Maggiore Golfo di Carpentaria gazed around at the positions occupied by his soldiers. At least he assumed they were his soldiers, there didn't seem to be any other officers of his rank nearby prepared to put up their hand. To his right two soldiers were digging a foxhole, at the speed they were going it should be ready by the mid 1950s. Further along the ridge a soldier was striking a 45mm mortar repeatedly with a rock. "Care and maintenance," a caporal had explained to him although di Carpentaria's doubts were raised when one of the soldiers held up a bent firing pin with an expression of confusion. Di Carpentaria cleared his throat. Nothing happened, he tried again somewhat louder, still nothing. The caporal stuck two fingers in his mouth and issued a piercing whistle. Now at last the soldiers looked up. Di Carpentaria began his speech.
"Brave soldiers of the Pistoia," he began and stopped at the confused looks on his men's faces, "that's you!" Faces cleared and the maggiore continued. "In defeat after defeat you have covered yourselves in glory. Wherever Italian arms have been crushed by the enemy there has been the Pistoia fighting hard to no avail. Now is your opportunity to do it one more time," di Carpentaria stopped at that point uneasily aware this wasn't the rousing call to battle he had intended. Fortunately most of his men didn't seem to be listening. He decided to get to the good bit quickly.
"But today there will be no last stand. No desperate fight against the odds. When the enemy attacks we shall show them our steel, and then we will sneak away to fight another day." He definitely had his men's attention now even if the "fight another day" line had dimmed the hope engendered by the term "sneak away".
"We shall fight hard," continued di Carpentaria, "and when we are defeated we will withdraw to more advantageous positions." A hand shot up from the ranks.
"What are more advantageous positions?"
"Ones a little further away from the enemy," replied di Carpentaria. The soldiers nodded, that certainly made sense to them. "Now to your positions for the Gurkhas are coming and keep an eye on the exits."
Italians vs Gurkhas, how could I resist? This is Schwerpunkt scenario SP242 - Ciao Gurkha Ciao which pits the brave men of the Pistoia autotransportabile division against the 1/9th Gurkhas of the 4th Indian division. What could possibly go wrong? My regular opponent Dave very kindly agreed to play this despite a 2-1 win/loss record for the Italians on ROAR. I graciously conceded the balance and swapped out an Italian heavy machine gun for its medium counterpart.
The Italians are defending a ridge line against attacking Gurkhas and victory is gained by CVP. So far so normal but in addition to battlefield casualties the Italians gain points for all units successfully exited off the north edge of the board after turn four. So the job of the Italians is to hold the Gurkhas at arms length long enough to make a frenzied dash for the exit at the appropriate time. To do this I had ten squads of Italians, two elite and eight bersaglieri guided by three officers, the best a 9-1 the worst a lowly 7-0. These forces have two medium machine guns (after balance swapping) a light machine gun, a 45mm mortar and a 75mm gun. They also have eight trench counters for a combination of defence and covered exit routes.
Coming on hard and determined to give the Italians a kukri lesson (I'm sorry, a terrible joke but I couldn't resist) are Dave's hardy Nepalese shock troops. On the first turn come nine squads (four elite and five first line) with an mmg, two lmgs and a 2inch mortar plus two officers. On turn two another three squads (one elite, two first line) arrive with a 9-1, lmg, mmg and another mortar in tow.
Above is my set up. The Italians are somewhat constrained as to how they set up having to be within four hexes of three specific locations, one on each hilltop. The end result is three resistance points. The one on the left has a 45mm mortar, the middle and right are anchored by mmgs. The gun set up where it couldn't be seen but where hopefully it will give an almighty shock to whatever Gurkhas first breast the crestline. The middle force with my best officer (and the gun) was my stay behind force who would contend with the Gurkhas to the last. Those on the flanking hills would look to flee at a convenient moment. Each of them has a conveniently placed building in their rear which might facilitate their departure.
By SSR Dave was allowed to place smoke in two hexes not actually occupied by Italians and focussed on the centre and left (ok, I know that's actually my right but its just easier to refer to it as the left since that's how the map is laid out). With bullet catching halfsquads Dave's Gurkhas came on heading for the high ground at a pace that can best be described as modest. I gained my first VP when a 1-2 SFF shot wiped out a halfsquad. In return I managed to malf and subsequently destroy the 45mm mortar without so much as gaining acquisition.
As the game went on we learnt three things. Firstly despite that awesome first shot the men of the Pistoia were not exactly marksmen. The second thing we learnt was that they made up for it with sheer grit. 2MCs? My Pistoia heroes laughed at such things and Dave's Gurkhas struggled to make progress. The final thing we learnt was that while Dave's troops rarely broke under the Pistoia's somewhat wild fire they took every opportunity to pin. Broken Gurkha's were a rarity but Gurkhas frozen in place littered the battlefield.
