
                    Wavell's 'Armoured Fist'- 7th Royal Tank Regiment.

                            Linked Campaign Game by K.M. Hasanic                                                                                                                                             Sources: Desert Warfare - Bryan Perret
                              AUSTRALIA IN THE WAR 1939-45, Vol.1 - Gavin Long
                              Purnell's History of WWII V0l.1
                              World War II Magazine Vols.14,15. 

  

   Historical Notes: The 7th Royal Tank Regiment and it's role as General Archibald Wavell's armoured shock force during 'Operation Compass'(the Sidi Barrani battles, Dec 9th-10th 1940) and the capture of Fortress Bardia is the subject of this LCG. The Matilda II Infantry Tank with which 7RTR was equipped had fair manouverability and good (for the time) AT capabilty while it's armour was virtually impervious to anything the Italians had! 7RTR was the 'armoured fist' used by General Wavell in the offensive that routed the Italian forces of Marshal Graziani from Egypt and thence Italian Libya. Working closely with the brigades of the highly professional 4th Indian Division, 7RTR led three attacks against Nibeiwa, Tummar and Sidi Barrani and was instrumental in the destruction and capture of three Italian Divisions, and all this in less than 36 Hours! The success of 'Operation Compass' made Wavell drive on to Italian held Libya. Individual Italian units fought tough rear guard actions but by the 3rd of January 1941 7RTR and the green but superbly trained and led 6th Australian Division stood ready to assault five Italian Divisions in the fortress of Bardia, this battle would break Mussolini's army in North Africa and lead to the advent of the 'D.A.K.' and Rommel.

       Design Notes: The LCG was unfamiliar territory for me but the ability to create whole campaigns is to good to pass up and since I had always wanted to do a series of scenarios based on 7RTR and Wavell's desert campaign well I had no excuse! After locating instructions (thanks Chris) and perusing the info on LCG's by other designers I was still a little befuddled but forged on. I decided to make each scenario for the LCG as a separate scn. file for ease of testing (but later found out that it is better to save as scl. files first for a number of reasons) and after doing the research did all the main battles first and the link scenarios later. Maps are all from the sources and are accurate, the maps in the official history are highly detailed and invaluable. OOB's are accurate and the leaders names are all authentic, all information again from the sources. The campaign itself is shorter than most (9 Scenarios) but unless I put in a whole lot of fictitious scenarios it would have been pretty hard to make it longer, as it is there are 4 scenarios that are 'what if' in nature but are historically 'accurate' and are used as linking scenarios. The Italian forces had to be modelled with a little higher morale and aggression than was historically correct for game balance. 

          End Note: Now that I have the hang of it I am looking at a number of new projects including something on Pattons 3rd Army, anyway I hope you enjoy it and if you have any comments please contact me at:   Lionel@fl.net.au

                                                 Regards, K.M. Hasanic
                                                            Sydney, Australia.  