Operation BattleAxe - A Bag The Hun Campaign

I pulled out all of my Bag the Hun miniatures again for the first time in a long time. I took stock of my miniatures and have plenty of painted aircraft. So I pulled out my air campaigns and started to look through them. The idea would be to do a solo campaign but for four separate fighter squadrons based on the miniatures I have painted up.

The thought is that each side will get an action during the day randomly rolled on a table that will target a specific force. The sides to this will be the SAAF & RAF against the Luftwaffe & Regia Aeronautica. Each game will be played independently between the squadrons unless a force randomly rolls an opposing mission against a side that is attacking them. This way, mostly the opposing forces would be other random squadrons with the occasional opportunities for them to clash head to head. Or so is the idea.

I plan on keeping the games on the smaller side with between 4 to 8 fighters per side with a small handfuls of supporting aircraft (4 or less). This should make the games manageable and faster for solo play. Operation Battleaxe was a short operation lasting only 3 days. That gives a total of 12 games for the full campaign. Note, that the squadrons are ficticious but based on real squadrons of different numbers. Each side will have 3 characters of the 13 member squadron. This will be the Squadron Leader and two other members of the squadron - chosen randomly. Of these, at least one must be a Sprog. Each of the squadrons will have a relatively similar experience levels.

Meet the Regia Aeronautica

For the Italian forces, I am looking to run a Squadriglia of either MC.200s (In june 1941 there was only 1 in North Africa), Cr.42s (I have 4 planes painted), or G.50bis fighters. I have more MC.200s painted than any other Italian aircraft so I will likely go with them. Pulling from some of the historical formations I have made the following Squadriglia of 13 pilots.

377^a Squadriglia

They are flying the MC.200 aircraft. Apparently, these were uncommon over North Africa at this point of the war. But I have 8 of them painted up. The squadron has 12 total aircraft at the start of the battle.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Capitano Mirocleto Gerbino	Jr Ace	5	Spanish Civil War Veteran
2	Tenente Gualtiero Titone	Veteran	1	Squadron XO
3	Sottotenente Tarso Isola	Regular	0
4	Sottotenente Urdino Peduzzi	Regular	0
5	Sottotenente Michael Mariano	Regular	0
6	Sottotenente Abramio Giacinto	Sprog	0
7	SergenteMaggiore Lavinio Lico	Veteran	2
8	Sergente Cristian Piccoli	Regular	0
9	Sergente Romano Garafalo	Regular	0
10	Sergente Rocco Botti	Regular	0
11	Sergente Rodolfo Scalese	Sprog	0
12	Sergente Neoterio Sciulli	Sprog	0
13	Sergente Girardo Rizzi	Sprog	0

These fighter aircraft will support squadrons fielding Ro.37bis and Ca.310 reconnaissance aircraft (I need to buy a few), Ba.65 aircraft (liason/observation and light bomber), SM.79 bombers and some Cr.42s fighters in a ground attack role. I own SM.79s with one nearly painted. I also own some B.65s but they are not even primed. I have three Cr.42s painted up and ready to go. I own some Br.20 bombers as well but they are also not painted. I do have some G.50s painted but they may need some decals to complete them out. I think I also own a pack of Ca.310s provided that my aircraft recognition skills are up to task.

Meet the Luftwaffe

For the Germans, I have a bunch of Bf109s painted up and ready to go. So these will be my base force. I own some Bf110s but they are unpainted. I have at least 4 Ju87s painted up as well which would make a great support. I think I have some bombers (likely Ju88s) but I didn't see them when i checked the tray. They would be unpainted if they are there. That would cover nearly all of the aircraft for the campaign. 3.II JG 28 These are flying the BF109E-7 trop aircraft. They were the most common German fighter aircrat over the western desert. I have 8 painted and another 16 that are unprimed. The squadron has 12 aircrat at the start of the battle.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Hauptmann Magnus Hippler	Veteran	4	Kills scored in the Battle for France.
2	OberstLeutnant	Veteran	1	Squadron XO
3	Leutnant Edgar Masing	Regular	0
4	Leutnant Erik Von Braun	Regular	0
5	Feldwebel Marc Viermetz	Regular	0
6	Feldwebel Fritz Lips	Sprog	0
7	Feldwebel Jacob Staudenmaier	Veteran	2
8	Unteroffizer Stefan Kellermann	Regular	0
9	Unteroffizer Jacob Kindl	Regular	0
10	Unteroffizer Christopher Schulberg	Regular	0
11	OberFahnrich Benedict Stoltenberg	Sprog	0
12	OberFahnrich Karl Gebhardt	Sprog	0
13	OberFahnrich Claus Ehmann	Sprog	0

The fighters will support the Ju87s of a nearby squadron as well as escort the Ju88 bombers of other squadrons. Occasionally they may protect spotting aircraft (I found an unpainted pack of Hs126 that I can get going on).

