This 20mm World at War: El Adem Road

Today was the day my North African kit got deployed onto the table for the first time in a cracking game of Battlegroup. The scenario was set on 10 April - The day before the first attacks against the Tobruk garrison historically took place on Good Friday, 11 Apr 1941. The El Adem Road runs south-west from he most southern point of the perimeter.

This was a delaying action along the El Adem Road with 2/17 Battalion - 20 Brigade of the 2nd AIF fighting for time against 5th Panzer Regiment, 5 Light Div -Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK). The Aussie's mission was to stall the DAK for 12 turns to allow time for the preparation of the defences.

I was in command of the Aussies and my opponent was Pete - AKA, Oberst Jenkers was in charge of the German forces. I had a platoon of infantry with support from a pair of guns from 1RHA and a mobile reaction force consisting of a carrier section & a troop of Matilda II tanks from C Squadron, "Tobruk Tanks."
Oberst Jenkers, had a reinforced schutzen platoon (4 sections) with pioneer support, a troop of Pz II's, another of Pz III's and a strong recce element with a motorcycle patrol and SdKfz 222.

Aussie Defences:

My troops started with the infantry, guns and supports on the table in prepared positions. On turn 4, I would roll 1d6 to see how many turns the reaction force would arrive. The second line of dugouts (in the pic) are actually on a low ridge which is difficult to see. There is a large cactus patch in the center and a minefield on my right flank. I had two section in the center and the third in the stony area overlooking the minefield. There is a 2pdr AT gun on my extreme left and two 25pdrs on my right. I have a mortar pit in the center.

A wrecked AT gun to make the barren desert look a bit more interesting.

The initial DAK deployment. Recce, Pz II troop and HQ elements.

Here they come, stirring up the dust.

Initial Moves:

The Pz II's moved forward. In the center the motorcycle patrol moved up and deployed in the cactus patch. An Sdkfz 222 moved up on my left flank. The first shots rang out and it was my 2pdr AT gun which fired at the 222. Its first shot missed but the second hit but only managed a glancing hit. Mortar fire hit the motorcycles in the cactus and pinned one team.

My Morris armoured car ten moved forward in the center followed by a Daimler Dingo. My 2pdr portee raced over the ridge to take a shot at a PzII and missed.

The panzers continued their advance. The SdKfz 222 replied to the 2pdr and opened up with it's 20mm auto-cannon to devastating effect. Two of the gun crew were killed (failed their hard cover saves) and the remaining man abandoned the gun when he became pinned (last man standing rule). In front of the minefield the schutzen platoon moved up, disembarked from their trucks and deployed in the dust.

I'd lost the AT gun but my defence was still looking okay. Now the RHA guns took aim at the PzII's out front and, over open sights, managed to take one of the tanks out of the picture. Well done!

I moved the destroyed 2pdr terrain piece into the gun pit because the gun

model has the crew attached to the base. It's looks better this way too.

At this time Oberst Jenkers stopped the advance of his panzers, took proper aim and dealt out some serious damage to my defence. I lost my 2pdr portee and Morris A/C to the Sdkfz 222 and one of the panzers. The other tank attempted to shoot up the 25 pdrs and did cause some casualties but failed to pin the gun. A 80mm mortar targeted my central section and inflicted some casualties and also pinned them. to my right the DAK pioneers moved toward the wire and the dismounted infantry started giving my forward section near the wire a lot of attention.

One of my losses resulted in my drawing a Mine Strike chit from the box. I placed this onto the assault pioneer truck. This resulted in the destruction of the truck and the two pioneers killed. Good work! My defensive actions were not having much effect. I was inflicting some damage but not enough. Likewise the Germans were not inflicting a lot of damage but what they did manage, I couldn't afford.

Turn 4 - A German pre-timed mortar barrage came in and was aimed right at the center of my defences. But luck was on the Aussie's side and the stonk went wild and landed in the cactus patch. This took out the remaining motorcycle troops. Unlucky for me, one of the chits drawn was Air Strike!

