Under the radar – Operation Husky

With all the focus on the all new Liberation of Italy, Late War book, the precursor operation to capture Sicily, Operation Husky with a set of Mid War Force lists have been released by Battlefront rather under the radar. Today Martin takes a look at the list releases that provide the Mid War forces for this key enabling operation, prior to the allied crossing of the Straits of Messina to mainland Italy.

We have received a free set of three PDF’s of Forces for Operation Husky, the Allied Invasion of Sicily, July-August 1943 covering the US Forces, British and Canadian Forces and Axis Forces. These lists expand on the forces in North Africa and use many of the same formations alongside some Sicily specific formations. Each nation also gets its own Sicily specific force diagram removing the now worn out items of equipment from the North Africa campaign like the American M3 Lee or British Crusader which failed to make the Mediterranean crossing. The PDF’s contain all the usual excellent campaign background, detailed maps and unit histories, the force building information and a super handy catalogue section showing what models to use and telling us when/where they should be available. For the competitive player or event organisers out there this is all accompanied by a set of dynamic points updates for the Sicily specific units in the PDF and is also available in Forces of War.

Only the Sicily specific Formations are contained in the PDF whilst those simply transferred from North Africa are listed with their page reference, so to make maximum use of this you will need a copy of North Africa. On the positive side this keeps the page count down for those choosing to print it all out, altogether we get over 100 pages of new content. With the Sicily Formations there are some which look like their North Africa equivalents, but there are some subtle tweaks in here as well. There is also some “interesting” pointing of units between North Africa and Operation Husky. Why this has all been released as a series of PDF’s rather than a booklet, at least at present is unclear. However, with the recent announcement about the Poles in Early War being an initial digital release until the EW Barbarossa book is published, there is at least the possibility we may get another excellent Battlefront book to add to our collections at some point in the future.

So, lets start with a look at the Allied Forces, like the operation itself these neatly split into two camps. The American 7th Army led by Patton moving up through the centre and west of Sicily and the British and Canadians of the 8th Army under Montgomery moving up the eastern side.

American Forces

The key focus here is the veteran status of the troops involved in the Sicily campaign. In the main, the fighting forces deployed in Sicily were those that had completed the North Africa campaign. For the US Sicily Force we get the Veteran Sherman and Veteran Stuart Companies alongside the Veteran Rifle and Veteran Armoured Rifle companies. You can create these using combinations of the North Africa formations and Command Cards so they aren’t truly new, unlike the French Goumier Infantry Company.

The two tank formations follow the North Africa model; the only change being the dropping of the M3 Lee options from both formations. The Sherman platoons are now rated Confident, Careful and Trained, for an extra 6 points for a 5 tank platoon.  The Stuart platoons are no longer Reckless and are rated Confident, Aggressive and Trained for an extra 2 points for a 5 tank platoon. Overall the uplift means you will have 2-3 fewer tanks for the same overall cost compared to the North Africa book formation. The two American Infantry Formations follow the same pattern moving from Confident, Aggressive and Green to Confident, Careful and Trained.  However, they lose the Determined rule and its Rally bonus.  All this comes at a cost of an extra 7pts for the ARP and 4pts for the Rifles, which matches what you can create from the North Africa book.

The Americans force also gains the Goumier Infantry Company formation, representing the Free French under American command. Note; these are not subject to the Allies rules and are treated as American platoons for force construction. The formation is simply just a HQ and three infantry platoons, but makes an excellent accompaniment to the American armour. 

The Goumiers are a lot cheaper than the non-Veteran US rifles, being Aggressive.  However, this is partly offset by gaining Fearless and Deadly, hitting on a 2+ in assaults. Even the heavy weapons teams hit on a 3+, making these potent combat platoons.  

Even with all the additional equipment, they are only 2pts more expensive than a Veteran American Rifle platoon and 8pts cheaper than the Armoured Rifles. They also benefit from the Scout and Mountaineer rules making them more mobile and, as long as you don’t shoot just as hard to hit as the Careful Americans. Overall these are a super value point for point unit. The one downside is they don’t have a bazooka team so you still need to be wary of Tank Assaults.

One key item of note is the Goumier optional 60mm mortar follows the light mortar shooting rules and does not have an Artillery rating like the American 60mm.

Force Support for Sicily is identical to that available in North Africa.

British and Canadian Forces

The British this time are supported by the Canadians, who get their own Sherman Armoured and Rifle Company formations, as well as Veteran British Rifles, the familiar configuration of forces to us from D-Day. Yes, Veteran really does mean Veteran this time round. The Force diagram follows the model from the American one with just the new formations in the PDF.

The British Veteran Rifle Company follows the North Africa model with the troops being Confident (Bulldog Counterassault 3+) Careful and Veteran for just an extra point per Rifle platoon making them a decent cost per platoon.  The integral 6pdr Anti-tank guns are, however, still the early model with AT9 FP 4+ and No HE. Overall, it’s a nice addition to the British formation options in the MW period, but not outstanding, and offers an alternative in open Mid-War play where all the North Africa and Sicily Forces are available to choose from.

The Canadian Rifle Company on the other hand is interesting, with an extra anti-tank platoon, each with 2,3 or 4 6pdr gun teams making it more like an enlarged Motor Rifle formation overall.  It’s a bit more flexible in how you build and deploy your overall force. Two units of three 6pdr guns may be a good option to consider, if thinking about a defensive list.

