Small Action - Manley's HQ at the Front, Atbara

This is another mini battle that was completed this last weekend.  Before this campaign is complete I will have had each allied player play a one on one battle to add to our story line.  This time it was Lt. Colonel Manley's turn.

Some notes on the battle before the After Action Report.  My Dervish forces had only one mission this time and that was to kill an Egyptian Company that somehow slipped out of Atbara.  The race to get to the British siege line which meant their safety was their goal.  In this battle, and you never know what is going to happen in TSAF which is what I love about the game went against my Dervish forces.  We lost leaders in back to back turns, our movement die had us moving at the speed of an enraged snail, the KRRC and British Gun were firing like snipers, well, it just didn't go our way at all this evening.  So without further delay, I present Manley's after action report followed by the usual pictures of the battle.

As always I hope you enjoy the report.
Dan

Lt. Colonel Manley take it from here:

Commanding Officer, Headquarters

Suakin, Sudan

From the front outside Atbara

Sir,

I am pleased to report the completion of a successful mission with the loss of none of our men, the rescue of the 2^nd Egyptians and Captain Wharrier with minimal loss and the elimination of many of the enemy.

Upon arrival at our forward base camp, we erected a lookout tower as we were in possession of information that Captain Wharrier and the 2^nd Egyptians may have survived the massacre taking place in Atbara.  While the tower provided us a much better view of the area, as we would learn later, Captain Wharrier located the structure and headed towards it believing he could reach our lines and safety, 

Early yesterday morning our scouts in the tower spotted what looked like the Egyptians coming through a small valley toward our HQ.  We immediately pushed the Northumberland Fusiliers and KRRC forward from the defensive works we had constructed.  If the troops approaching us were the Egyptians, this would provide us a greater opportunity to provide covering fire if they were being chased.

Captain Wharrier was moving the Egyptians quickly and smartly but the Dervishes were putting up a hot pursuit.  Two groups advanced in front of the KRRC towards the Egyptians intending to bring them to hand-to-hand and destroy the unit.  The fire from the KRRC was devastating with one sharpshooter from each squad taking down the enemy leader and the units taking down many of the attackers.  This relieved some of the pressure and allowed the Egyptians to keep moving.  

On our left flank, the Geordies (though at half strength) laid down heavy fire on an enemy unit coming out of rough ground to our left front.  Their fire along with accurate fire from our gun crew caused the unit to check its advance.  Subsequently, continuous fire on the Dervish from the Fusiliers and gun forced the unit back into the rough ground and we never saw them again. 

Shortly thereafter, the Egyptians made a run for our lines with some straggling taking place.  These stragglers came under attack from the remaing enemy as they continued to advance in spite of heavy losses taken from the KRRC, Northumberland Fusiliers and our gun.  In the last charge of the enemy, Captain Wharrier took some revenge on his pursuers by downing two of the attackers with his pistol.  This reduced the enemy to only one against our three stragglers.  One Egyptian was killed in this fight, but the other two fought off the dervish and forced him back to his own lines.  All but two of the Egyptian platoon made it safely to our lines.

We have been debriefing Captain Wharrier and the Egyptians to learn all we can about the Atbarra defenses.  We have made contact with the Cairo and Captain Andrews and intend to capture the city shortly.  We will use all of the assets we have available to make this happen.

All of our men performed admirably and their devastating fire on the enemy resulted in a very successful conclusion to this encounter.  Rush our replacements and supplies forward as we are in need of everything to take Atbara and then quickly move towards Khartoum. 

Your obedient servant,

Lt. Col. Manley