Retreat to Tunisia

Last night we played the 'Ridgeline Assault' scenario: at the end of 1942 Panzerarmme Afrika is falling back to Tunisia with elements of the British 7th Armoured Division in pursuit.  At one of the mountain passes, an Italian battle group from the Folgore parachute Division has formed a hasty rearguard defense.  Both British and Axis forces weigh in around 900 points with the Brits have three tank and one infantry platoons plus support, the Germans a platoon of Panzer IV (two of them upgraded to F2 'specials;) and a pair of Mrders, while the Italians fielded a platoon of paratroopers supported by engineers mortars and MMG's.

Artillery fire missions were handled slightly differently in that players used a map drawn on gridded paper and spotting round markers were placed by using 'map' coordinates (as opposed to just plonking them down on the table wherever they like) for a touch of added realism!  Of course, maps in the desert can be notoriously inaccurate......  

The British opened the ball with a preliminary bombardment on the Axis lines: luckily for the German and Italian commanders the hurricane of shells had little effect with only two out of thirteen hits getting a pin result.  Oddly enough though the two units pinned were German Marders and these open topped tank destroyers were a serious threat.  Wisely their commander pulled them back off the skyline as soon as he could do so.

The British armor rolled forward and two of the new Shermans drove straight into a minefield!  One was destroyed immediately and the other pinned; this was the signal for the Italian gunners to open up and zero in on the road adjacent to the minefield - this was a definite 'kill zone' and a good example of defensive tactics using mines to channel the enemy into a target area.  The British tankers were faced with three options, drive on and risk the 50/50 chance of detonating a mine, pull back and try another route, or wait for the Sappers to come up and clear the mines.  Lessons learned: reconnaissance units exist for a reason - lead off with them, not your best assets.  Also, don't leave your engineers off table at the back of the column!

Axis mortars also targeted the ruins where the British artillery observer was set up, forcing him to retreat, while his Italian counterpart was safely ensconced in a hardened bunker on he crest of the ridge and managed to weather everything the British could throw at him. To their dismay and frustration their maps were inaccurately drawn: unlike their opponents, and this caused problems getting their guns on target.  Such is the fog of war

Turn four sees the German and Italian armor surging forward in a bold counterstroke to catch the British off balance with a panzer 1V using its 75mm howitzer to demolish a 6 pounder antitank gun that had been lurking in ambush.What happens next is going to be interesting and potentially bloody as the panzers and Semovente self propelled guns debouch from the winding road through the mountain pass.......... two more players will be joining us next week, so perhaps the struggling British will receive reinforcement ;  to be continued!

Seconds out: Round Two!  The axis counter attack never materialized as there were still too many British units available in ambush positions for the Axis commander's liking, so the British tanks were able to extricate themselves from the minefields and deploy the Royal Engineer section to clear a path through them relatively unmolested, the only enemies that could fire on them being artillery, and the British 4.5" Mediums did sterling work in keeping the Folgore OP bunker suppressed, even inflicting a casualty on the team at one point.  British gunnery was improving significantly!  More engineers arrived, this time from the RAOC (known to the rest of the army as the Rag And Oil Company), in a breakdown vehicle.  Despite being under constant mortar fire and  the liberal use of swear words and bigger hammers, they made valiant attempts to repair the knocked out Sherman but were unable to do so.

British reconnaissance found no mines on the left flank so the motor infantry platoon surged forward, accompanied by the Lee and Grant tanks. Inexplicably the Italians had left their OP out on a flank completely unsupported and the British infantry stormed the bunker with grenade (one!) and bayonet; the two defending paratroopers put up a stiff defense, but British numbers prevailed and the position was taken for the loss of four men. The British now have a foothold on the military crest of the ridge and belatedly the Axis rushed reinforcements to the threatened flank. Now we have an interesting situation with both sides occupying hull down positions and neither willing to break cover and cross the ridge line where they will be blasted at point blank range! The axis armor has a definite advantage here as the Grants can only use their 37mm turret guns from a hull down position.......
The British need to execute a right hook to capture the pass  and the heights above it so the can enfilade the enemy positions along the ridge, but the second tank to advance off the road ran into another minefield.....

Day three of the road to Tunisia scenario saw the British armor try to punch through the Italian right while their infantry assaulted the defenses on the crest of the ridge. The Tommies took the Italian position at bayonet point with no quarter given, but the Folgore paratroopers launched a furious counter attack using demolition charges to destroy a Grant tank and flamethrowers to wipe out the British infantry and recapture the position. Two more British tanks were knocked out in ambushes by lurking panzers and SPG's leaving the attack effectively stalled. Things were no better on the British right flank as when the leading Sherman tank crested the ridge on that side, it was close assaulted by more paratroopers and destroyed. Other tanks were taken under fire from across the draw and it looked as if the British attack on that flank was stalled too.

Mounting casualties meant that the British left was in danger of collapsing completely but at a critical moment, the morale of the Italian paras on the round hill failed while attempting to close assault another tank and the survivors were taken prisoner by Tommies from the carrier platoon who secured the vital high ground and deployed their mortar observer team.

Some accurate gunnery from the surviving British tanks removed any further threat to the position and with their lines now under threat of flanking fire from the hill, they were obliged to withdraw in good order with their honor intact, the rearguard having achieved its objective and the British to badly battered and weak to mount any kind of pursuit or offensive operation in the immediate future.

This game was designed to be a tough tactical challenge, and so it proved to be - yet could have gone either way in the space of one or two turns. As the Duke (Wellington not Wayne) said, "it was a near run thing"

Thanks to everyone who took part and made it such a fun game!

Seems like a good mini campaign Stuart!
post some pics!!!!

Best Regards,

Diego

If only I could! Tried several times in the past but failed miserably...........

Stu

Send them via email to Diego, that might help.
It would be nice to see piccys.

Paul

Yes, would be very nice to see some pictures here!