Operation Martlet: Fight 4 – The Hauptkampflinie

Beckenbauer was angry with himself at letting the British bundle him out of the last position without a fight and was determined that this time it would be different. He had already been informed by the old man that his Zug was going to be replaced if and when they withdrew from the Hauptkampflinie that they now occupied as Leutnant Hitzelberger and his 2.Zug was now ready in position around the St. Nicholas farm.

The patrol activity had been better contained than before the last fight, whilst the enemy had managed to get to the far end of the garden they had been kept mostly far away from the main position. The Zug’s own forming up points were spread more or less along the lateral road and with the good defensive positions available amongst the houses and outbuildings of this position he was confident that he’d be able to make the Britishers pay a heavy price for taking the position and repulse them once more. He was pleased to see that he had the services of one of the tripod mounted MG’s from Company HQ and a couple of extra Panzerfausts and was also glad that he still had three full strength sections, even with Ballack’s continued attempts at getting himself killed, and the pioneers had done their business on fortifying the house to the left of the crossroads. All in all ‘der Kaiser’ was pleased with his chances and a quick tour of his positions to give some last minute instructions made him feel even better, the lads were itching for the fight.

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Soon the peace and quiet was destroyed by the rip of sound from the HMG in the upstairs of the fortified house as it opened up on an enemy section that had started to make its way across the garden. The stone wall that they were hiding behind only helped them a bit though and first blood was drawn and the enemy quickly responded with a superbly targeted smoke round from one of their verdamt small mortars that completely blocked the view of the gun. The Britishers were learning very fast and under cover of the smoke the shot up section ran forwards to the cover of the barns in front of the fortified house. Pretty soon smoke rounds were falling all over the place with the road leading to the enemy completely blocked by it and the chief of the gun shouted out a warning that the Tommies were using its cover to run another section over the road that started moving towards the Hayloft in the main farm complex.

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Beckenbauer looked over to his right and made a hand signal to Klinsmann. The blonde Wurttemberger gave a grin back and turned to his Gruppe. “C’mon lads, into the farm”, and with that they leapt over the wall into the courtyard, Jurgen directing one of his teams into the barn on the left to cover the road while he led the other section forward hoping to reach the Hayloft before the Tommies. However the unmistakable sound of tank tracks caused him to divert his lads to the low wall in the corner of the yard to investigate and hopefully get a shot off with the Panzerfaust. Unfortunately the Sherman that hoved into view was just out of range of their rocket grenade and before they could duck out of the way the tank fired a shell at them. “Scheisser!” yelled Klingsmann “Down, down, behind the wall!!” but luckily the Tommies must have been surprised to see them appear as their aim was out and the 75mm round hit the building behind them with no ill effect on his team apart from the slight shock of the near miss. ” Right, move, move” and he dragged and kicked his 3 men back out of sight alongside the Hayloft.

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It was a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire for the lads of Zweitte Gruppe however as whilst they had been playing peek-a-boo with the Sherman the Britishers had managed to run a section into the top of the Hayloft up the outside stairs and both sets of soldiers stood looking at each other through the open doors. Clearing his head Klinsmann decided what to do, “Grenades, quick chuck them up into the loft” but before his team could respond a full section of Tommies appeared through the door in front of them and all hell broke loose. When the dust had settled Klinsmann and his small band were kaput but the shock of the encounter, as well as the losses they incurred, caused the British to duck back into the safety of the downstairs room of the big barn.

While this short but bitter fight was happening the smoke that had been obscuring the view of the defenders cleared and the sight that greeted the gun team in the fortified house chilled them to the core. A huge Churchill tank was positioned in a great firing position and it had a very strange looking gun pointed at them. There was a detonation and what looked like a dustbin wobbled through the air at them and glanced off the roof. The detonation when this happened though was quite something and the gun team was dazed for a good while, their NCO still had enough wits about him though and he bundled his team out the back of the house before the beast of a tank could fire at them again. Luckily for them they just managed to miss the mortar barrage that had fallen on the crossroads which had just lessened enough in intensity to allow them to escape.

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“Get that gun set up on the wall down the road, I want you to cover the farmyard. Quick, before the mortars start up again” Beckenbauer yelled at their Gefreiter and quickly looked over to the left where he had sent Breitner’s men. They were there as he had thought that the Tommies skulking round the buildings to the left of the road were going to make a dash through the cover of the orchard and try and outflank them. His fear of an outflanking move grew more and more as the enemy kept trying to drop smoke rounds in front of the hirsute Bavarian’s Gruppe. He was just thinking about ordering them forward to winkle out the hiding Tommies to their front right when the mortar barrage suddenly shifted across and increased in ferocity again. The screams that were just about audible above the sounds of the falling mortar rounds told him that Breitner’s lads were suffering. Franz punched the ground and cried out “Dumpkopf” in frustration, he just hadn’t ordered them forward in time as he was distracted elsewhere and now his lads were paying the price.

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Luckily the barrage quickly stopped and Erste Gruppe had ‘only’ suffered 3 casualties and a new threat appeared. Over on the right the Sherman that had tried to take out Klinsmann and his team earlier had swung round the right of the farmyard and was looking to get into the lateral road which would have been curtains for them. Luckily the old bullet magnet Ballack was on hand and he calmly ordered his men along the hedge and said quietly “Prepare for tanks, get the ‘faust ready”. His rocket grenadier peeped through the hedge once to get an idea of where the large green vehicle was and then popped up and let loose. The rocket sped on it’s way and hit the British tank, the Sherman carried on for a meter or two then shuddered to a halt and smoke spewed out from it before it blew up in a fantastic pyrotechnic display. “Excellent Hans”, Ballack shouted above the din , “Beers and Slivovitz for you later”.

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Beckenbauer’s elation at this good news quickly turned sour however as the British section that had been hiding in front of the fortified house suddenly appeared on the lateral road, they had taken advantage of the attention being shown to the tank threat and were now in a position to start rolling up the flank. Breitner and his remaining men tried to get off a volley at them but they were still feeling the effects of their stonking and so it was ineffectual. The grizzled veteran quickly assessed the situation: The MMG was now set up and was keeping the two British sections in the Hayloft pinned for now but they could easily slip out of the stairs at the back and re-deploy to the flanks. The surviving team from Klinsmann’s gruppe was still in the barn by the road but could easily make it back to the safety of the road, but that was only safe for now. Breitner’s lads were a wreck and now also effectively cut off. Yes Ballack’s men were at full strength but for how long? Especially if the enemy could get that huge Churchill into action again or start up with the mortars. No, morale was not great and he had lost 6 men as well as one NCO so it was time to pull out. With that he loaded his flare pistol and fired the signal for withdrawal. Hopefully 2.Gruppe would be able to catch up them later.

