SETUP

The Indian 3/1 Punjabis and Rajputanas Rifles advanced on Alem Hamza, looking to dislodge the Italian 101st Trieste division from their hilltop redoubt. The Italians setup in dug out positions 800 meters deep on top of the hill. The Indians with British artillery and armored support entered the battle area in the range of hex rows xx21 to xx31.

THE BATTLE

The Indians decided to make for the hills straight ahead and then approach the Italian postions in order to negate their defensive bonus whilst defending uphill and to avoid OBA and mortar fire until the last possible minute. I took a methodical approach and tried to keep leader cohesiveness intact and to drive the entire group together so that when we hit the Italian force, many units could be called into the fray and hopefully dislodge the entrenched units. The Commonwealth troops moved slowly to keep the HMGs and INFs together as they climbed the hill and turned west. The Italians sent forward an observer and started to call in OBA which, except for momentarily disrupting a Mortar platoon, proved mostly ineffective. Once the Indians/British made it to the Hill, the Italians had no option but to wait for the approaching Indians.

Both sides exchanged OBA until the Commonwealth finally came into range of other fire. Thus begun a slow, steady march under fire that increased in intensity as the Indians closed on the Italian positions. As the Indians moved into position to assault across the front of the "box", deadly HMG fire at close range, combined with overlapping AA and Mortar fire caused several disruptions in key areas that force flees out of the contact area.

Finally, on Turn 22, The first Indian units along with the Valentines were able to make contact and assault the Italians. Even though Italian small arms fire proved effective against the Indian troops, their AT Fire and close-range bombardment from the 81mm mortars was mostly ineffective, only claiming 1 step loss on the Valentines and a few disruptions. Once the Indians closed to assault, They began to make the most of their morale and succeeded in clearing the first two rows of trenches. It was close and a few rolls either way would have swung this in either direction. The Indians proved highly effective in assault combat, but every trench cleared left a 3-stack Indian force vulnerable to close-range direct fire and OBA. In the end, this is what wore down the Indian advance and gave Victory to the Italians.

AFTERMATH

As Vince stated in his well-done AAR and in several posts, This battle was a drawn-out affair in which actual melee contact did not occur until turn 22. In my plans, I had decided to try and rush to the hills and then approach along the narrow front where I would be able to spot and drop OBA on the front trenches and hopefully disrupt the units enough to allow me to advance. Additionally, I was hoping to put some troops on either side of the hill after assaults to force the Italians that demoralized to flee straight off the board instead of down the hill on either side. My decision to do this instead of approaching directly from the south along the shortest path relied on the fact that I did not want to expose the troops to OBA and mortar fire (as spotting would have stretched all the way to the group of hills to the south - +6 hexes per elevation rule). In hindsight, this may have been a wiser course as it would have provided me with much more time to recover troops that disrupted and demoralized, rather than trying to take out 4 levels of dugouts in 14 turns against Italian "F-P" units!

I did enjoy the scenario, having shifted the casualty ratio in my favor although it did not result in victory. It took 4 sessions to complete and I wish I would have taken more pictures in the beginning and middle sessions as it would have illustrated the approach, attack and defense in a much better fashion than any words would have. I have posted pictures to the SotM:August thread in the forums and will include a small explanation of the pictures there.