Tactics in 'South Africa's War'
Scenario 12: 'Driven by Germans'
Part III: 0930 – 1030 Hours
By Doug McNair
May 2007

The Italian armored assault crashes on the South African inner perimeter in today’s installment of my replay of “Driven by Germans” from Panzer Grenadier: South Africa's War. (For the first installment, click here.)

In our last episode, Italian tanks and infantry shredded the northern South African roadblock with massive casualties on both sides, and an Italian armored column moved toward the South African artillery position on the hilltop after killing the sole British tank platoon.

Nonetheless, the inner South African defenses are strongly manned and dug-in, so the Italians will have to make maximum use of the surrender rule, pounding South African units from a distance until they become demoralized, then rushing in units to demand their surrender before the South African artillery can once again break up the Italian infantry advance.

The battle continues.

Turn 9 – 0930 Hours

Step losses have dropped Italian initiative down to 2, but have also dropped South African initiative down to 0. Unfortunately for the Italians, the South Africans win initiative, and they start by activating what’s left of their roadblock, blasting away point-blank at the Italians while trying to rally one of the last two INF units there before it surrenders.

Point-blank HMG fire just barely fails to again demoralize a demoralized Italian BERS unit, a disrupted 2-pounder AT gun rolls a modified 9 and bounces shells off a Sem. 75/18 tank unit, and the demoralized INF unit fails to recover and flees along with its lieutenant.

The Italians reply by targeting all their offboard artillery on the hilltop, trying to wipe out one of the 25-pounder artillery units and its accompanying mortar. Both the artillery and mortar become disrupted. The two forward artillery units respond with long-range AT shots on the approaching armored column while the other artillery and mortars hit BERS and MTC units nearing the South African perimeter. The AT shots miss, all South African bombardment fire is ineffective, and so is fire from the forward tanks of the Italian armored column in the hills. A shot from a 2-pounder AT gun west of the roadblock goes wide, and an overwhelming assault on the last South African INF unit at the roadblock rolls a 1 and is ineffective.

The just-assaulted INF unit at the roadblock fails to recover to good order, and two Italian tank platoons approach to within two hexes of the Italian units dug in on the road west of the hill. South African offboard artillery is ineffective, and the Italian motorcycle units resume their flanking maneuver, driving outside South African HMG range to a point due east of the artillery on the hilltop. That puts a damper on South African plans to reinforce the northern section of their perimeter, and the turn ends on lots of Italian recoveries.

Turn 10 – 0945 Hours

The Italians win initiative, and their offboard artillery demoralizes a South African 18-pounder artillery unit on the hilltop. That’s doubly-bad news for the Springboks, who are now forced to split their remaining artillery and mortar fire between the Italian tanks forming fire teams to the north and the motorcycles which are about to swing south of the hill to hit the exposed South African rear.

The news gets even worse as all artillery and mortar fire is ineffective and the crew of the 18-pounder fails to recover and flees, abandoning their guns and eliminating the artillery unit. Then the Italian fire teams start to open up, disrupting an HMG unit and demoralizing an INF unit at the northernmost point of the inner South African perimeter. BERS units charge toward the disrupted and demoralized South Africans, but the perimeter responds with murderous opportunity fire that kills one BERS step and disrupts three others.

Then 2-pounder AT guns from west of the roadblock open fire on the Italian tanks nearest the perimiter, gaining a +2 crossfire bonus since the hilltop artillery fired at them from the opposite direction earlier in the turn. The guns score a modified 11 and kill an M13/40 step but fail to break the morale of the other step. The tanks open fire on the other AT gun platoon that could hit them this turn, but fail to hurt it. The AT platoon misses, and the neighboring South African HMG platoon fails to hurt the BERS unit adjacent to it.

Three motorcycle units and a leader then drive a dogleg to a point southeast of the hill, from which they can approach any point in the weak South African rear next turn. The lone South African INF unit remaining at the roadblock recovers to good order, but the Italians immediately assault it and kill one of its steps, disrupting the other step and demoralizing its leader. But both Italian tank platoons in the assault become demoralized, so the remnants of the roadblock keep holding out, with the South Africans having the only undemoralized unit in the assault hex!

The HMG unit that fled from the roadblock and is now near the soon-to-be-threatened South African rear recovers to good order, but then a stack of 3 M13/40 tanks rolls a 12 for an X result on the hex just north of the one the BERS units charged earlier in the turn. One South African INF unit takes a step loss, and it and the other INF in the hex both become demoralized.

