Another Silly After Action Report

On the 18th of November 1941 the British launched Operation Crusader, designed to destroy the Afrika Korps and relieve the siege of Tobruk.  As part of this plan the British 7th Armoured Division charged into the open desert to meet and beat the Afrika Korps on ground of its own choosing.  Unfortunately the Afrika Korps completely ignored them leaving the 7th Armoured in the rather embarrassing position of not knowing what to do next.  On the 19th some decisions were made one of which involved sending the 22nd Armoured Brigade south to clean up a position at Bir el Gubi which was defended by the Italian 132nd "Ariete" Tank Division.

So here we are with ASL Scenario 56 "Half a Chance" which pits the Italians of the Ariete against the British of the 22nd Armoured.  Historically the Italians handed the British their arse in a sack.  As commander of the Italian forces could I repeat history?  Six desert map boards stretch before me but I can set up on only the three most southerly.  To defend against the oncoming British I had five anti tank guns and eight squads with a collection of machine guns and anti tank rifles plus a telephone with a direct line into a nearby artillery battery.  The desert before me was interspersed with tank unfriendly boggy patches (apparently it had rained recently) thus reducing the amount of ground I would have to cover.

My opponent, Richard Weilly commanded fourteen crusader tanks (fast but mechanically unreliable) of various types.  He would have the choice of either attempting to thread his way through the solid patches of ground covered by my defences or swing round to the north where the ground was solid but where my second turn reinforcements in the shape of sixteen M13/40 tanks (slow but mechanically unreliable) were due to arrive.  He chose option two.

I set up sprawled across all three southern boards.  The rules stated that I had to allocate at least one anti tank gun and two squads to each board thus guaranteeing that at least a third of my force would be hopelessly out of position.  Assuming, accurately, that Richard would attempt the northern flanking route I set up my three 47mm anti tank guns on board 30, the northern most of my set up area and allocated one 37mm gun each to the other boards.  Squads with machine guns also lurked in the vicinity while my phone operator got the artillery on speed dial.

Dividing his tank force into two sections Richard poured onto board 30 where I swiftly discovered how useless 47mm guns are at long ranges.  Dropping smoke to cover himself Richard turned north and headed for the firm ground.  I successfully brought my artillery down to absolutely no effect, a level of efficiency it would maintain throughout the entire game.  By the end of Richard's second turn his tanks were nicely positioned on the eastern part of boards 29 and 31 largely safe from all but the most fluky of anti tank shots and waiting the arrival of my tanks.

So far things had been reasonably event free with Richard maneuvering with relative impunity out of effective range of my impotent defenders.  But now my tanks were arriving!  Sixteen of Mussolini's finest clattered slowly onto the board and proceed to get shot to bits by their British counterparts.  OK, I admit it.  I screwed up badly.  I entered my tanks as close to the western edge of the board (and as far from the British) as I could intending to take up positions to cover Richard's exit locations and force him to come to me.  I had neglected the fact that the guns on Richard's tanks were somewhat better than mine, particularly at longer ranges.  The next few turns were gruesome for me as Richard methodically shot my tank force to pieces without my being able to give an effective reply.  In retrospect perhaps I should have charged on as close to his tanks as possible where my guns would also have been able to score kills.  Using my artillery to drop smoke would also have been helpful since it was proving useless at actually killing enemy tanks.

The next several turns consisted of Richard cheerfully reducing my tank force to scrap while edging his forces a little closer to his exit board.  It wasn't all one way.  I got some hits in and killed a few crusaders but turn seven found me reduced to four tanks huddling behind the wreckage of their comrades as Richard moved in for the kill.  Only it didn't quite happen like that.  To win Richard had to exit approximately six tanks off the board.  He had started with fourteen and had lost about four.  He lost another to my surviving tanks as he closed the range and I could get off some effective shots but the real killer was that previously mentioned mechanical unreliability.  I had managed to immobilise one of his tanks with a lucky hit.  Now two more that he had stopped in order to fire effectively failed mechanical reliability rolls when he tried to restart them.  With three tanks immobilised, four destroyed and one recalled for breaking its main armament Richard was left with the necessity of exiting every remaining tank.  When a lucky shot from an anti tank gun immobilised one of his remaining runners I thought I had the battle won but Richard was up to the challenge.

Bailing crews out of his immobilised tanks he led them on a foot charge to the exit following those of his tanks as he had been able to exit.  These lovely calmly strolled through long range machine gun fire to give Richard exactly the number of victory points he needed for the win.  Sigh, defeat is bitter although to be fair after the tank screw up on turn two I was probably lucky it wound up as close at it did.  On that note both Richard and I seemed to love the number six.  Richard broke three guns and recalled one tank in addition to immobilising two of his own tanks during the course of the game.  I recalled one tank, broke two anti tank guns and then destroyed them while trying to repair them just as Richards surviving tanks were waltzing off the board.  Still it was a good game which for quite a while I thought I was going to win as Richards tanks spluttered to a halt.