Beyond Le Plessy, Normandy 1944. 15mm IABCM

Sunday saw myself and Philip pitch up at Des’ shed o’war to play the second game in his set of linked battles of a (fictitious) British attack on German positions north of Caen in 1944. I had played the first game against Des a few weeks ago but I stupidly forgot to charge my phone so couldn’t take any pictures hence the lack of report on it! Figures and models are all 15mm from Des’ stunning and impressive collection and all the lovely terrain is his as well. Rules used are our dice activated version of IABSM -I Aint Been CoC’d Mum, as seen in the 2019 Lardies Annual.

‘O’ Group, Btln. HQ, 14 Essex Regt, just North of Plessy:

“Right then chaps, listen in. Yesterday ‘A’ Company tried to break through and suffered a bloody nose from some very determined defenders from Kampfgruppe Darchin. However they did manage to write down the Jerry forces (we expect the defenders to be short at least one platoon and definitely 2 Panzer IV’s) and secure a good start line for todays attack running through the two orchards and the village. 1 Platoon from A Company has remained in the north part of the village and will be under command for today’s action, you will also be supported by battalion 3″ mortars and a troop of Churchills from Brigade’s attached Squadron, I have ordered up a stonk from the Gunners too which will be your cue to get the ball rolling. Your task is to take the remainder of the village and breach any further defences to open the road to Caen. I’ll leave you to co-ordinate with mortars and tanks. Good luck.”

‘O’ Group, C Coy. 14 Essex:

“Alright then everyone it’s our turn now. When the artillery starts to land on the orchard behind the village I want 9 Pltn to push forward a small patrol from their position in the right hand orchard through to the end of the orchard across the road to try and spot if the Jerries have anything in the Farm complex or along the hedges between there and the orchard that is getting stonked, once patrols are back then to advance through orchard, take any enemy under fire and develop attack either on the farm or into the central orchard beyond the village. 7 Pltn is to move through the orchard it is located in on the left to the end nearest enemy and then locate any enemy in the wood to the front. Once located enemy is to be engaged with fire then assaulted if feasible. 8 Pltn is to deploy behind 7 Pltn and pass through on my order to carry on the attack on the left flank which will be the main effort. Once they are moved through then 7 Pltn will act as Coy reserve. 1 Pltn, A Coy is to clear the rest of the village and then will be deployed to either support the attack on the woods or to the right flank. Troop of Churchills to be deployed as I see fit to either shoot infantry into positions held by enemy or tackle any armour. Once the line of the wood to the farm has been secured then await further orders. All clear? Good. Questions?”

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And so we began…

There was a German blind in the village immediately to my front which I quickly scouted out to find it was nothing more than a few stay behinds making noise as cover for the enemy to withdraw. With that knowledge I started moving 1 Pltn forward all the time trying to spot any nasty surprises in the wood to the left. At the same time I moved my own patrols forward on the right (dummy blinds) to try and spot any Germans in the farm or in the vicinity of the central orchard. As both dummy blinds spotted nothing I then moved 9 Pltn forward until they reached the end of the orchard where they finally were fired upon by the survivors of the enemy section that had withstood the pre-game stonk of the orchard. They also drew the attention of a Panzer IV lurking next to the farm! 1 Pltn had also spotted a Panzer IV lurking in the wood and both platoons swiftly got their 2″ Mortars busy smoking the enemy tanks to block their view. 1 Pltn quickly dashed for cover in the houses and gardens to avoid the incoming HE fire from the tank but also sent their PIAT team forward in a dash to the garage building at the end of the village. This building looked like it could be used to get a tricky shot away on the tank in the woods and 216 Jenkins on the PIAT quickly made his way up stairs and to the window. Having a spring action bomb thrower came into its own as he managed to get a couple of shots away (try doing that indoors with a Bazooka or Panzerschreck!) which didn’t do any damage but this attention and the smoke blocking its view caused the tank to withdraw. Meanwhile 9 Pltn was quickly winning the firefight with the Germans in the central orchard whittling the defenders down quickly.

