All,
1630 Local Time
25 November 1942
Near Chouigoui, French Tunisia
Following Blade Force's successful advance to, and capture of, Chouigoui Pass, they were quite keen on pressing their advance to the east. The combined German and Italian forces in Tunisia were spread out and, because most forces in North Africa were in the east, countering the British 8th Army's advance across Libya, had its hands full simply holding open the lines of communication, largely due to the ambiguity of the situation with the Vichy-French forces in the area following the combined British-American amphibious landings in French Morocco and Algeria. With Axis forces in Tunisia thus weakened, the opportunity for the Allies in the west to seize Bizerte and Tunis was quite real, and so they continued pushing east.
British infantry of the 5th Northamptonshires quickly seized the town of Tebourba, as armored elements continued pushing east to the Medjerda River and the town of Djedeida beyond.
Overview, north is up. The River Medjerda runs north-south down the middle of the table, with various settlements spread across the area, a small oasis just west (left) of the river, with rocky outcroppings and hills dotting the landscape. Most importantly, there are two road bridges spanning the river, one in the north and one in the south.
You can see the lead elements of the American force entering the table at far left and bottom left, while the Germans are in three separate elements. Two motorcycle squads and an armored car are at/near the north bridge, two motorcycle squads are at the south bridge, with their supporting armored car further back (bottom right), and the German outpost is dug into trenches between the two bridges (center right).
The outpost position isn't bad in and of itself, but they don't have any organic anti-armor capability to reach out and halt the Allied advance. Having said that, they don't have any real AT capability to speak of, which is quite representative (at least as far as I was able to find, mostly descriptions of the US force 'surprising light reconnaissance elements at the bridge') of what happened in real life, except in real life the Yanks didn't have any infantry with them (in the last fight, either).
The opposing forces, with Yanks on the left and Germans on the right. The Yanks have an Armored Infantry Platoon supported by reduced platoons of Scout Cars and Light Tanks, with an attached 37mm ATG, while the Germans have a rifle platoon (+/-) and a reconnaissance platoon.
Conceptually, the Germans have a small outpost in the area, babysitting the bridges, and they're being visited by some light reconnaissance elements passing through from further east, on their way west to identify exactly where the new front line in Tunisia is, while Blade Force is pushing east, hoping to secure a bridge to support its thrust towards Djedeida on their way to Tunis.
The Americans advance (bottom center/right and far left) on the bridges.
US light armor has knocked out several German recon units and, shrugging off small arms and machine gun fire, rushes the southern bridge. But just when everything appears to be going the Yanks' way…
The dreaded Stukas pounce!
To deadly effect!
Nonplussed, the determined GIs fling themselves across the southern bridge.
While a lone Stuart, a survivor of BOTH German air attacks (yep, there was another one!), rockets across the north bridge (top right, from far left), intent on rolling up the German defenses…
But there's no way the veteran Germans don't have a rearguard posted, and Cpl Buchanon nearly wets himself when his tank finally advances far enough to see around the bend…
The hardened Afrika Korps veterans don't hesitate, setting upon Cpl Buchanon's lone tank with handheld anti-tank mines and grenades. The fight on the northern flank all comes down to this…
To see how it turned out, please check the blog at:
link
Urgent matters are to hand, in the form of Panzer IVs, with long 75mm guns, crashing in from the north…
Coming right up!
V/R,
Jack
finds a personal connection to WWII.
