Description

Mersa Matruh

This is an operational level game, for two players, of the battles that took place in North Africa, near the coastal Egyptian port of Mersa Matruh in late June 1942. After Panzer Army Africa (PAA) had defeated the British 8th Army in the Gazala battles, and had captured Tobruk, the newly-promoted German Field Marshal Rommel was intent on destroying the retreating 8th Army and advancing to Cairo. Initially Lt Gen Ritchie intended to mount a stand at Mersa Matruh but he was relieved by his superior General Auchinleck, the Commander in Chief, Middle East, and 8th Army was ordered to break contact with PAA and retire to the El Alamein defensive position. Can PAA stop the 8th Army from conducting an orderly retreat and destroy sufficient units so it can continue its drive to the Nile, or can 8th Army slip away from their pursuers, with minimal losses, so as to be able to regroup at El Alamein and halt the eastward march of the Axis forces?

Units are regiments/brigades with some battalions. Map scale is 4.8 Kms/hex and each of the six turns represents about half a day. Mersa Matruh comes with a full colour 11" x 17" map, 198 mounted color counters, rule book, roster sheets and charts in a ziplock bag.