Enter Rommel

[Dog Soldier]

German turn three.
10:00 AM March 31, 1941
Normal Conditions
Visibility 3km.

Fifth Light Division
Major Dossler watched as the coordinated attacks went in on objective. Taking these British trenches now was vital to the German time table. “Through the eye of the needle we must go”, he thought. First the engineers laid down a covering fire to suppress the Tommys. The British infantry disrupted under the combined fire of the mortar section and the engineer’s fire. Tanks moved up next to deal with the British AT guns. Nothing for it thought Dossler. We can only hope the gun crews are dazed. As each tank section moved up an took their shots, there was no effective fire from the British. Only one MkIV was disabled. All units were in good order. Machine gun battalion eight moved up for the assault. Only disorganized rifle fire met the unit and one man was wounded. The assault went in forcing the British out of the objective. The German losses were more than the British. More armor moved up into the captured British positions and began firing at the next British units attempting to dig in quickly behind the original trenches. With any luck we will slaughter them in the open after we regroup thought Major Dossler. Now will the British try to hold the narrow strip of land between their minefields, or will they retire to defend the next objective? A feint was made along the coast which revealed the location of the Free French, another British infantry unit and some AT guns. All these units were digging in fast. Major Dossler ordered some panzer jagers to begin finding a way through the salt marshes to the north; just in case we need the insurance of flanking the next British position.

Infantry Regiment 200
Lieutenant Gruber saw the MG battalion deployed as companies catch up to the forward elements. He ordered the fast recon vehicles to protect the flank as the tanks first breached the sand dunes ahead followed by the infantry in their trucks. The slow AT guns were all left behind with the Italians and one section of engineers to guard the center of the German position. The British were no where. A cat an mouse game on the German flank? Had they retired to defend the narrow land at the end of salt marshes? Or did the British AC move into the salt marshes only to emerge later when the Germans had passed by? No way to know. Lieutenant Gruber radioed the armored car with the Luftwaffe liaison officer. “Can you call in some recon missions ahead of us in the next couple of hours. I do not like this blind feeling”, he told the officer. Maybe the short delay waiting for the MG battalion will confuse the British as to our intentions. Many doubts plagued Gruber on his first mission in the desert. Time was slipping away. He would have to move very fast now to secure the southern objectives and sweep into the British rear.


The big picture on Axis turn three.


A close up view of the push along the coast.

Dog Soldier’s notes
In a small scenario like this every move must count. Even though I did not want to use the German tanks for direct fire, in this turn I had to do so mainly to draw fire from the stacked up British behind the trench. Since they were digging in they will fire at ½ effectiveness. All the British units in the stack fired at my infantry now occupying the trench as my tanks rolled up in the hex and fired on the stack. This will prevent the British units from digging in now, since they fired in the defensive fire phase. Foul will have to decide if he will risk staying in the open with a large stack acting like a plug between the marshes and minefields to delay one more turn. Or will he pack up and occupy the 40 victory point hex and new delaying positions to the north to prevent me getting a good attack on the port of Gasrel Brega before time runs out? A lot will depend on if the British infantry that is disrupted will rally.
I could have stacked up all the German armor for one big assault on this stack of British infantry. The units digging in would be defending at ½ their normal strength. This would be a gamble with so many infantry in the hex. If I failed to dislodge them, my armor could end the turn all disrupted. That could end the game with such a tight time table for the Germans. It is too early for that type of chance to be taken. In retrospect, I should have held back the air strikes until now. The air attacks were very ineffective against the entrenched infantry and armored cars so far. Perhaps they could have fatigued the stack enough to make and armor assault work; maybe not. That will be for some one else to try.