A Terrain Selection Technique Applied to the Western Desert

A few months ago, Peter's rules, descriptions of campaign moves and after action reports posted at Grid Based Wargaming, inspired me to dig out some old WWII Western Desert 1:300 Heroics and Ros models. Peter had developed rules for battle from 'Tank on Tank' from Lock 'n Load Publishing.

Peter also developed rules for selection of terrain for each battle. Selection was influenced by the location of the battle on the campaign map.

In simplified summary, Peter shuffles 18 cards and deals 9 on a 3 by 3 grid. Each card represents one of 8 different terrain types. Rules determine battle objectives, which are terrain features.

The technique works well but during games where it had been used, I encountered an issue previously experienced with English Civil War (ECW) battles also fought on battlefields with relatively few hexes; namely, the edge of a battlefield can appear to be an artificial barrier. This can be a particular issue when an objective is close to the edge of a battlefield. Generally, to regard the the side of the battlefield to be adjacent to an abyss is inappropriate. For ECW, a river works as a good boundary but a river on both sides of a battlefield would be unlikely for every battle.

One solution I'm about to trial uses the same 18 cards as Peter to determine terrain in an inner grid of 9. Peter's technique is used to determine:

• The side of the battlefield occupied by each force
• Defender and attacker adjustments to the terrain
• Battle objectives
• Initial deployment of units

Quantities of each type of terrain 
card for inner and outer grid

This is supplemented by another set of 32 cards with 4 different terrain types. This deck is shuffled and cards are dealt to determine terrain immediately around the inner grid of 9 - this results in a 5 x 5 grid of terrain features. 

The quantities of terrain cards in each deck is shown in the adjacent table. The deck for the outer grid excludes potential objective cards and a road card because only one road is permitted on the battlefield.

An example of Peter's table-top
terrain for the Western Desert

Whilst Peter battles across  impressive 'cloth' table top terrain (see the adjacent picture, which was pinched from here), I aspire to a 3-dimensional modular terrain system with a look similar to that pictured below; however, with the experience documented here, I intend to use simplified 2-dimensional terrain for now; namely, interchangeable map modules. 

Illustrative look for aspirational terrain

First use of terrain cards with outer surround

An 'open' terrain module

Each terrain card represents a module of hexes. The reason I like hexes is explained here.

Each hex has the dimensions listed below; these are a comfortable fit with units mounted on stands of 30mm square: 

• Length of face - 31mm
• Distance between opposite faces - 52mm
• Distance between opposite angles - 62mm

All modules, bar the 'open' module, contain terrain features. Terrain modules are 4 hexes wide by 3 hexes deep; they measure approx 7 1/8" (182mm) wide by 6 1/8" (157mm) deep so a 5 x 5 grid is slightly less than 3' x 3' (1m x 1m) so occupies a reasonably small part of a table-top.

Shown below is the battlefield generated by the set of cards pictured above. Note that whilst the escarpment runs the width of the battlefield, each module has a pass so that there isn't only one pass to form a bottleneck between levels (such as Halfaya Pass).

Interim terrain modules that represent the battlefield
generated by the cards shown above

Seven types of interim terrain module - absent is 'road with village'

My gut feeling is that the quantities of cards should be tweaked. I suspect that the ratio of 'open' cards to the total quantity should be greater and the ratio of soft sand and wadi should be reduced but I intend to play a few battles with the current ratios to gain experience.

Page for Rules for WWII in the Western Desert

Today, I started to populate this page to contain rules for combat in the Western Desert (Libya and Egypt) from 1940 to 1941 during World War 2. Its still work-in-progress but "the journey of one thousand miles begins with one step". The page can be accessed from the header section of Wargame Waffle.

The page can be accessed from the header section of Wargame Waffle

Background to the Italians in Libya in 1940

Introduction

The early months of the Western Desert Campaign of WWII are an interesting period of military history. Despite the Italians numerical advantage in troops over the British Commonwealth forces of 8:1 (more on this potentially misleading ratio is intended for a later post), the Italians were pushed back within one year and called upon support from Germany; this was provided in the form of the highly successful Deutsche Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel, the 'Desert Fox'.

The purpose of this post is briefly to summarise how Italy happened to control Libya in 1940, when they declared war in support of the Axis powers. The post is intended to be an introduction to why the Italians were in Libya with the equipment they had when they first engaged in combat with British Commonwealth forces then based in Egypt.

Most of the material has been obtained from Wikipedia; linked references are provided at the end of this post.

The Ottoman Empire - Reference 1

The Ottoman Empire was founded circa 1299 in North Western Turkey. By circa 1550, much of the Coast of North Africa (except Morocco) was part of the Empire. The Empire started to decline in 1699 and came to an end in November 1922.

Italy's Claim to Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica

The Ottoman Empire was a combatant in the Russo-Turkish War from 1877 to 1878 - Reference 2. This started when the Eastern Orthodox Coalition (EAC) (led by the Russian Empire), with several goals in mind, attacked the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and Caucasus. One of these goals was to free the citizens of Balkan nations from excesses of the Ottoman Empire. 

