Bolt Action - Luigi Pascucci & Pietro Bruno, Italian Tankers

Welcome to Tanko Thursday, a semi-regular article exploring some of the lesser known legendary tankers from the minor nations with house rules for representing them in your own Bolt Action Tank War battles. This week we look at legendary Italian tankers, Luigi Pascucci and Pietro Bruno.

Luigi Pascucci was a second lieutenant in the 132nd Tank Regiment of the Ariete Division. He would be post-humously awarded the Medaglia D’Oro Al Valore Militare (the Gold Medal for Military Valor), Italy’s highest award for his actions at the second battle of El Alamein.


On the 4th of November, 1942, Pascucci's platoon of M13/40 medium tanks was involved in combat against the British 22nd Armoured Brigade near Bir-El-Abd, to the west of El Alamein. The following day, the 132nd Tank Regiment was ordered to hold the left flank of the Axis retreat.




The came under attack by the British 8th Armour, who not only outnumbered them but had Shermans and Grants, which drastically out-gunned and out-armoured the obsolete Italian tanks. The 132nd was able to hold out long enough to not only give the rest of the Ariete division enough time to escape but also their German allies, but in doing so they were cut off.

At 3:30pm the last of the 132nd sent out their last transmission over the radio, “Enemy tanks broke through south of Ariete Division. Ariete thus surrounded, located 5kms northwest of Bir-el-Abd. Ariete tanks keep fighting!"

With only 11 tanks left, Pascucci took command and decided to launch a last-ditch attack. The counter-attack actually managed to break the British lines and send the British 8th into disarray. Pascucci pursued the British tanks before finally being knocked out. His body was found after the battle in his burnt out tank. The 132nd was wiped out, all 100 of it's tanks sacrifaced.


Pascucci's M13/40
Cost: 222 points
Quality: Veteran
Weapons: 1 turret-mounted light anti-tank gun with co-axial MMG, 2 hull-mounted MMGs and pintle-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 8+ (light tank)
Special Rules:
Ariete Keeps Fighting!: After this unit successfully executes an order, choose a friendly vehicle within 6" that has an order die next to it. Return the order die to the dice bag.
Battle Commander: Pascucci's legendary command bonus is +2 instead of the normal +1.
Vulnerable: Because of the riveted construction, all shots to the side and rear of the vehicle get an additional +1 modifier (ie. in total, +2 for side hits, +3 for rear hits).
Slow
Skills:
Lead Foot
Skill Shot
Strict Discipline
Push Through

Pietro Bruno was also a second lieutenant in the 132nd Armoured Regiment and another recipicant of the Medaglia D’Oro Al Valore Militare from the unit's actions at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Like Pascucci not a lot of information is known about Bruno, other then his actions at Bir-El-Abd.

In command of a platoon of M14/41 tanks, he was involved in the battle with the British 22nd Armour Brigade on the 4th of November. He had been wounded in the shoulder the previous day but stayed in command of his tank. Disregarding his own safety, he directed his platoon from his open hatch, ignoring the enemy fire even when another glancing hit gave him a scrapnel wound to the face.

There are reports that he was able to knock out a couple of British tanks despite the relatively weak main gun of the Italian tanks. After shrugging off multiple shots, a direct hit finally struck his M14/41, sending it up in a fireball and killing all crew onboard.


Bruno's M14/41
Cost: 217 points
Quality: Veteran
Weapons: 1 turret-mounted light anti-tank gun with co-axial MMG, 2 hull-mounted MMGs and pintle-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 8+ (light tank)
Special Rules:
At the Forefront: If a friendly vehicle within 6" is targeted by an enemy unit, you may change the target of the attack to Bruno's M14/41 instead.
Vulnerable: Because of the riveted construction, all shots to the side and rear of the vehicle get an additional +1 modifier (ie. in total, +2 for side hits, +3 for rear hits).
Skills:
Crank Head
Skill Shot
Lucky
Eagle Eye

With Alessio's freshly released rules for making your own tankers, would anyone like to translate Pascucci and Bruno into Cavatore-Compliance? Let us know on the forum! Eternal BARbarian fame and fortune (lie) await!