an entire squad to a hidden French unit and discovered the value of circumspection. In the centre more blackshirts swarmed through the valley towards his troops in the woods. This went reasonably well although one squad that pushed its luck too far was reduced to a broken conscript squad weeping among the trees. Over on the left my alpini (guided by my 9-1 and hero) made it to the cover of a small patch of trees and even managed to break one of his rearward defenders.
So far so good but in Dave's turn he brought down his artillery on my alpini, fortunately the fire drifted just sufficiently to miss the bulk of them but correction was coming. Dave juggled some of his defenders on the right to ward off my surviving blackshirts and waited for me to cross the open ground.
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| End of Italian turn one, things don't look too bad but casualties are already mounting and Dave's artillery is about to intervene. |
Then on the second turn Dave thought he had lost the game. Prep fire from my alpini kill stack (three 447s and two mmgs guided by a 9-1) broke the other squad he had defending his rear buildings and my remaining alpini charged forward surrounding and capturing the French and seizing my first buildings. In revenge Dave brought his artillery down on my kill stack and broke the lot. By this time my hero was already dead. I can't recall what happened to him but he definitely died. Despite this grim news I was solidly lodged in Dave's rear. The more I read back the previous sentence the more disturbing it becomes.
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| Perhaps things aren't so bad after all |
For his part Dave decided to pull back in the centre woods and I cheerfully followed up unaware that he was leading me into a trap. Over on the right I advanced with what could charitably called caution but Dave surprised me by evacuating the forward buildings and pulling back across the road where he could sit in more valuable buildings and force me to cross more open ground. In my next turn I consolidated my hold on the buildings in his rear and in what turned out to be a near disastrous act reorganised my troops in the centre. I was afraid of his artillery you see. Big stacks of troops in woods are a tempting target so I spread my boys thinly, too thinly as it turned out.
As it so happened Dave drew his second red chit at this point so the artillery was out of the game but then he launched a local counter attack against my ill positioned centre. He broke some troops, captured others and plunged into close combat with the rest. Virtually my entire centre group was wiped out which gave Dave some much needed victory points. The only redeeming factor from my viewpoint was the ferocity which my blackshirts showed in close combat. Despite being lax and outnumbered they made Dave pay a price in blood for his success which kept the victory point gap narrower than it could have been.
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| Things look bad in the centre |
While Dave cheerfully tore my centre apart my northern troops cautiously occupied the buildings he abandoned and tried not to draw too much attention to themselves. Meanwhile at the other end of the board I slowly started extending my control over the hill heading towards the cluster of buildings it held. Oh yes and I found the pillbox which turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Since it was pointed in the wrong direction Dave swiftly abandoned it as he needed the troops elsewhere.
In the centre the sole survivors of my ineptitude (a single squad and an 8-1) fled the scene and taking advantage of the fact that Dave's troops were too busy marshalling prisoners to shoot managed to actually sneak into a victory building in the centre. Over on the right our two forces settled for shooting harmlessly at each other, the occasional pin result was gained but nothing else. This actually suited me fine because it was keeping a large chunk of Dave's remaining force tied up which was very necessary particularly after the carnage in the centre.
On the left Dave threw his last unoccupied squad into close combat with a halfsquad but my heroes survived and even more improbably a lone 7-0 tied down another French squad in melee. In the centre Dave advanced a squad boldly against the escapees from the slaughter in the forest only to be pinned before they could rush in to close combat. At this point Dave conceded. He had inflicted heavy losses on my troops but his had taken a beating as well. With half his surviving force tied down holding off my blackshirts on the right there was little left to stop me snapping up unguarded buildings on the left.
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| The end, too many buildings within reach for the French to recover |
Colonello Seraglio examined the captured pillbox closely. It was small, boxy and distinctly unimpressive. His adjutant scratched his head in surprise.
"Why do you think high command wanted this pillbox?"
"I think they want to mount it on tracks and call it a tank."
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