The significant military success of the EAC was halted with the signing of the temporary Treaty of San Stefano - Reference 3. From June to July 1878, representatives from the six Great Powers in Europe (Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany), the Ottoman Empire and four Balkan states (Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro) met at the Congress of Berlin. The Congress resulted in the Treaty of Berlin, which replaced the Treaty of Stefano.

After the Congress of Berlin, representatives from France and Great Britain verbally agreed to the occupation of Tripoli by Italy - Reference 4. France and Great Britain would occupy Tunisia and Cyprus, respectively; this was effectively part of the Scramble for Africa (1881 - 1914) by European powers - Reference 5.

By the end of March 1911, the Italian press began to lobby for invasion of the regions Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. On 29 September 2011, after failure of diplomatic efforts to gain control of the regions, Italy declared war.

Italy's Control of Libya

Italian Landings in Libya

The regions invaded by Italy may have been little more than forgotten outposts of an empire that had been in decline for 2 centuries. They were defended by only 4,800 regular Ottoman troops with antiquated equipment and the indigenous population. 

On 5 November 1911, Italy declared control over the the regions. In practice, they controlled most of the coast-line, primarily because of their naval superiority, use of aircraft and large quantities of infantry (up to 100,000) primarily to defend conurbations. This conflict has been credited with the first use of aircraft for reconnaissance and for bombing.

The Italians undertook further consolidation until 18 October 1912, when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. This brought an end to conflict with the Ottoman Empire whom withdrew from North Africa. The financial cost of the Italian invasion was very much higher than anticipated and caused economic imbalance to Italy.

The Italians continued to fight against what were effectively guerrilla actions by the indigenous population from South of the coastal strip. The Italians sometimes responded with brutal repression, until resistance came to an end circa 1931. 

The Libyan flag in 1934

In 1934, the regions were unified and became known as Libya - Reference 6. By 1939, circa 13% of the population of Libya was from the Italian ethnic group; circa 150,000 people had relocated from Italy to Libya over the preceding couple of decades.

In 1940, the indigenous Libyans in the coastal areas were granted limited Italian citizenship. This enabled ambitious locals to take up civil administrative and military posts. As a consequence, 2 divisions of indigenous Libyan infantry were raised to fight in the Italian Army.

The Military Legacy and Capability in 1940

As was (and remains) so often the case, the aggressor (Italy) underestimated the force-requirements, time and finance required for a successful invasion and assimilation. The Italians had found themselves on the wrong side of guerrilla war fought over inhospitable territory for 20 years. (Does this sound familiar?)

By 1940, the Italian army in Libya was still more or less organised to outnumber small, lightly armed, enemy forces that operated with equipment of low technology; the Italian's based themselves predominantly in static defence of regional hubs. Presumably, over the preceding years, there had been little money available to provide modern equipment. Arguably, they were still set-up to fight their previous conflict.

Shortly before the declaration of war by Italy (in June 1940), the Governor-General of Libya, Marshal of the Air Force, Italo Balbo advised Mussolini that - Reference 7:

It is not the number of men which causes me anxiety but their weapons ... equipped with limited and very old pieces of artillery, almost lacking anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons ... it is useless to send more.

In Libya, Italy had circa 250,000 troops divided into 14 divisions, in 2 armies. Mobile communication was hampered by too few radios. Whilst the Italian trucks had a good reputation, there were too few of them. Simultaneous movement of large quantities of troops would predominantly be via Shanks's pony; although, horses were used to tow artillery pieces. 'Mechanised' in the description of a unit generally indicated that vehicles (not horses) were used to tow artillery; the infantry would still march. Those units with motorised infantry generally had too few trucks.

Arguably, in 1940, the British Commonwealth was ill-prepared for warfare against Germany but generally, their technology and organisation were far superior to those of Italy; just as well since there were only 36,000 troops in Egypt at the time Italy declared war on them.

References

1.    Ottoman Empire

2.    Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878

3.    Congress of Berlin

4.    Italian Invasion of Libya

5.    Scramble for Africa

6.    Italian Libya

7.    Italian Invasion of Egypt

There is no intention to maintain these links.

Review: 'Axis Forces in North Africa 1940-43' - Claudio Antonucci

Today, I received in the post, a used copy of  'Axis Forces in North Africa 1940-43' by Claudio Antonucci. 

It's an excellent picture book of 52 pages roughly A4 in size. It has lots of hand-drawn plates, all accredited to the author in 2005 and black and white photographs taken during the campaign; useful details are provided with the pictures. It also contains 5 pages of historical summary.

The book would be great for modellers. It provides details of uniforms and personal equipment.

The most memorable observations from this book were:

• The Italian uniforms appeared poor quality; apparently, Italian troops often appeared dischevelled.
• The Italians often wore captured British uniforms; presumably because they were better quality than their own; although, this could have been a means to display trophies.
• Some Italians wore British Commonwealth badges; again, maybe a display of trophies.
• Italians and Germans wore desert and European uniform; maybe too little desert uniform to go round. 

Quantities of Pictures

Plates     Italian        26

Plates     German     19

Photos    Italian        42 

Photos    German     58