AAR Compass10: The Road From Fort Capuzzo by Robert Avery

The tenth scenario from the Operation Compass pack takes place on 14th December 1940. It covers a real-life incident during the drive to surround Bardia, where Rae Leakey of 1RTR led his his mixed squadron of cruiser and light tanks towards the Capuzzo-Sidi Azeiz road in the pitch black, first shooting up a line of Italian lorries and then withdrawing in the face of a surprisingly aggressive attack by large numbers of Italian medium tanks.

This would be quite an unusual game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum, as not only would it involve no infantry, only tanks, trucks and lorries, but it would also take place at night, with both spotting and shooting therefore being much more difficult than normal. On top of this, the terrain was also awful: the 'road' running between Capuzzo and Sidi Azeiz was so bad that it would give no benefit to movement, and any vehicle attempting to move off the road having a small chance each turn of getting temporarily bogged down and not moving at all.

The action would take place right in the middle of the 'blue', literally miles from anywhere. The eponymous 'road' runs along the northern edge of the table, with a long, low ridge running parallel and just to the south of it. Things would begin with the arrival of an Italian convoy of supply trucks at the eastern end of the road at the same time as the lead elements of the British tank squadron arrive half way along the southern edge of the tabletop. After four appearances of the Turn Card, Italian tanks would start appearing at the western edge of the road.

The Italian convoy consisted of a staff car and seven trucks/lorries organised into an HQ and two groups of three trucks/lorries each. The British tank squadron consisted of an HQ A9 cruiser tank and then three troops: No.1 troop consisting of three MkVI Light Tanks, No.2 troop of two A10 cruisers, and No.3 troop of two more A9s. As British commander, I was slightly nervous about the paper-thin armour on the MkVIs and A9s, and determined not to 'mix it up' with the Italian tanks, but to try and out shoot them from range...which tells you all you need to know about my ability to predict the course of a battle!

The Italian tank force riding to the rescue of the convoy consisted of an HQ M11/39 tank, one platoon of three L3 Tankettes, and three platoons of three M11/39 tanks each. This seems very powerful, but the Italian tanks are without radios, so move individually rather than by platoon, and only have two actions to the three enjoyed by the Brits. On top of that, the main gun on the M11/39 is hull mounted, meaning the whole tank has to turn to acquire a target rather than just being able to swivel their turrets.

The Game

The game began with two Italian blinds entering the table at the end of the road on its eastern edge (the nearest edge in the photo above). Almost at the same time, a British blind (concealing the light tanks of 1 Troop) arrived midway along the southern table edge (where the circular patch of scrub is in the photo above).

Although the British tanks had great difficulty traversing the rough ground, the Rapid Deployment card meant they arrived within about a foot south of the mid-point of the road at the same time as the Italian blinds arrived about a foot east of the same point. The extreme darkness meant that although the British tanks spotted that the enemy blinds concealed a staff car and four lorries, they had no actions left with which to shoot at them.

The Italian lorries slammed on their breaks, then slammed into reverse and headed straight back towards the table's edge. The British MkVIs were about to give chase when they spotted a mass of Italian blinds arriving from the west. One MkVI headed after the retreating lorries, the other two headed west to investigate. More British blinds were now arriving on the southern edge of the table, but bad terrain meant that, again, progress was quite slow.

The two MkVIs advanced boldly in the darkness towards the Italian blinds, then got a bit of a shock to the system when the Italians advanced back at them and were revealed due to proximity at the Tea Break as two platoons of M11/39 medium tanks. In terms of real life as represented by game scale, the British light tanks didn't spot what the Italians were until they were only about six yards away!

Now it was the turn of the British to slam into reverse. One MkVI shot back towards the Italian trucks (and would spend the rest of the game chasing them in the darkness), the other spun south and reversed until it was out of sight behind the long ridge.

The two MkVIs advanced boldly in the darkness towards the Italian blinds, then got a bit of a shock to the system when the Italians advanced back at them and were revealed due to proximity at the Tea Break as two platoons of M11/39 medium tanks. In terms of real life as represented by game scale, the British light tanks didn't spot what the Italians were until they were only about six yards away!

Now it was the turn of the British to slam into reverse. One MkVI shot back towards the Italian trucks (and would spend the rest of the game chasing them in the darkness), the other spun south and reversed until it was out of sight behind the long ridge.

Meanwhile the two British A9s of 3 Troop crested the ridge and engaged the flank of the Italian tanks, half of whom turned towards them to engage.  Although you can't see it very well in the photo, below, the British cruisers are up on the ridge looking down on the road (the A9s are also being proxied by a couple of A13s).

More Italian medium tanks arrived on the edge of the table, this time heading up onto the ridge and, for the moment, it was eight Italian M11s versus two British A9s!

A volley of shots rang out on both sides, and the British tank crews paid the price for their thin armour: the left hand A9 was permanently immobilised and had its gun knocked out for good measure, with its crew abandoning ship as a result. In reply, however, the Brits managed no more than to drive one of the M11s backwards off the road into cover behind some shrubs. Things were not looking too good for the Brits!

Help was at hand, however, as the other troop of cruisers appeared just east of the ridge and prepared to open fire on the lead platoon of M11s. These had turned to face the arriving Brits, but their lack of initiative and need to physically turn their tanks to get their main guns to bear meant that the A10s survived the initial Italian volley undamaged.

In reply, the A10's smashed so many bits off two of the M11s that their crews bailed immediately. That left one M11 still functioning, so the British MkVI that was hiding behind the end of the ridge shot forward into the gap between the two A10s, neatly being in cover behind the medium tanks from any return flanking fire from other Italians, and used its .50 to turn the remaining M11 into a colander, also forcing its crew to abandon. 

Yes, my three tanks were right next to each other and vulnerable to a chain reaction if one of them blew up, but one of the great things about early war gaming is the fact that it's actually quite difficult to blow up a tank: you spend your whole time knocking more and more bits off it until it stops moving and firing and its crew decide to bail!

At the same time as the above, the British HQ A9, commanded by Leakey himself, had arrived on the flank of the Italian tanks flanking the A9s on top of the ridge. Some fine shooting quickly forced a bail-out on one M11 and another to retreat off table.

That meant that in one turn the Brits had knocked out five of the ten Italian M11s for the loss of just one of their cruisers. This loss had such a big effect on the Italian morale that Neil, my opponent, called the game at that point, congratulating me on a victory. He just couldn't see how his remaining tanks could survive...which was a pity, as I was looking forward to proving his point for him!

It was a short and most enjoyable game. The Italians were hamstrung by their low initiative, lack of radios and fixed-mount main guns: things the British were able to exploit despite their paper-thin armour and being outnumbered two-to-one. As for my dreams of being able to stand off and shoot from a distance...well, the photos below show that the battle looked more like Hyde Park Corner in rush hour, with the darkness meaning that nearly all shooting was done at less than 9" or 60 yards!

Robert Avery