It's been a while since I had time to write about my GSASL missions and other new stuff in the SASL world. There will be a change from now on. I'm approaching the end of this semester and I will have plenty of time to write about everything that is happening. Just to mention a few is the progress in the current Cyrenaica Campaign and playtest of new SASL material. Stay tuned for more information in th very near future.

Jörgen

German Schwere Coy 1 Btn/5 PzRgt/5 Div - Pursuit

Oberleutnant Holmquist, Schwere Coy 1 / Btn I / PzRgt 5 / Div 5

After Action Report
Mission: Pursuit [SASL/TSASL/DSASL Mission 15]
Enemy: British King’s Dragoon Guards Recon Btn
Date: 1941 MarchLocation: South East of El Agheila, Cyrenaica, North Africa
Result: Victory! [Friendly VP=75, Enemy VP=14]

Report: Our orders were to chase the British King’s Dragoon Guards Recon unit and drive them out of Cyrenaica using the momentum of capturing El Agheila.

We took use of afternoon sun and attacked the britisk retreating along the road to Benghazi. Dividing the forces in three groups we attack what looked like a long strait line at start. Finding British rear guards on the road we made a strong strait on attack and simultaniously trying to envelope the Britts from north and south.

Our first encounter was a A13 MkI who took out one of our Pz IVD with a well placed shot. We stoped and fired from several positions and after not that few bounce offs a kill was secured. No one came out allive. We pushed on and the enveloping pushed on. Now a new tank, a Matilda II appeared along with some 2 pounder guns. Those are really leathal and we had to use smoke dispencers to protect us. The fight became intense and we managed to get some of those 2 pounders in overruns. The attack along the road and to the south got stuck in fire fights. At the same time the northern enveloping made progress. Although a 25 pounder appeared to frighten us it was quickly take out of action and later destroyed. Managing to get arround the Matilda we finaly got a shot that took it out of action. Those men fought bravely and took out another 3 Pz IVD from us in our attemped to get around it. Shortly after the Matilda who had placed himself on the bridge over a wadi the bridge was destroyed by the Britts. We never had the chance to find any demolition charges on that bridge. Now our pioneers have some work to do.

Summary:
German Losses:
4x Pz IVD w/ crews
1x 2-4-7

British Losses:
1x A13 MkI w/ crew
1x Matilda II w/ crew
1x A10 MkI CS w/ crew
1x 25mm Hotchkiss
1x 2-ponuder
1x 25-pounder
1x 3in. Mortar
3x 4-4-7 MMC
1x 4-5-7 MMC
1x 4-5-8 MMC
8x Crews.

New GSASL Campaign Cyrenaica 1941

It time for a new GSASL campaign. This time we are heading for the desert and the campaign starts at the historic date og 29 mars 1941. There will be three divisions, the German 5 Leichte, the Italian 27 Brescia and the British 2nd Armoured. I will be Campaign Master for the Italian Brescia and it is the first time I will act as a CM. This will be great fun and we have been given permission to try out Desert SASL rules modified for the GSASL campiagn. This will be great fun.

The campaign will start very soon and I will be reporting on its progress in several ways so keep your eyes out for more soon.

Bessarabia Campaign has ended

The Bessarabia Campaign has been over for some time now but I haven't had the time to write about my results. This time I will make an abstract of the five last missions of the campaign and give you an idea of how they went.

Mission 6 - Escape
We were ordered to harras the Romanian flank an impose as much casualties as possible. We made some progress but lost the mission due to an armored counterattack which both stopped us and gave us some casualties. We had to withdraw.

Mission 7 - Recon
On the 7th of july we were ordered to recon our flanks and stop any Romanian we stumbled upon. We moved out in two groups reconing the area and found a small group in a building. They were swiftly dealt with and we continued our mission. Another building containing a small Romanian force fortified with a AT Gun was encountered a few hours later. Also this building was attacked.We had some casualties here but could neutrulise them and occupy the building. No more Romanians enetred our area. Mission victory.

Mission 8 - Interception
On the 8th of july our orders were to delay any Romanian advancing units that we encountered.
We moved in position and had our MMGs and 81mm MTR positioned in the middle of our sector to have good protection but also good LOS. We ere expecting Romanian tanks and that worried us as we only had our mortars and ATRs to fight them. We als hd some Batallion Oba to help.
At 10.30 we saw he first Romanians approach. They were advancing carefully and we managed to stop them. More and more Romanians entered the scen as time went by and the first Tanks appeared and moved towards our MMg and mortar nests. We got some lucky hits by the mortars and two tanks were eliminated, one burning. And then a very well placed shot by our ATR crew burned a R-35(f) Romanian tank. More bravey was showed by our infantry. They took on a LT vz 35(g) tank in Close Combat and got it eliminated. Great work. Only a small part of the Romanians managed to get by our lines.

