This Issue

The Italian military is onc of the most interesting organizations of World War II. Indeed, there is much to be learned from studying the entire Italian experience in the war.

Historians have not been kind to the Italians, citing the same issues pointed out by David Lippman in his article in this issue. The poor, derided Italians have long been the bud of now trite jokes such as "How many gears does an Italian tank have?" (see the title, above) "What's the forward gear for?" (in case of attack from the rear) "How do you view the Italian Navy? (Through a glassbottomed boat.).

The Italians have their defenders, who point out that the histories deriding the Italian military are invariably written by British historians, who were sorely in need of someone for their boys to be better than, and that the Italian artillery often fought well and their midget submarines were quite successful.

As is usually the case, there is truth in both sides, but it does seem that any army that must depend on its gunners dying by their guns for its stories of valor certainly has its problems.

Undoubtedly, one of the several reasons that the Italian military performed with little enthusiasm was a collective suspicion that it was on the wrong side. Between the wars, the Italian officers had looked for inspiration to their former allies of the Great War, not to Germany. As late as 1936, Italy rushed forces to its northern border to guard against possible German aggression during the occupation of Austria. From some points of view, it is difficult to criticize the performance of an army reluctant to embark upon a war of aggression in the first place.

In this issue we catch the Italians at their best and worst. First, their conquering army marches hesitatingly into Egypt in the scenario / variant "Graziani's Offensive." Originally, this was to be designed by Gary Stagliano, but Gary has his sights on grander things -- namely, extending the campaign not to September, but to June 1940. We'll hopefully have this version of even greater scope in the future.

David Lippman chronicles this invasion along with the same army's quick demise at the hands of Wavell and O'Connor in "Desert Dawn." John Astell and David Lippman both look into the details of Italian weaponry and Michael Parker finishes his series on the Italian divisional histories.

A historical version of the second scenario "Operation CRUSADER" would recreate one of the few purely Italian victories against a significant opponent at Europa's scale. The first turn of a CRUSADER "Europa as History" would see the British 7th Armoured attack the Italian Ariete Division at Bir el Gubi and roll an"Attacker Stopped." A year and better equipped and trained troops made a significant difference in Italian performance.

Incidentally, We haven't had room for the popular "Europa Staff College" feature in this or the last issue, but it will soon return with overruns, construction, and patrol attacks.

East Africa

The subject being Italy at war, now is a good time to talk about East Africa and Europa. In case you missed it, Africa Orientale (AOI) appeared in issue #128 of Strategy & Tactics with the permission of GDW. (Having been a victim of TSR's infamous assets not the liabilities" line, I no longer subscribed, but I chanced across it in a store just after I became re-interested in Europa.)

AOI cleverly solves the problem of how to get the enormous area Ethiopia and Somalia onto a magazine game map by doubling linear Europa scale from 16 miles per hex to 32 miles per hex reducing four standard-size Europa maps to fit onto one a adjusting other systems to fit the scale -- for example, clear terrain costs 2 MP to enter. The amazing thing is that the game works well at this altered scale.

So how about a Collectors Edition game on East Africa at the Europa scale? The good news is that Arthur Goodwin I researched a complete set of East African maps in draft form. The problem as GRD sees it is that this would be a map-heavy (four full-size Europa maps) meaning a heavy up front cost for print run. On the other end is the risk inherent in publishing a game on a subject as esoteric as East Africa. The six maps imply hefty price tag and make customer acceptance of such a prod outside the hard-core Europa faithful a risky proposition.

Personally, I've enjoyed both my plays of the S&T version, and rather think that, packaged with an"lnvasion of Ethiopia, 1935-3 , it would be a game to own, but then, moving a handful of units on a map the size of Second Front would seem a little bit strange.

Anyway, cut to the chase: there is a movement afoot on Europa Internet list-server to collect a group of people to finance initial cost of a very limited print-run of six maps covering E Africa, along with some supplementary material such as an E African Order of Battle, but no counters. The exact cost isn't known as the size of the group of"investors" would be a prime determining factor.

The two maps cover Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and south Egypt, to connect with WitD. You may recall Grant Luetkehen' article "Rornmel Beyond the Pyramids" from TEM #41 in which he discussed his misfortune at losing the Delta as the British and wanting to withdraw up the Nile. Not to be undone by the edge the map, Grant quickly drafted a Europa scale map of southern Egypt and continued to play.

So far the group has at least generated enough interest among themselves to continue investigating the project (31 people tentatively signed on, but they think they easily need over 100 to approach viability). If you would be interested in participatin realizing that such a limited print run obviously means a much higher than normal cost per unit, send an e-mail to Rohan Titus the address: srtitus@ozemail.com.au

Remember that this is NOT a GRD project, so don't call Winston or write me about it -- we won't know much other than what you have read here.