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Friday 12 November 2021

Punative Expedition to the Pushna Valley 1936

This scenario is inspired by chapter 27 of  Donald Featherstone's book, Campaigns for Wargamers, except that mine is a single action in the valley rather than a complete campaign.

My scenario sees the notorious Malik-Ghazi tribe being responsible for a number of raids on convoys passing close to the Pushna Valley.  Three weeks ago, a convoy of military stores was attacked and plundered.  Included in the cargo were Lee Enfield rifles, Vickers machineguns and artilley and small arms ammunition.  All of this is now in the hands of the Malik-Ghazis.

2nd Battalion Grampian Highlanders has been tasked to attack and destroy the base of the Malik Ghazis, which is located in the mud fort at the head of the Pushna Valley. The tribesmen are now very well armed, although not well trained, but they are adept at making improvised weapons and fortifications.

The valley is a strong defensive area, with the only vehicle route running through the valley floor. Beyond he valley the terrain is very rocky and difficult. Here are some views of the valley and intelligence reports indicate that the high valley walls are defended with sangars and the valley floor has improvised mines made from the looted artillery shells:

The head of the valley is defended by a mud fort:

The British force consists of A & B companies of the Grampian Highlanders (GHldrs), with HQ and Support Company elements, including two Vickers sections, a 3" mortar section and two troops of Royal Engineers. The force has a squadron from the Chiltern Hussars, equipped with machinegun armed Rolls Royce armoured cars:

The British plan is to sieze the two high bluffs on each side of the entrance of the valley then roll up the Malik-Ghazi positions on the two ridges.  Once achieved a two pronged attack against the fort will begin. CO GHldrs has forbidden the armoured cars to enter the valley proper until the engineers have cleared any mines.

The attack begins as the two companies, bagpipes playing, advance towards the bluffs supported by mortar and machinegun fire:


 The tribesmen in the rocks at the foot of the bluff are quickly cleared but soon intense fighting begins as the GHldrs work their way in closer and up onto the ridge


Casualties are quite heavy and one platoon is destroyed by fire coming from the sangars, however, with the heavy weight of machine gun fire the Malik-Ghazi forward positions fall:

After more casualties and a couple of setbacks, under heavy fire, both bluffs are captured:


With the threat from the high ground reduced the engineers begin to clear the mines:

Slowly the resistance on the valley walls reduces as positions are abandoned by the tribesmen, although they continue to cause casualties amongst the British:

The two Malik-Ghazi machine guns create a cross fire that cuts down HQ Company, but the CO, who has moved too far ahead of his troops is fortunately not hit and the pipes continue to play. The mortars are brought to bear against the machinegun postions as infantry work along the ridge:


 


 

The machineguns are cleared and most of the tribesmen have withdrawn or fled back towards the fort having lost many men. At the same time the engineers have cleared a path through the valley, somehow not gaining any casualties.

The armoured cars move forward and bring heavy fire onto the defenders in the fort:


With mortar fire raining down on the mud fort the tribesmen decide they have had enough and run off into the countryside beyond. Trucks with explosives are brought up and the British blow up the fort and the arms and ammunition looted earlier.

A win for the British, although all platoons have sustained some casualties and HQ Company has been severely mauled. 

All of the figures (apart from 2-3) are by Airfix and the armoured cars are laser printed. The fort is scratch built made from scrap MDF and matchsticks.










10 comments:

  1. Excellent! I have always wanted to play this scenario but never had the figures (which is a total cop out as the numbers are quite achievable).

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  2. Always been fascinated by this scenario since reading about it in War-game Campaigns. It is wonderful to see your Airfix figures in action.

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    1. I really like my old series 1 Airfix. Some are becoming brittle in their old age. I had to super glue a couple that broke off their stands during the game and I lost the end of a rifle.

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  3. Lovely version of this classic. Great to see the old figures in action too.

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    1. A game that I have thought about for years. It was the purchase of the armoured cars that finally made me set the game up.

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  4. Bob -
    I just gotta 'do' this one some time. I like the way you have done the 8th Army figures. Unpromising unpainted, they buff up well they way you've done them. And thanks for the pic of the 'mud fort'. I just just have to make one of those...!
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Thanks. The Mud Fort was quite easy to construct and made up from a series of boxes. I simply used various size MDF bases from my spares box with a few matchsticks for detail.

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  5. Just like most of the commenters above I found this one of the more intriguing campaign scenarios in the Don's book. Great to see it brought to life. I guess one of the attractions was the expedition is motorised rather than mounted which should greatly reduce the painting time – horse harness is always time-heavy and you don’t need mounted figures as they are out of sight inside the trucks.

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    1. Thanks Rob. I did get my trucks out but I then decided that my troops had dismounted out of range and thus they did not need to be placed on the table. That said, the original scenario places importance on casualty evacuation, so that could be an interesting aspect of a future game, bringing trucks up to deal with the problem.

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