Fox & The Rat: Day 10 - Kleiner Flugplatz 'zwei'

 0200 hours 19/10/1942

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

Roster: Acting Lieutenant Stirling

Sergeant Sadler

Troopers Carstairs; Walker; Crabtree; Flashman

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

Sub unit of L Detachment led byA/Lt. Stirling - promoted in the field as a result of the heroics of both Cpt. Mayne and Lt. Tonkin seeing them in the bag - charged with attacking an isolated airstrip and attendant aviation fuel.  This was the second party L Detachment had gone to at this particular venue.  First time, a few days earlier, Sgt. Almonds had managed to destroy a fuel truck but was injured before attacking the grounded Stukas.  Lt. Tonkins had bravely picked up the mantle but was seriously hurt taking out one of Jerry’s vicious attack ‘Hunds’ and both had ended up captured for their efforts.  A/Lt. Stirling - having debriefed the team who had managed to scramble back to the lines - thought he’d devised a more solid plan although it was still going to be a very tough nut to crack indeed!

Intelligence indicated there was a small airstrip servicing an unknown number of Stukas guarded by a mixture of DAK Gendarmerie and sentries plus reserves of aviation fuel.  Objective was simple - to destroy as many aircraft, fuel facilities and auxiliary vehicles as possible.

L Detachment approached from the north-east.  The demo charges were allocated to A/Lt. Stirling himself and Sgt. Sadler.  They both approached the perimeter from a north-east/east direction - there were two aircraft hangers on this axis with Stukas at the far end of both.  Beyond these, in the centre of the compound, was a fuel truck.  Stirling and Sadler would be supported by Troopers Crabtree & Flashman while Carstairs and Walker would approach from a north/north-east route to act as a diversion and provide support.

Crabtree & Flasman moved into position at the outer edge of the first hanger before Stirling and Sadler moved up to join them.  Stirling weaved his way to the rear of the Stuka in Hangar 1 while Sadler positioned himself to make a similar move against the Stuka in hangar 2, although this was was further into the compound and more tricky to get to.  Ideally they would synchronise their explosions however Stirling was in position too quickly and waiting in situ while the Hun were on their patrol was a risky business - perhaps it would be better to blow the first kite and rely on the confusion to attack the second - the fuel truck would probably be a bridge too far……  

An improvised plan but not an unreasonable one.

Stirling carefully primed and placed the demo charges at the base of the tail section of the Stuka………..but disaster.  The fuse was faulty and detonated immediately.  The blast knocking Stirling off his feet and backwards onto the dust floor.  Alas he was to play no further part in the mission and went into the bag.  He later reflected it could have been worse, much worse.

That was it, the Bosch were fully alerted now and Sadler was still some distance from his quarry.  He did his best to skirt the edge of the hangar but there was a sentry in his path - he gave a burst from his Thompson but unbelievably he missed!  A DAK sergeant was bearing down on him from the other side of the hangar.  This was it……Sadler launched himself at the obstructing sentry with just cold hard steel and despatched him, auf wiedersehen Fritz, but the sergeant now caught him out in the open and cut him down with his SMG.  This was the first fatality suffered by L Detachment.  It wouldn’t be the last.

Carstairs and Walker were covering the north side of the perimeter and a couple of DAK sentries sent out a speculative burst, more in fear than intent following the explosion, but this caught Walker and he slumped beside Carstairs.  He was bound for the Elysian Fields.

This was the signal for the rest of the group to melt back into the desert night.  What had started as a well planned operation had turned quickly into something of a disaster for L Detachment.  Damn their cursed luck.  Goodnight Sgt. Sadler and Pte. Walker.  Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori…..or is it?

Test of Honour: The Battlefield

The third of our Test of Honour games saw my Mori Samurai once again face off against Stu's Monks.

This time we met after a larger engagement and needed to search the fallen for a family member. This involved rolling against our Wits to search an objective.

Both sides had two easily reached objectives which we successfully searched on the first attempt and then focus turned to wards the central objective. It would probably have been more sensible to have three objectives across the middle but having one guaranteed a big fight in the middle.  

My chaps spent the first few rounds of combat critically failing and stabbing themselves to cause light wounds, not the best of starts. But I did manage to keep models within 3" of the objective which stopped the Monks from being able to search it.

We then had a grinding fight in the middle with the Monks generally rolling better so they wore down my companions and Ashigaru until it was just my hero left.

He did manage to rouse himself to cut down his opposite number and the Monks also lost their higher Wits companion which was to prove all important.

Despite my hero eventually dying the Monks couldn't pass a Wits test to secure the last needed token so the game ended in a draw with honours mostly even.

Fox & The Rat: Day 10: The A/T Gun

Lieutenant Flick peered nervously into the darkness ahead, his first mission in charge and at last a chance to show his men and himself what he was made of. Lt. Gruber had been covering himself in glory but had been captured attempting the very same mission that lay in front of Flick. With Sgft. Klinkerhoffen injured Flick had chosen Sgt Strohm to accompany him along with the experienced Schafer, Geerhart & Grosse.

