Battleaxe

Another game played long enough ago I can't recall the date - early November I think. I forgot my camera so thanks to Chris for the loan of his. Resolution isn't quite as good as mine, hence the slightly smaller pics. Dave C & I played the Brits, Chris and Ian played the Germans. Nearly all of the kit and terrain was provided by Dave & Ian, but we were short of panzers so some of mine took to the table, they are the grey ones. Rommel's panzers did arrive in the desert grey but whether any were still grey by this time is debatable

Cruisers of 2nd RTR behind the ridge on the northern edge of the table

HQ 2nd RTR  lurks behind the line of cruisers

6th RTR's Crusader I's in the desert. Milicast closer, SHQ more distant

3 Troop B Squadron 11th Hussars - the most westerly British stand on the table

I Abt 6 Panzer Regiment and 3 Aufklärungs Abt ready to move east

SpPzWg lead the advance

7th Support Group in its positions behind the ridge to the east.

7th Support group HQ plans the up-coming battle

The Germans push east towards the wire

On the Germans left flank a company of panzers advances to take on the mighty Marmon Herrington - which promptly succumbs to a hail of 50mm fire

A Coy 1st Bttn KRRC advances to cover one of the gaps in the wire

A rather blurry panorama of the opening moves. Notice 6th RTR has moved across the front of the panzers and dived behind the ridgeline to the north

A clearer shot from the north looking south. The British rather a-historically moved to concentrate their tanks. They slightly outnumber the Germans but the German crews are much better.

The Luftwaffe arrives and bombs a British 25pdr, blowing it to bits

The remaining 25pdr in the battery didn't last long after the Stuka had departed. In the open it was an artillery magnet and it soon succumbed to 105mm bombardment.

The crusaders redeploy on the ridge as the German panzers swing round to face them. A Coy 1st Bttn KRRC deploy to defend the gap in the wire. The British pan was to shoot and scoot trying to prevent the Germans from concentrating against them and gradually falling back towards the 2pdr portees on the ridge the other side of the wire.

German panzers advance towards the Crusaders on the ridge

The position on the ridge is turned by the Germans so the British start their planned retreat

On the German right, un-opposed by the British armour the 3 Aufklärungs Abt advances rapidly and passes through Gap 46. This is weakly defended by an infantry company and a Bofors. nether of which lasts long

B Coy 1st Bttn KRRC awaits the German recce

II Abt 5 Panzer Regiment enters the battle. Up to this point things hadn't been going too badly for the Brits. They had been helped by some very poor German morale rolls. Now the second wave of panzers was on board the British were decidedly outnumbered and well as being on the back foot quality wise

The recce platoons of the panzer battalions were merged into an ad-hoc company and rushed to support 3 Aufklärungs Abt at Gap 46

The Crusaders of 6th RTR that had been pulled back from the ridge turned to confront 3 Aufklärungs Abt. The 20mm on the SdKfz-222 is dangerous to a Crusader but this was clearly an un-even fight. Still the Germans were rapidly approaching Gap 45 and the Crusaders would eventually have to turn to face them

2nd RTR pull back behind the wire bowing to German pressure

 The German's morale dice let them down again and a number of Panzers went shaken. After polishing off the SdKfz-222 6th RTR made a brief sally to the depths of the desert in an effort to ensure that the panzers stayed broken.

The Crusaders back from their sally, crunched an unwary Pak under their tracks on their way. Crusaders are fast and the Germans were caught out a couple of times by their speed

As the battle entered its final phase the Germans only had a company of panzers under command and mobile. However the British were hurting too and were down to 5 tanks. All bar this pinned A10 of 2nd RTR and a single pinned Crusader, had retreated behind the row of portees on the ridge. Soon after this pic was taken the A10 was riddled with 50mm shot, leaving four Brit tanks left alive.

The crusader stranded the wrong side of the wire would soon be shot down too.

The victory conditions meant that the British could only win if their tanks were out in the desert. So the three remaining British cruisers had to dart from behind the cover of the portees. Needless to say they did it as far from the panzers as possible. All they needed to do was survive to win

The panzers pursued them, though fire from the 2pdr on the ridge was beginning to tell

The German high tide, out of time

A British victory. Id like to say it was superior play (I was running the British tanks) but the Germans had awful morale dice which conspicuously contributed to the Allied victory. With a few better rolls I suspect the Germans would have overrun the cruisers entirely. It was  a much better game than I anticipated lots on manoeuvre and violence

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