"Squad Level 1948 Arab Israeli War" Topic

Does anyone game the 1948 Arab Israeli war? It seems like it could be interesting for small unit actions, and I could leverage my WWII Desert Rats and my Arabs, who usually fight the French Foreign Legion. Or, as they say, is it "Too Soon".

Too soon terms of it took place in living memory? I don't think so. Far more recent conflicts than that have been games. I've played all the Arab Israeli wars as boardgames.

check out this board game of the war it may help with some scenarios.

link

I've wondered about this, too. As you say, you get to use your WWII figures and, as an added bonus, you get an eclectic mix of equipment, with German and British equipment working side by side.

At least in the United States, most of the sources are Israeli. A peculiarity of these sources is that Israeli officers or enlisted mentioned by name will make it through the story, while "the platoon commander" or "the 1st sergeant" will end up dead.

A lot of equipment, like armored buses or trucks (lorries), was improvised: SCW lines might carry these, but you may end up scratch building them.

You get a wide variety of possible scenarios from jeep commando ops in wide open terrain to the Arab Legion blasting their way from one building to the next in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Movies: Cast a Giant Shadow about an American officer put in charge on the Jerusalem front or Exodus.

Grelber

The SOTCW Journal published a mini campaign by Chris Stroesen, you should be able to get back issues via Wargames Vault or maybe Chris sells the pack himself?

I actually designed an ASL scenario for '48 titled 'Yad Mordechai' in which a much larger Egyptian force attacks a kibbutz held by settlers. Here's a link:

link

It gives you the map layout and OoB.

I think it can easily be doable just using Brits as Israelis and Soviets as Egyptians.

In 1948, wouldn't it be more like Brits as Egyptians and partisans as Israelis?

Rob

Katzbalger +1. I also plan to use British Commandos for Israelis. The knit cap appears to have been worn widely, along with berets and bare heads.

The idea of an outnumbered rag-tag Israeli militia defeating better organized and equipped Arab forces is a myth that the Israelis like to perpetuate. In reality, the Israelis were well-organized, well led (by British-trained officers), pretty well equipped (soon very well equipped) and actually not badly outnumbered. Of the Arab forces, only the Jordanian Army was much good and they only came in at the very end.

This reminds me of the old joke, in this case, Russians vs. Finns, so hopefully no one will be offended: A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: "One Finnish soldier is better than ten Russian". The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence.

The voice once again calls out: "One Finn is better than one hundred Russians."

Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again silence. The calm Finnish voice calls out again: "One Finn is better than one thousand Russians!"

The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the
other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought…. Then silence.

Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander, "Don't send any more men……it's a trap. There are two of them!"

On second thought, don't use it.