Fox & The Rat: Day 3 Battle 3 - Breakthrough!

Location - Front line Western Desert, west of Benghazi, Libya

Tonkin’s mob had certainly cleared some channels mused Lieutenant Harbhajan Singh as he stared at the imposing line of fortified buildings beyond the minefield.  Speed was going to be critical otherwise his relatively small force was going to be stopped before it could even get going.  The multiple channels might give Jerry something to think about but they were too narrow for most of the vehicles with the squad.  

Section 1 were drawn up on the left hand side against the seemingly weaker German flank, along with Lieutenant Singh.  Section 2 were towards the centre along with the jeep borne MMG team and the support command team.  On the right, and through the largest breach in the mines was Sergeant Odeball in his M3 Stuart ‘Honey’ light tank.  This was against the strongest part of the enemy line.

The jeep and MMG team set off at quite a lick heading for the cover  large sand dune on the left flank overlooking the furthest building.  Meanwhile the Honey set off towards the strongest part of the line - Sgt. Oddball was fairly confident that Jerry didn’t have any 88’s hiding away.

What he hadn’t seen though was a Sdkfz222 cowering behind the buildings.  It broke cover to his right.  It was obviously trying to get in the rear of the Honey and try to take them out.  Odeball had the measure of the sneaky Hun and with devastating accuracy scored a direct hit stopping the weasel in it’s tracks.

Meanwhile the infantry set off, canalised though they were through the narrow channels.  On the right Section 1 made reasonable ground although concentrated fire put them under some pressure.  Section 2 though found it much harder going.  Their LMG team sprinted ahead but met forceful fire from many different locations and they were soon pinned down in a precarious position in front of the strongest part of the line.  Their rifle team fared little better moving up in support on their left but also stalling.  Section 1 had now deployed covering the centre and left building and the MMG team were atop the sand dune concentrating fire on the far left building.  This however had been reinforced by a DAK section having been transported across the back in a Kfz15.  The daredevil driver attempted the same manoeuvre, this time to pick up the MG42 holding the Hun left flank.  The Honey had the weasel in it’s sights between buildings and almost got the blighter as it sped along - a fine effort but bugger escaped unharmed dropping it’s deadly crew into the central building to put even more pressure on the Sikh

infantry.

The infantry push was grinding to a halt - the Hun were dug in and unleashing a hellish rain of fire.  The Honey pushed on right into the middle of the Jerry infantry forcing one group to flee backwards and then turned it’s attention to the central building where that craven MG42 had set up.

The front was stalemated with most of the Sikhs pinned down and Jerry unable to do much other than keep firing.

Night started to descend.  The Sikhs were in need of reinforcements  - they just had to kick the door in and watch the whole rotten edifice crash down around the DAK Ohrs!