WWII in the desert

Brits: Mark, Mike & Mitch
Italians: SteveJ & Chris
All troops Confident Trained (Italian infantry Bergaslieri)
Rules Camp Cromwell house rules for WWII.

The Italians have secret deployment behind the line of ridges running diagonally across the table (not easy to see in this shot). The British are coming on from the LHS with orders to drive the Italians from the ridge & take the oasis.

The Brits advance their armour on their right.  Bugs lead their advance in tehe centre.  The first Italians to show themselves are anti-tank guns on the centre ridge that engage the bugs.

The Crusaders & Grants crest the ridge to find Italian armour in ambush.  The ambush only takes out 1 Crusader & the Italians lose 2M14 in the reply.

On the near flank the armour slug it out at close range with heavy loss on boths sides.  Semovente appear on the far flank & engage the British left.  Italian artillery is firing indirect at the British artillery.

The tank fight on the near flank has ended in the Italians favour. The British armour has been destroyed with 3 Italian tanks surviving on that flank.   The Italians also have 3 Semoventes left on the far flank while the only British armour remaining are 3 bugs.  The British decided to cut their losses & retreat.

The British plan was sound enough.  Had they won the tank fight (which with better luck they could well have done), the Italians would have been flanked with 2 infantry platoons, bugs & the surviving tanks making converging attacks while their 3rd infnatry in the wadi & artillery held up the Semoventes.