Attack Tabrooken (the German perspective) - 2 April 2011

Somewhere in the desert December 1942 again my fox cubs have tracked down those English Tommies. They have decided to hideaway in a small hillside town of Tabrukan.They think they are safe in their little hideaway but we have ways to make them runaway.

We quickly make a recce of their positions, this should be quite easy, I will attack their strongest position, then when they weaken their other flank I will strike there.

As you can see the centre is very strong, with Mine fields to the centre and this backed up by tank pits. So the strongest position is the left hand side. Here I will attack first.

At the start of the game I call in my 150mm guns and target the biggest gun position, this has no effect so I now decide to bring my troops on, I have 4 commands. 51units in all.

• My first move was to see me attempt to bring all 4 commands on but one failed, this was because their briefing took a little longer as they were stock piling shells. Anyway Command 1 just came on and held their ground apart from the IG shelling one of the pommies gun emplacements. The second command came on but were very slow as they didn’t have trucks for the infantry. The 3^rd command cam on and immediately started to charge down the left flank, moving twice until their dice role failed. The Tiger moved just once then started blasting the 2Ider. Just the one hit, remember you need a 6 to hit in an emplacement & 6 to stagger. 4^th command failed to come on. FAO decided to bring the air strike in with both Stukas with 5 commands & air defence firing, both Stukas were shot down, how lucky can James be!!!!!!

• Move 2 Next I decided to use the FOA from command 2 to rain shells down on the Tommies, after 3 salvoes the dice failed, this left the 2Ider and the 6Ilder with both having 2 hits each, The 2nd command moved forward very slowly as they hadn’t the trucks. Command 1 raced forward with trucks and half tracks while the IG 150mm started firing on the infantry on the left. Command 3 again succeeded in moving 3 times and is now racing down the left flank and the Tiger has started taking a liking to the Grant in its pit, Twice the Tiger has 2 hits, which takes care of the Grant. But James decides to Bring his FAO into the action but with very little success, the first go misses all the vehicles but the second salvo manes to destroy 1 half track and the engineers and also inflicts 2 casualties on the FOA & the command unit.

This was the high point in the game for the FAO as after this he failed time after time to achieve anything, actually he was bloody useless on that motorcycle. By now the 4^th Command had arrived, moved once and then started opening up on the 2 pdr pit, creating 2 more casualties.

• Move 3 James uses his FAO to no effect but opens up on my infantry in command 4, which leaves 2 casualties, gaining good shooting practice from this he then bounced a shell off one of the half tracks in Command one before destroying a truck full of infantry. Mindful of the need to keep my infantry fresh I decided to reek revenge after firstly calling back the trucks and infantry. Command 1 the IG 150mm carried shelling the infantry, the FAO from command 4 moved forward to get a better sighting of the Tommies position and then brought the rain, salvo after salvo now came their way, actually 4 salvos from this FAO, Command 3 FAO brought another 2 salvos and the Brits lost both the 2dr & the 6pdr. The trucks and halftracks of this command were getting ever closer to the Brits flank.

• Move 4 Corporal James again request his FAO do something and again this failed, the only option was to get the HQ to order the barrage and for the last time my Foxes took some damage 2 hits to a half track, 1 of which was saved, 2 hits to both the command and the FAO and 1 hit to Captain Henchels Panzer III. This action has stalled the attack on the left flank. So again the FAO now only 80yards from the Tommy infantry, brings more rain, being so close you can select with some impunity.
• and this he does and the infantry of Pom land start to take casualties including killing one Tank commander. Command 4 has now moved up onto a small plato, then succeeds in firing as the next move, they open fire with 3 mortars which means they roll 9 dice and again the Tommys take more casualties.

• Move 5 Corporal James requests more artillery barrages but again the FAO fails he is now being chased down by Captain Henchel in the Panzer III, The Tommys take the decision to move the infantry on their left flank but they seem to scared to move and refuse the order. To further support their right flank the Tommys move some of the tanks out of their pits and bring then round to the right. One Grant actually fires on more trucks and this fails .Command 4 Fao brings more rain twice, this takes out the Bofors, 1 Valentine tank & also kills and infantry commander. Command 1 now decides to race forward and succeeds in moving 4 moves which takes it to 400 meters before the barbed wire. Command 3 keeps shelling the Tommys with Mortars and now the infantry are all on 3 kills. The 88 now opens up on the other Valentine which has just shown too much metal and this receives 2 damage. Command 4 dismounts their trucks and are moving into contact with the Brits who open up with opportunity fire, this brings 2 casualties but doesn’t stop them. The Tiger now opens up on the Valentine and blasts it to kingdom come.

• Move 6 The Brits FAO has now been caught by Captain Henchel, a new commander has just arrived but his CV is down to 6. The have very little left and are just hanging on. My brave boys now use their FAO again and he has never failed, and again brings the rain on the brits, who incidentally their CO positioned them selves in the town, a cowards way of fighting. Now the brits were down to just one infantry unit fighting in hand to hand with Obenstropendfurers troops.

• Move 7 The Brits have very little left on their right, one infantry unit and 2 command units are still alive, their left is still untouched and they haven’t moved to support their own, they are such cowards. Obenstropendfurers men are now in hand to hand fighting with the remaining Tommy infantry and 3^rd commands tanks are now going through the wire, command 1 has again triple moved and are now over the barbed wire and right at the end of the round the last Brit infantry is finally destroyed, this breaks the British shambles of a force.

Foxes lost just

• 2 trucks
• 2 infantry
• 1 engineer group
• 1 half track
• 2 Stukas

Tommy scum.

• 5 Tanks
• 5 Infantry
• 2 commanders
• 1 AA Artillery
• 2 Anti tank guns

• First command is made up of 4 Regular infantry and their trucks. 1 PanzerII ig 150mm 2 engineers and their half tracks.
• 2^nd Command 1 FAO 4 Regular Infantry no trucks 1 Panzer ig 150mm 1 engineer & truck.
• 3^rd Command, This I made as my strike force. 1 FAO 4 veteran infantry 2 PanzerIIIs 1 Tiger 1 engineer + half track.
• 4^th Command 1 FAO 1 88 Flak 3 81mm Mortars 1 Panzer IG 150mm + 1 truck.

This was a great game, we both found that having an objective worked very well and there are really good tactics to take away from this.