Next up 7 Pltn advanced through the orchard and spotted an enemy AT gun and immediately took it under fire from 2 sections and the platoon 2″ mortar, pinning the crew and causing casualties. About this time too the Company CO along with the 3″ Mortar FOO moved into the rear of the village and immediately got on the blower to bring down fire on the German section in the central orchard to help nullify the threat there and to help the attack progress. The mortars came in quickly and bang on target (a feature of the day happily for me!) and with the combined efforts of the fire from 9 Pltn and the stonking pretty soon the defenders were all killed with only their NCO seen legging it for safety. Now that this position was cleared 1 Pltn was ordered up out of the village to move towards the vacated enemy position. I also called the Churchills forward to advance between the village and 9 Pltn on the right as I now knew the location of the enemy tanks and thought this position would be a good one to hold them in before committing them further.

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Over on the right 9 Pltn pushed a section along the hedges towards the farm to check it out which was countered by the Germans moving their Panzer IV across behind the farm on our right flank and firing on them, which was quickly countered by a smoke round from the 2″ completely blocking it’s view causing it to withdraw and allowing 9 Pltn to move the PIAT team forward under its cover. With that threat dealt with 9 Pltn then advanced the remaining 2 sections out of the cover of the orchard aiming for the hedges to the left of the farm which unfortunately wasn’t as empty as I thought and erupted with the terrifying sound of a MG42! The resulting fire decimated one section and caused casualties in the other one supressing them both. However fire from the third section lining the hedge, the platoon mortar and supporting fire from the tanks and 1 Pltn quickly eliminated this new threat and the lone survivor was seen abandoning the MMG and making for the rear.

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Meanwhile, over on the left flank, 7 Pltn had slipped a section out of the orchard tasked with working around the flank of the enemy AT gun which was still being shot up by the rest of the platoon to assault what remained. Unfortunately they instead were taken under brutal close range small arms fire from an enemy infantry section located just inside the treeline. Although the section suffered terribly the enemy also suffered from a withering fusillade from the remainder of the platoon which quickly either killed or routed the ambushers. With the threat of the enemy infantry gone and the AT gun also neutralised 8 Pltn pushed quickly through 7 Pltn’s position and deployed ready to push through the woods with 7 Pltn now moving into reserve as per plan. 8 Pltn were soon in action as their left hand section made contact with the retreating crew of the AT gun and much to everyone’s surprise came off worse in the ensuing close combat! Then the tank that had been in the wood earlier appeared at the rear of the wood and started lobbing very inaccurate HE shells about (poor Philip had terrible luck doing this all day much to my amusement). 8 Pltn quickly pulled their men back and the shout went up “Bring up the PIAT”, and with that the plucky team dashed forward through the trees but couldn’t quite get into a position to get a shot off. Luckily for them though the German tanker ordered his vehicle to reverse and the driver gave it a bit too mush and the metal beast presented itself side on, the first shot from the PIAT missed but the team worked quickly and got another off which slammed into the tank and caused it to brew up immediately! With the enemy seemingly cleared from the wood 8 Pltn then sorted itself out into formation to await further orders.

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And then the tank battle started. After being thwarted in its attempt to chew up 9 Pltn by judicious use of smoke the Panzer IV on our right moved round to the left of the farm again and started to engage the Churchills and a tank duel quickly started which seemed to take over the battle for a good while, and resulted in one Churchill being knocked out but the Panzer IV suffering slightly from non-penetrating hits that caused it to briefly pull back out of line of sight of the remaining two British tanks. This was also when a third Panzer IV revealed itself and lurched forwards making for the right of the wood and looking to insert itself between 8 & 1 Platoons whilst using the orchard to cover itself from my tanks. Once again the shout went up for the PIAT and the ever ready Jenkins from 1 Pltn rushed forward into the road through the orchard and with his last 2 rounds dispatched the advancing Panzer. With the death of this tank the Churchill troop commander ordered his other surviving tank to sweep round the orchard along the main road to try and take the remaining Pz IV in the flank either dispatching it themselves or in concert with his tank. Sadly this wasn’t to be as the Germans had a Jenkins of their own and it was ambushed by a hidden Panzerschreck team as it neared the burning wreck of the recently brewed up panzer.

