" Operation Felix" is one of the scenarios included in For Whom the Bell Tolls. It covers a hypothetical German attack on Spain, occurring sometime after August 1940

The Rock of Gibraltar has been held by the British since 1704, when 1800 Dutch and English marines, plus a few hundred Catalans, landed from Sir George Rooke's fleet. The Rock was besieged during the War of the Spanish Succession ' but has remained in British hands ever since. Because of its imposing mass and sheer cliffs, and the firepower mounted on the rock, Gibraltar became one of the enduring symbols of British obstinance. There is a curious legend that the fate of the Rock (and the British Empire as well) depends upon the survival of the Barbary "apes". A small colony of these monkeys, the only non-human primates found in Europe, has lived on the Rock since the Moorish invasion of Spain.

The Rock is 5 km (3 miles) long and less than 1 km (0.5 mile) wide. It Is 427 m (1400 feet) high, and is joined to the Spanish mainland by a flat sandspit. An airfield was constructed on this in 1936, and extended with landfill into the harbor in time to support the TORCH landings. The limestone of the Rock has been honeycombed with a complex network of tunnels, gun emplacements, command bunkers, hospitals, magazines, workshops, a saltwater desalination plant and fuel reservoirs. By 1941, the 5 square kilometre rock held nearly one hundred guns, including 10x 9.2 inch and 9x 6 inch, as well as about fifty large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

The confined area, precipitous cliffs and extensive tunnel network of Gibraltar, plus the high density of emplaced weapons make the Rock a unique military feature. It is interesting to see how the game designers have chosen to represent the Rock at Europa scale. In Spain and Portugal, Gibraltar was represented by a "hex within a hex". Gibraltar could only be attacked from hex 23:3826. Likewise, units in Spain could only move into Gibraltar from 3826, and units in 3826 could retreat into Gibraltar as if it were a separate hex. 3826 was shown as a rough hex, so Gibraltar itself was treated as a rough-fortress hex: no AEC, attacker halved except engineers and artillery, -1. The Gibraltar fortress could also be attacked by siege and railway guns firing at their two-hex range from 3726 (doubled in strength due to the fortress). In Spain and Portugal, the best defense that the British could muster would be 36 defense factors: two infantry and one armored division, one tank and two static brigades, plus one artillery brigade (the British OOB only lists one). Such a stack would be 1/3 ATEC, and could have 14 points of static flak as well.

A maximum strength German assault on the Rock could total 57.5 ground attack factors, using three Panzer divisions plus all the engineers and artillery (including four rail gun battalions in 3726) that could squeeze into 3826. The Luftwaffe has 49 factors of ground attack available, but not all of this will get through the British flak. The German player therefore cannot get better odds than 2 to 1, and perhaps not even that. The die modifier will be -1 due to terrain, and another -1 for the ATEC. If the Germans elect to use infantry divisions instead of two of the panzers, their ground strength will drop by four factors, but they won't have to worry about the British ATEC. Hmmm ... How do you feel about rolling a 2 to 1, -1?

All of this has been changed in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hex 3826 now contains the point city of La Linea (Spanish for "the lines", literally the lines used by besiegers of the Rock). Gibraltar has been moved a hexrow south into 3927. Since this bit of cartographic fudging would have completely closed the strait of Gibraltar, the African coastline has also been shifted to the south. Ceuta, formerly in 3927, is now in 4027. What godlike powers these game designers have! The Gibraltar hex remains a fortress, and has been upgraded to a mountain hex (it is also a major port). With thousand-foot cliffs, the Rock could certainly be described as a mountain, but I'm not sure that it is a .mountain" in the Europa sense of the term. The designers could have opted for a rough hex (with a mountain hexside facing north?), plus coastal cliffs on the east side of the hex.

These changes have a profound effect on the defense of Gibraltar, due to the reduced stacking for both defenders and attackers. The British can now only pile two divisions, two brigades, and one artillery brigade into the Rock. This gives them a maximum defense strength of 26, plus the same 14 points of static flak. The British order of battle also includes the Home Fleet and Force H task forces. In game terms these two 16-point TFs could add another 32 factors of naval gunfire support to the defense, assuming they were in a position to do so. The RN and RAF OBs for "Operation Felix" include 12 air units with bombing factors. If the best eight of these added their DAS to the defenders, this could add another 6.5 defense factors. The Germans have some units in this game that were not available in Spain and Portugal, including three units specially formed for an assault on Gibraltar: an 8-8 infantry divisional group (formed from the Grossdeutschland motorized regiment and a mountain regiment that underwent special training), a 15-5 artillery divisional group, and a 12-6-4 siege artillery brigade. Rule 38A2 in the WW2 scenario booklet allows the 8-8 [XX] to be treated as a mountain unit while attacking Gibraltar. With a couple of 3-8 mountain regiment breakdowns, available March II, 1941, the Germans could attack the Rock with a stack worth 26.5 factors.

A couple of combat engineers could be used instead of the mountain regiments. This would reduce the attacking strength by one factor, but would give the Germans a +1 modifier on the die roll. However, the use of engineers still wouldn't make it possible for the Germans to take the rock.

Since the analysis that follows is an argument for some changes to the rules, humor me and assume that the attack consists of the units listed above. Note that the infantry divisional group and the mountain regiments would be halved due to the fortress, the artillery divisional group would be halved due to the mountains, and the siege artillery would be face value (halved for the mountains but doubled for the fortress).

