Italians try to delay the british at msus 4/41

[robot]

Msus Libya
4/23/1941
1800 Hours

Well we got a new col. today sure looks spiffy in his new dress uniform. The feathers are starting to get sand all over them already. Goin to make his hat look droopy if the sand keeps blowing all day like it has been.

We got no mines to put out today and an awful lot of land to try and hold from the British. We are spread out pertty thin and may be hard to hold our line. You know they will come with all kinds of armor and try to blow us off the map.

At least not all our troops are green we do have some vets mixed into our make up.

Our core make up is as follows: 3 Companys Of Infantry
1 Company of Medium Tanks
1 Company of close support tanks.
1 Company of TD
1 Company of light recon cars
Each Company is made up of:
3 Squads of elite Bassaglieri X12 per squad
1 ATR per platoon
1 HMG '' ''
1 45mm Morter Per Platoon
2 sec of ATG
2 Sec of IG
2 sec of SPAA
1 Fwd Obs
1 squad of engineers w/flame thrower
6 81mm Mortar
2 light recon cars
2 Light recon tanks
1 platton of scout teams

HQ has 12 152mm FH Attatched to them plus a Fwd Obs.

We have a lot of fire power goin into this battle hope we dont really need it all.

Hq: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Tito Cochelli Commanding

[Riun T]

how many purchase points was this core Robot? looks like a very reasonable size and multi combined arms is always wise.[;)]

[robot]

Around 4800 but dont think I really used all that. The British are once again whippin the heck out of us with there suprerior armor. Should have set up some mines but it was adelay and dont like to use them for that. Oh well lifes a bitch and why not for the italians against the mighty British.

[robot]

Msus Libya
4/23/1941
1835 Hours

Only half an hour into this battle but seems as tho its been hours. The British have sent at least 4 companys of tanks at us. Havemt seen to much of there Infantry so far. We have inflicted heavy losses but we too have been hurt bad. We have lost at least 19 units consisting of infantry and armor.

The British have managed to break thru our lines and have made it into our backfield. At least seven tanks have made it as far as both of the north VHs and have captured and hold them at this moment. Really dont know if we have enough heavy armor to even attempt to try and retake them.

Our dam 37mm ATG just bounce off the Matildas and there heavy armor they have. Hell our 65mm IG arent doin much better against there armor. Once again the same thing is happening today as happened with the previous Commander. Our gunners accrusy is very much in doubt. They are missing from only 150 feet shot after shot. Then blam the british get pissed for being shot at and return fire only to take out our tanks with one well placed shot.

This battle is very much in doubt even tho I believe we have done major damage to the enemy the objectives are in doubt. I dont know if we can muster anough of a fighting force right now to retake them. The very southern one is still in our hands and wont fall at least not any time soon as the British dont really seem to care about it. My first battle in command and things are not goin well at all.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Tito Cochelli Commanding

[Riun T]

about all I could suggest is to restart the first battle again and limit the brits to about a 2700-3000 purchase points,, so you'll actually outnumber their force,by a larger ratio,, and maybe really limit your width of deploy so more of your AA units and AT could crossfire cover your tanks.
What caliber are your SPAA units,, the truck mounted 75-100mm AA make great tank crackers

[robot]

20mm SPAA not really big as a can opener. MG take them out too dont even need a heavy caliber gun to blow them up. Its goin to be tough but the crowd has begun to thin out quite a bit and its begun to slow down some around here. Tryin to get some of my scared engineers closer to some of the tanks in the hope they can drop a satchel charge on a few of them.

[robot]

Msus Libya
4/23/1941
1930 Hours

Well we are an over hour to the battle. Things once again are not goin well for us. They have over run our lines and into our backfield. They have taken all the front objectives and are moving towards the rear ones. We are now down to 49% fighting effectiveness. Way too much loss of lives and armor.

We are losing a lot of men as the tanks are running wild and killing short squads and crews from our armor they have already blown up. We are not goin down without a fight tho. Our brave men are fighting to the last man and have taken out several of there tanks with close assault.

But most of the men are scared to death and are running for there lives. It is a mad scramble out there right now. Can not get the men to even make an effort to have any kind of a fighting line. Our 81 and 152 howitzers are not much help as there troops are tooclose to our men. Any attempt to bombard will drop on our own men.

Have been able to contact a light panzer company and called them for help. They have moved up and are trying to retake the north 2 objectives. But they are having a lot of trouble trying to take out all the Matilda II the British are throwing at us. The Panzer IIIe 37mm guns have no effect on there armor. Even the PZ V 75 mm have to get a lucky hit to take one out. Have seen the German tanks hit some of there tanks with at least 16 shots to no avail.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Tito Cochelli Commanding

[robot]

Msus Libya
4/23/1941
2005 Hours

Well we managed to survive and to get a draw somehow. We retook all the objectives thanx to the Germans. Sure hated to call on them but had no choice. We lost 855 men along with 6 Artty and 52 tanks. Was way too many losses and I dont believe that Head quarters will put up with too many fights like this.

We inflicted heavy losses on them as well. They lost 1597 men 13 artty and 93 tanks. I believe we were able to slow them down some what.

We will be off for at least amonth before we have to go back into battle. Heard we will be recieving 37mm atgs for the ones we lost. Also we lost several 20mm spaa and will get 37mm spaa to replace them. Plus some upgrades for the igs we lost. We will be short our tanks in the next battle as no replacements or repair parts will be coming in before we return to battle. No recon troops or armored cars will be repaired as well so we will be without our eyes along with the tanks.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Tito Cochelli Commanding