Silly After Action Report - Gladium Pro Patria e Rege

 Two troopers of the Lucca cavalry regiment stared in awe as the heavily bemedalled officer went by.  The colonnello's chest bore so many decorations that he clattered as he walked.  One of the troopers turned wide eyed to the other,

"Was that...?"

"Yep," nodded his comrade, "Colonnello Castanetti himself.  The hero of El Sod.  They say he smuggled himself out of East Africa on a submarine.  Then wound up in North Africa fighting with Rommel.  Although some vicious tongues say he passed out on a submarine during a party, fell overboard and was washed up in North Africa.  Everywhere our army has met defeat he has managed to survive.  He was at Alamein, he was one of the few Italians to escape.  In fact he managed to escape three weeks before the battle started.  That's how good he is."

"What a man."

"He's just the person to lead us against the Germans.  He knows all about them."

"Really?"

"Yes, he was a waiter in Berlin before the war.  And during the war actually, until they sent him to East Africa for spilling soup on Gauleiter Koch during a function."

The other soldier had stopped talking.  He couldn't help but notice that the colonello had got into a staff car and was now leaving the scene at an extremely high speed.  Almost simultaneously a shout came from a lookout, 

"The Germans are coming!"

"Amazing," muttered the first soldier, "how does he know?"

Dave Wilson very kindly agreed to play this scenario from LFT's Italian issue.  In Scenario FT246 - Gladium Pro Patria e Rege I shall command various elements of the "Ariete II" tank division.  Well you know what they say about sequels, they're never as good as the original.  It is 1943 and the Italians have surrendered but its very difficult to send an entire country to a prisoner of war cage in the rear with the result that the Italian army had to face their erstwhile allies who were somewhat miffed to put it mildly.

Making their stand for king and country are my brave troopers facing down the somewhat irate panzer grenadiers of the 8th motorised regiment.  To win Dave has to exit twelve VP off the north edge of the board between hexes vY1 and vGG5 while simultaneously ensuring that no tracked Italian AFV with a functioning MA has LOS to and is within six hexes of the original German set up area.

Standing firm in their path are my troops.  I have eight squads of elite Italian infantry led by a 9-1 with a pair of 7-0s making up the numbers.  They have a pair of light machine guns, a heavy machine gun, an almost equally heavy antitank rifle and a 75mm artillery piece.  Eight concealment counters help to confuse the Germans about the forces opposing them.  Either setting up or entering on turns 1-3 according to my personal whim are my armoured forces; two M15/42 tanks, four SMV75/18 SP guns and a single AB41 armoured car.  Dave's forces consist of a dozen first line squads led by four officers including his own 9-1.  They have four lmgs, two dismantled medium machine guns and an atr.  Hooked up to an unarmoured halftrack is a 50mm anti tank gun.  Six Opel Blitz trucks contain the troopers at start and adding a little punch is a Grille ie a siG38(t)M the chassis of the old Czech tank groaning under the weight of the 150mm howitzer improbably mounted on it.  Clattering on in support on the first turn are four StuGIIIG self propelled guns whose long barrelled 75mm guns made my Semoventes suffer from barrel inadequacy.

My problem (apart from my standard problems of laziness, stupidity, carelessness and lack of attention to detail) was that there were several ways that the Germans could approach the exit locations and I had to try and cover them all.  This led to a couple of stupid decisions in the set up.  I placed a M15 (with the armour leader no less) up on the hill to the right hidden in a very small orchard patch.  My intention was that the tank could cover the right if Dave tried an end run up the very right of the board.  In actual fact it covered nothing and died without achieving much.  Another problem was that my Semovente had difficulties penetrating the frontal armour of the StuGs while my armour presented no such issues to Dave.

I nestled another Semovente and the 75mm gun (by far my best chance at a tank kill) in the woods bordering the exit locations hoping for a side shot.  A couple of squads and an lmg also took up positions in the vicinity as a last forlorn hope.  My main defensive position was in the woods in the centre.  Here I placed my other M15 and another Semovente to cover the approaches with fire supported by ample squads.  The 9-1 with a halfsquad manning the hmg was HIP at the rear of this woods patch.  A couple of squads lurked in the trees on the hill mass to dissuade Dave (unsuccessfully) from clambering up that way.  Further south was a dummy stack and a unit with the atr.  These guys had one job, take out that Grille before it could commit any atrocities on the Italian infantry.  I kept back the armoured car and one Semovente to roll on as reinforcements on turn 3.  The job of these guys was simply to position themselves where they could prevent Dave from fulfilling the victory condition about no Italian AFV having LOS etc to the German set up area.  My final Semovente set up in woods on the right hand hill again guarding an approach it is fair to say Dave never contemplated using.

Set up, by SSR Italian AFV setting up in concealment terrain can set up HIP

Dave started by using his Grille to dump a smoke round (its last) in front of my troops in the south before sending the bulk of his troops north.  Dave hastened slowly through the wheatfield while I proudly held my fire.  There would be plenty of targets for my M15 and SMV to shoot at next turn.  The whole point of my centre position was to slow him down which meant lots of skulking and cringing underneath concealment counters.  There was joy in the South though as smoke notwithstanding my atr crew managed to get into his Grille (a poor joke but I couldn't resist it).   I had thus deprived Dave of his artillery support on turn 1 although its crew survived to my later annoyance.  Keen observers of the picture below will note the remarkable absence of StuGs from the field.  Dave completely forgot to bring his supporting armour on and, to be fair, I forgot to remind him.  At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

End German turn 1. Dave's Grille is gone, as for the rest of his armour they must have taken a left turn at Alberquerque

My own turn was modest in its achievements although I did manage to break overambitious squad moving forward.  I revealed my M15 hidden amongst the trees to take advantage of its machine guns given the vast number of Germans parading themselves for my delectation.  I managed to pin one of them.  On the other hand my sniper wounded one of his officers (although not the 9-1 of course).  None of Dave's officers would survive the scenario unscathed although some were more scathed than others.

