Sid Rezegh - again

 The following is a quote from a South African who fought at Sidi Rezegh in November 1941.

“We headed straight for the enemy tanks. I glanced back. Behind me was a fan of our vehicles—a curious assortment of all types—spread out as far as the eye could see. There were armoured troop carriers, cars of various kinds, caterpillars hauling mobile guns, heavy trucks with infantry, and motorized anti-aircraft units. Thus we roared on towards the enemy ‘barricade.

I stared at the front fascinated. Right ahead was the erect figure of the Colonel commanding the regiment. On the left close by and slightly to the rear of him was the Major’s car. Tank shells were whizzing through the air. The defenders were firing from every muzzle of their 25-pounders and their little 2-pounder anti-tank guns. We raced on at a suicidal pace.”

At this point you're all asking yourselves why a South African was being fired at by 25-pounders. The reason is that Lieutenant Heinz Werner Schmidt was fighting for the Germans. Indeed, shortly after the battle he became an aide-de-camp to Rommel himself. He survived the war, went back to South Africa, where the National Party government elected in 1948 dropped all treason prosecutions against people such as Schmidt and concentrated their efforts on introducing Apartheid.

About 15 or so years ago, when James first said that he was going to put together the forces for Operation Crusader, I must confess that I didn't appreciate that the whole thing basically amounted to one battle. However, it did and so Sidi Rezegh gets a periodic outing in the legendary wargames room. One significant change since the last time we played it is that there are far fewer toys on the table, thereby creating a bit more space. It not only looks better, but - so far - seems to be playing better as well. We are using Blitzkrieg Commander 4, with various amendments around things like target priority and off-table artillery. I had a whole raft of issues with BK4, but I've completely forgotten what they were and  so they no longer seem to bother me. If only the rest of life was like that.

The view above is from my perspective as commander of whichever panzer division it is that is trying to seize the airfield just about visible about half-way down the table. At the end of the first evening things were going reasonably well for me, although slightly less well for the infantry in the top left with the thankless task of assaulting the escarpment. No change there then.