Issue Number 116 of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Magazine provides an interesting scenario set during the 1982 Falklands War. The scenario depicts the attack of 42 Commando on Mount Harriet, a key defensive position outside of Port Stanley held by B Company of the Argentine 4th Infantry Regiment. After doing a bit more research on this battle, we decided to play this scenario with our WW2 British and Italian figures, using Flames of War rules.
The British players were challenged to match the historical result by capturing Mount Harriet while taking minimal casualties. All the British units were rated Fearless Veteran.
The Argentine force was played by the GM, using these predetermined guidelines that reflected their historical performance:
a. All Argentine units were set up in their historical positions, as provided by the scenario.
b. The Argentine infantry platoons were rated Reluctant Conscript. The HQS, recon, and supporting platoons were rated Confident Trained.
c. All Argentine units would always fire if they had a target in range and line of sight. Targeting was prioritized as follows:
(1) Close range, frontal arc
(2) Close range, rear arc
(3) Long range, frontal arc
(4) Long range, rear arc
d. No Argentine units could voluntarily move — they would stay in their entrenchments, and their only movement would be in response to being assaulted.
e. If assaulted, each defending Argentine unit would take a motivation test. If the test was passed, all surviving defenders would break off and fall back. If the test was failed, all defending teams within 4″ of an attacking British team would surrender, and all other teams would fall back. HQS command teams, if present, could provide a re-roll to the above results. If the motivation test was passed on the re-roll, then the defenders would counterassault.
f. Every three teams of Argentine POWs would require one British team to escort them.
g. Due to faulty landmines and the freezing cold, any landmine that was triggered would only detonate on a roll of 4+.
(All of these limitations were unknown to the British players.)
Order of Battle: In addition to scaling the companies and platoons in the scenario to fit FOW organizations, we also made a few adjustments to the unit capabilities in order to “modernize” them:
1. The infantry platoons on both sides in the Falklands War were armed with assault rifles and light machine guns, thus we rated all the infantry teams as “MG teams” in FOW terms.
2. The British had a platoon of MILAN launchers. To represent these, we used four PIAT teams but increased their range to 24″ and their firepower to 4+. Each MILAN team had a rate of fire of 1 and could not move and fire. They received a +1 to-hit DRM to reflect that they are guided missiles.
3. Two Italian 47mm antitank guns stood in for the Argentine 105mm recoilless rifles, with no adjustments to their stats.
4. The Argentine sniper with a night vision scope was given a range of 24″ and suffered no penalty for spotting/shooting at night.
5. The heavy machine guns, mortars, and artillery stats were left unchanged. We did not limit the British artillery as the scenario specified, because historically, the British fired a lot of artillery rounds to support this attack.
Two special scenario rules were in effect:
A. The entire battle was fought using the rules for Night Fighting.
B. The entire mountainside was covered by large boulders and rocks. Any infantry team remaining stationary counted as being in bulletproof cover.
Terrain: Mount Harriet is a steep, oval shaped, ridge about one mile long and 1/2 mile deep, with its long axis running east-west. Other than being covered with boulders, there is no cover. The spine of the ridge rises about 500 feet above the Darwin-Port Stanley road, which passes the ridge to the south. To the north, a saddle connects Mt. Harriet to Goat Hill.
Deployment: Both sides were deployed in their historical starting positions…
The Argentines were set up with three large infantry platoons and a small recon platoon entrenched about halfway up the slope in an arc facing the north, west, and south sides of the ridge. Dug in behind them and higher up, in an arc from north to south, were a heavy MG platoon, the company HQS, and a small recoilless rifle platoon, with a forward observer and a sniper concealed in the rocks on the apex of the ridge. On the eastern end of the ridge, the mortar battery and the battalion HQS were entrenched. An extensive minefield obstructed the approaches from the west and southwest, which was the expected direction of the British attack.
The British commandos sent K and L companies, plus a recon platoon and the MILAN platoon, on a flank march around the southern end of the minefield, using the cover of darkness to approach the rear (eastern) end of the Argentine position. Accordingly, these two companies were set up in their historical starting positions in the southeast, just out of short range (16 inches) from the Argentine trenches. To the west, J company was set up in the dark just outside the minefield. With the assistance of a platoon of combat engineers, J company was to breach the minefield and demonstrate against the front of the Argentine defenses while K and L companies conducted the main attack in the rear. An off-table mortar battery and heavy artillery battery supported the attack.
After Action Report: The game began with K and L companies moving closer to the Argentine defenses. The recon platoon and the two platoons of L company advanced toward the southern side of the ridge, while the two platoons of K company continued to envelop the eastern end of the ridge. In the west, J company bided its time (waiting for a late player to arrive!). The British artillery ranged in and pinned two defending platoons on the south side. Argentine return fire was negligible, hampered by the darkness, the range, and by being pinned down, but the Argentine mortars managed to range in and pinned one platoon of L company.
On Turn Two, the British launched their first assaults. In the south, the British recon platoon assaulted the Argentine recon platoon while one platoon of L company assaulted the neighboring Argentine platoon. Even though they were pinned down, the assault-rifle armed Argentines managed to put out a great deal of defensive fire, and both assaults were repelled with very heavy losses. The British recon platoon would spend the next several turns trying to recover from being pinned down in the assault.
The next turn, K company assaulted the Argentine battalion command post and the mortar battery, and overran these lightly armed units, taking light losses in return. The first Argentine POWs were captured.
Over the next few turns, K company proceeded to outflank and roll up the Argentine platoon that was facing south, taking some more prisoners, and taking some losses as well. L company and the recon platoon recovered from their initial setback and renewed their attack up the southern side of the ridge. By then, the defenders had been softened up by continuous fire from the artillery, mortars and MILANs, and the positions were taken, with further losses to the commandos. The hard luck British recon platoon was totally wiped out when it attempted to make a second assault up the mountainside.
By the mid-point of the game, K and L companies had managed to capture the eastern half of the mountain, but their losses had become serious and their attack was running out of steam. J Company was ordered to press its attack on the western end of the ridge, while K and L companies consolidated and regrouped.
While the British engineers cleared a path through the minefield, the Argentine forward defenses on the western end of the ridge were reduced by artillery and mortar fire. Thus the two platoons of J company were able to assault and eliminate the Argentine infantry platoon holding the western end of the ridge, with light losses in return. More prisoners were herded back to the British lines.
Shortly after that, J company and what was left of L company assaulted and eliminated the Argentine recoilless rifle platoon and the company HQS. That left the Argentine defenders with only one infantry platoon and a heavy machine gun platoon holding the northwestern corner of the ridge. At that point, the remaining defenders should have surrendered, but the game had proceeded very quickly to that point, so we continued playing.
The Argentine defenders conducted their last stand with great honor, repelling an assault by K company before British artillery and weight of numbers finally mopped up the last of the brave defenders.
At the end of the game, the British had achieved their primary objective of capturing Mount Harriet, but the cost had been appallingly high. Roughly half of the British commando and recon teams were hors de combat. Historically, the British only suffered 2 KIA and 30 WIA, while capturing over 300 prisoners. One British general remarked after the battle:
“What was needed was speed but not being bloody stupid. The Israelis would have done it much faster, but with many more casualties.”
Thus we concluded that the British players had won the game Israeli-style!
- TJ