Meet the RAF

For the RAF, I settled on a unit equipped with the P-40. I currently have eight of these aircraft painted up. There were still unit equipped with this fighter deployed in North Africa by June 1941. As supports, i own some Blenheim Is and IVs, none of which are painted. I also have a pack of Martin Maryland bombers as well that need paint.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Squadron Leader Troy Holmes	Veteran	1	Kills scored in the Great War.
2	Flight Lieutenant Caleb Carter	Veteran	1	Squadron XO Kill Score in France
3	Flying Officer Toby Hunt	Regular	0
4	Flying Officer Deacon Carr	Regular	0
5	Pilot Officer Wyatt Moss	Regular	0
6	Pilot Officer Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0
7	Pilot Officer Ernest Khan	Veteran	2
8	Pilot Officer Thomas Cole	Regular	0
9	Pilot Officer Gabriel Read	Regular	0
10	George Foster Douglas	Regular	0
11	Flight Sergeant Elliott Harper	Sprog	0
12	Sergeant Stanley Pearce	Sprog	0
13	Sergeant Adam George	Sprog	0

I have started the clen up process for some Blenheim Is and primed some Martin Marylands to give these fellows something to escort. I need some form of observation aircraft. The fighters themselves may be pressed into a ground attack role. I don't think it will take long to get the support aircraft ready.

Meet the SAAF

For an allied contingent for this campaign, I added a squadron of SAAF flying Hawker Hurricanes. They will use the same support aircraft as the RAF. The paint schemes are more or less the same between the RAF and SAAF. So what gets painted for one, is done for the other.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Major Zayden de Beer	Veteran	1	Kills scored in the Great War.
2	Captain Rudi Pietersen	Veteran	1	Squadron XO Kill in East Africa
3	Captain Adiel Hertzog	Regular	0
4	Lieutenant Androw FitzSimmons	Regular	0
5	Lieutenant Francois van Wyk	Regular	0
6	Lieutenant Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0
7	Lieutenant Wincuf Pinckney	Veteran	2
8	Lieutenant Jonah Parker	Regular	0
9	Lieutenant Luca Hanekom	Regular	0
10	Lieutenant Archie McKenzie	Regular	0
11	Lieutenant Josh O'Brien	Sprog	0
12	Lieutenant Dexter Hill	Sprog	0
13	Lieutenant Stephen Reynolds	Sprog	0

I have 8 Hawker Hurricanes ready to go. In addition to the Blenheim Is and Martin Marylands that I have, I also found a pack of Blenheim IVs to paint up. I also have a pack of Spitfires but they may not end up in this campaign. I also think I might have a single pack of Gloster Gladiators languishing unpainted. They might be interesting to have make an appearance.

I have already played the first game but this post is long enough.

The Second Kharkov Campaign is Released!

The Second Kharkov Campaign is a pair of Pint Sized campaigns for the TooFatLardies rule set Chain of Command. The first campaign covers the initial Soviet attack on German lines in May 12th of 1942. It follows the advance of the Soviet 38th Tank Brigade and the 226th Rifle Division in their attack on the German 294th Infantry Division which was blocking the main roads leading to the city of Kharkov. The campaign has seven scenarios and involves British Lend-Lease tanks. The entire campaign spans a single day of this battle where the Soviets made significant gains and in many cases broke the German lines.

The second campaign covers the German counterattack on May 13th of 1942. Having released the armored divisions that were being held in reserves, the German 3rd Panzer Division pushed up from Kharkov and cut through a number of Soviet units. This campaign has six separate scenarios and covers the time from the 13th to the 16th of May 1942. This campaign has scenarios that may be played out with the What A Tanker rule set as well due to their armor heavy nature.

The third campaign in this book is a What A Tanker Campaign. This allows the player to create a map based campaign to move their forces in a kreigspiel type manner until their forces make contact, then play out the scenario using the What A Tanker rules.

Lastly, the book provides some sketches of other units and actions that can be used to create your own campaigns with. The maps are based on period maps from German and Soviet armies. Each scenario has a game map and a picture of the table that I used to game these out.

The PDF comes out to 105 pages and includes a short history of the campaigns to provide the player with a background on the action that they are fighting.

You can buy the supplement from here: https://payhip.com/b/5Mhv or on Wargames Vault https://www.wargamevault.com/product/280662/The-Second-Kharkov-Campaign-May-1942. It is also now availible as a paperback on Amazon.

