Fox & The Rat: Day 11 - Fuel Dump

 0200 hours 20/10/1942

Location - Western Desert; Undisclosed location west of Benghazi, Libya

Roster: Acting Lieutenant Seekings

Acting Sergeant Pike 

Troopers Carstairs; Flashman; Crabtree; Godfrey; Cooper; & McGonigal

Light cloud, waxing gibbous moon, light winds.  Unknown number and quality of DAK sentries.

Sub unit of L Detachment led byA/Lt. Seekings - promoted in the field following the capture of A/Lt. Stirling the previous day -  charged with attacking a fuel and ammunition storage dump.  

The Bosch had launched one unsuccessful attack on Bengazi the previous day and although it was repulsed by dogged Indian Army defenders it would be only a matter of time - a short time - before the Hun tried again with greater intensity no doubt.  This location had been chosen as the ideal way to strike back at Jerry and perhaps throw a spanner in the planning for another attack.  Without the fuel and ammunition to support their attack they’d be forced to regroup and buy the British some time for their own push on Tripoli and give Rommel something else to think about.

The somewhat denuded L Detachment approached from the north-east and north-west in two groups as the targets were spread throughout the compound.  A/Lt. Seekings along with Cooper, Crabtree and Godfrey came from the north-east while the A/Sgt. Pike and McGonigal, Carstairs and Flashman came from the north-west.  The demo charges were allocated to A/Lt. Seekings and A/Sgt. Pike.

The approach of Seekings and Pike was straight out the text book - both took their time to ensure the alarm wasn’t raised prematurely.  This was reinforced by the others taking up positions in cover to support their withdrawal.  Both got to the perimeter - Seekings almost came undone going over the barbed wire but whatever noise he made wasn’t picked up by the sentry.  Pike was using a large oil tank to cover his breach of the perimeter - the intel was this was not in use and could be discounted.  The difficulty now was the sentries milling around by the fuel storage tanks they were aiming for.

Seekings saw his chance - a couple of Goons wandered past him lurking in the shadow of a pill box and a dog handler was still some distance away - Seekings ‘Threaded the Needle’ and got to the large fuel tank.  But……as he laid the charge the damned thing went off immediately - this had happened the day before at the airfield.  A bad batch of charges, someone’s for it!  Luckily Seekings was unharmed - miraculously - but all hell was let loose.  Still that was one target down.

This was the cue for Pike to go.  There were still two DAK sentries between his cover and the jerry cans awash with fuel.  Desperate times and all that thought Pike.  He loosed his SMG and dropped the first sentry whose komrade was now panicked so Pike rushed forward and used his knife to devastating effect to despatch the second.  He was within touching distance of blowing this lot back to Berlin but…..crack!  The onrushing reserves had spotted Pike fumbling in his satchel for the charges and a lucky shot spun him round and down.  He was a goner…..

Seekings had it all to do.  Cooper, McGonigal, Carstairs and Flashman were now laying down covering fire on the perimeter and took out a couple of overly nosey Jerry sentries.  Seekings was now having to move towards a large number of crates of ammo which were further in the compound and so towards the Bosch reinforcements.  But what he’d assumed had been crated ammo were just tinned sauerkraut and the ammo was a few meters further away.  This was just too far for Seekings who was ripped up by a cowardly DAK officer who shot him in the back - no way for such a man to die. 

This was the signal for the rest of L Detachment to abandon their colleagues.  It had been a costly couple of days for these troops and they could ill afford to lose anyone else so training kicked in and emotion was left, for the time being, at the perimeter of this god-awful Jerry depot. 

Sengoku Japanese: Onna-bugeisha

Among the extra metal models I purchased are several packs of Onna-musha / Onna-bugeisha from Bad Squiddo ga,es. They have a large range of realistic female warriors across several periods of war.

These are high born Japanese ladies who have been schooled in the arts of war, often for home defence but sometimes they also took part in offensive operations. 

These lady Samurai are generally associated with the Naginata so I have a few of those and then plenty armed with Katanas.

They do have stats in Test of Honour and generally have a higher agility (better at dodging) than your average man.

Sengoku Japanese: Village Life

It's not that common for me to paint up civilians for a period we are playing but during the purchasing phase of the project I go slightly excited and ordered some Perry models to add some character to the table. They have a few packs of village / towns people and some farm workers.

These are the village and towns people packs with the farm workers to come in the near future. We have another game of Test of Honour lined up so these fine people will no doubt hit the table soon.

Sengoku Japanese: Ready for Big Battles

A big week in the progress for my Japanese armies as I completed the last of the models required for the big battles. These have pretty much all been from the Fireforge Games range of models with the very occasional metal miniature added in. I started these back in August so it's been a decent length of time I've been painting these up and I'm still enjoying getting paint on them.

So off the bench this week are the artillery pieces for each side, using Fireforge chaps as crew and a 3d print I found.

We also have the last of the cavalry for the Shimazu clan forces including three mounted commanders. I've made one up with a head and arms from the Sohei box to make up a mounted monk commander. I'm not sure the armies really needed any extra colour, but I've done it anyway!

So that's the bulk of the painting done now, 300+ plastic Samurai, Ashigaru, and Monks ready to fight a big battle. Never Mind the Naginata's hasn't been released yet but Billhooks the rules they are based off will fill the gap until they are.

The Shimazu forces:

Both Clans:

The Mori Clan:

I still have about 30 metal miniatures I picked up to paint and some terrain so it will be a while before this project is complete.

Fox & The Rat: Day 11, The Final Assault?

Capt. Rohrstock shook his head in shock and disbelief as him men trudged back past him off the field of battle. Benghazi had been within his grasp but instead of victory fate had dealt him a stinging defeat. 

The battle had started well enough with his advance guard seeming catching the enemy unaware and short of men, though well dug in. He decided to concentrate his efforts on one side of the enemy perimeter and try to use superior German firepower to blow them out of their defences. 

His men had poured a withering fire into the enemy but their deep defences had protected them from any serious harm and the fire coming back from the enemy lines had been unusually accurate. So accurate in fact that the machine gun team of no. 3 section was cut down to the man.

But the assault pressed ahead and no. 2 section braved the fire of a newly arrived Sikh 6pdr to launch a bayonet charge which sent one defending team flying backwards. This however exposed them to a withering return fire from the defenders.

His battle hardened men kept at their task even though the enemy Vickers was causing havoc in their ranks and indedd the rest of no. 3 section eventually gave their lives trying to oust the enemy from his position.

The concentrated fire of the two remaining sections did eventually cause a second Sikh unit to abandon it's defences but it was all too late. His own men had largely become exhausted from their efforts and Capt. Rohrstock reluctantly called off the attack rather than push them over the edge. He would need to think of a better way to oust the defenders of Benghazi, or come back with overwhelming force.