O Group Battle of Beda Fomm

Staying in the Western Desert and Operation Compass at SWG this week as Nye and Myself fought The Battle of Beda Fomm. An O Group scenario written by David Brown the games author and published in the Lard Mag last year. It pits the Italian army in retreat from Benghazi with the British Commonwealth forces of Coombe Force, a fighting Column, sent across the Desert to cut off the retreating Italian forces following the Coastal road. 

Here is a view of the table from the Italians side, they must either force the British from the table by inflicting 3 Fubars or capture the BUA at the far end of the table  In the middle we see the 'Pimple' with the Mosque atop and the low rise of rocks across the road. Scattered around are some rock fields and scrub that provide a very limited amount of cover in an otherwise barren area.

The deployment dice favoured the British with an abundance of Ambush positions which being a worn Battalion meant that most of the british deployment was hidden from the Italians making crossing that open ground all the more difficult.

We played 6 turns before the evening came to an end. Neither side was making much progress towards a conclusive victory but the situation was looking harder and harder for the Italian forces. With so much open ground to cover against forces either concealed or in cover the task was beginning to look futile somewhat like the historical battle where British forces were able to cut of the italian line of retreat using a ragtag force in a bold move that was lucky to be in strong positions just 30 minutes before Italian units appeared on the road.
By holding the line at Beda Fomm the British forced the surrender of 25,000 prisoners, captured 107 tanks and 93 guns. The effective destruction of the Italian 10th Army was to be a double edged sword as it played a role in bringing Rommel and the Afrika Kprp to the region just as the battle hardend British forces were pulled from the line to be be sacrificed in the Battles of Greece and Crete. 

Big Thanks to my opponent Nye who supplied not just all the forces on the table but also the pictures in this post.Thanks also go to the members of the Facebook O Group page who helped me track down the missing table plan for this scenario.