Butcher’s Bill

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This was just about the tensest game of CoC either Des or I had played to date. Des had really upped his game making great use of smoke from his bloody 2″ mortars (are there any German players who don’t hate these things?), although the one targeting the section on the left consistently mis-aiming in the same place repeatedly was admittedly very funny. The fight in the Hayloft was sort of weird, we had a sort of Mexican standoff at one point and then Des asked if we could chuck grenades at each other, I said yes but couldn’t get the right dice (curse of the double 4’s and no 3’s) to do so and when it was his turn with a double 6 he brilliantly pushed forward a JOP so that he could deploy a section to close assault my dithering team. Unfortunately I wasn’t carrying much shock or pinned so he was facing an MG42 from the front. He lost more men than me so even though he wiped me out he had to withdraw – which I could see was plausible given the situation. I also got lucky with the ‘dustbin of death’ from the AVRE missing. I did make some stupid mistakes (I blame me still suffering from the lurgy) namely splitting Klinsmann’s team and pushing them forward like that and deploying Breitner’s team when I didn’t have to. I had appalling luck on the Bad Things Happen table too and my starting morale of 9 quickly dropped and I ended up on 4 when I decided to bail. But I did manage to cause some more casualties and maybe scare his tankers from getting too close to my infantry from now on. Let’s see how the new Zug gets on….

 

 

Operation Martlet: Fight 3 – Pushing on and bugging out

‘Verdamt!’. Beckenbauer quickly looked around at the men nearest to him, they didn’t look good and it worried him slightly. Ever since they had successfully disengaged from the advanced position and had reached this new one they had been under a terrific drumfire that had kept them all in the dug-outs and cellars that had been prepared for them. The strain was beginning to tell, they had already fought two actions since 04:00 that morning and had been lucky in that no-one had been killed but the odds that that luck would hold out were now very long. He had not been able to patrol the area to his satisfaction in between the waves of gunfire and when they had been able to the Tommies were very much in evidence.

He was wrenched back into the present by a ringing on the field telephone next to him: ‘Achtung, Englander!!’. He raced up the stairs of the cellar and into the observation post in the roof of the house he was in and looked out to see the Britishers advancing rapidly on their positions right on the heels of the gunfire, he also could see a massive tank with a strange looking stubby gun back along the road through the dust and haze too: ‘Scheisse!’. With that his mind was made up. He quickly ran back down into the cellar and reported what he saw to ‘Der Bomber’ who was still with them.

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‘You’re right old man, no use in staying here to get slaughtered as soon as we try and move into position, especially as we don’t have that panzer any more. Tell the lads to fall back to the main line. No use taking any unnecessary casualties here and we’ll have more chance of holding them there.’ With that Beckenbauer wasted no time in calling his sections and telling them to pull out quickly, this round to the Tommies but next time would be very different…..

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First up apologies for the tardiness in getting this written but I’ve had a terrible cold and cough for the past few weeks and just haven’t been in the mood, the campaign will be back in the New Year!

Basically Des played a blinder in the patrol phase (5 free moves I think!) and with me not being able to deploy due to the barrage he was right on top of my JOP’s in no time and he had the AVRE along too. Discretion being the better part and all that I decided to bug out as the platoon will be replaced after the next table so best keep them as intact as possible for that one and there’s more chance of holding him there and causing more casualties.

I rolled really well on the opinion tables though and although the CO’s didn’t change the men were very happy I got us out when I did and their opinion went up by 2 (it’s now 6 with the CO at 1, so not too shabby!).

As it took longer to set the terrain up than it did to play through the scenario we decided to play again. As Dan was without a game and I had enough with me to sort out another platoon we made the CoC bigger and had a great bash with the Jerries coming out on top thanks in part to a damned good stonking! Here’s a few pics (as usual click on them to have a better look!):

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Operation Martlet: Fight 2 – More Fontenay probing

Beckenbauer shook his head. The action was twofold, firstly to clear all the loose dirt that had fallen in on him from the roof of the dug-out and secondly in slight awe at the continued ferocity of the enemy shellfire that was falling on their positions – “If only we had such artillery support, eh Jurgen!” he half shouted to the other occupant of the command post and smiled at the tall Swabian – “Go and fetch Huth and his lads and take them back to Headquarters, the old man is sending us up a nice surprise for the Tommies in their place.” The NCO smiled back and promptly ducked out of the door and set about his task.

‘Der Kaiser’ thought about the mornings action and was quietly proud of his men. They had seen the Englanders (“No”, he chided himself, “Britishers – they were ‘Jocks'”) off without any casualties and the men’s morale was high, the CO was pleased too and when he asked if he needed anything Franz had jumped at the chance to request some heavier weapons and was told that a tripod mounted MG42 was on its way up. He had decided to position it where Huth’s team were in the last fight, they’d really give the enemy something to worry about and might make the use of the house a more hairy proposition. Apart from the added firepower of the HMG not much else had changed, the Granary had collapsed due to the damage that it had sustained both in the last action and the intense barrage that had started to fall as soon as the enemy disengaged. That gunfire was the reason that he was unable to push any patrols forward but he was ok with the disposition of his men , they were more or less where they were before and he’d already been round to speak to them all and was confident they knew what they were expected to do.

He was brought out of his reverie by a familiar voice – “Haven’t they killed you yet old man!” 1.Zug’s commander turned to see the Adjutant standing at the entrance and a quick salute was swiftly followed by a firm handshake. “As Klopp was coming back to HQ I guessed that would mean you would have to run around looking for Iron Crosses when the shooting starts so I thought you might need someone here to help out. I’ve also brought that MG team up with me and I’ve even managed to acquire another Panzerfaust from somewhere.”

“Excellent sir, you wouldn’t happen to have a 2 week leave pass in your pocket too?”

“Now, you know those sorts of things are not for the likes of you or I Oberfeldwebel. Stop all that nonsense and get out there with your men”.

With that Beckenbauer picked up his machine pistol, pulled his cap firmly on and, pausing only to give a quick wink to ‘Der Bomber’, left the command post. He called over to the MG team who were sheltering in a roadside ditch, told them to follow and headed off through the barrage to the forward positions. Once he reached the front he told the Machine gunners to get set up in the forward trench and to watch the house over on the left as he didn’t think the Tommies would make the mistake of coming across the fields again. He took the ‘faust off of them and gave it to Breitner’s lads who were now hidden up next to him in the hedgerows by the crossroad, having swapped places with Zweite Gruppe. However one of Klinsmann’s lads was positioned up in the Calvary with his section’s anti-tank rocket too with orders to take on any tanks using the road (he’d be useless in the ‘bunker-house’ with it). He was certain that the enemy would be using armour this time and wanted to give as many chances as possible to stop any breaking through in case Schumacher and his panzer was knocked out. Nothing else to do now but wait, and he didn’t have to for long.

Movement was seen behind the hedge that ran away from the British house and it looked like a section was headed towards their position, some more helmeted heads were seen further back and the Gefreiter in charge of the HMG team decided to try and have a go at them. In reply he received a smoke shell from a mortar that completely blinded the team, it definitely looked like the Tommies were learning! Just in case the enemy was planning on trying to jump the wall opposite the collapsed building Ballack and his men were ordered up into the ruins to hold that flank. Pretty soon the field telephone rang and Klinsmann told Beckenbauer that from his OP in the first floor of the ‘bunker house’ he had just seen an enemy section leave the British house but that he couldn’t engage them as the shelling they were experiencing had trapped his men in the cellar of the house. As soon as they could dig themselves out though they’d be engaging the target. Also, a tank was on its way up the road.