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Taking stock of the situation I knew that I had wiped out one enemy section, one was reorganising and badly shot up in the cornfield on the left past the woods, one MMG and an AT gun were also kaput and 2 tanks were knocked out but I knew the enemy must still have some troops left so I decided to soften up some possible locations before renewing the attack. I had already been mortaring the wood to the rear of the battlefield as I figured that is where I’d place an AT gun if I was defending but now decided to switch fire to the two buildings either side of the road just past the wood. After I had stonked this position for a bit I was going to push 8 Pltn through the wood to take the buildings and hence secure the exits from the village. 7 Pltn were to get ready to advance through 8 Pltn once this was completed whilst over on the right 9 Pltn, whose two sections still stuck in the open were now taking harassing fire from the remaining panzer, would try to go for the PIAT hat-trick whilst the remaining Churchill moved up to help. 1 Pltn was to wait for the last Pz IV to be taken care of before moving into the central orchard and setting up a base of fire to help 7 & 9 Pltns to advance further.

Unfortunately for me my mortars, which had been spot on all day, now decided to go way off target and the stonk on the two houses landed way off over on the left flank landing on the shot up enemy section in the cornfield. More misfortune followed as the two sections from 8 Pltn that I was moving up under cover of the barrage stepped out a bit too lively and just broke cover from the woods triggering an ambush by an enemy section lurking in the flowerbeds, the devastating close range fire saw the PBI take casualties and they fell back to the edge of the wood. Luckily the mortars were dragged nearly back onto the original target and the ambushing German section now found themselves under the fire of the battalion mortars. However this didn’t mean the end of the suffering of 8 Pltn as a MMG configured MG42 now opened up from the edge of the cornfield further piling on casualties and causing the 2 sections to break back through the woods. While this sanguinary scene was playing out over on the right 9 Pltns PIAT team had worked its way along the edge of the farm through the pigsty and was ready to fire a shot off on the last panzer. Philip was now fully suffering from PIAT terror and switched the tanks full attention on the plucky team killing one of them and causing the survivor to fall back into the pigsty (insert own jokes here!). What this did do, however, was to allow my Churchill to move up into a position to take the German tank under fire again which it did, and whilst hitting the target didn’t cause it to brew up it did convince the already rattled crew to bail out and head for the rear.

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With this action we decided to call it a day. Philip’s lads had put up a very spirited defence causing a lot of casualties to my lads with both 8 & 9 Platoons suffering a section+ losses each and my supporting Churchills down to 1 tank too. However with my mortars now on target and causing casualties to the Germans in the flower beds and the largely intact 1 & 7 platoons ready to move forwards once the mortars had finished their work we said that the Germans would have withdrawn and the Brits would have consolidated on the line they held from the far edge of the wood, the central orchard and along to the farm. So the scene is set for the next battle when B or D Company take over but will probably be facing a fresh German unit.

Many thanks again to Des for putting the game on and for Philip for being a cracking opponent as usual, it was a tense but fun affair with a grate narrative and some fantastic bits of action. Also I do have to say again what a joy it is playing on such a terrific table, top work Des!

Old Hickory CoC Campaign. Fight 3, Red 2.

“Don’t worry sir, we’ll get it done”, and with that Leutenant Hitzelperger gave a smart salute and left headquarters to see to his men. After 1.Zug had been beaten back, 3.Zug were supposed to have had a go at kicking the Yanks back door in but had been prevented by a Jabo attack. Hitzelperger was still smarting after his unit had suffered the same fate earlier and also wanted to show the CO and that upstart Beckenbauer that he could be successful where others had failed, and if he had been able to carry out his initial attack they would be on the objective by now.

