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Old September 5th, 2013, 05:01 AM

Taskforce Taskforce is offline
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Default Re: Australian AAR - *What if* scenario

The rugged terrain of northern Italy is beginning to become home soil for the soldiers of the Austrailan taskforce. Again the mission was to advance and capture the terrain before the troops of the RSI could do so.

Support units came from Great Britain and consisted of 3 Churchill tanks and 4 RAF Spitfire firgher-bombers (19 men).




Right from the start B company of the 23rd/21st IR got cought in the Italian artillery and mortar fire and took heavy losses. The same story repeated itself at the north and south flag groups, but with the difference that the Australians could capture these early on and then went on to hold them without much difficulties. The battle for the centre flag group was repeatedly assaulted by masses of infantry and got badly beaten by the Italian artillery and mortars, resulting in several damaged and immobilised tanks, but despite of this the flags were held until the very end of the battle. Despite suffering pretty heavy losses, the battle ended up being a decisive victory for the Australians. Three of the supporting RAF Spitfires were badly damaged during the battle, but none was shot down. The 112th AT-R also scored their first "kill" during this battle destroying an Italian tank destroyer.

Losses:
-RSI: 80 tanks and armoured vehicles, 9 120 mm mortar positions, 2 soft vehicles & almost 1.200 men in total
-Great Britain: No casualties suffered
-Austraila:
--2/7th AR: 3 AC4 Sentinel, 1 Lloyd Carrier & 14 men in total
--112th AT-R: 1 6-pounder anti-tank gun & 5 men in total
--23rd/21st IR: 194 men in total

The 3 AC4 were destroyed by enemy tanks & the Lloyd carrier and the anti-tank gun by enemy artillery.

Captured equipment:
-2 81 mm mortar positions, 1 Wespe and 5 Semovente CA 20 anti-aircraft vehicles could be captured intact by the Australian troops.

4 of the Semovente CA 20 were put into service by the 67th AA-R, the Italian 20 mm anti-aircraft guns replace by the 20 mm Polsten anti-aircraft guns.

Replacements:
-2/7th AR: The destroyed AC4 were completely replaced with the ones recently shipped to Italy from Australia, leaving a further 5 AC4 and 4 AC3 Sentinel tanks in the reserves. The tank soldiers were also replaced.
112th AT-R: No replacements for the destroyed 6-pounder anti-tank gun with crew could be given to the unit at this time.
-23rd/21st IR: Only parts of the 194 men killed in action could be replaced with fresh manpower. None of the Vickers machine guns could be replaced at this time.

Future battles:
Intel says that Germany is planning a large scale assault in an important sector in northern Italy. The Austrailian taskforce is sent in to try to stop them and, thanks to their very impressive combat record, is promised more support than normal, including two entire artillery regiments.

Cheers, Taskforce
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