An Italian Victory In The Desert !

Not a full AAR, but just a brief summary as per the entry in my home scenario records of my latest ftf game.

The basic objective was for 2 x British battalions with some tank support to capture two defended hills (one with dubious morale'd DAK). Thanks to the Italians holding all their entrenchments on their peak, they brought me an unexpected victory.

Here is the brief :

Desert Rats Scenario No.18

Tobruk : 21st November 1941

While the British 8th Army struggled to break in to relieve the besieged fortress of Tobruk, its garrison cooperated by breaking out on its own. A strong force from 70th Division supported by 32nd Army Tank Brigade, struck at the juncture between the German Afrika Division and the Italian 25th Bologna Infantry Division, feeling this to be a weak point…… They were half right.

The British forces were made up of two battalions. The 2nd Black Watch Regiment and the 2nd King’s Own. The English battalion were assigned to attack the by now low morale besieging German forces (155th Regt) and the Scots to attack the Italians. The advance began at 0530 hours. Over a period of 90 minutes, the English troops fought their way south nearer the German occupied entrenched positions. Sending in their Matilda tanks, they found that the Afrika Korps troops began to surrender en masse. For the loss of around 140 troops, the English forced the surrender of no less than 720+ Germans! With the 155th’s positions taken, these English soldiers were now able to turn west and support their Scottish comrades attack against the Italian positions.

The Italian positions were to prove a whole different ballgame. The 40th Infantry regiment was there and there to fight! On top of their hill, the Italians had a well developed entrenched position supported on the lower reaches of the hill by well positioned dug-in infantrymen. Around 0800 hours, having maneuvered into a position to make the assault, the Scots Pipers began to play their skirl as the rest advanced. Meeting a torrent of bullets and artillery shells, the Scots were unable to make any headway as they tried to advance up the slopes and suffered casualties as a result. Before too many casualties were absorbed, the attack was called off to arrange a regroup.

It was now a case of awaiting the tanks that had assisted the English infantry so well, as well as the English infantry themselves to make for a two pronged assault. This time, the hill would be attacked in the following manner. The tanks were to advance, unmolested from the east toward the entrenchments. The 2nd King’s Own were also to attack from the east and the Black Watch from the north and west face. In the first hour good headway was being made. The tanks were able to pour machine gun fire on the entrenched troops, meanwhile, the British infantry were slowly clearing the outer defences before an assault at the peak of the hill and the entrenched troops up there.

Casualties had been high though. By 1130am, 455 British soldiers had become casualties. The Italians had lost around 210 men. There was the whole surrendered German battalion to take into account as well which amounted to around 750 DAK troops!

Strangely, although the Matildas had advanced up to the entrenched machine gun platoons and continually tried to suppress them with MG fire, there was no attempt to enter the trenches by the tanks until 1145am. Entering these positions would most certainly have nullified the Italian MG’s fire and possibly/probably allowed the Empire infantry to advance in far more safety? Suddenly, with the tanks in amongst the enemy MG’s, the English and Scots infantry were able to clamber nearer to the enemy and ultimately support their own AFV’s. This was not without losses of course. There were still some 200 enemy riflemen up there as well and despite plenty of artillery shelling on the Italian positions, they were still able to take toll on the British advance.

The grapple for the entrenched MG positions proved the key in the end. Losing a couple of tanks plus more infantry, the British finally called the attack off at 1.30pm. A series of 3 un-coordinated attacks was probably the cause of the failure on the Italian hill. Over 600 losses for the British was too much to ask for this location. Italian casualties had sped up towards the end of the day too! Just about 350 of them were added to the final butcher’s bill. So Italian determination finally brought unexpected victory to the Axis, though the DAK would need to prove themselves elsewhere?