Monday 25 March 2013

Turning Point

I was chatting to a friend the other day about my North Africa 1942 Project and he asked me why I chose that particular moment in the Desert War to focus on. To be honest he stumped me for a few seconds because when I got started late last year I picked this particular point rather quickly without really understanding my motivation for it.

So I pondered his question for a moment and reviewed the things I had wanted to recreate on the table. The mix of vehicles with Panzer IV's and US Grants and Sherman's coming onto the scene is an important factor. As a painter I was definitely looking forward to working with these tanks as well as some of the older machines still in service at this time. I'm also a bit of a Montgomery fan and you can't be an admirer without also having a special affinity for his first big victory. But when I really thought about it, the simple reason I'm so interested in this particular point of the Desert War is that it was a turning point.

Like Stalingrad on the eastern Front, El-Alamein was an unequivocal disaster for the Germans and marked a clear and decisive change in the direction of the war. There would be many more disasters like this ahead for the Germans, as Churchill prophetically announced... "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."


So if I'm really honest it's the fact that El-Alamein marked the end of the Benghazi Steeplechase and proved that while Rommel was certainly a tactical genius he most certainly wasn't invincible or infallible.

7 comments:

  1. Why not! You'll also have the figures to allow to do early desert war if you want - as well as other campaigns (such as Iraq 1941) and for attacks against Vichy France, the Italians (e.g. Eritrea in 1941) etc. etc.

    That's the beauty of 6mm!

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    1. It's OK Phil, no need to try so hard, I'm converted already! LoL

      I still have a lot of work to do. I may add some commonwealth companies to the Allies and more Italians for the axis forces.

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  2. Great post indeed. I just wonder why we need to justify every period or wargaming project that we undertake. In the end this is a hobby, what I make, I make for pleasure not as an obligation

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    1. Apparently so... clearly not amongst the Rejects, but I'm just using you for games so I'm not that bothered! :)

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  4. Interesting Post Lee (I'll be your friend). Turning points are always fun to wargame.

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