Battle of El Alamein

 

To round up the gaming season we've played with my dad the last game of the western desert campaign, where reinforced by american shermans the british take the offensive on the Axis for once

Well entrenched, the Afrika Korps waits for the allied onslaught

Killing a british NCO with their first shot

The sherman comes into the field and opens fire on the nazis with both machineguns

Only to be countered by the arrival of a german panzer IV

Who immobilizes the british tank

Only to be blown up by an antitank cannon

But the germans have managed to deny the british advance

Blunting Monty's offensive and winning the war for Egypt

First battle of El Alamein

 

With the british beaten in Tobruk the desert fox now launches his attack into Egypt, attacking the defensive line built around El Alamein with his Afrika Korps

Rolling the demolition objective both sides will have to destroy the enemy command bunker, seizing the desert rats the initiative and rushing forwards

The germans also move forwards under fire, hugging any available cover in the advance

But then the british guns speak and a nazi unit is blown up by artillery fire

Despite the losses the germans keep on with their push on the bunker, while on their right the british advance has been thwarted by accurate fire from the defending units

The panzer IV arrives and starts to give covering fire for the infantry

Thins get serious when a fascist squad charges into the british, slaughtering their foes quickly and then closing with the bunker

By now the british valentine has arrived into the field, but after failing to penetrate the panzer's armour...

...the british tank is blown up by the germans

And finally the british bunker goes up in flames giving victory to the Afrika Korps

Battle of Gazala

 

The Afrika Korps goes on with their offensive in Cyrenaica, besieging the city of Tobruk and attacking the british 8th army in the battle of Gazala

The brits defend the objective waiting for their reinforcements to show up

The first of whom charge into the german soldiers closest to their entry point

The nazis also get reinforcements in the shape of a formidable panzer IV

Challenged by an antitank gun and a valentine III

The axis forces close into the objective firing all the while

While behind them the panzer elite blows up the valentine

A decisive charge by the veteran Afrika Korps dislodges the desert rats from the central wreck

Enabling a squad to take the objective

Only to lose it to a counterattack

But the fascist firepower is too much for the brits, who are blown away from the objective at the end of the fourth turn

Leaving victory in the hands of the desert fox

Operation Sonnenblume

 

Starting a western desert mini campaign with my dad pitting the 8th army versus the Afrika Korps in a set of desert battles fought in the middle of a heat wave in Spain.

We start with the arrival of Rommel on Cyrenaica, the desert fox launching a lightning assault on the british soldiers protecting Egypt

Spearheaded by a Valentine the brits move to secure the objectives

But their spirits sink when a panzer IV shows up and destroys the british tank with a single shot

The germans taking the chance to move towards the objectives behind the armoured beast

Command breaks down with some activation blunders, the desert rats opening fire on their own

And the germans running away from the foe

In the midst of this chaos the germans keep pressing the attack at bayonet point

Slaughtering a squad and then diving for cover

With time running out the nazis launch a last and successful charge that sees the center objective taken

But since the tank cannot capture a second objective as per scenario rules the germans end up losing 

Valentine tank

Painted a valentine tank for my dad's british army. We will soon play the Alamein campaign, and the best tank to face off against the Afrika Korps panzer IV was the valentine, a light but well armed vehicle reproduced here in a warlord games resin model