Supports for 1941-1942 German Chain of Command Army

I am working my way through the support elements of my Germans for Chain of Command. I want to complete out my force options. I have a number of them but I never sat them down to figure out what I had.

We will start with the 1941 list published from the TFL Website.

German Infantry Platoon June 1941 to December 1941

Base Platoon
Unit	Makeup	Pictures
Headquarters	LT, SR, Pistol Feldwebel, SL, SMG
Mortar Team	5cm Mortar Team w/ 3 Crew
Squads 1-4	Obergefreiter, JL, SMG LMG Team w/3 Crew Rifle Team w/ 6 men

Support Options
LIST ONE
Satchel Charge	Need to Paint
Medical Orderly	Need to Modify Figures
Mine Clearance Team, 3 men
Wire Cutting Team, 3 men	Need to Modify Figures
Demolition Team, 3 men
Adjutant	Off Table
Minefield
Barbed Wire
Roadblock	Unpainted
Kubelwagen
Two solo motorcycles
Motorcycle and side‐car
Entrenchments for one Team
LIST TWO
Panzerbüchse 38/39 Team, 2 men
5cm mortar Team, 3 men
Pre‐Game Barrage	Off Table
LIST THREE
Sniper Team
Flamethrower Team, 3 men
2.8cm  heavy  ATR w/ three crew
Panzer IB
SdKfz 221
SdKfz 223
SdKfz 251/1A‐C
LIST FOUR
PaK36 3.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew
leIG18 w/ five crew
Engineer Section	Missing Figures
Forward Observer
MG34 w/ 5 crew
Panzer 35(t)
Panzer 38(t)
Pz.III E‐G
Panzerjäger I
Befehlspanzer I
SdKfz 10/5 AA
Sdkfz  222
StuG III A‐E
LIST FIVE
Regular Infantry Squad
Flak 30 or Flak 38 2cm AA gun w/ five crew	Need To Buy
PaK36(t) 4.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
PaK38 5cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
Motorcycle Aufklarungs Squad
Sdkfz 231 (8 Rad)
Sdkfz 232 (8 Rad)	Need to Buy
Pz.II A‐C
Panzer II H or J	Experimental Models Not Needed
Pz.IV D‐F
LIST SIX
Panzer II D Flamm
Panzer IVF1
sIG33  15cm  w/ five crew

In addition, I had some extras as well. Including spare infantry and a couple of surrendering/shot guys.

German Infantry Platoon January 1942 to June 1942

Base Platoon
Unit	Makeup	Pictures
Headquarters	Feldwebel, SL, SMG
Squads 1-4	Obergefreiter, JL, SMG LMG Team w/3 Crew Rifle Team w/ 6 men

Support Options
LIST ONE
Add 2 SMGs to 1 Squad	Need to Paint
Compound Charge	Need to Paint
Medical Orderly	Need to Modify Figures
Mine Clearance Team, 3 men
Wire Cutting Team, 3 men	Need to Modify Figures
Demolition Team, 3 men
Adjutant	Off Table
Minefield
Barbed Wire
Kubelwagen
Two solo motorcycles
Entrenchments for one Team
LIST TWO
Roadblock	Unpainted
PanzerKnacker Team, 4 men	Unpainted
Senior Leader	Unpainted
Pre-Game Barrage	Off Table
5cm mortar Team, 3 men
LIST THREE
Sniper Team
Flamethrower Team, 3 men
Green Infantry Squad w/ JL	Unpainted
Regular Dismounted Cavalry Squad	Unpainted
Mount a Cavalry Squad on Horses	Unpainted
PaK36 3.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew
Flak 30 or Flak 38 2cm AA gun w/ five crew	Need To Buy
LIST FOUR
leIG18 w/ five crew
Forward Observer
MG34 w/ 5 crew
37mm AA Gun w/ 5 Crew
Panzerjäger I
SdKfz 10/5 AA
PaK36(t) 4.7cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
PaK38 5cm ATG w/ 5 crew	Painting
LIST FIVE
Regular Infantry Squad
Motorcycle Aufklarungs Squad
Pak40 7.5cm w/ 5 Crew	Painting
LIST SIX
Marder II
Marder III
Panzer II D Flamm
LIST SEVEN
Regular Engineer Section	Missing Figures
Panzer III Flamm
Stug III F
LIST EIGHT
Elite Engineer Section	Missing Figures
sIG33  15cm  w/ five crew
Stug III G
Panzer IV f2
LIST NINE
StuH 42
LIST NINE
Tiger I