Operation Battleaxe Campaign - Day 1 - Mission 1: Italian Turn

I started my campaign. The first game had a flight of three Mc.200s escorting my newly painted Br.20 bombers. They were doing a bombing run on a convoy moving across the desert.

The defenders were two flights of two RAF P-40s that were to intercept the incoming bombers. Each group of two had 1 character card and the Italians similarly had two character cards, one with the fighters and the other with the bombers.

The Italians were lead by Tenente Gualtiero Titone, a veteran pilot. He was accompanied by two regular Pilots, SottoTennente Michael Mariano and Gergente Rocco Botti. The RAF pilots were a veteran pilot and three regulars. The bombers had a veteran crew and two regular crews.

I don't have a desert game mat. I did find a rather nice Hotz mat that I don't remember buying. It is possible that it was Terry Haney’s. I also don't have suitable ground targets. So three washers had to do.

What became evident as the game moved was that I need a better mechanism to ID which plane is which as it got confusing once the formations broke up. I have an idea on how to fix that.

The altitude stands mostly worked well. The die holder in the back did great for altitude. I tried to use the pointer to indicate the aircraft but it moved too freely and didn't work out. I will replace the pointer with a numbered bead going forward.

The Italian flight leader, Tenente Titone (veteran), quickly pulled away and intercepted a pair of P-40s. He quickly pulled behind the flight leader and got on his tail. His section fire card came up next and shot down the P-40 with a result of aircraft explodes.

The RAF was not idle. The other pair maneuvered and were soon on the tail of a Br20. The pilot had 4 separate shots on the bomber but only managed to score minor damage. The tail gunner managed to cause the pilot to loose control temporarily and break off.

The lead Italian circled back around looking to save the bombers. He was able to get on the tail of the second flight leader. It took two attempts, but this one too exploded.

A P-40 managed to get on the tail of the Italian flight leader and caused minor damage before he was shaken off his tail.

The bombers only had one aircraft to get close to the target and drop it's bombs. They missed.

The Italian flight leader lined up one more shot and caused some engine damage before running out of ammo.

At this point, the Italians broke off and headed for home. The P-40s didn't have a great outing. The Italians only had one aircraft that did anything scoring 2 kills and one reported probable.

The bombers claimed great success despite not hitting anything.

. Now I need to prepare for game 2 of day 1. This time it will be the SAAF’s turn.

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Aircraft Notes:
RAF - 2 AC shot down (1 Veteran, 1 Regular). 1 Regular with engine damage and minor damage. 1 Unscathed.

Italian Fiat Br.20s - 1 Successfully Bomb, 1 Damaged Cockpit and 2x Minor Damage, 1 2x minor damage.

Fighter Squadriglia: - 1 with 2 kills and minor damage all ammo expended (veteran), 2 with no shots fired. --------------

Italian Score Board

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Capitano Mirocleto Gerbino	Jr Ace	5	Spanish Civil War Veteran
2	Tenente Gualtiero Titone	Veteran	2 (1)	Squadron XO. 2 Kills Day 1
3	Sottotenente Tarso Isola	Regular	0
4	Sottotenente Urdino Peduzzi	Regular	0
5	Sottotenente Michael Mariano	Regular	0	1 Mission Flown
6	Sottotenente Abramio Giacinto	Sprog	0
7	SergenteMaggiore Lavinio Lico	Veteran	2
8	Sergente Cristian Piccoli	Regular	0
9	Sergente Romano Garafalo	Regular	0
10	Sergente Rocco Botti	Regular	0	1 Mission Flown
11	Sergente Rodolfo Scalese	Sprog	0
12	Sergente Neoterio Sciulli	Sprog	0
13	Sergente Girardo Rizzi	Sprog	0