Section sneaks along the wall

The Barnyard shows damage from the first fight

Mortars spotted

British medic gets to work

MG team get into action

Ballack and his lads man the ruins

Sherman appears out of the mist

Beckenbauer quickly fired off the signal flare to tell Schumacher that it was time to bring his tank up to engage enemy armour and peered over the hedges to his front to check if the smoke was still obscuring the view of the HMG team, it was. Over on the left the enemy had managed to cross the high wall opposite the barnyard and set up to attack Ballack’s men. First they threw a grenade which wounded one of Dritte Gruppe as well as Ballack himself and whilst they were getting over the shock a smoke grenade was lobbed, the Tommies were definitely learning! Under cover of this smoke some British riflemen started to move round the other side of the Granary ruins to flank the dazed German position.

A loud crack rent the air on the right as the Zug’s attached Panzer IV fired at the enemy Sherman, but instead of the green beast bursting into flames a loud ‘CLANG’ was heard and a streak of light shot into the sky as the armour piercing round deflected upwards. “Scheisse!” Schumacher immediately ducked back into the turret just as the return shot from the Sherman slammed into the cupola. Luckily it glanced off but he was hit by some spalling in the face and had his eardrums burst as well, the rest of the crew were rightly shocked by this turn of events but he quickly ordered them to keep engaging the tank whilst he concentrated on staying conscious.

 

Brits leave the house, risky…

Return fire hurts Pz. 411

Ballack wounded again!

Gunner, target: Sherman on the road, fire!

British ready to assault the ruins

MG team smoked

The Sherman edges forward

With the outlook for 1.Zug looking grim, fate intervened and a large gust of wind got up and cleared the smoke away, and to make matters even better the British guns stopped suddenly. Beckenbauer reacted quickly jumping up and shouting over to the MG team “Take out those men by the house, and tell that lad with the Panzerfaust to get ready as he might have a tank to deal with at any moment”. The MG team didn’t need telling though as they were about to open fire and soon British soldiers were falling and the survivors were running back into the house in a semi-panic. ‘Der Kaiser’ shouted out again “Keep firing at them in the house, make them run!”, and so the machine gun started up again. The section that had jumped the wall also suffered from the shift in the wind as Dritte Gruppe opened up with their two MG42’s and even though they lost another two men to return fire pretty soon they decimated the enemy and they quickly retreated back over the wall to safety taking the men that were on the outflanking manoeuvre with them.

Beckenbauer again looked over the hedge and he was quietly pleased, the British infantry had been clearly beaten again and he was feeling confident, however he was worried about the Sherman sat out on the road, it hadn’t moved for a bit and he had only seen one more round from the Panzer graze its turret. Just as he was thinking what to do next the allied tank lurched forwards, and he shouted out to the lad waiting in ambush in the Calvary to get ready. Unfortunately the worried youngster took the warning as an order and fired, the rocket hitting the ground just in front of the target which was just about at maximum range. “Verdammt!”, Beckenbaur turned to the NCO next to him behind the hedge – “Paul get you men ready with the ‘fausts, we are going to have company very soon if those poxy Panzer boys don’t do their job!”.

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Unfortunately ‘those poxy panzer boys’ were still in a state of panic, with their commander drifting in and out of consciousness and their optics all out of whack from another strike to the turret they just couldn’t manage to get a shot on target and the one that they did didn’t seem to do any damage at all, again deflecting harmlessly away. This seemed to give the enemy tankers confidence and they surged forwards along the road again. Breitner was delighted and ordered his two lads to open up with their Panzerfausts, there was no way they could miss but the British tank must have been made out of lucky horseshoes and both rockets sailed harmlessly past its massive bulk. Contemptuously ignoring the infantry for now the Sherman fired once more at the Panzer IV scoring another hit which caused the German tank to back up quickly and then the hatches popped open and the crew bundled out dragging their commander with them.

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The field ‘phone went off by ‘Der Kaiser’ again, it was the Adjutant – “Franz, get the men out, no sense hanging around, they might have another tank on the way and we need to fall back to the next defensive line whilst we still have an intact force”. Beckenbauer didn’t want to give up the ground they had held so well but he knew that Muller was right, they’d given the enemy a very bloody nose and were in good shape and could escape without further loss so he agreed and got the message out to his men. “Fall back to the farm”.

The withdrawal went without a hitch, the enemy tank that had broken through their lines was easily dodged as it wisely stayed buttoned up and the enemy had taken such a beating that their infantry waited for them to leave the position before moving up. Ballack’s lads that were wounded were ok to carry on and Beckenbauer assured the Saxon that he’d definitely be in reserve next time round as the medics bandaged him up again. Once again the Zug had got through a fight without any losses, apart from the walking wounded of Dritte Gruppe the HMG team had someone wounded by a sniper just at the end of the fight but, again, not too seriously. The big loss was the Panzer, but hopefully the closer terrain of this new position would mean that the enemy might not attack with armour. Even with this setback, the men’s morale was very good and he was feeling secure in the knowledge that they would perform well in the next fight.

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Des started this fight at a big disadvantage, he was down 8 men so had basically lost a section not only that but his men weren’t too happy and the CO had the hump too. He had planned to compensate for this by using mortars to flatten my position and hopefully cause me to bug out to prevent heavy casualties. The Sherman was to help in this if it managed to take out the Panzer IV and to try and make the breakthrough. I was happy to just wait and see what he did and was willing to ride out the pre-game bombardment if possible without putting anyone on the board – my men’s and CO’s opinions were great and I wanted to retain as much of my strength as possible. I went for the HMG as I figured he’d keep his men in cover so wanted something to negate that and the extra ‘faust as I figured he’d bring a tank too.

Luckily for me he lost his FOO in the fog and so he had to come up with another plan on the hoof and so pushed his infantry forward. Again I got lucky, rolling a triple 6 to clear the smoke and was able to catch his men in the open once more. With his infantry shattered and broken I was actually quietly confident I could see him off again, my luck definitely seemed like it was in –  I even threw well for all my morale checks not losing a point all night. That’s why I didn’t panic when it looked like I was going to lose the tank battle, I had 3 Panzerfausts he had to get past before he could get the tank off table. Obviously the dice gods didn’t like my cockiness as I missed with all 3 and then Des got a double phase to get his tank through and off the table.

Another cracking game and we can’t wait for the next instalment on Monday. We used another house rule this week, taken from the forum. Each time we rolled a double 6 we took an activation dice away from the next roll, seemed to be ok and neither of us got more than one extra bound so we’ll keep tabs on if this is an effective way to prevent ‘double 6 romps’ as we progress.

My lads came through without any casualties again and I’m sitting pretty opinion wise with the men’s morale on a +1 for the next game and the CO happy too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operation Martlet: Fight 1 – Probe at Fontenay

‘Der Kaiser’ took a deep draw on his pipe and looked around at the faces of his men gathered round in the semi-darkness of the cellar. They had been through a rough time over the past few weeks but they were all ready and he knew that he’d be able to rely on them to do their duty once the Tommies attacked. That they were to be assaulted once more was obvious, they had been suffering one of the worst barrages any of them had experienced since the war had started and last night’s patrolling had bumped into some stiff opposition. Thankfully there weren’t any casualties but it had firmed up his belief that the attack was imminent and so he had called his NCO’s together for a final briefing.