In my turn I rolled for my reinforcements - They would arrive on turn 7. In the meantime, my defensive fire was below average. The 25pdrs targeted the PzII's and infantry beyond the wire but they were having little effect. With the Pz III troop now on the table and moving forward I needed to start inflicting more damage.

Next turn the Air Strike came in and it was a Stuka. It attempted to hit my guns but the bombs drifted. Not far but far enough to save one gun. Unfortunately it wasn't so good for the infantry section in the center who took the brunt of the bombing. They were wiped out, one gun routed and my 2" mortar was pinned. All of a sudden there was a big hole in my line.

STUKA! STUKA! STUKA!

Yes, I know it's not a Stuka. But I don't own one. Yet.

All this excitement managed to blind my opponent to the movement of my Boys AT team into the front line. They took up a position and took a shot at the PzII's out front. They gained some hits but failed to do any damage. But they also survived retaliatory fire and lived to keep the fight going.

I can't say the same for my remaining 25pdr. One of the PzIII's took aim with HE and took out most of the remaining crew. It was also pinned and again, the Last Man Standing rule saw the gun abandoned.

I moved my Vickers HMG down to the front defences and maneuvered the Dingo into a defensive position in front of the minefield. More shooting and more destruction and the Boys team, with some skillful shooting managed to take out the SdKfz 222. The 222, along with the Stuka, was probably Oberst Jenker's most effective unit.

Somewhere along the way, I drew another chit and drew another Mine Strike. I played this one on a PzII and it was blown up. Good thing too. Take that, Gerry!

I stripped the infantry from the left and moved them to the center. The Bren team made it to cover but the rifle team got caught in the middle of a mortar strike. They lost some men and the resulting morale test got them a Beyond the Call of Duty activation which got the remainder into cover.

By this time the German pioneers had advanced to the wire and cleared a path through the minefield. They'd taken a pounding on their way in but were still able to do their job with only four of them still standing.

Somewhere, somehow, the last PzII bit the dust. I have a feeling it was the Boys ATR again but I can't remember. The Dingo and Vickers managed to slow down the schutzen advancing though the minefield, but it was time for the infantry to pull back. They'd done all they could to stall the DAK and now the armour would have to do some of the work.

Then the cavalry arrived. The tanks of C Squadron arrived on the field.

Retreat!

At this time we called the game (turn 8) as it was getting late in the day. The Aussies had limited success but they didn't manage to stop the DAK to any great extent. They did manage to destroy one armoured unit and all the recce support and I'm pretty sure the Matilda's would be able to hold off the panzers until turn 12.

As far as Battle Ratings were concerned, neither side was close to breaking. I was on 16 out of 43 BR and Pete was on a bit more but he had 53 BR. Admittedly I did draw two 1's and two Mine Strikes. If I'd been less lucky I could have easily added to an additional 10 or more to my BR loss.

Conclusion:

It was an interesting and different game. It's been a long, longtime since I last played a Western Desert game (and we're taking early 1980's here!) so I wasn't sure how to go about it. But, for a first I think it worked out well. The battle was, of course fictitious, but it fitted well within a general concept. However, I did forget to pack the El Adem Road in with my terrain so we didn't have an actual road! Never mind.

As for the rules, I got a bit lost with the Air Strike as I've never done this before. I'm certain I got it some of it wrong. It worked out okay but I'll have to read up on it and get it right next time. But... And this is a big but... I got to put an aircraft on the table. Not the right one because I don't own a Stuka, but an aircraft nonetheless. And that, my friend overrides anything else as far as I'm concerned because image is 90% the game and it looked good!

I also got to use a whole bunch of other things that I've been making, such as the sandbag emplacements, cacti and barbed wire. I also got to use my newly made desert mat. It still smells a bit like coffee but that will fade in time. At least it's an appetizing smell.

EDIT:
And once again after I've finished this and published I found some much better pics courtesy of Russel at NWA. A man who takes much better photo's that I can attempt.