Operation Compass – Beda Fomm, 6th February 1941
This is the third and final battle in my mini campaign covering Operation Compass. If I hadn’t been away I would have run it in February 2025, but as it was I ended up putting it on in March, so still around 84 years after the original battle.
After the destruction of their fortification line and the double outflanking of their fallback position at Derna and Mechili, the Italian 10th Army was in full retreat along the coast road via Benghazi, aiming to get back to Tripolitania.
7th Armoured Division drove hard across the desert from Mechili, losing many vehicles to breakdowns on route, but eventually cutting the coast road just north of Agedabia. The Italians became aware of the blockage rapidly, and moved one or their last armoured units up, the VI Medium Tank battalion to escort the leading truck convoy down the road. Italian recce declared the road clear for 20 miles, but unknown to the Italians, 4th Armoured Brigade had pushed north and established an ambush position at Beda Fomm, right across the road.
Battlefield from the south. The Italian convoy will be coming down the coast road from the north. The area is remarkable for being very undulating, so there are rises and hills all over the place. The rough ground on the left are actually the sand dunes behind the beach along the coast.
The Italians need to get one of their convoy units off the southern edge via the road. As usual I’ll be using my One Hour WW2 variant for this, and the scenario is based on the Beda Fomm one in Frank Chadwicks „Benghazi Handicap“ .
The critical feature is the big hill (F), christened ‚The Pimple‘ during the battle, located just east of Sidi Ageili and the Bottega Araba. The Italians also need to capture this.
This is an ambush scenario, so the Italians have to just keep moving down the road until they spot the British. Ambushes are very hard to game, so I hope this works out.
In the way are the ragged remains of 2nd RTR with a mixed bag of Cruisers. Each element represents a weak squadron, and the entire Regiment was very under strength. Simon is commanding these. For game purposes they will be hidden until the Italians move adjacent or they choose to move or fire.
The rest of 4th Armoured Brigade, commanded by John. Again, not very much stuff!
7th Hussars has a single consolidated squadron of Vickers Lights, and 11th Hussars a single consolidated squadron of Morris Armoured Cars. Normally these units would all be veteran, but they are so weak I’m just rating them as average for this scenario.
They are supported by F Battery, 4 RHA, who are deployed off table. 7th and 11th Hussars will turn up on turn 4. Russell and Pete will take these over on Wednesday, but for now John commands them.
Despite being light in teeth arms, the Brigade has all its LOG support. Dorchester ACV, Austin K2, a 15cwt supply truck and Brigadier Scott-Coburn in his Dingo.
And coming down the road is this mighty host! Raggrupamenti Pasquali.
In the lead we have a company of VI Medium Tank Bn (Micheal commands the tank battalion as Major Ornano), then II Grupo, 10th Artillery and 60th MG Battalion plus a heavy baggage column. Tim commands the whole force as Major Pasquali and directly commands the artillery and 60th MG Bn. Another company of the tank battalion is behind 60th MG Bn.
Behind them are 1st Parachute Battalion (Terry), also accompanying a load of baggage lorries. Terry can only play on Tuesday, so John B will take over on Wednesday. The paratroops and artillery are decent troops, so rated as average, the rest are poor. The units with baggage lorries cannot leave the road, and also block the road up with all their transport.
Bringing up the rear is the last tank company and a couple of supply lorries. The Italians are actually well supplied for a change, as they have all their supplies with them! I’ll also chuck in a few planes for fun, but they are just there for eye candy as the Italians are busy evacuating their airbases and the British are busy bombing the retreating columns further north.
Turn 1 passes speedily as the first Italian units come trundling down the road. A flight of SM79s flies overhead, en route for new bases near Tripoli.
The Italians keep trundling down the road. This time the Desert Air Force puts in an appearance, off to bomb Italian columns further north. I wonder why they aren’t bombing here…
And the ambush is sprung! 2nd RTR and the 25 pdrs concentrate their fire on the leading company of M13s, and the point blank range ambush fire soon reduces the Italian tankers to smouldering wrecks. Fox killed in the open.
Undeterred the Italians press on bravely. The 75s unlimber and start shelling the A9s over open sights, while 60th MG battalion piles on down the road, supported by another company of M13s who scale the rise fronting the 2nd RTR A13s.
Further back down the road the 1st Parachute Bn motors on. The British fire is a bit more split and although 60th MG Bn is left disorganised, the Italian tankers largely shrug the British fire off.