The "Operation Felix" order of battle includes four longrange rail siege artillery battalions, which could add another eight attack factors firing at their two-hex range. With the new air rules, the Luftwaffe is much less effective than in Spain and Portugal. First, all of their ground attack factors are quartered, due to the mountains and the fortress. Second, only five air units could be counted towards an attack, since there are only five REs of non-artillery units attacking. The Luftwaffe could therefore only add another 5 strength points to the attack (from Stukas). With the amount of flak in Gibraltar, the Luftwaffe would probably have to send all of its available bombers anyway. And the result? A maximum possible 39.5 factors to 26. This is just over 3 to 2, and assumes that all of the Stukas get through the 14 points of AA, while no British DAS or NGS is available! There is also a -3 on the die roll, giving the Germans a 33% chance of an AE, and absolutely no chance of taking the Rock.

If the Royal Navy can avoid getting sunk by the Luftwaffe (stay in port, lads, we've plenty of flak!), even part of their potential NGS can quickly turn the 3:2 into a 1:1 (-3) or worse. Even if the RN is driven off, or runs out of time (Force H is only available for 8 consecutive turns, and the Home Fleet for 4), even a single RAF bomber flying DAS can ruin the German's 3-2 odds. Finally, what about Gibraltar's CD artillery strength? Optional Rule 44F3 allows the use of CD in ground combat, and if you agree with Rich's analysis (see sidebar) Gibraltar will have at least 6 levels of that.

So now you're thinking "No wonder the Germans never invaded Spain!". It is clear what the British strategy should be for Operation Felix: stuff as much as you can into Gibraltar, pull up the drawbridge, and wait for the Germans to immolate themselves. So why did the Germans even consider this operation? What else could they do to give themselves at least a slim chance of taking the Rock? My first thought was that they might be able to drop paratroops onto the top of the Rock. Both the 7th Parachute and 22nd AL divisions are available, plus eight transports and a glider. The four He 111 H4 units could also be used as transports, although it would take all four of them to airdrop one regiment. The 22 d AL is unfortunately useless at Gibraltar, since it would take two gliders to carry an airlanding regiment. The single glider could be used to reduce the disruption roll for one parachute regiment. Dropping three parachute regiments onto Gibraltar would only add 0.75 factors to the attack, but doing so (assuming they survive the disruption roll) would allow another three air units to attack: another possible 2.25 factors. If all goes well, the Germans could get their 3 to 2, -3, which still has absolutely no chance of taking the hex.

Of course, in FWtBT, unlike Spain and Portugal, Gibraltar is a mountain hex. Parachute landings into mountain hexes aren't allowed. Hands up everyone who knew that all along? So, what now? Another way of getting more troops and air units into the attack would be to land troops from the sea. The problem is, there are no naval units listed for this scenario. This is only fair. Thanks to the RN and RAF, the Regia Marina would probably never have carried off a major amphibious landing anywhere except in the central Mediterranean or in the Aegean. So, my question stands: the Germans did seriously consider Operation FELIX, so how could they have won? Perhaps the problem is in the simulation. Here follows two modest proposals to make it possible for the Germans to take Gibraltar. The first of these concerns the German troops allocated to the Gibraltar assault. I find it a bit odd that the divisional group allocated to the assault, and which underwent a period of special training, is no more effective attacking the Rock than an ordinary mountain division. Remember that the divisional group is composed of a mountain regiment plus the Grossdeutsch land regiment. The GD lads were among the Reich's best troops, and had trained for an small boat assault on Gibraltar town. (One plan was to mine a merchant ship in Gibraltar harbor, and then pose as survivors until they could reach shore.) This would not have been fun for the participants, even if carried out at night, but it would have been preferable to running across that sand spit carrying ropes and ladders. Perhaps the regiments that make up the divisional group should have a limited, one-time-only commando ability. Like regular commandos, you could roll on the success table for each regiment to see if their part of the attack achieved surprise. If both did, it would cancel out most of the -3 modifier. Of course, if it failed badly, the Germans have lost a division's worth of men even before rolling the attack itself. Giving the regiments of the divisional group commando abilities would change the odds, assuming the Germans are lucky, to 3 to 2, - 1. This gives the Germans a I in 6 chance of an EX. It isn't much, but it could be a bloody victory and Iron Crosses all round. Another way to change the die modifier would be to use one engineer regiment in place of a mountain regiment: 3 to 2, flat, has a DR along with the EX. But then, that 3 to 2 is still highly unlikely, since there is still the RAF, the RN, and CD to worry about. Even giving the Grossdeutschland and mountain troops super-human abilities wouldn't bring the combat ratio within reach of anything the Germans would contemplate rolling.

The second proposal starts with a question: what would have happened, during the real war, if the Germans had shown up in La Linea and started yet another siege of Gibraltar? The airstrip on the sand spit would have abandoned faster than you can say 88 mm, while the German artillery and aerial bombing would have driven the Royal Navy out to sea and made large-scale resupply impossible. The Rock had ammunition and supplies considered sufficient for an 18-month siege, but the Germans had lots of time. Once minefields had been laid in the strait, how useful to the Allies would Gibraltar be, anyway? Shouldn't the neutralization of Gibraltar in this way be worth some victory points? So, if the aim of "Operation Felix" is take Gibraltar (worth 100 VPs), and that aim is virtually impossible to achieve, perhaps the victory conditions should be re-written: neutralization of Gibraltar by means of a tight siege, minelaying in the strait, and enough bombing to chase out the RAF and RN would be sufficient.

Or, perhaps in some future Grand Europa scenario, it will be possible for the Germans to attempt the para-dropping of baskets full of poisoned fruit onto the Rock to kill the Barbary apes!

Late breaking news! Rich Velay has informed me that the status of Gibraltar will be changed. See the rules court in this issue.

Instead of a mountain hex with a fortress, it will revert to a ROUGH hex with a fortress. Readers are encouraged to recalculate the best possible German attack on the Rock, and see for themselves if this change makes it possible for an assault on the Rock to succeed.

Gibraltar Coast Defenses