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Draco Rexus said:Congrats!
Now... get back to work on the getting this AAR back on track!
is this aar dead now?
Yeah.. small breaks.. Now TRP is out I should be able to decide which mod I'll be using soon CORE may well miss the deadline (serves them right for being lazy... ) Not that I've been lazy about this AAR, oh no..
CORE may well miss the deadline (serves them right for being lazy... ) Not that I've been lazy about this AAR, oh no..
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Evans said:Yeah.. small breaks.. Now TRP is out I should be able to decide which mod I'll be using soon
good good just wanted to b sure
Good to here, though I will not have a bad word said about the sound chaps from CORE.
Sir Humphrey said:Good to here, though I will not have a bad word said about the sound chaps from CORE.
BTW Sir Humphrey, are you playing in the Age of Enlightenment RPG or just advertising, you might notice you got me as a player (as Prussia if you didn't notice
)
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Chapter VI
Counterattack at Tobruk and the Italian collapse
"The best form of defence is offence."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Counterattack at Tobruk and the Italian collapse
"The best form of defence is offence."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
September, 1937
James woke up from his nightmare into a world ten times worse. His head felt like it would explode under intense pressure, and at first he thought he must have had had a whole bottle of whisky. That was until he remembered where he actually was. Black spots danced in front of his eyes and he felt sick, though not sick enough to actually vomit. He ached all over as he lay immobile. He tried to move his arms or legs but he couldn't muster the strength to do so. He became dimly aware of the tent he was in, and slowly as his mind awoke painful slowly, as if trying to prevent any mental damage through becoming fully conscious too quickly, that he was in an infirmary or medical tent of some description. The medics, doctors and surgeons all looked the same to his blurred vision. One of them came over to talk to him, or at least try, the words sounded like a distant muffled nonsense to James and he merely shook his head weakly to try and show he didn't understand. When his mind became sharper James realised that he was probably heavily concussed. He tried to remember how such an event had come about, the last thing he remembered was leaping from his tank. Staggering over to a trench. Watching his friends and comrades explode in a ball of furious fire. Hiding in the trench with some Infantrymen whilst Italian artillery shot a relentless hail of fury at him. Slowly the events that had brought him to the tent unfolded in a dream-like quality, a kind of vision impossibly fast but at the same time in slow motion.
He had still been huddled in the trench when the counter-attack came, Italian infantrymen had attacked just after dawn in part of a large push against the British south of Tobruk. Funny how the 'battle of Tobruk' was decided miles to the south of it. In the largest battle of the Anglo-Italian war in North Africa the lines teetered from side to side in rapid advances, flanking and counter-flanking. At the time James awoke in the tent the ebb and flow was fully in the favour of the Italians, who had regained initiative and ground against a British Army disorganised and suffering from supply problems from their deeply penetrating advances.
He had been in the trench at that moment and had fought the Italians with his service revolver for as long as possible. It was over quickly, the British were surprised and forced to withdraw and James had been left in the trench alone, unable to haul himself out and escape. The Italians had captured him. That was it. That was why he didn't understand the medical orderlies- they were speaking Italian. At this revelation James felt no emotion, no despair at being captured and no joy at seeing the effective end of his part the war, the killing. He had long grown accustomed to the continual barrage of artillery but there was a new sound. Fainter, sharper, more frequent. Like a firecracker. A firecracker. A fire. James lost consciousness and blackness engulfed him.
The British were initially unprepared for the Italian counter-attack, having previously believed such an undertaking beyond the capabilities of the Italian Army in Libya, and they were pushed back across the northern Sahara. However, the British were saved by two daring operations that took place almost simultaneously which paved the way for the British Army in Libya to go back into successful offensive. The first was the risky armoured encirclement of Tobruk. leaving their flanks open, the British Armoured Corps raced between the Italian's flanking army in the desert and the forces on the coast. Divided in two the British were able to capitalise on the breakthrough by reversing the desert forces and trapping the coastal ones in the districts of the city- which surrendered to an attack from the east within a few days.
The second operation was an amphibious assault at Benghazi, which cut off the Italians route of supplies and was largely responsible for the Italian collapse and subsequently the Italian's capitulation. Britain now stood as undisputed master of Northeast Africa, the Ionian Islands and Rhodes following the ceding of that territory by Italy. Ethiopia was subdued like so many tribal nations before the might of Great Britain. With the successful conclusion of the Anglo-Italian war the citizens of the Empire rejoiced- nationalistic feelings soared and the King was held in even higher regard for having been the figurehead of such a successful war. However, not all was happy in the British Isles and many felt that the degree of Democracy they had fought hard to establish was slipping from their grasp, and so Britain entered a darker part of her history.
Whoops i just realised that previous mentions of El-Alamein are meant to be about Tobruk..
Hmm...so that explains it, sounded weird...anyway glad 2 see it's back up, now 4 the SCW!!!
Okay, with the Eyetees out of Africa, what's next for the Empire?
Oh, by the by, nice bit of writing there with James.
Oh, by the by, nice bit of writing there with James.
Great writing, absolutely splendid. And yes, I am playin in the Age of Enlightenment, most happy to have you on board.
Thankyou for all the kind words, I hope the increase in pace isn't too fast
Who as my friend, who as? That's the burning question!
Sir Humphrey said:
Who as my friend, who as? That's the burning question!
Sir Humphrey said:
Well I was guessing Aussieboy.. but he's left now I think..
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I'm sensing a flat line on the heart moniter of this AAR. Quick! Somebody get a crash cart in stat!