This was a tough one to finish and it was rewarding to play it out to the last turn as the axis was doing a very good job of just barely hanging on and the outcome wasn't certain until the last moment. This was the second attempt, after SAW scenario #18 -"Dingaan's Day", of taking Fortress Bardia. On this attempt, the 3rd South African Infantry Brigade returned to the siege after a two week's rest with better morale along with more OBA, better armor and, after a very long struggle some much needed air-support after sunrise. Getting through the night was tough for both the axis and the Commonwealth forces. Unfortunately I repeated a lot of the same mistakes with the South African troops as I did on the previous attempt, by splitting units up into many assault groups instead of making one large central assault and then dividing units. The price for this was a lot of Commonwealth step losses but even more so, a lot of units in need of rallying. Because this was mostly a night scenario, the fog of war came about a lot more often and abruptly, once again to the Axis's advantage. However, the surrender rule was in effect for German forces and this helped a lot with clearing entrenchments on the north and south flanks. Right before dawn two seperate 10 hex wide corridors, from east to west had been forced open. The spoilers were the Italians who were deployed in the central area -they were not prone to surrender like the Germans and also chose to go on the offensive once the southern corridor was forced open, pushing S.A. units further away back down the map. Then, at an opportune moment one of the last German posts broke out of their entrenchments to try to close the northern corridor. It looked like the axis just may have been able to force a draw by just barely keeping a few undemoralized units plugging in the gaps until British air-support arrived the last few turns. In this case, on the final turn both corridors were closed again and it came down to one stubborn, reduced German HMG unit that had broken out of it's entrenchment in the northern sector just far enough to make the distance only 9 hexes wide. That's when a Hurricane II fighter was drawn for air-support and just in the nick of time scored a die roll of "3" on the 16 column of the DF table eliminating the German unit. In the southern sector one Italian INF unit had also plugged in the 10 hex wide corridor there but a final round of artillery demoralized it just in time.

This was a long scenario for 40 turns and there were times that I almost wrapped it up after 30 turns but am glad I didn't. Though the axis eventually lost this one they were able to turn the tide long enough to make the last quarter of this one a nailbiter. I really thought this was going to be a rollover for South Africa early on but I believe that with the Italians breaking out of their entrenchments, just before daylight and going on the attack that they almost saved Fortress Bardia. I believe that axis forces were deployed as well as they could be for having to hold onto so much territory and that counterattacks were necessary to keep the Boks on their toes. Had Axis units just remained static throughout the battle then more likely this one would of ended a lot earlier. I believe that despite the surrender rule and the low axis morale that this one is fairly balanced and give it a "3" but it will require a lot of nerve and patience for the axis player. The key is not giving up with the axis though there will be times when all seems lost. In this play it was not decided until the last turn.

The Axis set up with entrenchments spaced two hexes apart right behind the anti-tank ditch so they could fire on any Allied unit that attempted to fill in the ditch. The Italians were in the north and the Germans the south. The South Africans attacked in the south, hoping to keep as many other units out of the game for as long as possible. The infantry first advanced onto the ditch, hoping to fill in some hexes so the tanks could get through. By turn three they had taken many losses, but had filled in three hexes, allowing the tanks to get behind the Axis lines. The South Africans then proceeded to eliminate all Axis resistance and by turn 30 had eliminated all but one unit, securing a major victory. The South Africans had difficulty eliminating units in entrenchments, but the tanks are impervious to infantry fire and were able to provide the edge the Allies needed. The scenario was touch and go at the beginning, but once the Allies broke through it was mainly a mop up effort and the outcome was never really in doubt.