He had taken advantage of some better patrolling and also didn’t want to make the same mistakes as the initial attackers had so had decided to concentrate his attack along the right, hopefully crossing from ‘his’ hedgeline to the ‘American’ hedgeline at the place where the distance was shortest and was out of the view of any men stationed in the houses. As the patrolling had identified this spot as a likely place the enemy would be manning he decided to take it under fire with one of his Gruppe and an Infantry Gun from the support chaps. When this force had won the firefight here another Gruppe spearheaded by a Flamethrower team would advance and secure the hedgeline before rolling up the enemy position. His remaining Gruppe would face across the field to the end of the wood where the wire was located as it was also likely that the enemy had forces there and hopefully they could cover any nasty surprises popping up. He entered the building where his men were waiting, quickly went through the plan again with his NCO’s and that grinning idiot Klopp from HQ who was coming with them to assist, and waited for the guns of the artillery to start up before leading his men out.

As soon as they reach the forming up point the Leutenant turned to his men “Right, Krankl move your men over to the left and cover that flank, the rest of us will be moving out soon but we need you to cover us first”. The wiry Austrian’s heart sank, ‘cover us’ actually meant ‘draw the enemy’s fire so we know where they are’ but orders were orders and so he moved off through the orchard and across the next paddock. Soon afterwards some Americans were spotted along the hedgerow and the young officer motioned to Klopp to join him, “Feldwebel, take 2.Gruppe and the gun, get up to the hedge and blow those Yanks away. I’m going to stay here with the rest and wait for the right moment to attack. Understood?”. Klopp nodded grimly and moved his small command out knowing full well that the enemy would have the drop on them.

Just then the horrible sound of exploding mortar shells erupted where 3.Gruppe had moved off to and an agonised scream was heard as they were caught in a well aimed stonk. Pausing for just a moment Klopp told Rumminigge to get his men up to the hedge and to start firing whilst he saw to the siting of the gun. As 2.Gruppe reached the hedge his fears were realised and they were hit by a terrific volley which ripped through the cover momentarily checking the men with the shock of the sudden, violent contact. They quickly regained their composure, however and poured their own fire back which was joined by the fire from the gun. This combined fire must have been effective though as the enemy mortar fire started to slowly shift towards them so as to neutralise the threat they must have been on the enemy infantry. Klopp made sure that they ignored the approaching barrage and kept firing although, unfortunately, 2.Gruppe was not having the best of luck with quite a few men being hit including Rumminigge who suffered a slight wound.

2.Gruppe take up position…

… but the Ami’s are waiting

The Infantry Gun starts its brutal work

3.Gruppe take a stonking and Krankl is wounded

2.Gruppe take casualties, Rumminigge is hit but Klopp is on hand to help

Then all of a sudden the mortar barrage stopped. Hitzelperger immediately left the Flamethrower and 1.Gruppe with the Adjutant to await his signal to advance and ran over to see what had happened to 3.Gruppe. He found Krankl wounded but organising his men and helped to restore order. They had lost a few men but were reasonably ok and he ordered them forwards telling the Stabsgefreiter to make for the wood across the road and to try and work round to the left when he thought it was safe to do so. Meanwhile over on the right Klopp and his force had finally won the firefight duel with the Americans who’s few survivors broke for the rear dragging their wounded NCO with them, and he grabbed one of the wounded men from 2.Gruppe telling him to let the Leutenant know now might be the time to launch the attack on the enemy.

The Americans start to lose the firefight…

… huge gaps appear in their line…

… which finally breaks

Before this could be organised however another squad of the enemy appeared in the same position along the hedge but Klopp and his lads had the range good and proper now and laid down a furious fire that seemed to do great damage to the enemy if the slackening in return fire was anything to go by. When the flamethrower then hit the enemy as it came onto the line it helped finish off the survivors with that the flame team surged forwards followed by the newly arrived 1.Gruppe. Klopp was just thinking that the end must be in sight when all of a sudden the world to his left and front disappeared in a maelstrom of noise, dust and metal as another mortar barrage hit. Luckily it didn’t last very long and had missed both the Feldwebel and the attacking force, as well as only hitting one of the gun team but it had destroyed the survivors of 2.Gruppe, all were casualties apart from one dazed landser.

