any scenarios on Port Lyautey AFV fight?

witchbottles

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Nov 9th 42.

7 M5 Stuarts vs 14 renault tanks and a battalion of vichy infantry.

a pair of Allied Dive bombers from the USS Ranger save the day for the outflanked and outfought M5's.

Seems to be perfect DTO scenario information.

anyone know if this has been done?

some notes on this action:

"On the morning of November 9, the most pressing problem for Goalpost was its weak southern flank. Truscott ordered Lt. Col. Harry H. Semmes to take the seven tanks of his 3rd Armored Landing Team that had made it to shore so far and have them block the Rabat-Port Lyautey road as soon as possible. Leaving word for the rest of his command to follow as soon as they could, Semmes leaped aboard his tank and trundled off, arriving in position just before dawn. Almost immediately, he was forced to beat back a determined infantry attack from some nearby woods. When the French infantry returned, they were accompanied by 15 or so Renault tanks of the 1er Regiment de Chasseur d'Afrique.

With tank-to-tank communication inoperative and with their gunsights unadjusted, the Americans retreated behind a low rise and opened fire. Protected by their heavier armor, Semmes' tanks had the better of the inferior French tanks and destroyed four (two of them by Semmes himself) while inflicting heavy losses on the accompanying infantry.

Meanwhile, with the help of Lieutenant R.Y. McElroy's low-flying Grumman TBF-1 Avenger torpedo bomber doing spotter duty, the guns of the cruiser Savannah pounded the French rear assembly area, destroying a number of other tanks. With the addition of 10 more tanks, Semmes was able to weather another strong counterattack and several weaker ones throughout the rest of the day, suffering nothing more than a dud shell embedded in his tank's armor. With French resistance waning in the south, "

so the Avengers were actually functioning as spotter planes for NOBA.

Man , this keeps getting better for becoming an ASL scenario. Hasn't anyone done this yet?

KRL, Jon H
 
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JRKrejsa

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I've come across accounts of this battle more than once, then searched for a scenario. I'm pretty sure there isn't one....

Too bad, sounds interesting.

I remember an account of some of the French tanks being pulled into battle by horses, as they were broken down. SSR???
 

witchbottles

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I've come across accounts of this battle more than once, then searched for a scenario. I'm pretty sure there isn't one....

Too bad, sounds interesting.

I remember an account of some of the French tanks being pulled into battle by horses, as they were broken down. SSR???
my understanding was Semmes' tanks had the upper hand in everything except 3 categories:

1. coordination, they might as well have been radioless M5's. The radio sets were not " weatherproofed" for amphib landing and many of the vacuum tubes were shorted out in the sets.
2. firepower. The Renaults 37mm guns had better armor penetration capabilities at short range than the M5's did.
3. Numbers. Semmes was outnumbered and being rapidly outflanked before the NOBA arrived.

This fight began in the pre - dawn twilight, so you got some LV issues as well.

interesting. There is a AK scenario pack scen of the fighting on the other flank of the Lyautey landings the following day.

KRL, Jon H
 
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