The old man had beefed up his Zug by sending him Huth and his 5 riflemen from HQ, Klopp had come along with them too and they’d agreed between them that he’d go forward first to help keep the fight going while Franz stayed back to help keep the lads moving up to their positions as they might need encouraging through the awful drumfire. Thanks to the patrolling Beckenbauer thought that he had a good idea of where the Britishers would develop their attack. They had gained control over the house on the other side of the road from the barnyard and if he was them he’d also probably sneak up behind the hedge too that ran off away from that house, otherwise they’d have to advance across the wide open fields to the front. One thing that might assist the enemy was the horrible mist that had come down but that would help his lads too.

Before the fighting started, view from the German lines

He took one last puff on his pipe, tapped it out and smiled at his NCO’s. “Right, lets to it then. Ballack: your boys look after the Barnyard, watch for the Britishers coming over the wall on the left; Huth, you handsome devil, get your team into the trench over the road but don’t expose yourselves unless you see any Tommies coming across the fields; Brietner, put your Gruppe into the house on the right, the pioniere have kindly reinforced it for you so sit tight, watch the fields but pay attention to the hedges and the house over on the left; Klinsmann you get to be the reserve this time; Schu’, I’ll keep you and your Panzer with me back here until we find out where the enemy’s are; Jürgen, you know what we talked about earlier. Right then gentlemen, back to your lads, good luck.”

It seemed like ages before there was any sign of the enemy but eventually some of the silly British helmets were soon seen popping up in the window of the house on the left, then all of a sudden a section of infantry spilled out of the door in front of the house. Obergefreiter Ballack couldn’t really believe what he was seeing ‘Must be new to this’ he thought and turned to his men, “Right boys: into the gateway and open up on the Englanders to our front”. With that his 6 men left the wall they had just climbed over (thank god there were a couple of ladders knocking about) and walked into the courtyard where they opened up with their 2 MG42’s at the khaki clad infantry in front of them. Their fire was accurate and they saw at least 2 men fall as well as the leader whilst the survivors hit the deck quickly. The shock of their attack meant that the return fire from the enemy was not great but one of the men was hit and Ballack quickly told him to head to the rear whilst ordering the rest into the barn and cover. The remainder of the Zug weren’t joining in though, probably due to the still fierce bombardment they were under or the slowly clearing mist obscuring their view. So he was happy to stay put, maybe the initial exchange of fire would make the Britishers cautious, but he’d definitely given them something to think about.

Ballack’s men pile it on…

… and duck out of the way (excuse the barn a WiP but needed for the night!)

All of a sudden another section of the enemy appeared at the end of the open ground in front of the position and they moved steadily forwards, unfortunately for them the barrage suddenly stopped and both Huth and Brietner ordered their men to open fire at the clear target that they offered. Pretty soon the poor Tommies were cut to pieces, their NCO was seen to fall as he was encouraging his men forwards and soon he was joined by a few others whilst the remainder were pinned where they were. Soon a couple more of them fell to the continuing deadly fusilade that they were suffering from and things were not looking good for the rest. The enemy response to this withering fire was a couple of bursts of Bren gun fire from the house against Breitner’s position which did no damage apart from an unlucky shot that somehow nicked the short NCO. “Don’t worry about me lads, just keep firing at those poor bastards in the field out there” he shouted “I’ll just patch myself up and be back with you in a minute”.

Huth’s riflemen shooting up the distant British in the open

The British outside the house also opened up directed by their now recovered Corporal at Huth’s Gruppe manning the trench which offered them such good protection that no harm came to anyone. The big Berliner was just about to order his men to switch targets to return fire on their attackers when the field between them erupted in mortar fire that also covered the barn yard. ‘I hope that Ballack is alright’ he thought for a second then got back to the job in hand, “Keep firing boys, those mortars won’t hurt you”. Ballack was far from alright though. He had been moving his men into the top of the barn so that he could either fire out of the doors and window or move them down the steps at the back if needed when the mortars hit. Two of his men were hit by a falling beam and the rest of them were in a right state, hopefully they would be able to stand it a while longer but for the moment they were pinned where they were.

Back at the command post Beckenbauer was quietly pleased, he’d received a report from the fortified house over the phone that one British section was being chopped to pieces out in the open and was bound to break anytime soon; one had taken casualties but was now inching forwards towards the barnyard, although they wouldn’t be able to go too far as they would walk into their own mortar fire, and a third one had been in the house but hadn’t been seen for a while. No Britisher tanks had been seen or heard which was also good but he was worried for the men in the Barnyard, all infantrymen hate mortars most and he knew things wouldn’t be going well for them especially as the barn was really taking a pasting and looked like it could collapse at any minute. He decided that he’d send his armour forward, the sight of the Panzer IV might just put the wind up the enemy enough to encourage them to withdraw as their morale must be shaky by now what with the pasting they were getting. He ordered Schumacher to keep an eye out for enemy armour and to ignore the infantry, he was sure that they must have some and he’d be foolish to ignore that potentially deadly threat.

The British slowly inch forward under cover of their mortars

Meanwhile the poor infantry that were being targeted out in the open had finally had enough and the four survivors broke and ran towards the hedges over on the left where Breitner’s men could see some men moving about. The tough Bavarian had patched himself up and though still groggy directed his men’s fire at the point where the escaping men had ran to. Huth’s men still couldn’t see much due to the mortar fire and he quickly kept them busy sorting out their ammo and looking to their front for any more Englanders emerging from the mist. In the barn things were going from bad to worse, Ballack had been slightly wounded and his three remaining men were now in a state of panic, he didn’t blame them after the pasting they’d been subjected to recently and seeing half of their number down, and then one more fell under a piece of roof he knew they’d not hang around much longer. When there was a sudden slackening in the ferocity of the barrage the two survivors grabbed the still dazed NCO and dragged him down the stairs at the back and into the orchard at the rear.

The unfortunate British section just before they broke

The British mortar barrage loses a couple of tubes

Ballack and his remaining 2 men make the safety of the orchard

Breitner had seen the British section that had been inching forwards along the wall rush across the road round the side of the barn as soon as the mortar fire slackened and had got on the blower to Beckenbauer. The Oberfeldwebel then sent forward the last Gruppe to shore up the flank and to counter that move. Klopp went with them to see if he could help and and he quickly started rallying the dazed survivors of dritte Gruppe. Klinsmann had his men line the hedges on the side of the orchard and got them ready to open up on anyone coming round the corner of the barn. Whilst this was happening the Panzer had been targeted with a smoke round and so Schumacher decided to move off to the left to get a better view of things, this movement coupled with another burst of fire from the Gruppe in the fortified house at the enemy behind the hedge seemed to trigger something and soon the most advanced enemy section by the barn was seen running hell for leather for the ‘British’ house and safety and those behind the hedge melted away.

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They had done it, the enemy had retreated. Klopp gingerly entered the frankly knackered barn to check on the casualties from Dritte Gruppe and was relieved to find that they had just been knocked out and would be fit for action after a stiff drink and a couple of cigarettes. The other casualty from Ballack’s men also would be able to return to action immediately and both Ballack and Breitner would be ok to fight on too as their wounds were just superficial.

‘Der Kaiser’ filled his pipe once more as he listened to Klopp’s report, the enemy had definitely lost 5 men killed as their corpses were still where they fell and must have suffered the same again in wounded whilst 1.Zug had come through with a full compliment of men. He hoped the old man would be happy with their work, he was, but he also knew that the enemy would be back and they would have learnt from this encounter. next time they might not be so lucky……

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Well a cracking game to kick off the campaign and even though it didn’t go his way Des enjoyed it as much as I did (well, perhaps not!) .

