After ‘discovering’ the excellent Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies and getting together a German force to play them with it was a no brainer to want to do one of their pint sized campaigns. So myself and Mike have settled on Operation Martlet, it is quite fitting that my first campaign is against him as it is all his fault I got into these rules in the first place.
There will be only one small change from the ‘vanilla’ version and that is I will be substituting a Heer PanzerGrenadier force in for the Hitler Jugend force – I’ll be using the same lists from the booklet, I just can’t have ‘my’ lads as SS. Some might feel this odd but with the family I have it just can’t be done. I’ll just have them as a part of a Kampfgruppe from Panzer Lehr I suppose (but without their uniforms!).
So first things first, I reckon I should introduce my plucky band of landsers who are trying to prevent the Allies from advancing further into Normandy…….
Erste Zug: (Each Gruppe has 6 men organised into 2 MG42 teams)
Zug Kommandant: Oberfeldwebel Beckenbauer (‘der Kaiser’). 38, Bavarian, an average sort who is an old soldier and a veteran of Spain.
Erste Gruppe: Unteroffizier Breitner, 24, Bavarian, tall and thin he is a former communist.
Zweite Gruppe: Obergefreiter Klinsmann, 25, Wurttemberger, an average sort from Stuttgart where his family have a bakery.
Dritte Gruppe: Obergefreiter Ballack, 21, Saxon, an average sort from the country.
Panzer 212 (Pz IVH): Unterfeldwebel Schumacher, 25, Westphalian, an average lad from the countryside. He has been attached to Erste Zug.
Dritte Zug:
Zug Kommandant: Leutenant Hitzlsperger (der Hammer), 23, Bavarian, former civil servant, Party member, he is tall and thin. (-1 to men’s opinion)
Erste Gruppe: Unterfeldwebel Völler, 24, Hessian, another Party member, model citizen and a barrel of a man.
Zweite Gruppe: Obergefreiter Rumminigge, 21, Westfalian, country lad and a true bantam.
Dritte Gruppe: Obergefreiter Krankl, 25, Austrian, a thin and pale city boy from Vienna.
Panzer 213 (PzIVH): Unteroffizier Vettel, 21, Hessian, an average sort of country lad.
Supports and Replacements:
Adjutant: Leutenant Müller, 24, Bavarian, thin and pale he is the middle class son of a decorated veteran of the First World War. Was Erste Zug’s commander before being posted to the Battalion staff.
Ersatz Zug Kommandant: Feldwebel Klopp. 26, Wurttemberger, a bantam and former gamekeeper. (he will be the support Senior Leader, currently with Company staff)
Ersatz Gruppe 1: Obergefreiter Schweinsteiger, 24, Bavarian, an average sort of city lad. He leads a team of 5 men, willing remnants from another division that has attached themselves to the company.
Ersatz Gruppe 2: Obergefreiter Huth, 26, Berliner, an average looking former Cabaret musician. Again leads a team of 5 riflemen.
Tracks and Threads 