Return to the Golan Heights...

Thursday night saw our much travelled war reporter return to the bitterly contested Golan Heights in October 1973.

The game was set in the desperate first 48 hours of the Syrian offensive as the Israelis tried to prevent the massed Syrian armour breaking through before Israel’s reserves could enter the fray.

Six tough T55s took on a trio of Centurions supported by a pair of Supershermans.

With their “poor gunnery” and only 8 turns to play with the Syrian armour surged forward....except for one of Rob’s tanks that decided that sitting in a copse engaging in a long-range gunnery duel was a sound tactic.... if only to guarantee personal survival.

The Centurions rushed into their prepared defences and started to fire, but to little effect. Chris’s Shot Cal then became a magnet for all the Syrian crews and eventually died thanks to a flank shot.

Things looked grim for the embattled Israelis as they failed to take out Dave’s lead T55, and the Syrians began to outflank the Israelis. The first lucky break came as Malcolm drew his chit from the bag ahead of Dave, and scored a catastrophic strike on Dave’s 2nd T55’s flank.

 

Phil then advanced his Supersherman, using Chris's burning Shot Cal as cover. Unfortunately he drew the fire of several T55's and quickly succumbed.

As the Israelis began to give ground and retire to other positions they were amazed to see one of Tony’s tanks appear over the hill and ram a Supersherman. Effective as the Sherman crew bailed out but ultimately futile as the T55 itself fell to Greg’s gunnery. 

This left the Israelis with two operational tanks vs three Syrian. Through the dust and din of battle the Syrians began to hear the squeal of tank tracks as the Israeli reinforcements rolled into action....

The game had proved very tight, and quite balanced. It could have gone either way, which for me makes a good game.

Simon