I managed to get my JOP’s where I more or less wanted them – basically the classic positions for this scenario and Des did manage to get a couple into cover. Des suffered a bit from the mist effect losing a ‘spare’ rifle section and another mortar I think. Whilst I couldn’t get my lads on the table early I was wracking up the 5’s and so quickly built up a COC dice. Unfortunately for Des I used this to good effect when I had a good set of activation dice, hitting his section out in the open with 2 MG42’s and 5 rifles was going to hurt even outside close range. I really don’t know what he was thinking sticking them out in the open like that especially after I had just shot up his first section from the Barnyard. I did get lucky with hits on his leaders though, killing one outright and wounding another and after rolling badly on the ‘Bad Things Happen’ chart for one of these his morale went from 8 to 6 and so I knew all I had to do was to try and wipe out the poor buggers in the field to try and break him, I’d also reduce his platoon by a third if I was lucky and it wasn’t a support option.

His mortars were doing a good job though and they nearly wiped out one of my sections but I was saved by our new house rule covering mortars. We had talked about how overpowered they were after our last game when I just mortared the crap out of his men and so to help reduce the ‘death from above’ we hit on this idea:

Each time you activate the mortars you roll a dice: 1/2 you get 2 tubes, 3/4 you get 4 tubes and 5/6 you get a full 6 tubes. 6 tubes gives you the standard 9″ radius as per the rules but you reduce it by 3″ for each 2 tubes less. So 4 tubes = 6″, and 2 tubes = 3″.

The rationale is that some of the tubes might be called to fire on other targets that are being called in from other platoons in the company. The idea worked great, his first few rounds of mortar fire was of 6 tubes and this meant that my section in the barn were stuck under the fire and were suffering, however as soon as he rolled 2 tubes the footprint of the barrage reduced enough that the survivors broke and ran to the rear. If they were suffering enough shock to have pinned them they’d have stayed put obviously but if they weren’t pinned and weren’t broken they’d be able to try and leg it out of the way of the blast zone before the fire increased again.

After breaking his infantry section who were stuck pinned in the open without a Junior Leader to help them rally shock off and then wounding his CO when firing on them again when they finally legged it into cover nearby Des’ morale hit 4. With no chance of him managing to run his most advanced section off the table without being chopped to bits by my reserve section he wisely decided to pull out. He suffered 10 casualties as well as a Junior leader dead from his core platoon and his CO’s and men’s opinions of his Platoon leaders can’t be too good after that – we are going to do that before the next game on Monday. Although I did suffer 4 casualties my morale ended on 8 so got them all back due to the difference with his and I reckon ‘Der Kaiser’ will be a bit popular too. I’m expecting a totally different approach from Des next go though.

Des summed up why I love these rules so much on Monday: ‘I hate this game, you have to think about everything you do constantly and the slightest mistake costs you big time. Fucking brilliant!’.

Operation Martlet, take 2.

A couple of weeks ago Des and I played a game of Chain of Command and have decided to have another crack at doing one of the Pint Sized Campaigns after our attempt at Scottish Corridor ended in abysmal failure. Hopefully as this is a more straightforward ,and potentially quicker, campaign it will be easier to get through.

I got absolutely mullered by Mike and suffered an overwhelming defeat (it was so bad that I stopped doing the write ups, bad form on my part really, it won’t happen again) but as I was relatively new to the rules I reckon (and fervently hope) that I won’t make some of the stupid mistakes that I did last time and so put up more of a fight for Des. Just like last time out the only change I am going to make is that I won’t be using an SS force (see my last post if wondering why, there’s absolutely no way now) and I’ll let you know if we use any house rules for anything as and when we do.

So my lads will be from Kampfgruppe Füller, an ad hoc force from elements of 21st Panzer that have been inserted in the line to fill a gap that has opened between the Hitlerjugend and Panzer Lehr. My mission is simple: prevent the British from advancing to Rauray. The forces that I have at my disposal are 2 Zuge of PanzerGrenadiers, one of which is available straight away and one is being kept in reserve around the St. Nicholas Farm so the 1.Zug will be on their own for the first part of the battle but will hand over the fight to 2.Zug if/when they move through their position. Unfortunately I won’t have access to any mines or wire as we have none and my sections are down to 6 men each, just enough to man a couple of MG42’s though. To compensate for lack of bodies each Zug will be assigned a Pz.IV from 4.Kompanie of the Panzer Regiment (shame they didn’t have their Panthers, but a worthwhile addition nonetheless) and there will be further support with various heavy weapons as well as odd squads of riflemen as and when needed or when we can purloin them from HQ. It is expected that the Tommies will hit us hard with artillery, just like they have been doing since landing 3 weeks ago. There is also a chance that some more armour will be released if possible.

I have decided to just resurrect the lads I used for the last run through, so here’s the plucky lads under my command and good luck to them!:

1.Zug:
Zug Kommandant: Oberfeldwebel Beckenbauer (‘der Kaiser’). 38, Bavarian, an average sort who is an old soldier and a veteran of Spain.

Erste Gruppe (Lt Blue): Unteroffizier Breitner, 24, Bavarian, slightly on the short side he is a former communist.
Zweite Gruppe (Claret): Obergefreiter Klinsmann, 25, Wurttemberger, an average sort from Stuttgart where his family have a bakery.
Dritte Gruppe (White): Obergefreiter Ballack, 21, Saxon, a strapping City boy from Chemnitz, favourite number is 13.

Panzer 411 (Pz IVH): Unterfeldwebel Schumacher, 25, Westphalian, destined to be a tanker. He has been attached to Erste Zug.

2.Zug:
Zug Kommandant: Leutenant Hitzlsperger (der Hammer), 23, Bavarian, former banker, he is tall and thin. Although nicknamed ‘der Hammer’ the men are not fans. (-1 to men’s opinion)

Erste Gruppe (Claret): Unterfeldwebel Völler, 24, Hessian, Party member, model citizen and popular in the unit.
Zweite Gruppe (Lt Blue): Obergefreiter Rumminigge, 21, Westfalian, country lad and close friends with Unteroffizier Brietner from1.Zug
Dritte Gruppe (White): Obergefreiter Krankl, 25, Austrian, a thin and pale city boy from Vienna.

Panzer 414 (PzIVH): Unteroffizier Vettel, 21, Hessian, an average sort of country lad.

Supports and Replacements:

Adjutant: Leutenant Müller, 24, Bavarian, short, thin and pale he is the middle class son of a decorated veteran of the First World War. Nicknamed ‘Der Bomber’. Was Erste Zug’s commander before being posted to my staff. (Will be the second replacement Zug commander if needed)

Ersatz Zug Kommandant: Feldwebel Klopp. 26, Wurttemberger, a strapping bloke and former gamekeeper. Quite religious. (He will be the replacement Senior Leader if needed, currently with my staff)

Ersatz Gruppe 1: Obergefreiter Schweinsteiger, 24, Bavarian, an average sort of lad, another party member. He leads a team of 5 men, willing remnants from another division that has attached themselves to the kampfgruppe.

Ersatz Gruppe 2: Obergefreiter Huth, 26, Berliner, another large man, former Cabaret musician with a face only a mother could love. Again leads a team of 5 riflemen that I have formed from the HQ staff, will be fed into battle if needed.

