DESCRIPTION
This FSO will recreate the conquest of Tunisia by the Allies in 1943.
In the east Montgomery and his 8th Army, the famous desert rats, race through Libya until finally being brought to a halt by Rommel at the "Mareth Line" where he was dug in and tried to end his long retreat from Egypt. Fortunately for him the 8th Army was had almost at the very end of its supply chain which brought its rapid advance to a screeching halt until ports in Libya were repaired and supply dumps created closer to the Tunisia border.
Meanwhile in the west the Allied 1st Army had landed in Morocco and Algeria on November 8th and had rolled up both countries in the face of only sporadic Vichy resistance and light German defenses. However, Hitler was determined to make Tunisia the cornerstone of the Axis defense of North Africa, swearing to turn it into the Verdun of the Mediterranean. General Arnim was immediately sent to take command of the German and Italian forces in Tunisia and to sieze it from the French before they could switch sides and turn it over to the Americans and the British, as they had just done in the "Darlan Deal" for Morocco and Algeria.
All told Arnim had 110,000 troops, 200 tanks (with some of the new Panthers present) and Flieger Korps II had been reinforced to 445 combat aircraft and 637 transport aircraft.
Facing this in the west was the Allied 1st Army made up of green American troops, unreliable French divisions (freshly come over from the Vichy regime), and fresh British divisions new to North Africa. The western airforce made up of both USAAF and RAF was untried and had yet to develop the command structure and tactics that the Desert Air Force in the East had developed after several hard years of warfare.
While in the east stood the battle hardened 8th Army eager to finally end their long tour of duty in Africa with only the German and Italian forces in Tunisia standing in their way.
NOTE: We will be using the new, very much larger Tunisia terrain for this event.
ALLIED AIRCRAFT
U.S.
A-20G
B-24J (limited)
B-25C/D (formations enabled)
B-26B (formations enabled)
F4F-4
P-38G
P-39D
P-40E
M-3
Sherman VC
BRITISH
Boston Mk III (formations enabled)
Hurricane Mk IIC
Hurricane Mk IID
Seafire MK IIC
Spitfire Mk V
Spitfire Mk IX
AXIS AIRCRAFT
GERMAN
Bf 109F-4
Bf 109G-2
Bf 109G-6
Bf 110C-4b
Bf 110G-2
Fw 190A-5 (sub for early 190s)
Ju 87D-3 (gets 2 lives)
Ju 88A-4 (formations enabled)
Panzer IV
SdKfz 251
ITALIAN
C.202
COUNTRY PERCENTAGES
Roughly 50 / 50 with the Axis having slightly more.
SCORING
CV - TBD points
CA - TBD points
DD - TBD points
5 pts - Single Engine AC with 1 crew
10 pts - Single or double engine AC with 2 crew
15 pts - Double Engine AC with 3+ crew
TBD - Small Airfield
TBD - Medium Airfield
TBD - Large Airfield
TBD - Port
TBD - Vehicle Base
TBD - Grunt Facility
TBD - HQ
ARENA SETTINGS
- Tunisia terrain
- Fuel 1.0
- Icons short
- 0.5 Ack
- Fighter and Bomber warning range 52,000 (about 10 miles)
- Tower range set to 52,000 (for display only to match the above setting)
- Clouds / visibility
Frame 1, 29 miles
Frame 2, 33 miles
Frame 3, 14 miles
- Radar off
- Formations off - Friendly collisions off
- Kill shooter off
- Calm winds
- Time: 11 AM
SPECIAL RULES
Note special rules sent out with the objectives trump these special rules.
1. JU87 pilots get a second life in an aircraft assigned to them by their CiC (it can be any of the available Axis plane type except fw190A5s).
2. If both CiCs agree they may have the setup CM end the frame early. This is usually done if one side wipes out the other side (i.e. 60 versus 5).
3. Dead pilots may gun bombers. They may not man the guns of airfields or ships.
4. If ships are used in a frame each side can maneuver the ships as long as they stay in their containment area.
5. All targets must be attacked within the first hour of the event.
GROUND RULES
A ground combat element will be incorporated into the event. Specific rules regarding the ground combat will be forth coming. However a couple of new elements will be tried in the event to try to add more nuance or richness to the ground action. First off the ground combat will be a type of capture the flag. Both sides will spawn outside of a base not controlled by either and will be tasked with capturing the neutral (third party base) and holding it until end frame (so a sort of capture the flag but with a stationary flag).
Also GV life might either be a one life affair for those assigned to GVs or if I determine that the GV players get a second life in planes later in frame they will not be allowed to up in planes until after a specific time marker (i.e. T+60 or T+75, etc. ... it is to TBD). However dead GV players may man the guns of other tanks and vehicles.