The charge is on to take out the new American section

But could this new mortar barrage be the end?

The assaulting troops luckily manage to dodge the incoming rounds!

But the damage is already done on the new Ami section

Although this beast did awful damage to the unlucky Krankl’s men.

As this was happening on the right Krankl had began to move his men towards the wood when they were caught by the combined fire of both a squad in the first house and an Anti-Tank gun that suddenly revealed itself in the wood by the wire. His men were pinned under this murderous crossfire and pretty soon the surviving member and the wounded NCO were running back to where they started. Hitzelperger had also thought that the Americans must have been defeated and now he was worried that his men would be the ones breaking but luckily all enemy fire stopped and soon the men advancing on the right sent back a message that they could see the Yankees streaming for the rear They had done it, only just, and at a terrible cost but they had done it. The road to L’Abbaye Blanche was open.

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This was one of the tensest and bloodiest games of CoC that both Dan and I had played in a long while with both of us having periods where we were on top and both desperately trying to get that final hit on the other to cause a rout.

I very nearly pulled out early doors after the first gruppe was caught by the initial mortar barrage and the second gruppe started taking casualties from the enemy squad across the field, especially as both their JL’s were wounded too. I managed to roll a triple 6 though and then it was my turn to start racking up casualties on the Americans and I thought the tide had turned. However Dan carried on his great rolling on the BTH chart from last week whilst I carried on my bad rolling which was of some concern as he started with a FM of 11 and I started on 9.

After seeing off the first American squad Dan chucked another into the grinder at the same place definitely looking to finish off 2.Gruppe but I lucked out again with some double phases and poured fire on from the gun and remaining MG42’s with a dash of help from the Flamethrower and some appalling luck on Dan’s rolling for hits saw the second squad finished off with only the wounded SL and JL’s present remaining. I really thought it was game over for Dan but he managed to get the mortars into action again, virtually wiping out 2.Gruppe. He also battered 3.Gruppe, that I had stupidly left hanging out in the open whilst I concentrated on destroying the enemy to the front, with a terrible crossfire virtually wiping them out before they broke. Again, luckily, I managed to cancel the mortars, this time by using a CoC dice which also saw the surviving members of his first squad rout off the table and it was now the last chance saloon for both of us with his FM at 3 and mine at 2.

My intact section with the flamethrower were in a great position to take a JoP and then take on the American’s in the house with the Infantry Gun helping out and I was hoping that would be enough for the win, as long as Dan’s mortars didn’t start up again. When he failed to get the mortars again and wouldn’t be able to call on them for the rest of the battle Dan decided to pull out much to my relief. The one thing I did learn in this fight above everything else was this: if you are playing Germans get yourself a le18 75mm IG, why has it taken me this long! Dan declared it the man of the match, it only has 6 HE but the ability to drop cover by 1 and hitting on a 4+ makes it punch well above its weight.

As for the state of 2.Zug. Their opinions first, they started on 1 & 1 and after the battle these had dropped with the CO’s opinion on 0 and the men’s (not surprisingly given the casualties taken) at -3. They are also pretty much a spent force with 4 men dead in both 2. & 3.Gruppen so I’ve decided to consolidate the survivors into one full strength Gruppe under the surviving 3.Gruppe JL and am sending the 2 ‘spare’ men to 1.Gruppe/1.Zug to replace their losses from the last fight. Next up is the village fight in L’Abbaye Blanche with the full strength 3.Zug taking on what I estimate to be a full strength American platoon backed up with a bunch of MG’s and AT guns so, should be easy?!

