Battle of Tarakan

Took a trip up to my good friend John Dimond's place today, and played a game of Bolt Action.

The scenario was late war Pacific, The battle of Tarakan.
The Australians had to clear the area of the Imperial Japanese forces.

It was an enjoyable game with heavy casualties on both sides. But in the end the Aussies achieved there objective.

Below are some photos and a brief on the battle.

More photos will be up on John's blog, Band Of War game Brothers soon.

Link attached below.

 http://bandofwargamebrothers.blogspot.com.au/


 The Imperial Japanese Army. (IJA)

2x Light tanks and three squads with anti tank capability.

The three squads.

2x MMG's and 1x Medium Mortar.

2x Light mortars

IJA HQ.

 Australian force. (Aussies)

1x Matilda Tank.

1x MMG, 1x Medium Mortar and 2x PIAT teams.

4x 9 man Sections & 1x HQ in the rear.

1x Flamethrower team and 1x Sniper team.

The battlefield. The IJA was coming in from the rear right corner, and the Aussies from the front left corner.

The Aussie's get ready.

The IJA do the same.

The view at the start.

Something wicked comes this way.

CONTACT! the IJA tank comes into sight.

Aussies move forward with the sniper team to the right.

The two PIAT teams rush forward with the report of IJA tanks.

The second IJA tank

The IJA move through the jungle for the hill.

The IJA were the first to enter the village.

IJA MMG rushes for the village to add support.

The IJA tank pulls back into cover as the Matilda tank fails to hit.

The Aussies move quick to set up fire as the IJA enters the village.

The IJA on the move.

The Matilda kept failing to take out the IJA tanks and kept getting pined down.

The IJA looked like there was no stopping them as they kept advancing.

The Aussies push for the village.

One of the Aussie sections rushes to the hill to try and stop the IJA advance.

Birds eye view of the Aussie half.

The Aussie Vickers MMG fires with out muck luck.

The  first Aussie section enters the village

Second Aussie section enters to lend a hand.

The fight is on.

And on.

The IJA look like there's no stopping them on the hill.

 A third Aussie section moves passed the Vickers for the village.

The Aussie section on the hill takes heavy casualties.

Just down to two men.

The Aussie section on the hill was eventually wiped out.

Birds eye view of the battle. You can see on the front right side, were the IJA have wiped out the Aussie section on the hill.

Privates White and Smith, rush up the hill with a flamethrower against a fanatical IJA Squad that had earlier wiped out an entire section, in a desperate attempt to stop the IJA.

Privates White and Smith let rip the flame thrower and wipe out the entire IJA Squad and are awarded the VC for there actions.  Private Smith has his awarded Posthumously as he was KIA later on with Private White stopping a second squad and causing the IJA to lose the hill.

The Matilda still has no luck taking out the IJA tank.

A two man PIAT team on the right, rushes for the hut which has the IJA tank hiding on the other side, to see if it can take it out as the Matilda Tank is having no luck

The fire fight in the village continues.

The IJA HQ runs towards the centre of the village to join the fight.

This is the second IJA squad that had taken out Private smith.

Private White lets rip with the Flame thrower.

The IJA tank taken out by the PIAT crew that is in the hut.

In a desperate Banzai attack the IJA HQ rush one of the Aussie sections in the village centre..

The IJA HQ wipes out the entire Aussie section with there Banzai attack. But in the end they were cut down by the remaining two Aussie sections in the village.

Private White after he has just wiped out the second IJA squad, causing the IJA attack to stop and win the Aussies the battle and him a VC.

The aftermath with most of the IJA forces wiped out.