Designer notes

History:  Rommel had ordered the forming of the Oasis companies soon after his arrival in North Africa. They were made up of volunteers which had to be less than thirty years old, meet rigorous physical standards, and not be married.  They were specially trained in all aspects of  special warfare and camouflage and concealment techniques and to sustain themselves for long periods of time without resupply.  Their initial mission was to capture and hold the five main oases in the area south and east of Tobruk.  During the many battles of 1941 and early 1942 these five companies severed with distinction and were eventually formed into the 300th Oasis Battalion.  

The battle. Number One Oasis Company was lead by Lieutenant Paulewicz with Lieutenant Ziemar commanding the flak 88. It was composed of the men of the oasis company and attached 3.7cm anti-tank guns, MG 34 units and a detachment of Italian sappers.   They had over the previous ten days used drills and explosives to build trenches and gun emplacements in the hard sandstone like ground that made up the small hill.  All of the fighting positions were so well camouflaged that they were invisible from more than 30 meters away, even the big flak 88 was dug in with just enough room for the barrel to clear the edges of the hole.  On the morning of the 16th of June, the British Battle Group Two came rolling out of the desert in their drive to outflank the German 5th light division and 15th Panzer division to the north. Lt. Paulewicz ordered his men to hold their fire till the flak 88 fired then he calmly waited as he counted 70 of the new Crusader mark IIs and several infantry carriers  closing in on his positions. As the first of the British tanks were about to roll over the forward trenches he gave the word to fire. The flak 88 roared out and the lead Crusader exploded with such violence that its turret went flying high into the air. Then all the guns opened up and three more Crusaders were brewed up.  The British didnt know what hit them and began firing but they couldnt see the enemy.  The German machine-guns put down such heavy fire that the infantry was unable to leave the carriers. After less than 5 minutes of this heavy fire and with 11 of the crusaders burning, the British withdrew to sort this thing out.  They then decided that such a potent force could not be left in their rear while they advanced north to take on the 2 panzer division so an attack was ordered.  Again the tanks rushed at the hill and again they were brewed up as they came in. This time they lost 17 more of the new crusaders before falling back.  With time running out for them if they were to catch the 5th light to the north as planned a third attack was ordered, this time with the infantry. With little in the way of cover, except for their own burning tanks, the tommies made their charge. The German MG 34s cut them to pieces and they never got closer than 300 meters to the objective.  With night falling and almost half of its armor burning and more than a third of its infantry killed or wounded, the once mighty 7th armored brigade retired to the north-east to rejoin with the 7th armored division. The Oasis company had held with the loss of one 3.7cm gun 2 men slightly wounded. Upon hearing the news that Hill 208 had held and had inflicted serious damage to an armored brigade, Rommel ordered the 5th Light to swing south to hill 208 then to sweep north and east and attack the rear and southern flank of the British forces engaged with the 15th Division in the Capuzzo, Musaid, Sollum areas. What the British had tried to do to him, he was now doing to them. Threatened with encirclement the forces of operation battle-axe had to withdraw back to Egypt. Rommel had won a decisive victory enabled to large part by the heroic defense at hill 208 by the Oasis Company. 

The game.  Not having any accurate maps to base the game map on I went by what I had read about the defenses that were prepared. Since Lt. Paulewicz had no idea from which axis an attack might come the defenses he built were circular in design. I think I reflected this well in the game map. In the real hill 208 the Italians had trucked in rock and other materials to build up the trenches and gun holes, I used the low and high walls to simulate this.  For the Italian sapper unit I used engineers  and to simulate the specialized training of the oasis troops I made them a mixed batch of rifleman and engineers. I then made up for the increased number of units by reducing the SP's to 4 for all the rifle, and engineer units and to 3 for the MG units. I put all the german units in a Bn for game supply limitation purposes and named it the No 1 Oasis Company For game length and play time considerations I gave the British some what less than the whole battle group. Play time is about an hour and the battle still has the flavor of the real thing.  

Bibliography

The Foxes of the Desert by Paul Carrol
With Rommel in the Desert by H.W. Schmidt
History of the Second World War by L. Hart