The remaining M13/40 (adjacent to the firing stack) rushes up to the hex between the two stacks of demoralized and disrupted South African units, eager to demand their surrender next turn. The South African lieutenant colonel commanding the perimeter defenses tries to rally all three demoralized units there, and the one in the hex next to the BERS units recovers to Disrupted status, but the two which the tanks just demoralized fail and flee.

That leaves a one-hex hole right in the center of the northern perimeter, and the South Africans have no choice but to plug it with a unit from the eastern edge of the hilltop, plus a lieutenant with a +1 morale bonus. Another motorcycle unit drives to a point southeast of the hill, another INF unit moves to plug the gap in the South African perimeter, and the turn ends on a Fog of War roll after most units get a chance to recover.

Turn 11 – 1000 Hours

The Italians have only lost 16 steps so their initiative is still 2, and they win initiative by enough to get two activations before the South Africans. Italian offboard artillery pounds the northernmost perimeter hex, hoping to demoralize one of the disrupted units there so that an adjacent unit can then activate and demand the surrender of the whole stack. All South African units hold morale, but their lieutenant colonel becomes disrupted. Then two stacks of tanks activate and fire on the INF units which just moved-in to plug the gap in the perimeter, but are ineffective. The perimeter holds!

That gives the hilltop artillery the freedom to concentrate fire on the motorcycle units driving hard for the South African rear, while a Major with a +1 morale bonus tries to rally the two INF units that fled from the northern perimeter plus a disrupted mortar and 25-pounder unit. Fire from the hilltop scores an X result, killing one MTC step and demoralizing another.

The major rallies the disrupted mortar and 25-pounder unit to good-order, and also rallies the demoralized INF units to Disrupted status. That does a lot to strengthen South African defenses, and will make the artillery much more dangerous if the motorcycles can’t get to them soon. So, rather than taking another turn to drive all the way into the South African rear, the motorcycles make a hard right turn and drive straight up the hill to hit the most exposed point in the southeastern South African perimiter. The lead MTC unit and the tenente colonel leading it make it through most of the opportunity fire directed at them, but the last shot rolls a 12 for an M2 result, demoralizing the tenente colonel and disrupting the MTC unit.

The remaining good-order MTC unit drives up to assist and makes it through the remaining opportunity fire in good-order, so it will be able to assault next turn if the other Italian leader in the area can make it there to join it. The demoralized, half-strength MTC unit they left behind fails to recover, but doesn’t have to flee because it’s outside South African direct fire range.

The disrupted HMG and INF unit at the northernmost point of the perimeter fire point-blank on the disrupted BERS units that rushed them, but do no damage. Then the other Italian MTC unit and a lieutenant drive outside the opportunity fire range of the South African units on the eastern hillside to join the good-order MTC preparing to assault. But on the way in, the lone INF unit on the southern hillside that can op-fire at them rolls a 2, disrupting both the tenente and his MTC unit before they can make it adjacent to the perimeter. Once again the South Africans break up the flank attack!

The 2-pounder AT guns west of the roadblock open fire on the tanks in the road, just barely missing on a 9. Once again those tanks fire at the other AT gun at the roadblock before it can fire, but they do no damage. The AT gun misses, and so does the Italian M13/40 tank firing point-blank on the units which moved up to plug the gap in the perimeter.

The units plugging the gap fire at the disrupted BERS units nearby but do no damage, and one of those BERS units recovers to good order. That draws more fire from the perimeter, which does no damage. A column of BERS and HMG units that’s been rallying on the road for a long time finally starts moving south (now that there’s a good-order leader with it), but the lead unit becomes disrupted by long-range HMG fire from west of the roadblock.

The leader and his remaining units make it through remaining opportunity fire, and then the half-strength, disrupted South African INF unit in the roadblock assault hex assaults the two demoralized Italian tank units there. It only rolls a 2 and does no damage, and the demoralized leader with it fails to recover and flees. Then a tank and HMG fire team fires at a previously-unscathed perimeter hex near the road and rolls a 2 for an X result, killing a South African INF step and disrupting another. A BERS unit that didn’t fire moves south and into the hex with the South African leader who fled the assault hex, displacing him to the next hex south and cutting off the roadblock from behind.

A South African sergeant and INF unit in the rear then move southwest and adjacent to the MTC unit and leader who got stopped short of the perimeter, hoping to assault them next turn before they can recover morale, and also to put the demoralized MTC unit to the southeast inside South African fire range and make it flee. An Italian tenente rushes up to join the M13/40 tank unit and the just-recovered BERS adjacent to the northern perimeter so they can make a combined-arms assault next turn, and he survives opportunity fire in good-order.

