WWII batrep The Battle of Alam el Halfa 1942

Last Saturday 5 Rejects met up in the Shed for our first ever BigLee game. The game was supposed to be held in December last year, but Lee called it off, as he already had a toenail painting appointment booked up! Its a bit of a long post, but blame Lee for that!
We all picked a name out of the hat, Clint and myself picked the British while Postie and John were the Germans. You can see more on the game on Clint's and Lee's blogs....

Its the 1^st September 1942, and the 15th Armored Division has formed up opposite the British positions at Alam el Halfa with the intention of taking the ridge, securing the area as a launching ground for the final stage of Rommel’s encirclement plan. Sketchy intelligence has revealed that somewhere east of their position is the 8^th Armoured Division. A large dust cloud can be seen in the distance but as yet it is impossible to tell if this is the advancing British Tanks or just the result of a desert Khamseen.

The British positions at Alam el Halfa are literally "Egypt's Last Hope"; if they fail to hold back Rommel, Egypt will be lost and the whole of the middle-east will be Germany’s for the taking.  

The Umpire for the day

Mummy's little soldier!

The Alam el Halfa ridge

The British 133rd Brigade dig in deep on the right of the ridge.

The British centre

The 15th Panzer Division

Postie moves his mainly Infantry and artillery towards the right hill.

The red markers are casualty markers.

John moves his Panzer IV's toward the centre

We were lucky, Clint had to throw to see when our reinforcements would arrive.

He threw a 1, which meant turn 2.

John's advancing a bit quicker than I thought, so I moved my Matilda's up

from their reserve position.

Fortunately for the Brits the Germans fail to bring in their Air cover unlike us!

But my shot on the Panzer did no damage what so ever....

Clint fired at long range and managed to get a few hits on the advancing Panzers.

Rubbish dice roles followed the Stuka attack on my Deacon's.

The centre was taking a bashing and the Panzers were now up to the mine fields??

On the right Postoie was kicking the crap out of my troops, I'd lost nearly all of my infantry on the lower hill.

Boom! A Pak 40 bites the dust!

I'm not liking the look of this???

An overall shot of the game so far.

All the Germans had to do is take one of the roundel objectives on the 3 hills.

Bang goes a Panzer!

And another!!!

2 more bite the dust. It really started to go our way!!

The Panzer start to cross the minefield, one tank goes up in flames!!

Two Panzers make it over, but one is destroyed by mortar fire.

You can just make out John lone tank rambling up the hill. I took massive casualties but still

forced the tank crew to abandon their tank

Now I know I can't shout, but Lee's head was buried in the book quite some

 time, as his mind kept going blank, after the game he admitted he wished he'd done an easier game

 for his first time umpiring.

Postie started to spread his figures out more as we again won air superiority

More smoke is added to the battlefield as more Panzers are

 destroyed, John's dice were truly awful!!

The glum look of the inevitable!
he he he!!!

Postie even managed to make it up onto the Wall of Shame!!!!!!

Moaning and groaning that "It's not fair"

I'm sure the other Rejects will agree and say its about time Postie 

got a taste of his own medicine!!!

A scene of devastation....

A close up of BigLee's excellent homemade destroyed vehicle markers. 

Top job Lee, they really looked the biz!

While I was battling away in the centre and the right, Clint was doing a great job mopping up our left.

Taking 2 hits himself, lucky they were only Armored vehicles!

Clint's Grant's speed forward down the flank.

A nice close up of Lee's dust clouds,all homemade and 

rather spiffing looking I might add!

Its nearly all over, both sides have taken a hammering.

John assaulted the hill again, but was beaten back once again, with his crew hunkered down inside.

Then a lucky shot, their final real chance of pulling off a victory, goes up in smoke.

As John's Panzer on the hill is destroyed.

And we called the game there, as the German's had no chance of winning, 

Well done to Mr Hadley, t'was a great game, especially for me and Clint!