RAPID FIRE! ....................

Two and a Half Hours at Alamein - Game Report

John Durston and I recently played this game, prompted by John's accumulation of a sizeable Commonwealth (Indian and British) desert force and my increasing interest in the desert battles of late 1942.

The table was set out as described in the article and my Axis infantry awaited the inevitable attack safely dug in behind the wire. Their supporting armour was deployed with the German tanks to the rear of the Italian position and the Italian tanks behind the Panzer Grenadiers. Both, of course, were behind the ridge and just in from the table edge. Much to my delight (!) a d6 throw left my panzers only 3 moves of fuel and the Italian tanks a miserable 1.

John decided to cut two lanes through the minefields; one left and one right of the table's centre-line. Leading with mine-clearing engineers, he initially deployed a company of infantry with carriers and a squadron of tanks in support of each lane clearance force. The Shermans were on the right facing the Italian position and the Crusaders on the left. Both squadrons took up fire support positions either side of their gapping teams.

Under Fire

What developed was a battle of attrition, as the Allied artillery and Shermans pounded my infantry and they responded against the assault forces with machine guns, mortars and the Italian guns, which were controlled as needs dictated by the nominated OP figure in each position.

My casualties mounted, but John had to replace his engineer casualties with infantry and then replace the replacements with more infantry as their losses increased in proportion to the depth of the minefield gaps.

Something eventually had to give. First, it was the left hand clearance team. Without the benefit of the Sherman's HE support (the Crusaders had only 2 pdrs) and up against the more numerous Germans, their battalion's morale finally gave way with their gap about halfway through the minefields.



However, on the Allied right it was the Axis morale that crumbled. My Italians failed a second morale test after heavy casualties and began to route back to the ridge, leaving a big hole in my line. It was now I had to make a big decision.

The Crunch

The dilemma I faced was whether to launch the German armour against the right hand gapping team as it emerged from the gap (where it would be a bunched target) or wait till it spread out and committed itself on 'my' side of the minefields.

With only three moves to play with I opted for the latter, reasoning that I could pick off the Shermans with my Pz IV (long 75mm) and 50mm AT gun and trap the Indian infantry against the minefields with cross fire from tanks and Panzer Grenadiers. Big mistake!

What happened first was that further shelling and an air strike caused my Panzer Grenadiers to run for it. John swiftly emerged from the gap and pushed his infantry into the Italian dugouts, while the Shermans pushed on cautiously with the Valentines in support.

What happened next was some appalling hull-down firing from my panzers and, after finally knocking out one Sherman, a succession of hits and heavy damages, leaving my tank force in tatters. The Italian tanks couldn't even clear the ridge to join in. Immobile through lack of fuel their crews abandoned them and joined everybody else in a hasty dash off table.

Postscript

John's infantry casualties were very heavy (as in the real battle), but his dogged determination to complete at least one gap paid off. I boobed by not hitting his teams before they could deploy, even though it might have resulted in fuelless panzers stranded in full view of the Allied artillery observers.

The game reflected the importance of Allied artillery (and we much reduced the available guns compared to the real thing) and the impact of fuel shortages on the Axis ability to counter-attack. Alamein was a slugging match, but don't think that such deliberate attacks are boring to play. This one certainly wasn't.

Terrain and Models

The game was fought on my brand new desert cloth, an old flannelette sheet sprayed, brushed and dabbed with all sorts of paint and colours to leave a subtle mottle. The sheet is now canvas stiff and the ridge was created by laying it over polystyrene shapes.

The dugouts were all old Queens Hussar resin models (now available from Shell Hole Scenics) mastered by yours truly many years ago. The wire was strips cut from body repair aluminium mesh, wrapped around some dowel and painted rust red. All this was hastily completed over one weekend and a few evenings following the sudden realization that I had no desert scenery!

The models were John's collection of Britannia figures and Cromwell, Britannia and Airfix vehicles and my (Tunisian Campaign) Raventhorpe Germans and Italians and Esci, Nitto and Airfix armour. Guns and softskin transport were from various manufacturers.

Now, what was that set of rules called again.?