Club Night 25th August

Luke and I were joined by Duncan and his newly painter Panzer IIIs for a desert flames of war. I took a Squadron Esplorante with DAK support, while Luke took an infantry company, which ended up defending in a fighting withdrawal battle. We both took air power to use the newly painter planes I had done, but it proved generally ineffective. The Italian air force chasing off the Desert Air force (below left), or being shot down by Bofors AAA fire when it tried to intervene in the ground war (below right)

On the Axis right the Panzers advanced with Bersigalieri support towards the heavily defended town the British had anchored their right on. Onthe opposite flank Ab41 armoured cars and L6/40 light tanks advanced with motorcilisti support. This light armour did really well overrunning the dug in infantry and clearing the way for the infantry to knock out the enemy armoured cars with their bombs after dismounting.

Despite this success the British kept throwing just enough troops into the objective to deny the Italians victory, and has they begun their withdrawal time became pressing. On the other flank in an attempt to claim victory the Germans had no choice but to assault into the town in their armour. Losing tanks to bogging down they drove slowly through the town but could not do enough to claim victory as the battered British forces withdrew.

I was surprised how well the reconnaissance forces performed, despite their light armour and being forced to disengage when hot, they proved more than a match for their opponents, however I am not sure they will excel quite so much against an armoured opponent.