The just-disrupted South African INF unit south of there recovers morale, and one of the demoralized tanks in the roadblock assault hex recovers morale while the other flees. An INF unit from the western perimeter moves northeast to reinforce the northernmost perimeter hex against the incoming tank and BERS assault, and with the Italian flanking maneuver about to be counterassaulted, the western perimeter swings the door northwest to block the road against Italians bypassing the roadblock.

The turn then ends on recoveries, but not before South African offboard artillery demoralizes the BERS unit that was about to assault the northernmost perimeter hex with the tanks next turn, plus the disrupted half-strength BERS in the same hex with it! There will be no combined-arms assault on the perimeter next turn, and all of a sudden the Italians are vulnerable to counterassaults on the northern and southeastern hillsides.

Turn 12 – 1015 Hours

At 17 step losses the Italians are still at Initaitive 2, and they beat the South Africans by one activation. With the 25-pounder on the hilltop now in good order, they’ve got to demoralize it lest it kill the now-unsupported Italian tank unit at the northern perimeter. They hit it with offboard artillery, but both it and the mortar in its hex pass their morale checks, and the hilltop erupts with bombardment and AT fire.

The 25-pounder rolls a modified 9 and just barely misses the Italian tanks, and while the remaining artillery and mortars fail to do any damage to the motorcycles on the southeast perimeter, both INF units that fled from the northern perimeter recover to good order.

The demoralized BERS units at the northern perimeter try to recover morale before they get assaulted, while the tank unit that just had 25-pounder shells bouncing off its armor fires point-blank at the three-high South African INF stack adjacent to it. The half-strength BERS recovers to disrupted status but the full-strength BERS fails and flees, and all units in the three-high stack hold morale.

Two South African INF units plus a leader then counterassault the tanks while the disrupted units and leader in the northernmost perimeter hex recover to good order. Neither side does any damage, but the assault effectively pins-down the tanks so the 25-pounders on the hill can keep shooting at them unanswered.

With their assault on the northern perimeter effectively repulsed, the Italians need to eliminate the roadblock so their tanks and BERS units can move south to hit the newly-extended South African western flank before it can dig in on the road. The tenente who’s been forming fire teams near the northern perimeter activates and takes four tank and HMG platoons southwest to the road, entering the hex with the demoralized South African captain who fled the roadblock and eliminating him on a roll of 10.

The tenente uses subordinate activation to activate the sergente, who piles into the roadblock assault hex with two BERS units to try and finish off the last South African INF unit there. They do on a roll of 6, scoring a 2 result and wiping out the INF. The South Africans roll a 6 on the 1 column for an Italian morale check, but all Italian units pass. The roadblock is almost gone.

The South Africans on the southeastern hillside then assault the motorcycle units whose flanking movement they stymied last turn, putting one INF unit into each hex containing good-order MTC units and sending more INF units down the hillside so they can reinforce the assault next turn. The assault on the hex with two MTC units and a demoralized tenente coronel scores an M result, which the Italians all pass.

The Italians score an M1 result in return, and the assaulting South African INF becomes demoralized. That is bad — the Italians can activate and demand the unit’s surrender, and if it doesn’t surrender they can counterassault it at a huge advantage. The other South African assault fails to demoralize the adjacent tenente and MTC unit, and the MTC units in the hex with the demoralized South African INF unit demand its surrender, which it gives.

But the Italian tenente coronel in the same hex fails to recover and flees, leaving the two MTC units there without a leader. Unable to advance, they fire point-blank but do no damage. With the only other Italian leader in the area in an assault hex, the two leaderless MTC units are in danger of being overwhelmed by a South African assault next turn.

The last of the roadblock units (just west of the road) blast away point-blank at the Italians breaking through on the road, demoralizing a disrupted, half-strength BERS unit. The remaining tanks on the road fire long-range on the remaining 2-pounder AT guns, but miss. The 2-pounders roll a 9 and bounce shells off the tanks, and fire from another stack of Italian tanks on the north slope of the hill is ineffective. South African offboard artillery fire is also ineffective, and the turn ends on a Fog of War roll after some recoveries and more advances by Italian units toward the South African west flank.

So after the third hour of battle, the flank attack of the Italian motorcycles is about to come to grief, and the armored assault on the northern Italian perimeter has been bogged down by a counterassault. But superior Italian firepower has killed so many South African steps that the Italians may breach the perimeter soon unless South African artillery can finally start knocking-out some Italian tanks.

Can the South Africans hold out until their armor support arrives and forces an Italian withdrawal? Tune in next time and find out!

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