During the fall of France the small French Motor Torpedo boat fleet (MTB) was used in the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk, those MTB's would then be scuttled or pressed into service with the Royal Navy.
The MTB's were used in patrols off of the coast of England during the skirmishes in preparation for Operation Sealion until their motors were taxed to their limit, spares for French Lorraine Engines were non-existent and the preparations were being made to replace them with Merlin engines only to be put back as the Axis invasion force hit the shores.
Following the British capitulation a part of the French terms was to have their ships returned as is, as well as a number of RN MTB's and MGB(Motor Gun boat)'s. Starting the war with a small fleet of MTB's, losing them and then gaining them back plus a number of additional vessels put France in an equal position in the Mediterranean with the Regia Marina.
War in the Med...
Following Italian declaration of war the respective battlefleets of faced one another across the Ligurian Sea, The French naval base at Toulon and the Italian naval base at Spezia were less them 350km from each other, Patrols by Destroyers, Seaplanes and Recon aircraft kept a constant watch on each others fleets, the fleets ready to sail out and intercept the other.
The need to concentrate the Battlefleets meant there was little in the way of Destroyer or Cruiser escorts for the Supply and Troop convoys headed to North Africa, the Burden fell on the small ship fleets.
The game started with the Rain card, which meant no Double movement this turn. Being unable to move the troops forward fast enough we both decided to reinforce rather than battle, the French played 'Reinforcements' and allowed them to bring 2 units back rather just the normal 1.Turn 3 gave us Fog, which we will play as a sand storm. The Italian pushed their reinforced Tank division across the sea escorted by a flotilla of MTB's whilst the French disguised their own flotilla.The Italians then dispatched their bombers to attack the Column of Tank reinforcements moving towards the fortifications, the French intercepted. The Scenario played was Escort duty.
The battle immediately devolved into a hairball around the surprisingly tough SM.79's.
The Hurricanes struggled to put decent shots on the Bombers whilst the 3 C.200's ducked in and out picking at the Hurricanes who though losses were equal the Hurricane wracked up many more Boom chits than the C.200's
The game ended with the Italians having lost 2 engines on 2 separate aircraft and the French disengaging with 6 boom chits turn 4.
The Italians flipped their disguised marker to reveal a tank unit which proceeded to assault the commercial district. The scenario we rolled for was 'Demolition' and with the fog situation card in play we're going to play the scenario alongside the Flare night fighting rules representing the fog ebb and flow.
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| Demolition scenario |
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| Flare scenario |
The Italian force was made up of 5 Italian L3 tanks with twin MMG's and a single Flamethrower tank, accompanying the tanks was some San Marco Marines Outflanking and 2x5 man squads of Italian infantry to hold our own objective.
The French deployed a large concentration of troops on the Italian right lead by an officer and supported by a medic and a Char1b tank. The Italians deployed 3 of their 5 tanks on the right to counter the French, the L3 tank was perfect for this scenario with it's twin MMG and a Flamethrower on one of them, for antitank duties I had a Light AT, AT Rifle and Flamethrower. Being a night fighting scenario I knew it wouldn't be hard to get the Flamethrower forward and when the Flare does go up the AT weapons will be able to put their pins on the Char tank. Outflanking on the LHS was 2 L3's and a Squad of San Marco marines (I took them for their outflank bonus), they were the objective assault force.
Turn 1 saw the French cautiously push forward, the Italians mostly go into overwatch or reposition so they can shoot. The Italians forward artillery observer also calls in a artillery barrage on the ridge line on the LHS in the photo below, marked by the blue marker.
Turn 2 - Flare! Daytime conditions
I roll a 2 for the artillery barrage, but due to night fighting it suffers a -1 and so the artillery dice scatters 3d6 in a random direction. Landing on the French side of the oasis the artillery strike kills the Medic, Lt and puts many pins on every unit in the area.
The previous activations were a see sawing battle between the Inexp. French infantry trying to assault the L3 tanks whilst they closed to machinegun the poor fellas stuck were they were from pins.
The Char1c tank then tried to Run down the board, only to get ambushed by the AT Rifle and Light AT gun, not doing any physical damage but accruing 2 pins.
On the Italian left the Veteran squad and regular squad pushed forward to occupy the ridge and attempt to assault the Forward observer team. The regular squad (which I mistook as veteran) was shot twice and too 2 pins.
Turn 3 and 4 - Darkness
The previous turn the Flamethrower team ran forward and attempted to set the tank alight by missed, turn 3 they closed within point blank range and managed to hit, they didn't cause any damage by the subsequent morale test was taken with 5 pins and the crew bailed fleeing in terror from the flames, the flamethrower didn't run out of fuel.
The Italian dice kept coming and the noose closed around the Regular French squad as the pins began to pour on.
The rest of the two turns the Italians mopped up the remaining French ending with the Flamethrower tank finally hitting something and killing off the last 5 French Veterans on the right flank.
The final act of turn 4 was to have the outflankers come onto the board, the San Marco Marines Failed their order test! The two L3's pushed on from the extreme flank at a run. The French veterans with AT Grenades ran to block or counter attack the objective.
Turn 5 - Flare!
The AT Rifle advanced, fired on the Running L3 and started a fire that the Italian crew were able to put out!
Then the French Veterans charged, getting two hits!
Then they rolled a 2 to damage, meaning the tank survived!
End of turn the L3 destroyed the objective, rolling to destroy the infantry survived and withdrew.
The end of Campaign turn 2, the Italians have secured most of the objectives and threatening the last on in Tunis.
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