The position looked lightly defended so the enemy had surely lowered his guard after the failed attack by Gruber, this bodied well for Flick. His plan was to make a bold advance with Strohm advancing from a different direction whilst the rest of the men provided covering fire. Once the firing started he would make straight for the gun whatever the risk.

He crept forwards and had reached the edge of the enemy lines undetected when Strohm encountered an enemy dog patrol. Strohm did not hesitate to open fire and two quick bursts of fire cut the enemy down. As Flick took cover behind some boxes the enemy started to respond to the automatic gun fire and actively look for targets.

Tense moments passed and Strohm was joined by the machine gun fire of Geerhart in engaging the enemy as they appeared near the target gun. This had the effect of drawing the enemy across Flick's position and eyes off of him. Schafer also joined in the fun with a single shot ringing out in the darkness to fell the defenders leading officer.

Spotting his chance Flick leapt forwards and in one well practiced motion placed the timed charge and kept moving. His actions drew some fire from the enemy but darting from cover to cover he evaded their attentions and kept moving back towards safety.

Flush with success Flick signalled his men to retreat and with a few shots fired to keep the defenders heads down they retreated into the night just as the charge detonated and the A/T gun was put out of action.

With this mission complete the road to Benghazi became less defended and the attack more likely to succeed. 

Sengoku Japanese: Yamashiro Fortification

It's not just an Englishman's home who's his castle, sometimes it's a Samurai as well.

I do like a castle and whilst the large sprawling castles of this period aren't going to be useful in Test of Honour for me a smaller more modest construction will be. I got this one from Oshiro Models and as I described earlier I was lucky to have James who runs the show reach out and help me make my vision a reality. 

It has taken me a little while to get around to this one but having painted up the village (also from James) very recently I had a scheme to work with and it all came together over a week. It's not the best or neatest paint-job but I think produces a good overall effect for the table.

I did make two additions to the original model for the tower, both 3D printed. Firstly I added a piece to the bottom of the big roof section to make it sit snuggly on top of the bottom floor. 

The original model is designed to have some banisters around the top most tower, which look great but stop you putting any based models at the top. So I designed a quick tower caddy to pop the top most piece in to give space to put models on. Again, with this one I put a piece underneath to sit inside the lower room and aid stability. 

Now it's ready to repel raiders or perhaps be a vantage point for sneaky Ninja's!

Fox & The Rat: Day 9 Battle 2 - The Race

It was all over, the British hopes of reaching Benghazi were in tatters.  Lieutenant Singh was distraught - his brave Punjabi boys had been massacred and yet here he still was and not a scratch on him.

There was a small fuel dump just off a rudimentary road.  Up the road was a basic hut with a well inside a type of courtyard.  Initially it looked like the British had come up trumps - they could replenish their dwindling water and ‘liberate’ well-needed fuel supplies.  Before they could get too excited though they could hear the low groan of DAK armour and see the clouds of dust showing that Jerry had the same idea and wasn’t going to let them stroll in and take it.  An SDKFZ-250 complete with an infantry section rumbled into view and was then lost again behind the building.  A truck emerged and disgorged another section near to the fuel while Lieutenant Singh sent one of his own sections to contest this.  He brought up his medium mortar behind a sand dune to give covering fire.

His own ‘armour’ - a Humber MkII from the recce squadron supported the infantry by the fuel dump while his second infantry section were going to try and probe the centre.  The Hun brought up a recce squad in a Kubelwagon ahead of the well on the British left and Lieutenant Singh would send his jeep borne medium machine team to deal with them when they eventually turned up - where the blasted damn were they?

The Royal Artillery did their best to help the Sikhs but on this occasion they were a little off the mark and Jerry pushed on unperturbed.  The British centre section soon took a hell of a battering from the Jerry’s in and around the courtyard by the well, the recce team and the half-track moving up on their flank.  The British mortar and the MMG when it got set up damaged the recce team but it was not enough to redress the balance.  Meanwhile by the fuel dump lieutenant Singh thought his men had the Hun when the Humber moved up on the flank of an LMG team but couldn’t make it count and return fire from these and some other infantry scurrying about in the palms did for the Sikh’s own LMG team and they were cut down.  The only ‘consolation’ was the medium A/T gun brought up by Jerry to deal with the Humber was as ineffectual as the scout car.

The Humber wasn’t going to hang around to see if they got any better and set off to support what was left of the infantry in the centre.  The SDKFZ had moved out of sight to avoid this and a forlorn attempt by the HQ squad to attack the half-track with grenades was a failure although they didn’t sustain any casualties which was reward for their foolhardy courage.

The game was up.  Jerry had the fuel and the water.  Lieutenant Singh and what was left of his force had to beat a hasty retreat and try to extricate as many of their fallen comrades as possible.    

Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Ride Forth

Here are the first unit (of two) Shimazu cavalry completed for the army and ready to ride down their foes. As always these are Fireforge miniatures models who have a great plastic kit to work with.

I've also been busy putting some artillery together for both sides and they have joined the painting queue which for the battlefield armies is now growing reasonably short.

I've also painted up another Test of Honour model, the Geisha Spy. She may (or may not) be featuring in a scenario in the near future.