Greco-Italian War 1940

I'm not sure when I first became interested in gaming the Greco-Italian War 1940-41, but it was around the time we were looking to put on a demo game of BKCII at Colours quite a few years ago. We also considered the Italian limited invasion of France 1940, which is probably even more obscure. In the end we settled upon the Italian CTV's involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

Over the years since I have done the odd game now and then, pitting the Italians against the Greeks and the British Commonwealth troops, but a lack of suitable books on the subject has limited scope to create a decent stab at a campaign. Most books seem to focus on the German involvement in 1941, with the first part of the conflict largely ignored. Mario Cervi's superb 'The Hollow Legions' is an exception, but lacks the sort of detail a gamers needs.

Fortunately Osprey have published the first half of the conflict as part of their Campaign series early this year. I had debated on whether to buy this or not, but the author's previous works on the Italian Army I found to be excellent alongside a desire to run a campaign based upon this conflict tipped my hand and a copy duly arrived a few days ago.

 

Osprey's Campaign 358 cover.

The Contents are set out in the standard format.

The excellent and very detailed OOB.

The maps of the campaign are very useful and there are 6 of them, which makes following the campaign much easier than is often the case with Osprey. You need these as the action does cover a wide area and a lot of movement to and fro by both sides.

The detailed maps of the action help if you want to recreate certain actions in the Central and Northern parts of the front.

 

 

From a first read through I'm very impressed by this book, as it gives an awful lot more detail than you can readily find online. It is exactly the sort of detail I have been after for quite sometime and is perfect to allow me to create my own mini-campaign based around this conflict, but more on that in another post.  In no particular order the following have been useful and of interest:

 

• A broad brush overview of the origins of the campaign is a useful reminder of the salient points in the build up to the conflict. If you want more detail, the Cervi's book is the place to go.
• The Opposing Forces part is quite illuminating as it highlights the lack of equipment available to both sides, especially the Italians in terms of Corps assets which you would think were readily available. Perfect in terms of deciding what to allocate to a force in terms of BKC OOB etc.
• My interest in this campaign very much centres upon the Litoral Group that acted along the coast on the Italian right flank. The OOB give just the right level of info to know what units were allocated and when to form a good starting point for the campaign. Ditto in terms of the Greek forces opposite them.
• The Opposing Plans gives some nice little bits of info for organising the campaign, such as planned naval landings, which I broadly knew about, and airborne operations which I didn't.
• The Campaign part is as one would expect detailed, but to the right level and importantly for me, doesn't neglect the operations along the coast by both sides, as most information tends to focus upon the Central and Northern areas of operation. I have gamed these areas in the past and to be honest, it's hard to have 'fun' gaming over mountainous terrain. Useful for undertanding why stuff happened for sure, but for myself, not 'fun'.
• The maps throughout are brilliant as they do show the back and forth nature of this campaign and cover all areas equally, including the Litorale Group, as so far I had been unable to find any good information on where they operated. Problem solved!
• The Naval and Air Operations are covered and for me, just the right amount of information to make informed choices as to the support I may or may not allocate to each side. Also the aircraft used by the Greeks has been a revelation and I can see some of my models moving to the fore of the painting queue.

 

Overall a very good Osprey book and well worth getting if you have any interest in the Campaign whatsoever. I may even get the companion volume when it comes out if it's by the same author, even though I don't have that much interest in the second part of the Campaign when the Germans became involved. However it could prove useful to carry on my planned campaign but with German and Commonwealth support. Plenty to think upon for sure.

In the meantime I have some painting to do, which I've neglected of late as some Spring like weather and lack of motivation has meant the brushes have stayed firmly in the drawer. Sadly we have some new cases of the Brazilian Variant of Covid-19 in Bristol that has mutated to a point that's worrying the Boffins. Given we had a Bristol Variant near us recently we are watching the News for updates and hope it doesn't spread down towards us. So until next time stay safe!