 

Old Hickory CoC Campaign. Fight 2, Red Two

Beckenbauer furiously tried to light his pipe after leaving the room containing Company HQ, when he failed for the fourth time he swore loudly and kicked out at the lamppost in front of him. After 1.Zug’s brilliant little action 2.Zug were supposed to have moved forwards to carry on the fight but they were caught moving up to the startline by a JaBo strike and the useless bastards had scattered all over the place so now it was up to his lads to attack once more. He had argued against it of course but 3.Zug were off doing something else and time was of the essence (plus him and the CO weren’t seeing eye to eye at the moment), so his protests weren’t too forceful. He knew the job needed doing and that they would have to do it, he just wanted to keep his lads out of harms way for a little longer.

As they were supposed to be resting, and due to the confusion around caused by the airstrike, the patrolling of the new area to attack hadn’t gone as well as it had previously and the Yankees had managed to secure a nice line centred on a house with good supporting positions to either flank that covered a large open expanse of ground in front of it. There was a nice covered approach to the left flank but that had been somewhat blocked off by a thick barbed wire obstacle. HQ had decided that the open terrain was probably well covered by hidden AT guns so was holding back the panzer support until the positions had been identified and neutralised, indeed the Old Man had stressed that this was the most important element of this attack. To compensate for this though he was being supported by a battery of 81mm mortars from the Support Company which he was hoping would help shoot his lads onto the enemy positions once they were identified and also the artillery would be shelling the American lines as well, also his men’s morale was still very good after their last victory.

Red dots are German JOP’s, Blue are American

My freshly made wire blocks the way!

He arrived back to the unit’s forming up area and called his NCO’s around him and they listened to his plan. As usual Beckenbauer would take 1. & 2. Gruppe forward in the attack whilst the ever ready Klopp would take control of the tripod mounted MG42 and the Adjutant would hold 3.Gruppe back as a reserve. The main attack was still going to be through the wood that extended along the left but instead of continuing through the wood they would cross the road once they reached the barbed wire and try and outflank the Ami’s position from the left. While they were doing this the heavy MG42 and the FOO would take any spotted enemy around the house and on the right under fire to keep them busy. 3.Gruppe would support where needed. Once all the NCO’s nodded that they were clear on their parts, Beckenbauer pulled his cap tightly down over his eyes and looked at his watch “Right, those lazy Mummy’s boys in the artillery should start up in 2 minutes, lets get moving. Good luck”.

The lads of 1.Zug move out again

The advance through the wood was going smoothly enough with both 1. & 2.Gruppe making their way steadily forward when all of a sudden a murderous fire erupted over on the right. From the sound of it, the Americans were doing the shooting which started up again as soon as it finished. Beckenbauer was nudged by Klinsmann ‘I hope Jurgen’s alright over there boss’. Klopp was alright, but the men manning the MMG definitely weren’t. Due to the poor patrolling earlier they had to move quite a way forward to take up a position from where they could take the enemy under fire. Unfortunately the enemy were already in place and waiting when they did so, unleashing a couple of murderous volleys that cut down 3 of the crew and made the remaining 2 run back towards their own lines. They were halted by the big Swabian Warrant officer who temporarily checked their progress but they were too shaken to convince that getting back into action was a good idea. As he was trying to sort the MG team out Klopp did notice the mortar observer moving forward on his left “Get those bastards on the right” he shouted across to him whilst thinking that maybe he should call for 3.Gruppe to come forward to help out. Unfortunately, whilst he was thus distracted, the MG gunners slipped away to the rear their morale completely shattered.

The Amis wait on the right

The survivors of the MMG team make for the rear

The sound of incoming mortars were very soon filling the air but it was the sound of the enemy’s and not the German’s. The barrage fell across the road quite near to where Beckenbauer had started to move 2.Gruppe over to try and take on the GI’s firing on the MMG, an idea he quickly changed when he saw the mortar rounds seemingly move closer “Jurgen, get your lads back here and follow 1.Gruppe around to the left” he bellowed over the crumping of the incoming rounds, “those damned mortars will get us soon if we stay here”.  As they all moved back to the left another ripple of enemy fire burst out from the direction of the road which was quickly followed by the unmistakable sound of 2 MG42’s opening up in response. At about the same time the mortar barrage stopped and Beckenbauer heard another seemingly more intense round of firing from the Americans and a very feeble return volley from 1.Gruppe. Calling on everyone to follow him he charged forwards to the lane where he was met with a terrible scene. Breitner lay dead in the road and one half of his men lay dead or wounded around him with the survivors pinned by the nearest hedge whilst down the road the opposite hedge was bristling with GI’s who unleashed another volley. “Smoke!, Smoke!, get a grenade in there now!” but the nervous lad that threw it just about cleared the hedge barely covering the survivors who used the cover of it to quickly vacate the death trap they were in and head for the rear dragging their wounded comrades with them.

