Background
On July 1st, we restarted the clock again to fight battles from each year of World War II. We played a scenario based on the initial set of battles in North Africa at the start of Operation Compass.
“Operation Compass was the first large Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during World War II. British and other Commonwealth forces attacked Italian forces in western Egypt and Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya, from December 1940 to February 1941, with great success. The Western Desert Force (Lieutenant-General Richard O’Connor) with about 30,000 men, advanced from Mersa Matruh in Egypt on a five-day raid against the Italian positions of the 10th Army (Marshal Rodolfo Graziani), which had about 150,000 men in fortified posts around Sidi Barrani and in Cyrenaica.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Compass
“The Battle of Nibeiwa was fought on 9 December 1940 near Nibeiwa, Egypt, where an Italian fortified camp held by the Maletti Group was overrun by British and Indian forces. It was the opening engagement of Operation Compass.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nibeiwa
The Game
Tactical Situation:
Elements of the British Western Desert Force attempt to destroy several Italian defensive boxes along their front line.
The Terrain consisted of rolling flat open terrain with numerous small rises. Victory for the British is to collapse one or more of the boxes to allow for further exploitation.
Scenario Special Rules:
- The scenario was fought width-wise on the table.
- All of the Italian infantry were deployed in three defensive boxes.
- One Italian Carri (Tank) Company was held off table as Delayed Reserves.
- All of the British are deployed on the table, 12” from the edge.
- The Italian players each received 1,500 points and the British each received 1,800 points. 6) All units were built from the “Hellfire and Back” Book.
- The Italians purchased sporadic air support and the British sporadic fighter intercept.
The Italian positions consisted of two Posizione di Fusilieri (Fortified Companies) divided into three infantry boxes supported by MG Pits, Gun Pits, TGrenches, Mortars, Regimental Guns, Cannon, Heavy Artillery Batteries and Carri Platoons (M11/39s). The reserve (using delayed reserve rules was a full (M13/40) Carri Company. All the Infantry Boxes were protected by mine fields and barbed wire.
The British consisted of a center deployed Infantry Company supported by two Matildas, Mortars and an 8 gun 25 pdr battery. The right flank British Guards Infantry Company from the Selby Force was supported by two Matildas, Universal Carriers, Mortars and a four gun 25 pdr battery. The left flank was the main attack force with a eight tank Matilda Company. As all of the forces were not infantry, a day attack was required.
Narrative:
For the first two turns, the British moved forward while attempting to pin or destroy the Italian guns and bunkers. A few were knocked out, but the Italian defensive fire was fierce, as there was no cover for the attacking troops. As such, British units were continually pinned while trying to advance.
On turn three, the firing was getting heavy, with British infantry and carrier casualties starting to pile up. The Guards managed to get to the Italian flank and started to press with their armor. The British center became pinned down, as it received withering fire (their Matilidas were off on the left flank helping their breather en advance). The Matildas continued to machine gun the Italian artillery. This meant it was time to go in head-to-head against the Italian heavy artillery.
On turn four, the Brits had now closed on all the boxes, The British center was fairing very poorly with heavy losses, and the Guards were starting to notice their casualties. However, The flanking attack by Matildas and Carriers crashed through the flank and began to overrun the infantry positions. The Matilda Company on the left ran up to the wire, loosing one to very exited Italian player firing with his 105mm battery in direct fire! The subsequent tank assault was thrown back due to an inability to score any hits and the Italians standing!
On turn 5, the Italian Artillery managed to kill another one of the left flank Matildas on the wire. This was not good news. Elsewhere on the line, the center infantry company attracted all the available Italian armor coming in from reserve. The center company valiantly stood their ground, but lost heavily. On the right flank, the Guards infantry moved up to assist the Matilda attack and cleared the Italians and began their shift to the center box.
Over the next several turns, the battle continued with the British gaining the advantage. The Matildas now dominated the battle on their flank by over running the heavy gun line, cracking open his box. The Guards moved positioned themselves for their next attack into the center box, while the Carri attempted to overrun the British center and hold off the Matildas, but with minor success. The Italian line was now in shambles.
By turn 10, it was all over, the defenders flanks were broken and they would need to go streaming back into Libya. The heavy losses on the British demonstrated what the Italians could have done historically if they had had better leadership.