By David Bush

©2016 Hoplite Research, LLC

 Battle for Nebeiwa
December 4th, 1940
South of Sidi Barrani, Egypt
Around 5am Commonwealth artillery commenced diversionary fire from the east on
the fortified camp at Nibeiwa slowly increasing in fury to draw the Italians attention.
The 11th Indian Infantry Brigade, with 7th RTR under command, attacked Nibeiwa
from the north-west, which reconnaissance had established as unprotected by any
minefields. Their attack caught the Italians completely by surprise and what armor
they had was quickly overrun by the Matilda’s. The Italians tried to stop the Common-
wealth advance using their artillery firing over open sights but they too, were soon
overrun. After some two hours of fighting, the remaining Italian survivors surrendered.

Map Notes
 The Italian camp is surrounded by reinforced sandbags and entrenchments that
offer heavy cover to Italian units deployed adjacent. Italian artillery is dug in as well
in medium cover.
 The Italians have 12” of mines that can be placed along the North, East and South-
ern facing of the camp, in front of or beside the anti-tank ditch. The camp
measures 5 inches x 10 inches and is a rectangle.
 An anti-tank ditch is immediately in front of the North, East and Southern facings of
the camp. This is impassable to vehicles and costs infantry -1 inch to cross.
 The small patches of scrub and brush offer light cover and cost vehicles -1 inch to
move into/through.
 Italian forces are setup first on map but are considered hidden until after the Com-
monwealth pre-game artillery bombardment. They are then setup on map with any
disorder markers that apply but have not been spotted. Commonwealth forces will
enter the map along the Northwestern map edge.
 Before the game starts the Commonwealth player may carry out one round of artil-
lery bombardment. No ammo loss can happen from this.
 The game starts with the
0800-1000 Day segment
and there are 3 turns during
this day segment. The
Commonwealth has the ini-
tiative.

Victory Conditions
To win, the Commonwealth
player must break the Italians
morale. This is done by getting
them to fail a CMD check. In
this case instead of retreating
off the map, the entire Italian
command will surrender. Any-
thing else is an Italian Pyrrhic
victory.
 Italian Order of Battle
Maletti Group Gen. P. Maletti (E) Decision Die: Yellow
1x Supply Stand (4 Leaders) {Reservist Morale}

2nd Tank Regt with: 2x M11/39 Tank Co’s, 1x L3/35 Tankette Co

1st Libyan Infantry Bn with: 3x Rifle Co’s
2nd Libyan Infantry Bn with: Same as 1st
4th Libyan Infantry Bn with: Same as 1st
5th Libyan Infantry Bn with: Same as 1st
18th Libyan Infantry Bn with: Same as 1st
Colonial Artillery Regt, with: 3x 75mm Howitzer Co’s

Italian Notes
 The Italians were caught completely by surprise and struggled to mount any sort of
reasonable defense. To reflect this, the Italian movement portion of the 1 st turn is
skipped, and their artillery can only fire at a unit that it has spotted.
 The Italian artillery is facing east as they were expecting a Commonwealth attack from
that direction.
 Due to the constraints of the camp size and our miniatures bases I’ve had to make
some changes to the normal way of handling support companies. All Italian battalions
are considered to have an inherent MMG support company except for the artillery
which is considered to have a 20mm AA company. These stands are not placed on
map but can be lost under normal conditions (roll of a ‘1’ on the cover die).
 Italian units do not retreat but hold their positions regardless of DM’s until they panic,
in which case they are removed as ‘routed’ or they surrender.
 Commonwealth Order of Battle
11th Indian Brigade Gen. (D) Decision Die: Red
1x Supply Column (5 Leaders) {Regulars}

2nd Bn, QCH with: 3x Rifle Co’s w/1x Bren Carrier MMG Co.
1st Bn, 6th Rajput Rifles: 3x Rifle Co’s w/1x Bren Carrier MMG Co.
4th Bn, 7th Rajput Regt: 3x Rifle Co’s w/1x Bren Carrier MMG Co.
25th Royal Artillery Regt with: 2x 25pdr Howitzer Co’s, 1x 18pdr Howitzer Co. w/1x
18pdr Howitzer Co. (OBA Only)
31st Royal Artillery Regt with: Same as 25th RAR (OBA Only)
7th Royal Tank Regt with: 3x Matilda II Tank Co’s

11th Indian Brigade Attachments

1x FO 1x 2pdr AT Co. 1x 76mm Mortar Co. 1x Engineer (Satchels) Co
1x MP Co.

British Air Support {Regulars}

1x Hurricane F/B

Commonwealth Notes:
 Commonwealth forces had maneuvered behind the Italian camp realizing that no
mines were along its western face and had done so without the Italians knowledge.
All commonwealth units may move at double their normal speed on turn one.
 The Commonwealth artillery is firing from off of the eastern board edge.
 Air support was spread thin as they were covering a wide area with limited re-
sources. The Commonwealth player may roll 1d8 starting with the 12 noon – 2pm
day segment and on a ‘1’ the listed air support arrives. It can only be received
once.
 Commonwealth decision die drops to a ‘BLUE’ once they have lost 2 formations.
 Unit Type Fire Modifier Cover Die Close Support Notes

M11/39 0 Light MG Inferior Weapon,

Move as medium,
Limited fire arc,
Unreliable vehicle

75mm 0 Soft Direct/Indirect

25pdr +1 Soft Direct/Indirect

Matilda II -1 Medium MG -2 to any enemy

fire die,
Move as heavy

Legend:
Anti Tank Ditch
Battlezone
Reinforced Sand-
bag wall 3’ X 3’ for 5mm/10mm
Scrub Patch
6’ X 6’ for 15mm/20mm

Italians

Commonwealth
Entry Zone