January-March 1941

Our North African Campaign is meant to be easy-going. We hope for two to three large weekend games plus several smaller weeknight games annually. Up to January 1941 combat raged across northwest Egypt. There were battles for boxes and wide turning movements.

Initial Italian advances east of their boxes at Sidi Barani in northwest Egypt met with repulses deeper into Egypt. The British for their part were unable to dislodge the Italians from Egypt. A record of these tabletop back and forth battles may be found in 2011 and 2012 postings.

Meanwhile, due to exhaustion and historical supply problems it was decided to have the Italians fall back to Sidi Barani with the British in an equally exhausted condition  following and watching nearby.

It has been understandably difficult to schedule weekend games in recent months. Therefore, in order to advance our story a little and because Jim and I wanted to throw our new Australians at Bardia as they actually did in January 1941, the following happened without moving a miniature or throwing dice. In consultation with Italian CinC Todd B., Michael M. and trial balloons sent up here and there, our story continues thusly:

The Italians elected to withdraw closer to their supply bases in Libya.

The British followed. 

As the withdrawal continued the 4th Indian Division followed up the coast road whilst 7th Armoured swung wide into the desert hoping to cut off the retreat. This failed.

The Italian I Corps withdrew into the defenses of Fortress Bardia. 7th Armoured continued to swing wide. 4th Indian was replaced by the 6th Australian Division. Two weeks ago we played a game with the 6th Australians successfully breaching the defenses at Bardia. I thought it could be added into the campaign. Bardia fell to the Western Desert Force.

Meanwhile, Rommel's leading elements of the 5th Light Division began landing at Tobruk where there are other Italian formations.

Why Tobruk? Historically Rommel began landing at Tripoli far to the west. The reason was because most of Libya had been historically lost. Not so in our campaign. In our case, the 5th Light lands at Tobruk because most of Libya is still in Italian control.

What's next? Not sure. However, it might be logical to have a small weeknight battle or two with the 5th Light engaging the British in the next two months.

Axis Participants
Todd B: Italian CinC
Michael M: Italian 2nd In Command
Chris K: Italian sub-commander usually
Chuck L: German CinC

Commonwealth Participants
Bill P: Armour usually
Jim H: Infantry usually

Floating Participants
George R.
Dan E.
Morgan E.
Nick K.
Don D.
And Others
-------------------
Comments anyone? Especially the participants.
--------------------