Clayden's Ditch South Africa's War #20 |
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(Defender) Italy | vs | South Africa (Attacker) |
Formations Involved | ||
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Italy | 155º Battaglione Mitraglieri | |
Italy | 342º Battaglione Guardia alla Frontiera | |
South Africa | 2nd Transvaal Scottish Regiment |
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Overall Rating, 4 votes |
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3
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Scenario Rank: --- of 940 |
Parent Game | South Africa's War |
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Historicity | Historical |
Date | 1942-01-11 |
Start Time | 22:00 |
Turn Count | 20 |
Visibility | Night |
Counters | 20 |
Net Morale | 1 |
Net Initiative | 1 |
Maps | 1: AK2 |
Layout Dimensions | 88 x 58 cm 35 x 23 in |
Play Bounty | 142 |
AAR Bounty | 171 |
Total Plays | 4 |
Total AARs | 1 |
Battle Types |
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Urban Assault |
Conditions |
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Anti-tank Ditches |
Entrenchments |
Off-board Artillery |
Terrain Mods |
Scenario Requirements & Playability | |
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Afrika Korps | Maps + Counters |
South Africa's War | Base Game |
Introduction |
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The Allied victory in Operation Crusader left a number of fortified posts along the Egyptian-Libyan frontier still in Axis hands, but now isolated. Their only source of fresh water was at Sollum, a tiny port town just inside Egypt. It had been fortified by repeated occupiers and now became the target of the 2nd South African Division, still burning for a victory to wash away the failures of November. |
Conclusion |
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The Transvaal Scottish considered themselves an elite unit, on par with their "sister regiment" the Black Watch, and their officers felt themselves shamed by the poor South African performance in Crusader. With pipes playing, they surged over "Clayden's Ditch" in a mad bayonet attack and overran the defenders. South African newspaper correspondents had stumbled onto the battalion as it prepared for the night assault and quickly filed reports. Union Defence Force command at Voortrekkerhoogt learned that their men had finally scored an unquestioned victory from the morning papers rather than through Eighth Army official channels. With the wells at Sollum in South African hands, the other frontier posts capitulated over the next several days. |
No quarter asked or given at Sollum | ||||||||||||
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The 2nd Transvaal Scottish easily traversed anti-tank ditches and overran entrenched Italian positions and seized control of Sollum without any casualties. The Italian defenders held out as long as they could but by 02:00/turn 17 the last machinegunner, leaderless, perished in a final bayonet charge. Curiously, even after sustaining heavy losses and losing the town the Italians would not surrender per SSR#3 after their initiative dropped to zero; all units attempted to fight to the bitter end. South African forces almost pushed the opposition into the sea behind them. Of course units aren't required to flee entrenchments and if they had they would of started swimming in the Mediterranian as they were totally surrounded. The bagpipes must of been morale lifting as well as after the last Italian gunner fell there was not even one disrupted or demoralized South African unit or leader on the map. An almost perfect, textbook trench assault and the outcome was never in doubt. So South Africa wins a major victory after taking the town and losing no steps. I don't know what the Italians can do in this one but get lucky with some early opportunity fire or maybe get a better draw of leaders as the base Italian morale sits at 7/6. But even then, two of the four Italian leaders did have morale modifiers (though none with combat modifiers) which is not so bad drawing from the 'Afrika Korps' leader lot. Visibilty was 2 hexes the whole scenario so DF with a (-1) modifier wasn't very effective and all the Italians had for indirect fire was a 65mm pop-gun. It was a nice solo play though and a nice way to end 'South Africa's War' with an undisputed South African victory; perhaps very close to the the historical outcome. I give it a "3" for what it's worth as a fun and fast-moving solo play but best to be avoided in a shared match as the Italians never really had a chance and even to get a minor victory or a draw they would of had to of caused 8 South African losses and were never even close to that but still, again, they did not surrender which must have some merit. |
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