[AAR Pz Campaigns:Alamein '42] The Fight for Derna, 1941. (Compass '40 Mod)

[Halsey74]

CHAPTER 2
January 24, 1941

A- The Coastal Highway
When the first lights appeared, Brigadier Russell realized that his forces had hit an enemy fortified line behind a dry wadi, which had already been penetrated inadvertently before nightfall.
Undaunted, the British proceeded to clear the minefields with the intention of opening a consistent breach and emplacing a battery of 12 25-inch guns.
Reinforcements in the form of the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Australian Infantry approached from the rear.





For their part, the Italian forces tried to take advantage of these first lights to recover lost positions and prevent the work of the engineers, for which they abandoned their trenches and advanced. Seeing the enemy coming against them, the British reinforced positions with a company of tanks and another of machine guns that inflicted the enemy a severe punishment, the Italian infantry was stuck in a small grove on the banks of the wadi.
Soon they received reinforcements and the shooting intensified with casualties on both sides, the most northern armored company meanwhile began to suffer an artillery bombardment that disabled a pair of Mark VI wagons.


[i]The Italian infantry resisted until Russell employed the Mark VI tanks.[/i]


[i]At 10:00 a.m. they fought furiously at the breach of the Italian line, but the transalpine soldiers were losing .[/i]

The fighting was fierce and lasted all morning, an important factor was that the 25-inch battery was placed at 12H and began to beat the enemy infantry units, by two in the afternoon the resistance of the Italians began to weaken, and when four o'clock came they were retreating in complete disorder.


When the 25-inch guns were deployed, the enemy suffered severe punishment.


[i]Situation at nightfall[/i]

[i][u]B- The Mechili trail[/u][/i]



After holding positions all night, at 0600H the first lights of dawn brought to the fourth brigade the noise of multiple engines running.
The Italians had recovered from the previous day's blow and were advancing their tanks on a four kilometer front; the air reconnaissance notified enemy infantry marching a few kilometers behind their armored. The first encounter took place north of the road against the 4th of Husares and again the Italians managed to destroy five Rolls Royce vehicles against two of their own casualties
Caunter opted for prudence and began a tactical retreat without turning his back on the enemy, the Cruisers managed to ambush and destroy another seven enemy armored vehicles while slowly retreating, this time the M13-40 enjoyed better marksmanship and the British lost three of their tanks.


[i]The Rolls Royce of the 4th Husar retreats at full speed.[/i]

By 10 a.m. the Cruisers, who were bearing the full weight of the combat, were already short of armor-piercing shells and fatigue and disorganization were beginning to set in in the 2nd Regiment, which caused the orderly retreat to turn into an increasingly rapid disband... 
In view of this, Caunter decided to support the Cruisers with the Mark VI, these entered combat from 12 noon and lost three cars in less than an hour, against an Italian car out of combat. But they provided a necessary respite to the 2nd Regiment.
Around this time a squadron of RAF Hurricanes also intervened, but their attack was practically ineffective.
Evidently the fighting in the Derna zone was not responding to that usual tone during Operation Compass of thousands of Italians surrendering en masse.


[i][i]The Cruisers of the 2nd Royal Regiment bore the brunt of the combat on the Mechili road on the 24th, inflicting severe losses on the Italian armored group despite being short of AP ammunition[/i][/i]


[i]Situation at 4:00 p.m., after bloody fighting, the 4th Brigade lost half of the ground it had gained the previous day.[/i]

The Italians stopped their advance at nightfall and the British were finally able to rest after a hard day of tension. On the improvised bivouacs, exhausted, sweaty men, with eyes reddened by sand and cordite, came out of their tanks, covered themselves with a blanket on the rough ground and fell asleep like stones, while those who could not sleep wondered with apprehension how the day would be to come or if they would remain alive at the next sunset.


[i][i]Eating dinner after a long day of fighting[/i][/i]