Turn two saw Dave sort out his late running StuGs.  They swept up on the left and started getting acquisitions on the M15 and the SMV that I had in the trees.  I gave up the M15 as doomed but bought a turn or two of life for the SMV by reversing it into a clearing where the StuGs couldn't shoot at it.  The SMV took a shot at a StuG but had no HEAT without which those stubby 75mm had little chance.  My infantry defenders followed a pattern whereby the most conveniently placed would shoot then retreat while another concealed unit took their place.  Dave's infantry started to suffer casualties and in consequence began edging to the right avoiding the forest of fire in the centre.

My that's a lot of StuGs

Making up for their late appearance Dave's StuGs ruled the battlefield for the next couple of turns taking out the M15 and the SMV that had scurried out of their path although not before it had one brief moment of glory blowing away a stack of German infantry that got a little bold.  It had been my hope that by the time my reinforcements came on the battle (and most particularly the StuGs) would have moved on but Dave's late arrival scotched that idea with the result that the reinforcing SMV wound up nose to much longer nose with a StuG.  My infantry on the hill shamelessly abandoned their hidden comrade to its fate as Germans pushed up the hill and suddenly it looked like my right flank nightmares were coming true.

Dave's patented "drive directly up to the enemy tank and destroy it in the advancing fire phase" tactic is working well.

In the centre Dave slowly ground through my troops defending the woods but the real danger came to the right.  With my tree defenders occupied he filtered troops between the trees and the forest and started threatening to outflank my defenders.  Up on the hill itself a lmg team managed to stun a StuG that had been carelessly advancing CE but I was starting to feel distinctly nervous about the flank.  Then despair and delight occurred almost simultaneously.  Dave had pushed a StuG forward towards the exit directly in the line of sight of my hidden 75mm gun the only weapon I had with a decent chance of taking out the StuGs.  I took a defensive fire shot to gain acquisition for next time whereupon Dave rolled snake eyes in advancing fire and wiped out both gun and crew.  I howled in despair but what the dice gods take they also give.  Down in the south my reinforcing SMV found a HEAT round and nailed his rearmost StuG, I now had a largely unchallenged SMV within reach of Dave's set up area.  I say largely unchallenged, the crew of his destroyed Grille did jump into close combat with them but fortunately I managed to survive.

The agony and the ecstasy.  There is just a hole where my 75mm gun should be but check out the wrecked StuG

My M15 on the hill survived only as long as it took the StuG up there to recover from being stunned but on the other hand the gun killing StuG broke its MA which was a decided relief as there was a SMV sitting there trembling under its concealment counter.  With Dave's infantry filtering by to the east it was time for my 9-1 led hmg to show their worth.  I had kept these guys hidden the entire time while the woods defenders fought to keep the Germans away from their position.  Show their worth they did going on a couple of rate tears that carved up the flanking German infantry.  In fact they fired the barrel so hot that the machine gun broke but by then the damage had been done.  Dave's StuGs were moving with virtual impunity but his infantry had taken heavy casualties and the StuGs couldn't win it alone.

There are lots of trucks in the way but my hmg is starting to wreak havoc.

Dave pressed to the last pushing his StuGs forward to challenge for the exit locations and slowly grinding down the remnants of my woods defenders but he had no answer for the pair of SMVs sitting in the rear with access to his start locations.  Also while my infantry defenders were pretty much done a decent number of German troops were dead or broken a long way from the exit.  Dave gave the concession and I was able to chalk up a win for the Italians.  

One turn to go and Dave accepts the inevitable

 

I checked ROAR afterwards and there is a definite bias towards the Italians so I may have screwed Dave over in the selection of the scenario but you don't get too many opportunities for a German v Italian armour clash.  Just on a historical note I have read a number of histories of war in the desert that report the Italians being delighted with the arrival of the Semoventes as it finally gave them a chance to take on Allied armour on equal terms, wtf???  That stubby 75 can barely gain the attention of a Grant or Sherman crew.  Only the HEAT round allowed it to face off against the StuGs.

Many thanks to Dave for the game.  I let him choose the next scenario we played and in revenge he placed me opposite the Italians.  Coming soon, The Wolves Last Tooth.

"I got one," shouted the trooper, delirious with joy.  "Shoved a HEAT round right through the front armour."  He did a little dance on top of his Semovente which rocked dangerously.  His comrade, in smoke stained uniform and missing his eyebrows was a little less enthusiastic.  His own Semovente was in danger of starting a forest fire, some nearby Italian soldiers had already cracked out marshmallows.  

"That'll teach the Germans what's what," said the first refusing to be brought down despite the fact that the Semovente's armour was cracking under his boots.  A messenger arrived waving a sheet of paper.

"New orders from Colonnello Castanetti, we are to lay down our arms and surrender to the Germans immediately."

"Oh thank Christ," muttered the first soldier hopping down from the Semovente.

"Where is the Colonnello anyway," asked the second, "he must be back in Rome by now."

"Actually, the order is postmarked Canada," replied the messenger.

"Amazing, how does he do it?"