Aaaargh, modelling!

I remembered yesterday why I really embraced 6mm wargaming when I discovered it back in the 80’s – you didn’t have to make the bleeding models, they come ready to go.

I thought I’d spend the afternoon putting together a couple of kits for my Chain of Command Germans as I need a choice of PAK guns for a game I’ve got against Philip and his Soviet hordes on Monday (and thought I might have a bash at the lovely PSC Panther I have as well just in case!). Even with the easy build models of today I still managed to get most of the glue on my fingers and could I get the bloody gunshield of the PAK38 to sit right , could I buggery. That’s when I remembered why I stopped making them all those years ago, my dad was right, I am the most cack-handed sod in the world. To make matters worse I then completely cocked up the paintjob on the PAK 40 so will have to make another one today! Complete and utter incompetent arse!!

At least I stopped before tackling the Panther but I’ll have a go a that today, it must just be the small fiddly ones I have problems with as the PSC Panzer IV and Sdkfz 250 I made came out ok. Thank god you don’t need much for CoC.

 

Martlet Campaign: Attack on the Hauptkampflinie

After the battering Erste Zug suffered in the last action they had to do some serious re-organising, so much so in fact that they were dangerously close to being ‘Trigger’s Broom’*.

To defend against the victorious Jocks I had to do a fair bit of reorganising due to the severe losses I suffered in the last fight. This caused me to go for 2 5-man Rifle squads with J/L’s from the support lists to bolster my force. I added the 2 suvivors of 1. & 2. Gruppe and the 2 blokes returning from the hospital to them to give a 2 man LMG team in each, with an additional member added from the ersatz riflemen. Mike also said that as he used more than his allotted HE rounds from his deadeye mortar team in the first game I could have a couple of guys back from those casualties and they went into 3. Gruppe to give them a boost. At least the Adjutant was still alive!

• Replacement Platoon Leader – Klopp, he would only have 2 activations.
• 1. Ersatz Gruppe – J/L (Schweinsteiger), 4 rifle team and 3 man MG42 team
• 2.Ersatz Gruppe – J/L (Huth), 4 rifle team and 3 man MG42 team
• 3. Gruppe – Ballack still going strong with 2 x 3-man LMG teams
• Adjutant

I was not in a positive frame of mind for this battle from the off – my force was badly depleted and Mike’s lads were turning up with a whopping 20 odd points of support, added to that I threw awfully for morale and was starting on 8 so would have to watch myself, Mike was on 10 due to a good roll and his men’s opinion. Even though I had a good defensive position with the village overlooking a nice bare approach my inability to have purchased some ‘punchier’ support was a worry. However I suppose the one thing going for me was that this was Erste Zug’s last battle before being replaced by Dritte Zug so they could go all Valhalla and try and cause as much damage as possible and Mike did have to secure the farm complex or the crossroads to win.

Surely I could have no problem defending this.

Mike’s view of the battlefield

The patrol phase went true to form with Mike pushing up on my left quite far to gain one forward JOP, I did manage to keep half of his JOP’s to behind the trees by his baseline though from which he discarded one. I put one of mine in the wood on my flank to prevent him sneaking through there and one to enable me to garrison the village, with one pulled back as a reserve point and my mandatory one in the farm complex – all in all I was quite happy with them.

My JOP’s, third one just visible by building in top left of the photo.

Mike does his usual sneak up the flank manoeuvre to place his JOP’s.

Better picture of my frontline JOP’s.

I should have quit straight away actually as Mike went on a sequence of crazy activation rolls – 1st phase: 4×6’s – (random event = on the piss! so his morale went up). 2nd phase: 2×6’s, 3rd phase:3×6’s, 4th phase: 3×6’s, 5th phase: 2×6’s. Well at least when I got to try and deploy the barrage was over!

Mike used this string of good fortune push forwards his TROOP of Shermans and to deploy a sniper forwards of his furthest JOP, he brought on 2 sections behind the tanks. My only response was to put a section into the house opposite the tower and a section into the wood on the left. I was concerned that Mike would try and rush a section into the wood to take my JOP there, even though he hadn’t tried yet there was still one to bring on so wanted to defend it until I built up a CoC dice move it to the rear. The guys in the house were there to try and slow down the Brits advancing up the road, as the Shermans hadn’t seen me enter the house I knew I would be safe from them until I opened up.

Anyway, the MG42 in the house tried to go on overwatch to take on the sniper but got tagged without causing any return damage so went to ground. I then decided to move the section in the wood forwards to try and take the sniper out, this only drew fire from a Sherman causing casualties – they were promptly withdrawn.

I garrison the village.

The wood is secured.

Achtung! Panzer!

Mike did some classic tactical work next bringing on his rifle sections by the ornamental garden and advancing them up the road behind a tank or along the hedges. It seemed as if my lads in the wood had actually prevented him from using the forward JOP so at least that was a bonus. However with the tanks now having been informed of my presence in the house and taking 75mm-HE type pot shots at me I decided to vacate it and to wait at the rear – the fact that Mike knew I had Panzerfausts kept him at a distance and his infantry seemed reluctant to get too close for fear of triggering a close combat, which might not have gone well for him.

He decided to swing one tank towards the wood and followed it up with two sections so once I had moved the JOP there back I decided to withdraw to behind the road as there was no way I could prevent him forcing the wood without losing that section and hence taking a hit on my already shaky morale.

Actually this phase of the battle was quite intense with Mike agonising over which way to proceed, through the village where I was waiting to spring an ambush or through the wood – in the end he did make the best choice. Meanwhile the other flank saw absolutely no action with Mike loath to get anywhere near the fortified farmhouse with either tanks or infantry.

The Brits advance textbook style – suffering shock only through exertion!

More huffing and puffing as the Woodbines take their toll.

A knackered section hits the village and stops to get their breath back.

Mike begins his swing round the village to the woods.

With Mike deciding to go through the woods I had to try and extract my section to the rear of the house with a Sherman parked on overwatch on the road waiting for just a move, I also had to wait for another CoC dice to move the JOP. Eventually it did and so it was time for some smoke grenade action and the lads there successfully legged it across the crossroads and into the lee of the farm buildings. Once there they set up in overwatch along the lateral road hoping to interdict any advance from the wood. The escaping wood section had also made a skilful withdrawal and now had taken up position by the alleyway also covering the road. All in all I was quite happy with extracting my lads for no further loss and was quietly confident that I would be able to get some damage on Mike’s infantry at least if he poked his head out of the wood.

After successfully holding up the Tommies 1,gruppe gets ready to legenzee it.

Ballack leads the remainder of 3.gruppe safely out of the wood.

More Tommies move to the flank.

Smoke grenades, don’t leave home without one!

1.Gruppe legging it.

One of the things I really love about this ruleset is the way that things can change vey quickly – one wrong decision or a bit of bad luck can completely spanner your day, causing morale to plummet and leaving you with decisions whether to fight on or to ‘Foxtrot Romeo Oscar’. The next passage of play was just such a situation.

I felt quietly confident in my position, one section (Breitner’s) had taken 3 casualties, Scweinsteiger’s had taken 2, so both could still put up a fight, and Mike was nowhere near taking the farm or crossroads. I had my JOP’s covered well and all I had to do was wait for him to come to me and then I could inflict casualties on him. Yes, I was worried about the tanks but I’d have to try and take them out with Panzerfausts – if that didn’t work there’s always swearing and running away.

