Italians in defense at Bir Hacheim 5/5/41

[robot]

Bir Hacheim Libya
5/5/1941
1500 Hours


Well here we go again waiting for the British to attack us at Bir Hacheim. We are maybe 75 miles south of Tobruk. We were unable to get any tanks replaced we had lost last month. We are also missing replacements for some of the men we lost as well. We are at about 81 percent of fighting strength. We have maybe 11 SP ATGS to stop all the British tanks. Plus the 3 companys have at least 3 atr for every company. No engineer replacements tho. Short on them for sure.

Managed to get enough mines to lay a field 3 rows deep all across the map. That should give there tanks some trouble. Even tho we are very short on manpower and armor our spirits are up. Just having been able to survive last months battle is enough to make you think your goin to live forever.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding

[robot]

Bir Hacheim Libya
5/5/1941
1530 Hours

All hell has broken out here. The British are running there tanks right into our minefield at least 10 down so far. Looks like an awful big tank force is out in front of us. See quite a bit of troop strength as well. Several companys are advancing towards our wires.

Something awful has just happened here. An Aerocobria just came over and dropped bombs on the headquarters. Col Pavetti is down we are trying to get him into an ambulance for movement to a field hospital. Dam a 4.5 shell just landed in the ambulance and Col Pavetti is dead. Good one of our gunners just put some shells into that dam plane it headed off with smoke comin out of the tail. Hope the sonof bitch crashes and goes to hell Col Pavetti was a great man.

We are trying to sort out who will take over command may be a few minutes. Well as Capt. Tito Patronie is the senior officer he will be the new acting CO for now.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Capt. Tito Patronie Acting Co

[robot]

Bir Heacheim Libya
5/5/1941
1540 Hours

This battle is over fast the British have given up trying to break our defenses. The mine field proved to be too tough. We lost 164 men mostly too the dam planes because not many of there tanks made it thru the mine field. 5 artty were lost at the same time we lost our commander. They blew the bombdump and this in turn blew the Head Quarters to smithereens. We lost 9 tanks today mostly to the artty shells that were raining down all the time.

We did manage to kill 534 of there troops along with 5 artty and 39 tanks that were takin out comin thru the minefield. All in all a very quick battle and not too bad for our side today.

Our orders are to stay here till next month and once again slow the British advance. We will be able to get replacements and continue to build back up to strength. A and B CO are almost back up to strength except for there support units and now well be able to bring C back to near full strength this month. Our stat sheet says we are back to 84 % of our readiness. If we can get any kind of break in our next battle we will then maybe be able to get some tanks back in.

Ever since I took over I have been stressing safety and staying alive is the main topic. Our old commander was not that bad just did not have the time to train the men and prepare them for the horrors of this war.

HQ I Ariete Roma Legion
1st Lt: Tito Patronie Acting CO