Profile wise the Canadians are the same as the British, except they gain the Determined rule, meaning they Rally on a 3+ as well.  Despite this boost, they cost the same as the British at 12 points for a full strength platoon and this makes them a better choice of infantry and does make you wonder why they aren’t a touch more expensive!

Axis Forces

There is just the one axis PDF combining the German and Italian forces present in Sicily into a single combined force diagram, opening up a whole plethora of Force building options. 

The Germans are a mix of formations with Fallschirmjager taken from North Africa and the reorganised veteran divisions withdrawn from Tunisia using Eastern Front lists.  We then get the specialist Sicily Formations of the Herman Goring Division who are all rated as Trained and thus a little kinder on the points.

The Herman Goring tank formations all follow the North Africa model of only containing tanks, so no integrated AA or infantry, and are all equipped with the later model tanks from Ghost Panzers. There are no Panzer III (early) or Panzer IV (early) tanks without Bazooka Skirts available in Sicily. 

They also are allowed to mix Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks in the platoons making it easier to field a reasonably sized Panzer formation and still be able to afford some infantry and artillery in support. The tank platoons are all capped at four tanks, including the Assault guns, not that anyone can realistically afford to field a platoon of four StuG (late 7.5cm) at 46 points!

Finally, the Tiger Heavy Tank Company organisation is again just Tigers and does not have the Panzer III support tanks on North Africa, nor the integrated AA of Late War.

The Herman Goring Panzer Grenadiers follow the same layout as their Eastern Front equivalents but are Confident (Third Reich, Last Stand 3+), Careful, Trained making them a point per platoon cheaper than the Eastern Front formation. Not much, but over 6 or 7 platoons this should enable you to field a slightly bigger force.

Italian Forces

The fascinating part of this PDF are the Italian forces present on Sicily. Here we get 2 new tank formations and two new infantry formations, representing the last of the Italian army before it splits into multiple factions after the invasion of the mainland and the Italian surrender.

The R-35 tank formation gives us the option to field captured early war French equipment with a HQ and three platoons of up to five tanks each. They will do a job vs Infantry and guns but will get laughed at by Allied armour, which they can’t hurt. 

Alternatively you can field the potent Semovente 90 Anti-Tank Group.  This is the smallest formation in FOW with just an HQ of 1 or 2 tanks and 2 platoons of 2-4 tanks. As a second formation these potent anti-tank weapons could make for a nice choice; an entire formation with a HQ tank and two platoons of three tanks comes in at 49pts, leaving plenty of points to play with.

The Italian infantry brings the fairly standard Fuscilieri Rifle formation, with its starting profile of Reluctant, Green and Aggressive troops. The layout follows the North Africa Besaglieri pattern, with the addition of the 65mm Gun platoon as an option in the integral artillery slot.  I’m not sure they are a better option than the excellent Italian 81mm mortars, not having Smoke, but It’s good to see more of these flavour units being added to the game. The 8 million bayonets die upgrades the Motivation Follow Me to 3+ and Skill to Trained 4+ which could make a lot of difference to how they perform. Oddly, just the HQ platoon have the Mountaineers rule which seems like a possible copy and paste error. One thing you quickly realise when reading through this is that large parts are direct lifts from Eastern Front or Liberation of Italy.

The final formation is the Coastal Rifle Company, these troops are cheap but being Reluctant, Green and Aggressive, they should be. The six million bayonets die can make them Trained but doesn’t improve their Motivation. These are not front line troops and are more akin to a militia, but they have plenty of equipment. At just 32 points for the entire formation you have plenty left over for better quality support.

What the Coastal troops do have is a lot of artillery.  Like all Italian forces, the artillerymen are superior to their infantry equivalents, so the coastal troops start off as Confident and Trained which keeps the cost down and if you are lucky they might turn out to be Veteran.
We get a pair of new artillery gun types in the Italians; the 75mm field gun, equivalent to the German 75mm infantry gun, but with the Large Gun rule, and the Italian 105mm. This is equivalent to the German 10.5cm gun, but with only a 20″ (50cm) direct fire range.
The Italian Sicily OP is an infantry team which is nice.

Axis Support

TThe support diagram is fairly large! 

Here the symbols show us the crew type but there are no restrictions on what to choose to allow for a real pick and mix selection of support units being available to all the formations. Cheap Italian artillery may well be the best way to support more expensive German formations, and vice versa, with German armour supporting Italian infantry. The only obvious additions are the 15cm Nebelwerfer box to the diagram as an extra Artillery slot and the Italian Semovente 47/32 SP Anti-tank platoon which sees these tanks move from a Community Card to an “official” unit.

Links to the Battlefront Articles and Downloads

Finally incase you have missed it somehow here are links to all the core Battlefront articles and downloads

Articles and Forces
https://www.battlefront-community.com/article/us-forces-in-operation-husky
https://www.battlefront-community.com/article/british-and-canadian-forces-in-operation-husky/
https://www.battlefront-community.com/article/german-and-italian-forces-in-operation-husky/
Dynamic Points
https://www.battlefront-community.com/article/flames-of-war-downloads/