So all looked good and then I ballsed it up. Mike finally screwed up the courage to run a section across the lateral road and into the alleyway – obviously going for my JOP located nearby. As he did so I opened up and caused some shock and a casualty. He was now in the alleyway and a tempting target. All I had to do was to move Breitner’s lads close and chuck some grenades over, if I didn’t cause casualties then I’d definitely pile the shock on as they were in a confined space so the grenades would cause more damage. Alternatively I could jus wait for him to try a close assault and position the 2 MG42’s to cover the exit – again bad news for him – although I’d probably suffer as well.

Surely I could have no problem defending against this?

That’s all I had to do, one of those two things. So did I choose plan A or plan B? No, silly bollocks me decided that it would be best to close assault the numerically superior Brits hoping that the ‘Handgrenaten’ national characteristic would give me the edge, so plan C. Must have worked a treat right – no, course not, absolute disaster – I didn’t even cause a point of shock with the grenades and I was wiped out in the melee after equally abysmal dice.

I cause 2 casualties, Mike does 5. Bum.

To make matters worse Mike then swans round and takes my JOP. With my morale rolls for having the section wiped out, losing a J/L and a JOP all bloody awful I was down to 4 on my morale. I was now facing the prospect of defending against 3 tanks, a near full strength pissed-up infantry platoon with amazing morale with 2 sections that were not even a part of my platoon whose morale was shot, so I decided to get out of town while I still could.

So, again an overwhelming defeat for 1.Zug – this time the last surviving section copped it although Breitner managed to escape with a wound. In this fight I suffered 9 casualties to the men with 4 KIA, 3 WIA and 2 ok to carry on.

Up until this point I have suffered the following casualties from the original 18 members plus 15 replacement riflemen:

• 9 killed plus Senior Leader
• 7 wounded plus 3 Junior Leaders
• 1 Missing
• 1 POW

That is far too much, even taking into account 8 of them fell on the replacements.

Again I learnt a valuable lesson, basically stick with the best option when in defence.

Now I need to decide whether to unleash the ‘Punch from Wunsche’ wildcard and counter-attack on this table or try and defeat Mike first….

*’Triggers Broom’ comes from the fantastic ‘Only Fools and Horses’ a BBC sitcom. In the episode “Heroes and Villains“, Trigger wins an award from the council for having owned the same broom for 20 years (he is a road sweeper). He then reveals that it has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles, but insists it is still the same broom!

 

 

 

 

 

Martlet Campaign: Pushing On

After a quick break to re-do the terrain and decide on our new support lists it was straight onto the next game in the campaign, one which I had recently played and had not done at all well at, surely this time I’d do better, especially as I knew where I’d gone wrong in the last game, surely I would…….

View from the British lines.

View from the German lines. ‘Box Wood’ to the right of the farm complex. ‘Junction Wood’ ‘above’ it.

Erste Zug was in quite bad shape at the beginning of this battle as 1st Gruppe had been reduced to 2 men, hardly enough to man a LMG, so I collected a rifle squad to bolster them back into a decent sized section. I added a sniper to my force and ensured that the Adjutant was on hand to forward troops to me when needed.

Mike did well again when rolling for his free moves during the patrol phase and managed to push forwards into ‘Junction Wood’ and into a great position covering the right flank. I was reasonably happy with my JOP’s, ideally I would have liked to have been a tad further forwards but I had a nice compact position I thought.

Last Brit JOP. Hedges by the road.

2 Brit JOP’s: Lower one is in ‘Junction Wood’.

German JOP’s. Nice and compact – I was quite happy with them.

Mike suffered a bit trying to get his guy’s on during his first phase losing his Sherman and, oh the irony, a scout team in the fog. I then brought on a squad to secure the farm by deploying into the farmyard – the plan being to get the 2 LMG’s in the high windows early to cover the left of the table. Mike then managed to bring on a rifle section into ‘Junction Wood’ and I decided to bring on another section to secure ‘Box Wood’ to prevent any attempt on the JOP there in my phase and got lucky, rolling a triple 3 again and so ending the turn and the pesky bombardment – I also duly brought on Klinsmann’s section into the centre of the wood and then stupidly moved up towards the hedge facing towards the Brits.

Mike then tried bringing on his Sherman and scouts again and thankfully lost them in the fog for the duration of the game, my happiness at this event was short lived as he the deployed a Vickers gun at the hedgerow on the right and proceeded to fire on 2. Gruppe. This would not go well for Klinsmanns lads. Vickers guns hurt. A lot.

2. Gruppe hit the hedge.

That damned Vickers Gun!

Although 2. Gruppe were suffering a bit I was glad that at least I had the advantage in armour now and called up Schumacher. I also brought ‘der Kaiser’ onto the table to try and help keep Klinsmann’s boys in order – also to help with activations as I was rolling a lot of 5’s and 6’s (which can be a double edged sword, yes yo build CoC dice but it does mean that you lose the chance to activate units).

My guys in the farmhouse weren’t doing much and as Mike had vacated ‘Junction Wood’ with his rifle section, moving them to the left, I decided on a cunning plan – I would push them into the wood and try for his JOP there, unfortunately there was no door directly into the wood so I had to get them along the wall to jump them over. I also decided that the best way to take out the Vickers was with the PzIV so started to move forwards to do that. 2. Gruppe were pinned by this time and it was imperative that this got done quickly.

Mike then brought on another rifle section along the road on the left where his initial rifle section now lurked. To counter this move I brought on my Sniper and deployed him on overwatch in the Smithy so that he had a good view out of the gate and hence anyone moving along the road.

Section about to dash past the gate.

Sniper in the Smithy – although he does look quite cool perched on the chimney!

Schumacher rocks up. Just visible in the farmyard is Ballack’s gruppe getting ready to jump the wall.

Mike’s push down the road with his 2 sections was causing me slight concern, especially as my sniper wasn’t as effective as I’d hoped just adding shock to Mike’s section on the road. I duly deployed Breitner’s 1.Gruppe at the junction JOP to await events and tried to get the tank up to take on the Vickers – I kept rolling low for his movement and it took ages! – however it did seem that the Vickers might be jammed as it hadn’t fired for a while, but it had managed to reduce the squad in numbers and wound Klinsmann before this happened. The lads in the farmyard just couldn’t get activated to jump the wall.

Things then took a dramatic turn very quickly. Instead of using a section activation to get 3.Gruppe over the wall I stupidly thought it would be best to wheel Breitner’s lads into the road to chop down Mike’s section in the road, banking on the power of the MG42 to do it’s thing. However, this didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and Mike came out of it alright – just a bit shocked. In response he then pushed the section beyond the hedge into a flanking position and initiated close combat. This was the first time we had done this and the result was carnage. After the noise and smoke had all settled down no-one from either section was left!

Over on the other side of the farm the PzIV had finally got a shot away at the Vickers but it didn’t do too much damage and it was too late anyway as 2.Gruppe finally broke when the Vickers duly unjammed itself putting an acute burst in that resulted in wiping out the remainder of the section leaving only the wounded Klinsmann left who quickly decamped.

Mike’s ‘suicide squad’ embark on their costly manoeuvre.