American mortars miss their target…

… but creep ever closer

Breitner’s lads make it into the ‘Lane of Doom’

Damned Yanks move across to take them on

The scene just before the carnage ensued

” Verdammt! Back!, get back now!” bellowed the platoon commander and pretty soon they were all back in the safety of the woods. Beckenbauer stopped to think. He couldn’t hear any sound of the heavy MG or mortars firing over on the right which didn’t feel good at all and looking around at the faces of the remaining troops with him he could tell what they had seen in the lane had shaken them all up too. “Sod it, we are off. Klinsmann follow me, we’re pulling out, send a flare up to signal to Klopp. No sense in dying here for no gain”, and with that the attack failed.

 

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So another short and sweet fight but this time the Dice Gods had switched sides and Dan had the better luck (hopefully it means that it will be a bit more even next time)!

Dan had called in the airstrike so this was now round 3 of the campaign and, as explained, my plan was to try and find his AT guns and try and take them out if possible so that if we had to attack here again the tanks could be used with a bit more safety, whilst hopefully writing down his infantry. However, I did make some mistakes which combined with terrible luck scuppered the attack which I was quietly confident in succeeding with when we started as I had rolled up 11 in morale to his 9 and my high men’s opinion gave me one extra support point.

Firstly I shouldn’t have deployed the MMG at all, the Yanks were in position and on overwatch already I should have just hit them with my mortars and just used it either to defend my 2 JOP’s on the right (along with my reserve section) or deployed it on the left after moving that JOP forwards with a CoC dice. Over on the left I think my plan to still advance through the wood and around the wire was a good one and it might have worked. Indeed when Dan brought in his mortars he was way off target (was supposed to come in on the wire which might have caught 2 sections and the SL) and was having problems moving the barrage – we are playing that you roll a d6 to see how far you can move it, he rolled a 1 then a 2! However it was creeping towards me so I spent a CoC dice to end the turn which meant the survivors of the MMG team routed off with my rolling on the BTH table starting high and staying high all game.

So what actually happened in the ‘Lane of Doom’? After getting caught with a very ineffectual volley which only caused a bit of shock I returned fire and scored 12 hits which only caused just 2 points of shock, and it was close range too! Unfortunately this fire was on a 2 so I couldn’t order a smoke grenade to be thrown as well to cover myself and Dan made excellent use of the American ability to both move and fire to get more weapons to bear and his next volley caused proper damage including wounding Breitner and reducing his activations to 1. Before I could reply though he used a CoC dice to interrupt and that’s when Breitner and the rest of one of his teams copped it whilst the other one broke. Dan then rolled up a triple 3 ending the turn and thus routing the survivors, on top of the hits to my force morale from the JL being wounded then killed and losing a team my force morale had plummeted to 2 so it was a no brainer to pull out.

Again a cracking game and lessons definitely learned for next time. I know I might have said this before but playing these rules in a campaign just makes them so much better – you stop thinking like a wargamer and start thinking like a commander.

As for the result of the fight: I only managed to KO 2 of Dan’s men but he will get them back thanks to the difference in morale at the end. 1.Zug lost 5 men in total , 2 dead along with the JL and 3 will be returning the next time they see action. Beckenbauer lost 4 points off his men’s opinion but as he was already on +3 that isn’t too bad whilst he managed to not lose any more on the CO’s opinion so starts the next round at -1 & -1.

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 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.