Italians advanced at Mechili 12/15/41

[robot]

Mechili Libya
Decamber 12 1941
0600 Hours

Once again Rommel has seen fit to give us the honor to advance against the British. We are to advance on his left flank and drive the British out of Mechili. Mechili is about 100 miles west of Tobruk and close to 50 miles south of the coast line. It is a key city for his move on Tobruk. We are to push the British out of the way so as to clear somewhat of a path to Tobruk.

Things have not been going well for Rommel here and he is under a lot of pressure to do something if only to give the British one hell of a drubbing. He has sent a letter to us we are not to stop under any circumstances and to push hard today. There is to be no slackers today under penalty of death.

We are to begin our push at exactly 0600 with no hesatation on our part. A CO will move out in the North along an old railroad track with maybe a 1000 yards to cover before reaching there objectives. Mostly open ground to cross, not going to be easy by any means. B CO will be on there right flank in the middle moving along an old dirt road. A little more ground for them to cover near 1200 yards. C CO will be in the south moving along another old railroad spur but with only 800 yards again over mostly open ground. C CO will have 3 platoons of our tanks on there right flank moving along with them. Once the southern objectives have been taken the tanks are to immediatly turn NE and come up behind any resistence in the middle and lend there fire power to B CO in the middle.

If all goes well maybe this time the German troops will not make all those derisive calls they always make when our troops march by. I get so sick and tired of being made fun by them that some time I could explode and just turn my pistol on them instead of the enemy. Hell we always look better then them in our grand uniforms any ways.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Cochelli Commanding

[robot]

Mechili Libya
December 15 1941
0640 Hours


Just 40 minutes past six oclock in the morning. And already there has been a mass of death and distructrion from both our sides. We have been pushing the British hard today. And so far it has paid off with us taking both the northern and middle and within 100 yards of the southern objectives.

Have been running into an awful lot of the British armor today. Have not once just engaged one British tank at a time but each time there has been at least three. Just five minutes ago at least 12 of there tanks showed up near the middle of our line. We have managed to take out 7 of them while losing only two of ours. Our tankers have been right on all day laying in a killing fire when ever one of there tanks is spotted.

There infantry has not been much of a problem today due to our artty laying in a hell of a barrage all day on suspected infantry hold out spots. There artty has also been laying down a continuous rain of death on our infantry. But I am proud to say most of them have hung in there under very adverse conditions and not even thought about running today. The non coms have not had to be screaming at the men much at all about not firing are maning the front line. All in all today will be another great tribute to the Italian people and prove that we too are great fighting men.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Cochelli Commanding

[robot]

Mechili Libya
December 15 1941
0700 Hours


Tough going but never the less we are getting it done. We have taken all three of the front objectives and are now trying to move on the rear ones. It has not been at all easy today as the British are throwing every tank they have at us. Our guns just dont have the fire power to hurt there tanks. It takes sometime at least 5 of our tanks hitting them with every thing they have before we even seem to dent them. Was looking thru by binoculers a few minutes ago as 8 of our tanks took on one crusader of theres. Each of our tanks took turns throwing shells at there tank. I counted 55 hits on there tank and the commander stuck his head out of the hatch and stuck his tounge out at our tankers. Our tank gunners have to be really frustrated when this happens dont you think.

Most of our infantry has gone to ground and literally refuse to move. Our noncoms are going to wear the toes out on there boots today trying to kick so much ass. I really in some way dont blame the men too much for there behaviour. The British must have gotten in a extremely large supply of artty shells. As they have not let up for a minute in throwing all them shells over at us.

It is going to be tough once again to even get a draw out of this battle today. We are losing way too much armor to there relentless tank attacks. Even tho we have taken out at least 75 of there tanks and that number may be higher then that by now. I still count at least 20 more tanks moving into engage our boys. They just seem to keep coming even tho we are taking them out at an alarming rate.

We will continue to push forward and hope we have enough power left to take the rear objectives.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Cochelli Commanding

[robot]

Mechili Libya
12/15/1941
0720 Hours


The british are leaving the battle field. Guess they finally run out of tanks to send at us. One hour and 20 minutes it took for us to rout the enemy today. I know this battle has to put some kind of dent in there supplies. We took out 95 of there tanks it was mostly a tank battle all day.


The powers that be said we only got a marginal victory even tho we managed to take and control all the objectives they had given to us. I am assuming that the losses we had today hurt our victory. We lost 35 tanks plus 252 of our men. We also managed to take out 1586 of there men while ekeing out this marginal victory. Doesnt hardly seem fair to our efforts today this was a tough fight from the very get go. But as the saying goes alls fair in love and war.

We will have a month off to regroup and get supplies before we meet the British again at Msus. After today even a week off seems like one hell of a reprieve from the heavy grind of this war. Maybe next month we will really give the British the beating they deserve.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Cochelli Commanding