Grumble Jones June Scenario- GJ071 - Boxed In

Yep...scenario time once again. And for this month, I went to North Africa for my inspiration. As I have stated before, I've been interested in the Desert War since I was about 10 years old. At that time, B-Dalton bookstores were just full of great WW2 titles, most of which were published by Ballantine Books. They were cheap in those days. A $1.25 and you had yourself a nice little book! My first Desert War book was by H.W Schmidt, entitled, With Rommel in the Desert. Schmidt was a driver and aide to Rommel during the early days of the North African Campaign. Even today, this book is still well worth the reading.

My interest in Rommel would persist and continues even today. He is certainly a fascinating and complex person to study. In spite of his ego, his politics and other lesser qualities, he was overall a fairly decent human being. Unfortunately, he served one of the most awful men history has ever put before us. And I often think that Rommel's willingness to take poison and end his life was in some measure his own personal atonement for having served such an evil man. At least I like to think so. 

My study of Rommel ended on a snowy day in November of 1985. It had been a quiet day in Reutlingen, West Germany and I had no plans. So I decided to find Rommel's grave. With no map (no cell phones existed) and armed only with the knowledge that Rommel was buried somewhere in Herrlingen...I went to the train station and headed to Stuttgart. From there I would catch a train to Ulm. At the Ulm station, I asked about buses to Herrlingen. There was one, so I boarded it and at the first stop, I saw a cemetery nearby...so I got off and went into the cemetery. I had no idea if it was the right cemetery. Walking alone in the cold I saw an elderly woman tending a gravesite. I asked her where Rommel's grave was and to my great surprise she simply pointed towards another part of the cemetery. And lo and behold, there in the falling snow was the wooden cross for Erwin Rommel. Now keep in mind, my German was much better then than today. It was one of those amazing moments, when you find yourself beside a person of  such historical significance. It remains a favorite memory.

Now the scenario I created for this month actually comes from yet another book that I picked up in 1987. In the late '80's, MACMILLAN published large coffee table books about various battles, leaders and later the American Civil, Vietnam, WW1 and WW2. The one in this case, would Great Commanders and Their Battles. These books were ground-breaking at the time due to their digitally produced maps, which were than painted with some really great battle scenes. I refer them still to this day. 

In the section about Rommel, the Battle of Gazala is covered and the painting depicts an action to clear a British "box" position at the end of this battle. Rommel, himself helped to lead the final attack. So, it seemed like the perfect source material for a scenario.

The Battle of Gazala would end up being one Rommel's bigger triumphs in the desert war.

For the scenario, I elected to create two British "Box" positions surrounded by minefields, as was the case. So this scenario will stretch your minefield counters to the limit for sure!

One other thought that struck as I have been sitting here is that Battle for Tobruk is well covered by Avalon Hill's Tobruk bookshelf game. This was the first Avalon Hill game, I ever purchased. And it was a fairly enjoyable game for tank on tank combat. The infantry element was poorly done in my estimation. But as a whole the game was enjoyable.

Heiss uebern Afrikboden die Sonne glueht,

Unsere Panzermotoren singen ihr Leid.

Panzer ziehen in Wuestensand

Stehen im Kampgegen Engeland.

Es rasseln die Ketten,

Es droehnt der Motor, 

Panzer rollen in Afrika vor.

Heia Safari!

Okay them, enough blathering...here now is a view of the scenario laid out with the British Minefield Belts.

The Germans win immediately upon capturing the single trench location in each of the two British boxes or at game end, the side with the most CVP gets the victory. Like many of my designs, this one may be a bit over the top...but what the heck. It might end up being a hoot to play...and I hope that it is.

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 

And as always, these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive 

(just search on Grumble Jones).