Schumacher finally gets a shot away at the Vickers. (Again, it aint this ‘green’!)

So I had quickly gone down to one remaining section who were stuck in the farmyard! Time to consider what to do. What I should have done was declared I was bugging out straight away, but I didn’t. Idiot.

In a fit of pique I decided that I’d do for the Vickers and was determined to take him out with my tank, thinking I’d take the JOP as well. I was then going to jump the wall and take the  JOP in the wood too hoping to break Mike’s morale quickly and then cause him to retire. Again. Idiot.

I edged the tank forwards for some reason and again failed to cause any casualties on the Vickers, whilst my lads in the farmyard again couldn’t get over the wall. Mike’s go and he deployed his PIAT team right by the tank and let fly. BOING! it bounced off but caused a bit of shock. Over on the other road Mike also did a brilliant manoeuvre, he rushed the section there forwards and overrun my JOP at the junction. Arse!

Mike’s PIAT team hit the table – gits!

Brits match winning sneaky shennanigans.

I was hit with some sort of command paralysis next and decided to get my remaining section into the farmhouse, not having the dice to do anything else. Mike then got a double 6 and finally put the nail in my coffin. The PIAT team missed and I started to get some confidence back as he only had one shot left, then Mike decided to make a dash for the next nearest JOP charging forwards and coming close – ‘Der Kaiser’ was in the way though and after a quick brutal fight he died a hero’s death taking out 4 of the Brits and causing them to fall back. My morale was now down to 4 and Mike then tried with the PIAT again, KABOOM!! Jammy git!

Shocked Schumacher gets brewed up….

Another shot – just for Mike as he REALLY enjoyed doing this!

With my PzIV gone, morale at 2 and JOP’s all but overrun I ordered my remaining section to break out as best they can and head for home. Another defeat and this time quite catastrophic.

All in all I had suffered the following:

• Platoon Leader – Dead
• 1.Gruppe – 2 remaining members and Breitner wounded
• 2. Gruppe – all casualties and Klinsmann wounded
• 3.Gruppe – 1 missing and 1 captured whilst escaping the battlefield
• PzIV – kaput!

Following the post battle routine this meant that Erste Zug had: 3 men dead, 3 men wounded and 2 men returning to battle. I had also lost my commander and 2 Section leaders wounded. A complete disaster. Somehow I needed to re0organise and hold the victorious Brits up during the next battle, the only crumb of comfort was that I had at least inflicted some casualties.

After playing 2 games in one day we both agreed that the rules really are quite fantastic – adding the campaign element to them really enhances things too. We agreed to carry on the next day. Hopefully I could put up a better showing…….

Lesson learnt: YOU CAN MOVE YOUR JOPS!

 

 

 

Martlet Campaign: Probe into Fontenay

On Saturday I went to Mike’s to start our Chain of Command campaign, Operation Martlet. This will be our first bash at doing one of these and we will be making some mistakes with the rules along the way but all part of the learning process, unfortunately it is the tactical mistakes that are the worst to take, and there’s going to be a few of those over the next post or two!

Mike and I had played this scenario a couple of times before, switching sides so that we both had an idea what to expect. After a bit of research – well posting questions on the Lardies forum – we had corrected the terrain mistake we had made before and Mike had the table laid out correctly when I arrived (we had mistaken the Calvary at the junction for a house before), indeed it was looking great.

In addition to my core platoon I had decided to go with: a HMG team, a team entrenchment and an additional Senior Leader. I rolled well for morale and got 10, Mike was on 9 so I already had a slight advantage. I had also been doing as much reading of other people’s blogs trying to pick up hints and tips on the best way to approach this campaign. Unfortunately I was suffering from somewhat of a hangover and this put the kibosh on all of my preparation as I proceeded to make a couple of big mistakes!

The patrol phase sort of went well, I managed to secure JOP’s where I wanted them more or less, although one was just a bit short of where I  really needed it (Mike liked the MDF Warbases markers so much he ordered some that day). Mike had done a lot better during the patrol phase however, getting a whopping 5 free goes with which he pushed up the left hand side of the board getting one JOP to the edge of the long wall along that flank.

Mike’s right flank JOP’s.

Mike’s 3rd JOP

My JOP’s, they could have been further forwards but plan was to let the Brits come on……….

 

I then declared that the barn opposite from that wall at the corner of the farm complex was my reinforced building and hoped that I would be able to get my HMG in there to deny Mike the chance to make a quick run for the end of the table. The rest of my plan was to wait for his deployment and to react accordingly and hopefully be lucky with the barrage and him to be unlucky with the fog.

I had the first throw and was extremely lucky, rolling 3 sixes in my first phase meaning that the barrage and the fog had finished before any troops were on the table – the one down side being that Mike didn’t have a chance of getting any units lost though. I waited for Mike to deploy first and he brought on a 2″ mortar, a Sherman and one squad that were ready to jump the wall on my left and make a dash for the baseline. I countered this by doing something foolish, deploying 1st section onto the hedgeline on my right (don’t know why, blame the hangover) and something smarter, 2nd section in an ‘ambush’ behind the farm building preventing Mike making his dash for glory. I also called up Schumacher and his Panzer which duly missed Mike’s tank.

Mike’s section going tactical.

Why I brought 1st Section onto the table, I’ll never know!

My counter to Mike’s planned ‘home run’.

PzIV looking a lot more yellow than it really is.

Mike’s tank gunnery was a lot better than mine causing the PzIV to scoot back whilst being shocked. He then plonked down some really effective fire from his limited HE stocks from the 2″ on 1st Section’s position causing a couple of casualties. Over on the other side of the farm somewhat of a stand-off was occurring with Mike being loath to move his section forwards towards the certain doom of 2 MG42’s, I also couldn’t move my MMG into the bunker as they would have been immediately in close combat with Mike’s chaps.

Then disaster struck – Mike’s deadeye mortar team got going again, but this time they were joined by the Sherman and 1st section got really plastered losing 3 more casualties wiping out one team and leaving the other with one man and the section now consisting of only him and Breitner who were, not surprisingly, legging it. A judicious use of a CoC dice from Mike ending the turn saw them rout off the table and my morale plummeted to 6!

Shame this is quite dark – Mike’s ‘home run’ section in a quandary as they are wary of the 2 MG42’s waiting for them.

I then completely lost my bottle and decided it might be best to preserve what men I had left for the next battle and ordered a withdrawal, which I have been regretting since getting home on Saturday. I should really have tried to fight on for a few more phases at least, Mike was going nowhere on my left and if he did try was bound to suffer big losses, my tank had done nowt yet and I still had the MMG and another section to get into action.

Anyway the battle was done and in such quick time we decided to go straight into the second one but first we had to do the post-match gubbins. This was very easy for Mike as he had lost no casualties at all! I, on the other hand, had with 1st Section suffering 2 killed, 2 wounded and 1 man fit to return to battle. This meant that 1st Section was reduced to 2 men for the next round, the men’s opinion of ‘Der Kaiser’ held firm at 0 mind although the CO’s opinion dropped to -1 and Beckenbauer’s  outlook changed to ‘Thoughtful’ from ‘Content’.

Lesson learnt – DO NOT DEPLOY UNTIL YOU HAVE TO!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operation Martlet: Introduction

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.

 

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