By turn 4 things are getting serious. Both units of 2nd RTR are being engaged at close range by M13s, 60th MG Bn continues to advance slowly down the road despite being disorganised (they are hampered by the British ZOCs) and the first unit of 1st Para Bn is now in contact.
Some respite for the British as 7th and 11th Hussars now appear. The Vickers Lights of 7th Hussars are heading for The Pimple, and 11th Hussars have a fine old time shooting up the leading Italian trucks. The 2nd RTR A13s are sufficiently battered that the Ambulances move up to help reorganise them.
In another round of heavy fighting 2nd RTR have had enough. One squadron withdraws west and the other southeast, hoping to reorganise in relative peace next turn. 60th MG Bn is reorganised (contributing to the terrible traffic jams), and good job too as 11th Hussars and 4th RHA promptly disorganise them again. 7th Hussars occupy the reverse slope of the Pimple.
Here are the 2nd RTR A9s, thoroughly shot up but in a nice hull down position away from the fighting.
Hard pounding in the pass. 60th MG Bn once again rally and one company of M13s pushes forwards to engage 7th Hussars. The remaining 2 RTR A13s are knocked out, they hadn’t got far enough away from the Italians.
More Wellingtons en route for the north. Major Pasquali engages them with his pistol.
7th and 11th Hussars finally have their revenge and 60th MG Bn is destroyed, leaving the road blocked with blazing transport. This will take the Italians a move to clear.
The 2nd RTR A9s are reorganised, and now look fairly chipper again. 4th RHA is also out of immediate use ammo so time for more supplies of shells to move up.
The Italian Paras clear the wrecks off the road and a company of M13s occupies the hex to hold it. 7th Hussars take enough damage to become disorganised, but in turn the British tankers manage to knock out another company of M13s.
11th Hussars don’t fancy tackling a company of medium tanks so fall back the rise at the southern end of the Pimple.
Desperate times call for desperate measures – the remaining M13s assault 7th Hussars, who are vulnerable as they are disorganised.
And the Italians tankers are victorious! (they needed to score three hits on three dice). 1st Para Bn is now firmly into the pass, and the Italians have taken The Pimple.
The British respond by screening the road south. The A9s are in a good spot there.
We broke for the evening at that point as the situation has suddenly become very interesting.
When we resumed the next day there was a bit of a lull in the fighting at this point. Having taken The Pimple the Italians consolidated their position by moving the guns up onto the ridge, but otherwise both sides reorganised the units which needed it. British shelling disorganised the last Italian tanks. We had a change of personnel with John B taking over the Italian paras, and Russell and Pete joining the British.
The Italian paras then set off down the road again into hail of fire, even though they were covered by the Italian tanks and artillery. The A9s were sufficiently shot up that they had to reorganise (again) – this was to be their fate for much of the rest of the game.
11th Hussars shot and scooted up to the rise adjacent to the road, and the first Para unit took enough losses to disorganise it.
The Paras went on going and the Italians switched their fire to the British armoured cars who became disorganised. This was probably a mistake as the now reorganised A9s supported by 25pdrs put enough fire on the Paras to destroy their lead unit. This also blocked the road with burning lorries who would need to be cleared. The Italian gunners had run out of ammo and had to be resupplied.
The remaining Italian paras cleared the road, and despite being reorganised, the 11th Hussars finally succumbed to some hot shooting from the Italian tankers and gunners. 2nd RTR had to shift position to avoid the Italians simply driving off down the road, so they moved over to the rise to put a ZOC across it.
The Italians concentrated their fire on the A9s while the Paras moved into the ZOC. The British fire in turn managed to disorganise them but not destroy them.
The Italian paras were able to slip off south down the road, and as there was no point now in staying in position, 2nd RTR retreated east out into the desert. The Italians had (just) managed to win on the very last turn! Fittingly it was the Paras as irl they were the only unit to break out before 10th Army surrendered.
That was an excellent game and many thanks to the players for taking part in an appropriate spirit. I was rather dubious about an ‚ambush‘ type scenario, but in fact it worked fine and was a tribute to Frank Chadwicks original design. That is it for the desert for now, we are all yearning for some greenery, so next time it is back to northwest Europe I think.
Powered by WPeMatico
Dieser Artikel stammt von einer der angeschlossenen Quellen. Bitte honoriere die Arbeit der Autoren indem du ihren Webseite besuchst.
Artikelquelle besuchen
Autor: Martin Rapier / The Games We Play