"Desert Cauldron" can be a real slugfest The Axis player has 79 ground attack factors at the start against 72 British ground defense factors. But British reinforcements are on the way and their forts serve to reduce the Axis superiority in AEC. The one real Axis advantage is in moving and attacking both first and last.

In real life, the Germans scored a substantial victory, but it wasn't enough to decide the campaign. Enough of 8th Army survived to patch up a defense at El Alamein. At several points, the Battle of Gazala hung on the brink. If the Allied counterattack against 'The Cauldron' had succeeded, they might have destroyed Afrika Korps, and Gazala would have taken the place of 2nd Alamein in history.

Group Hekker

The Germans had put together a scratch unit for Operation Venezia consisting of a handful of Panzer Mark II tanks, some German infantry, and some Italian marines. This unit was to land on the coast between Gazala and Tobruk, link up with Afrika Korps, and help bag the entire front line of 8th army. The landing was eventually canceled for various reasons.

In spite of the Royal Navy's sea dominance, it may have been possible for the landing to go off as hoped. The British fleet was operating from its distant base in Alexandria and was not keeping standing naval patrols in range of Axis air cover.

The possibility of elimination or return on the Success Table includes interception at sea by British naval or air forces, sea disasters, or defeat at the hands of several small South African units below Europa scale that were guarding the area against just such a move.

Tobruk in Disrepair.

Many accounts of these battles describe Tobruk's fortifications as in disrepair or scavenged to improve the defenses of the Gazala line. This couldn't happen in WD using the current fortification rules, since a fortress cannot become "unimproved." If you believe the scavenging theory, use the optional rule.

Air OB:

On May 26, the Axis had 312 German (8 groups) and 392 Italian aircraft (6 or 7 groups) in Africa, a total of 704 of which 497 planes (6 German and 4 Italian groups) were serviceable. There were 215 additional aircraft (4 or 5 groups) in Greece, Crete, and Sicily. The Allies were down to 320 aircraft in the Desert Air Force, of which only 190 were serviceable. I assumed that these Allied numbers did not include the Egyptian-based bomber force, which was not part of the Desert Air Force, although it was under its orders.

I realize that serviceability numbers don't necessarily translate directly into operative and inoperative Europa groups, but it seemed to work out well here. A remaining question was which of the units should begin the game inoperative or in the replacement pool? My selections use mostly educated guesswork and anecdotal information. An equally valid method would be to roll dice for each, in much the same manner as you roll for the status of Italian aircraft at the start of a WitD campaign game.

If you prefer this variable start, set up all air units listed by the "Desert Cauldron" Order of Battle as starting on the map in operative mode. Units listed as being in the replacement pool still begin there. After all units are set up, but before play begins, roll one die for each air unit. On a roll of 1 or 2 that unit begins the game inoperative.

Ground OB. The ground order of battle was straightforward. There were questions, as always, about rear area units, but most of these were resolved without guesswork.

The Allies are in the process of upgrading 3-2-10 armored brigades to 5-3-10s. The Gazala battles are well known as the first use of U. S. Grant tanks, but most of the tanks were still Crusaders and Stuarts. The problem in reflecting this in the OB is that the Grants were parceled out to all three brigades-not concentrated into one 5-3-10. I promoted 4th Armored Brigade to 5- 3-10 because it seems to have had a few more than the others. The Official History states that neither British armored division had completed its transformation to the new style organization.

The exception to the national integrity rule is made to rationalize the historical garrison of Tobruk. This was 4th and 6th South African, 11th Indian, 201st Guards, and 32nd Army Tank Brigades. The 11th Indian replaced the 5th South African Brigade, destroyed in Operation Crusader, in 2nd South African Division. The entire lst SA Division passed right though Tobruk on its withdrawal, yet the 11th Indian stayed in Tobruk, instead of switching with one of the South African Brigades.

Few Europa players would do this, particularly if they know the stacking rules, so I concluded that the Indian brigade should be allowed to combine with the South African brigades to form the division.

The campaign game setup tries to give the status of every unit that has so far arrived in the theater. One exception is the 3-4-6 Italian Artillery Regiment 24 dM. The accuracy of placing this unit in the initial OB has been questioned before, I think legitimately.

In my own mind, I couldn't justify the Italians rebuilding the 60th Sabratha Division for 3 REs before replacing this 3-4-6 artillery for 1 inf RP, Neither could I justify its placement in the scrap heap. It certainly shouldn't be in this scenario's initial forces. I finally just purposefully left it out of everything.

In name, the British 5th and 6th Cavalry Brigades had already converted to the 8th Armoured and 23rd Armoured Brigades. I don't think they were yet a usable tank force, however. I have left them at their cavalry status.

SMPs:

The starting SMPs are adjusted to account for the Allied capture of the Axis supply terminal of Benghazi on the Jan I 42 turn as described in the WitD optional rules. The Axis lost 5 SMPs, while the Allies gained 2.

Malta.

On Malta, the USS Wasp and HMS Eagle had delivered 62 Spitfires to the island on May 9. Eagle followed with 27 more on a return trip May 18. 1 considered this second trip the transport of an air replacement point, bringing the strength of the air garrison up to two Spitfire groups. Over 100 planes had reached the island in May.

I thought about the possibility of a fort on Malta by this time in the campaign game. The British had built up the "Victoria Lines" stretching across the island between hexes 18:0308 and 18:0408. I finally decided against the idea and considered these to be normal field fortifications.

Historically, the special operation planned against Malta for Jul II 42 involved all units in the Axis Special Forces Pool except one Italian 3-6 infantry division, which was planned for an amphibious operation against Gozo (18:0307) on the same turn.

Pioneers.

David Hughes' pioneers units got a semi-official blessing by their inclusion in Balkan Front, so I decided to include them in the OB. David's article in TEM #6 would have 9 Allied construction regiments available (plus the 8th Army engineers) by the time of this scenario. This is too many without considerably changing the construction rules, even after subtracting the three units building Syrian railroads. I have somewhat arbitrarily reduced David's number by two, assuming that many of the pioneer units were engaged in the routine work on the lines of communication that isn't covered by Europa engineering rules.

If you don't want to use the pioneer units, reinstate the divisional engineering rule and make the following modifications to the orders of battle.

On the Allied OB:

Delete:
4x 0-1-4 Cons X [any]
1x 1-2-8 Eng X 8 A

Add to 8th Army reserves:
1x 0-1-8 Cons III W
1x 0-1-8 Cons III 8 A

On the Axis OB:

Delete:
1x 1-8 Eng III Afr

Note: The above unit arrives Dec I 42 per the WitD OB, I included it in this scenario per John Astell's suggestion in TEM #8 to add the 0-8 Eng III Afr as a German reinforcement on Jul I 41. (The unit then later converts to the 1-8 Eng III on Dec I 42.) I chose to use the 1-8 unit instead for simplicity, to avoid having to make another counter.

Desert Cauldron The Gazala Battles, May-June 1942

Introduction and Rules
Allied Order of Battle
Axis Order of Battle
Campaign Game OOB Extension
Designer's Notes