The game kicked off to the strains of ‘Life on Mars’ by David Bowie
The Table:
Germans at the Bottom, British in the woods.
The Forces:
German: Platoon #3 less 2 riflemen plus, 1 car, 1 senior leader, 3 halftrack APC (to carry one squad), FO for a 81mm mortar battery and 1 Lorraine Schlepper.
British: Platoon #1 less 3 sten plus, 2 entrenchments, 1 bren team and a FO for a 3″ mortar battery.
Force morale, German 8, British 11.
The Paras need a win here to draw the series so the plan is to hunker down and shoot the Germans to pieces. The German plan is to use the ample cover and their greater mobility to close with the British and indulge in a bit of ‘Handgranaten!’
I’ve marked the jump-off points with white lines:
The Germans got off to a solid start with Squad #B entering the field mounted in halftracks, Squad #C deploying forward of the house on the extreme left while the FO deployed in the house.
The British deployed section #3 in the house in the center with the FO while section #1 deployed in the woods behind the house.
Things started to hot up with the Germans deploying Squad #A in the forward farmhouse, the Halftracks crashed through the estate gate and advanced up the road followed by a senior leader in a staff car
German squad #3 was caught by a Bren team concealed in the field and suffered the first casualties of the game. While both FO had contacted their batteries it was the British who responded first by putting a ranging shot just to the right of the lead halftrack,
For a while things looked good for the British, the halftracks were forced to swerve off the road but return fire from the German #C squad wiped out the bren team in the field and the German FO called in an immediate barrage on the house causing 2 casualties, one rifleman and the senior leader! British morale drops from a high of 11 to six!
With things getting a bit ragged the British Platoon leader deployed and immediately ordered the FO to call in another barrage the battery responded that they had been redeployed and were no longer in range and would not be available to supply any more support! The CO quickly ordered the bren team in the (now) damaged building to open fire on the Germans in the field with support from the 2″ mortar, he also ordered the PIAT to fire on the approaching half tracks. Meanwhile #1 section moved right towards the wall to cover the fields.
The German halftracks turned back towards the road and continued their advance, squad #C dived for cover by the wall and the German FO called in another barrage on the Estate House but only inflicted 2 points of shock.
An intense fire-fight ensued which reduced the British numbers in the Estate House, pinned the German #C squad and knocked out the lead halftrack.
The German mortar bombardment shifted to #1 section causing little damage. #1 section moved towards the Estate House to support #3 section.
The two remaining halftracks rolled round in front of the Estate House and the remainder of #B squad launched an assault on the house, they took heavy casualties and the survivors scuttled back and were pinned behind the halftracks leaving the Estate House full of nothing but British dead! The losses reduced the British morale to 2 points and their command dice to 3!
Section #1 occupied the now ruined estate house only to be forced out again as the German mortar barrage rained down supported by fire from the Lorraine.
#2 section went on overwatch in the woods but as they started taking casualties from the Lorrain lobbing shells into the woods it was obvious that even fighting for a draw was out of the question! So the remainder of the British force slipped back into the woods and withdrew.
A German victory (again).
The Germans suffered 17 casualties including a Junior Commander. The opinion of the CO increased by 1 back to zero, its start point and the men’ s opinion remained unchanged at -2 down from +1!
The Para’s suffered 23 casualties including 2 senior leaders, a junior leader and the FO. the opinion of the CO was reduced b 1 to -2 down from a start of +1 and the men decreased by one to +3 up from the +2 starting point.
Comments.
This was always going to be a tough one for the Para’s to win and loosing the mortar barrage early after just one shot was just cruel,perhaps the british should have taken a 6 pounder! Loosing the bren team was also a blow but the Para’s held the Germans for quite a while.
Things looked a bit dodgy for the Germans once the British mortar barrage arrived things could have been quite different had that continued as the German one did although, the German side did make one HUGE mistake, they forgot the Lorrain! and didn’t bring it on until the last hour of gaming. It only fired 2 shots, the first reduced the estate house to a burning ruins and fpinned #1 section behind, the second into the woods convinced the British that all was lost, if only I had remembered about it earlier.
So 3-1 in favour of the Germans with one draw, a great campaign that I will replay at some time although not 5 games in 5 days solo!