Mission 9 - Take the Highway prolonged
We moved on the ENEMY to harras them along the highway. We found a few hidden in some buildings and they were easily taken out. As moved further along the road we found more Romanians garding some buildings and the road. They were to become more of a diffucult struggle then anticpated. The Roamnians had a well placed R-1(t) with an excellent MG gunner that picked out several of our men. We tried to move around but the time just wasn’t there. We had to withdraw. We also had big problems with our weapons that got stuck continouesly or ammunition that were duds. this missin was a great loss.

Mission 10 - Cavalry Charge
As we moved towards the Front line we were attacked by ENEMY Cavalry who charged us at full speed. We found our position to be very unfavorable so we swiftly took cover in a wooded area and could let our firepower lose on the charging cavalry. We managed to stop the charge and killed a lot of Romanians in the process. Sudently Romanian Armored support appeared so we had to withdraw to better positions. The Tanks moved passed our forces bur suppresed our firering MMGs and finaly took out them. In the meantime we managed the stop the remaining Romanian cavalry and we do consider this a success. The Romanians were stoped. Narrow victory.

In total the Russain side won the campaign by 2 points. It was great fun and I highly recomend SASL played in this manner. I gives you a lot of fun in new situations.

See you in the next GSASL campaign.

141 Russian Cavalry BTN in Bessarabia 5 - City Defence

Briefing

5 July 1941. Our orders for today was to defend the city of Bratuseni.

After Action Report

07.00 Our orders in the defence of Bratuseni was to cover the suburbs, screen and slow down the Romanian advance. We had established two defencelines to slow down the Romanians if they broke through the first line. It seams that the Romanians chosed a different way into the city at first but then there was a few units approaching, but they must have been reconing units. We had some skirmishing fights before a group of Romanians attacked a building block to the south east of our first defence line. They attacked in such a way that they must have benn berserk or something. They managed to get a long way before we could wipe them out. Our OBA support was useless today as they were canceled almost immediately. Fortunately we didn’t get that much Romanians in our sector but this could have been a disaster.





Losses: A SWT TEAM

Trophies: Captured a ATR 20L

Log details: AC=3, Romanian RE 4/5 at start, Russian RE= 5/6,

141 Russian Cavalry BTN in Bessarabia 4 - Cavalry Night Raid

Briefing
4 July 1941. Our orders for today was to make a night raid into the ENEMY lines and create a stirr up.

After Action Report
04.00 We approached the roamnian lines and were a bit behind the front line. Our scouts had discoverd to camps containing Tanks. This could be a night camp for an Armored Battalion or a depo for service of the Tanks. We devided our Capmany into two groups to be able to make a surprise attack.


At 04.15 we hit the first camp. A week sentrie force were guarding the camp and was swiftly taken out as was some tank crews trying to get to the tanks.


At 04.20 the other camp was attacked. The first base was neutrulised rather quicly and we started to get those tanks out of action. We moved the rest of the first groups forces swiftly to the second camp to assist in the attack. The second camp also had a weak defence force that was easy taken out of action. The Romanians never had a chance to counter attack and we could get to work on those tanks as well.

The job was quickly done and we could start our return at 05.00 when the light strated to show it self.



Losses: No Losses

Tanks destroyed: 4x R-35(f), 3x LT vz 35(g), 1x FT-17C(f), 1x R-1(t)

Log details: AC=3, Romanian RE 2/3 at start, Russian RE= NA,

141 Russian Cavalry BTN in Bessarabia 3 - Countermove

Briefing

3 July 1941. Our orders for today was to flank our positions and search for Romanians entering our beloved Moldavia.

After Action Report

Company diary B Rota 141 Cavalry Batalyon 176 Strelkovaya DivisiyaCommunication are reestablished with Battalion HQ. We moved in on our flank and setup positions to surprise any Romanians daring to come this way.

9.30 Our positions were taken control of. Now the Romanians are welcome to try come this way.

11.30 No Romanians yet but we can hear tanks rumbling so they must be near by.

15.00 First Romanians were spotted. A short fire fight broke out with the surprised Romanians. We took Prisoners and killed of some woods. A Romanian R-1(t) were spotted. He had obviously problem with his CMG as he stopped and tried to do something with his tank a safe distance from our weapons.

Nothing more happened as the Romanians withdrew.

Losses: None

Trophies: 20 men and an officer captured

Log details: AC=3, Romanian RE 5/6, Russian RE= 4/5,