The Sound of Drums - A British Hearts of Iron II AAR
Part Forty-Four
19th - 30th July 1940
After a month of inactivity, General PrinceScamp was ready to go on the offensive once again in Africa. Hurt by the news that his campaign in Libya was to be supported by a secondary attack at Tripoli, the commander of British forces in Africa was determined to prove his worth. Ordered by High Command to launch a renewed assault, PrinceScamp was determined to prove
his army, and
his campaign would always be remembered as the deciding factor in taking Libya.
PrinceScamps plan of attack.
His campaign, named Operation Que Calor, was to replicate the great success at Tobruk. His motorised and armoured divisions were to race ahead in an attempt to encircle the enemy - in this case at Benghazi - before wiping them out. The whole operation was expected to take ten days, with the encirclement completed before the landings at Tripoli were finished.
The operation was preceded with new naval and air campaigns. For the week preceding Que Calor the bulk of the Royal Navy and Air Force remained in their bases, with personnel granted leave, equipment repaired and orders developed for the upcoming campaign. On the 19th of July every ship and aircraft capable of combat was launched and directed at the enemy. The Italian 1st Squadra, attempting a patrol along Libya, was engaged in two separate battles in four days before it withdrew back to the relative safety of Italy. The Italian airforce in Libya was pulverised, exposing the ground forces to any one of the six RAF tactical bomber wings heading towards them.
In short, it meant that PrinceScamps ground offensive required very little fighting. Within hours his troops were marching towards Barca and Msus unopposed, with only the Indian divisions in the extreme south at Aujila failing to break the enemy. Msus was taken by the 1st Armoured Royal Hussars Division just three days later, allowing them to launch an attack into Agedabia, repulsing the enemy there. PrinceScamp was on track to achieving his encirclement.
British heavy armour
The only problem now was that said armoured forces were now in a very vulnerable position, being as they were alone against the entire Italian force. Twice, on the 25th and 27th the armoured forces repelled Italian counterattacks, in both cases supported by the Indian divisions further south. The critical battle came on the 29th, when eleven separate Italian divisions launched an attack on the Royal Hussars before they arrived in Agedabia.
It was an agonising twenty-four hours. Once more the Indians proved their worth at Aujila, distracting two of the Italian divisions from the main fight at Msus. The Royal Hussars meanwhile managed to halt their advance, and shrugged off every attack the Italians launched at them during the cold night. Assistance was only hours away - PrinceScamps second group would arrive in the evening of the 30th to reinforce and secure the Msus province. Every available plane was used to bombard the main Italian force attacking from Benghazi, but it was to no avail, the enemy force finally broke through the British tanks at midday, throwing them into retreat.
The arrival of the British infantry just hours later meant that the Italians could not hope to exploit their brief gains, and by the next day all forces had withdrawn back to Benghazi. It was a bittersweet victory for PrinceScamp, for technically speaking Operation Que Calor was still on track and could continue with ease, but he could no longer hope that it would proceed fast enough to overshadow the events happening at Tripoli.
For 600 miles to the west, the 1st CFC Division was leading the way in the first British amphibious assault of the war
