La Gleize, Bulge High Water Mark

And so our intrepid war reporter travelled back to the dark days of January 1945 and the Battle of the Bulge, where he joined a British battlegroup near the village of La Gleize. The dastardly Hun had rounded up the locals and were threatening to immolate them in the chateau. Very un-British behaviour.  We don’t treat the natives like that.

The British force advanced from the north-west with the recce screen out front. Malcolm’s Cromwell made excellent progress thanks to its “fast” attribute. The M4s which were meant to clear the woods to the north were more unfortunate and jammed their tracks in the dense woodland.  Rob’s Achilles for some inexplicable reason advanced in the open down the road.  This wouldn’t end well!  The German Stug then roared into life, located Rob and despatched him with a single shot.  Rob remembered too late that his “Hell Driving “ card would have allowed the Achilles to dive for cover….

Rob’s stricken Achilles was soon followed by Chris’ Sherman that had also gone on a suicide mission down the road. He fell to the mighty King Tiger which had been reported prowling in the vicinity.

With two out of five tanks burning , including one of the 17pdrs the British reluctantly radioed a nearby American unit for assistance. Soon a 76mm-armed Sherman was advancing up the road from the south-west. With the Cromwell, Greg’s Firefly and the 76mm all advancing from the south west the sole remaining Sherman in the north decided to play it safe, and advance very cautiously .  The Stug retired to a well-chosen position between buildings to the east of the Chateau. With its low profile and cover it was very difficult to spot by the advancing allies.  Leaving Greg and Rob to contest matters with the King Tiger and Stug,  Malcolm raced his Cromwell across the board to try to outflank Tony and take advantage of his limited firing arc.  Nice tactics!

The battle swung when the 76mm-armed M4 scored a hit on the King Tiger and removed two dice from play. Two poor sets of dice roll  left the King Tiger immobile in the town square and the remaining 75mm –armed M4 administered the coup de grace with a shot from the rear.

Outnumbered now 4:1 things looked grim for the Stug, but with a fanatical SS crew they fought on.  The M4 which had despatched the King Tiger was itself knocked out by the Stug, who eventually found himself surrounded by three Allied vehicles at point-blank range.  The Cromwell administered the telling shot and Tony's Stug died.

Simon