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| Dave essentially ignored the right flank focussing on the centre and left |
In my first turn I fired largely ineffectually at his troops on the left (although I did gain a pin result) and moved my right hand mmg team to where it had a line of sight less affected by Dave's smoke. I also sent a squad into the foxholes on the right hand cliff. Dave's reinforcements would be coming on the right hand board edge and I hoped to greet them with a hail of 2-2 and 1-2 shots. In the centre I huddled under my concealment counters and hoped the smoke would be an inconvenient for Dave as it was for me.
In his next turn Dave moved his mortar team to a smoke convenient location while his remaining troops incremented forward (less the occasional pinned unit). I continued with my somewhat futile shots at whatever troops presented themselves although I was looking at the assault moving and pin results and counting up the remaining turns more than a little hopefully.
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| Two turns have gone and Dave doesn't seem to have got very far. |
In my turn Dave's kill stack which had been banging away at concealed Italians in trenches protected by smoke to no avail finally got some worthwhile results and my best officer and mmg team crumbled under the pressure. The rest of my defensive position held along the line and I started eyeing the rear with a speculative gaze. I once again managed to pin one of his squads on the left which so far had made heavy weather of their attempts to shoot me out of my trench line.
In his third turn Dave's reinforcements arrived.
"But wait," I hear you cry, "weren't they supposed to arrive in the second turn?" Er yes, about that. I set up this game and sent it to Dave who failed to do his due diligence. I had misread the scenario card and put Dave's reinforcements next to turn three which Dave happily accepted. So Dave's reinforcements late but eager turned up ready to join the fray. The only thing was there wasn't much fray to join. Dave's forces were concentrated in the left and centre and his reinforcements probably felt a little abandoned as the entered under the eagle eye gazed of my Pistoia sharpshooters in shellholes on the clifftop. Said sharpshooters proved that while they may have had eagle eyes they apparently also had eagle talons when it came to operating rifles and the reinforcements made it through what I had optimistically considered a kill zone with no ill effects. I don't think there was even a pin.
On the left and centre Dave's mortar went on a smoky rate tear before running out of smoke rounds completely. With my mmg team out of the running and the only other automatic weapon in the centre covered in smoke Dave moved his kill stack forward (except for one squad and lmg who pinned) and started climbing towards my suddenly attenuated positions in the centre.
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| My centre is starting to crumble but Dave still has pinning issues. Over on the left my boys hold firm. |
There was little I could do but cling on. My exit pass wasn't valid until the next turn. With his clifftop position now useless my troops there moved down close to the exit. Supposedly they were there to support their comrades in the building but I think we all know they just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. For some reason I thought that a concealed squad in a wooden building had a decent chance of surviving against Dave's reinforcements. I had visions of spraying the open approaches with fire as he advanced towards me. These visions were swiftly and brutally disabused.
Dave's turn four was a series of ups and downs. Over on the right his mmg team blasted my boys in the building and the others moved up to capture the broken remnants. On the left he pushed a squad into CC and the kukris came out with devastating effect. In the centre though Italian arms covered themselves in glory. In fact there was so much glory on their arms some of it trickled down onto their legs. With broken troops in front of him and his only opposition seeming to come from a single squad/lmg combo still shrouded in smoke Dave moved two squads, his 8-1 leader and mmg team up onto the hill. My 75mm only needed one shot but in fact it got rate and took another as well. When the shrapnel had subsided the officer alone remained while the remnants of his command had surrendered to the smoke shrouded squad they had disdained. This relieve pressure immensely firstly on the immediate tactical situation but also from a CVP perspective. I had lost a couple of squads and this easily made up the imbalance. Over on the left Dave had moved his forces up close challenging my men to a stand up fight but my guys checked the turn counter and decamped for the rear.
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| Turn 4, time to leave |
Dashing along trenches my left hand force fled towards the exit and there wasn't a lot that Dave could do about it. I exited several squads off the board and their heroics completed the gun crew and an 8-1 managed to join them. Dave did his best to mop up the surviving Italians on the board who were obviously not going to get away but there wasn't enough time or remaining Italians. My squad with the lmg who had done nothing all game cheerfully jumped into CC with his officer, killed him and helped themselves to a medium machine gun. Dave did manage to capture a broken squad and a 7-0 leader on the left but by then the big fish were long gone. A final desperate charge against my mmg team on the right (who had done very little all game except keep out of everyone's way) resulted in a couple of broken squads and little else. So victory to Neil just for a change. I think I made my best tactical decision when I selected the scenario. Many thanks to Dave for his patience and good humour. Next time we're playing something of his choosing.
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| The end, there are very few Italians to be seen |
Maggiore di Carpentaria cheered his men as they stumbled into their new defensive positions situated as promised some distance from the knife happy maniacs they had just been fighting.
"Well done lads, I knew you could do it. Once again the Pistoia shines in defeat."
"Excuse me sir," said the caporal, "exactly how long have you been here?"
"Pretty much since I finished giving that speech."
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