Operation Battleaxe - Turn 1

I have divided the campaign into six turns, a morning phase and an afternoon phase each for June 15th-17th.

Turn 1 sees the British and Commonwealth units assume their real-life start positions while the Axis hold theirs: from there the respective commanders may move as they please (with certain restrictions), though the real-life objectives are obviously worth taking. To win, the British forces must have secured an uncontested line of territories to Tobruk and hold it at the end of the game, or they must secure 10x Victory Points which will be sufficient to cause the Axis to withdraw. The Axis must stop them.

Because the Axis forces have fuel shortages, they may not move their armoured and mechanised units on the first day (June 15, Turns 1 & 2), unless a German strong-point falls to British attack: Rommel is then sure that it is a major offensive and the Panzer and their their precious fuel reserves will be unleashed. If no strong-point falls, then they are automatically released from June 16th onward (Turn 3).

To begin, the British commander moves his units onto the centre map territories with the deployment restrictions indicated on the map: from there he will begin activating units and launching his attacks. The Axis cannot do very much initially as the units occupying the strong-points (Halfaya Pass, Point 206 and Point 208) may not voluntarily leave them. They must in effect weather the storm and wait for the armoured counter-attack to relive them in later turns.

The British staging positions.

The British on Turn 1 have effectively launched three main attacks: the 6 RTR Group will attack Pt. 208, the 7th RTR Group will attack Pt. 206, while the SQ-B Group will do the same as a supporting attack. Any air and artillery assets have been allocated and from here the games will be played.

CdlT