Late in the afternoon of 31 January, approximately ¾ mile out of Derna, the 2/8th Battalion was greeted by fire from several well-sighted machine guns on the forward slopes of the heights, bringing the advance to a halt. Lt. Colonel Mitchell, OC 2/8th, immediately called a company commander’s conference and gave orders for a night assault by A Company on the enemy rearguard. At 2000 hours, Captain J. A. Smith led his company up a road which zigzagged up the steep slope of the escarpment. The objectives were the machine gun positions overlooking the line of advance. . . .The objective for
the attacker is to leave no
unbroken Italian MMC on
or adjacent to the road
which wound its way up
from the foot of the
escarpment to Level 4. The
Italians use the X1 overlay
as a fortified building which
can be HIP’ed within their
setup area. Both forces were
purely infantry, the nine
Aussie squads being led by a
10-2 while the Italian force
of seven 346’s are led by a
9-1, and 8-0 and also fields
two crews for their MMG’s.
Attacker: Australian (A Co., 2/8th Battalion, 6th Division)
Defender: Italian (Italian rearguard)
5.5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: Yes
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:9.0 D:7.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
Night rules, D: X1 overlay is Fortified building HIP’ed on Lvl 4 non-crag hex.
