Desert Fort
(BB123)
with three pre-painted Wall Sections, one pre-painted Entrance Section & four pre-painted Corner Sections.
As the Ottoman Empire expanded into North Africa during the Middle Ages, they established castles in an effort to consolidate their power in the region. These castles were built around vital oases, important cities and seaside ports.
"Since medieval times, the once-mighty Turks established hundreds of castles and fortresses throughout their empire to guard the precious few oases in the Libyan Desert against enemy armies and raiders. Though centuries have past many of these ancient forts were still intact when the Italians took control of Libya."
Even though the ancient Ottoman Turks no longer used them, the old desert castles, now decayed or in ruin, still offered their services to those who occupied them. When Italy conquered Libya they used these forts as bases of operations, garrisoning them with Mitraglieri (machine-gun) companies, while Autosahariana (mobile truck columns) patrolled the wastes between.
The British and French recognised the importance of locations such as Forte el-Taj, the Italian fort at Kufra. Others, such as the one in Murzuk were also seen as potential targets. Controlling these allowed further operations in the Sahara and thus became important in the early stages of the war.
"Desert forts could also be found in Syria where the Vichy French incorporated them into a tough defensive network."
The deep desert was not the only place where the ancient forts appeared during the war. Some forts, such as the ones in Mechili and Capuzzo were the focus of conventional battles between the British, Germans, and Italians during the back-and-forth campaigns in Cyrenaica.
Furthermore, desert forts were not limited to those found in Libya. In the French mandate of the Levant (Syria and Lebanon), the Vichy French made expert use of desert forts around Merdjayoun, holding up the British advance. A series of forts made the region particularly hard to assault, forcing the Australians and Indians there to slowly capture castle by castle.
Though ancient and obsolete, desert forts still performed an important role in the defence of vital desert locations.
"You can replace up to two intact walls with ruined walls for -50 points per ruined wall."
"The Italian garrisons modernized the castles by cutting new embrasures and rifle slits into the old walls. Safe behind the thick walls, Italian troops guarded the desert oases from Allied raiders."
"See pages 126-129 of Burning Empires for all the special rules regarding the Desert Fort in Flames Of War."
"Desert fort can be fielded by several forces in this book, including a Vichy French Compagnie de Tirailleurs (on page 100 of Burning Empires), a British Sudan Defence Force (on page 138 of Burning Empires), and an Italian Compagnia Mitraglieri (on page 146 of Burning Empires)."
