Who'd a thought it? The Italians pulled off a big upset and defeated the British screening force. That merry Italian trickster, Colonel Tomas Cheekalino, slipped by the Brits with armored cars and, after scattering the crews of the British heavy guns, slipped into the far pass sealing the victory. While it was a rare Italian victory there was also a cost. Half of the attacking Italian armored force was left smoking on the desert floor. And when is the last time that you remember AP rounds bouncing off a STUART? How about TWICE? Other moments of drama/jubilation were (1) when an Italian mortar round scored a direct hit and knocked out a crucial Brit 57mm AT gun and (2) when a British truck mounting two 50 cal machine guns caught an Italian AT gun battery on the move and reduced it to burning pasta. There was (3) also a running fight between two Stuarts and three M13 tanks where many shots were fired but no one was hit. Tommy Cheek and Don Crownover played the Italians and Bryant Williams and Major Bill played the Brits. Young Mitchell Williams, aged 15, was scheduled to play but after killing his first deer that morning he was far too worked up to attend. Bryant and Mitzi live in the wild woods of Hickman County and Mitchell went out into the front yard about 5:30 and sat on a stump where he put one round into the 6-pointer who immediately dropped dead. (the deer, not Mitchell.) Mitchell is having the entire deer stuffed by a taxidermist and is planning on sleeping with it in his bed. The taxidermist has agreed to pull off all the ticks and kill all the fleas. Rumor has it that Mitchell, upon killing his first, removed the heart and ate it on the spot. He was last seen running naked through the woods smeared in blood, wearing antlers and yodelling a Celtic victory song. Back to Dispatch January 2005 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com