Market Garden (without the Market) in France 1944

Last night our weary reporter travelled from the grime and squalor of 6th century Britannia, to the smoke and steel of France in 1944, as Chris and Tony got in a practice game of Chain of Command in readiness for Saturday’s “big show”. The scenario used the same table layout as my practice game with Greg last Sunday, but this time playing “Attack an Objective”, with Chris’ British Motor Platoon having to seize a bridge before the German combat engineers could destroy it and deny its use to British armour. Chris’ supports were a FOO with an off-table 3” mortar battery plus a Carrier Recce Section, whilst Tony’s regular German infantry platoon only had a section’s worth of entrenchments plus an adjutant. Would this prove enough?

At the end of the Patrol Phase Tony had managed to push one jump off point well up the table, with the British pretty much in a line across the table. As the attacker, Chris had to be aggressive and threw two infantry sections up either flank, and prepared the Recce Section to charge up the Road. He also deployed the FOO in what proved to be a rather advanced, and exposed, position in the centre of the board. Tony responded with a single section deploying into entrenchments in the centre of the table, able to engage both of Chris’ sections.

The left flank section was caught in the open by the Squad’s Mg 42 team and the carnage started, whist his rifle team rather ineffectually engaged Chris’ right flank section lurking behind a hedgerow.

Having heard last Sunday how effective mortars can be, Chris managed to call in 3” battery opting for an “immediate barrage”. When the rounds arrived the following turn he rolled low and saw them land wildly off target bracketing his own section who were caught in the open, as well as Tony’s infantry hunkering down in their foxholes. Not a good day to be British infantry as more died and shock markers were placed. Tony then responded with more infantry fire that broke the Bren team and reduced the pinned rifle team to a couple of blokes. It seemed just a matter of time...

With Chris’ Force Morale falling, he resumed the advance on the right pushing his infantry forward past Tony’s entrenchments, whilst charging his carriers up the road to engage the German entrenchments with their Brens.

Pinned themselves by the mortar fire the German squad began to take casualties and shock but retained enough firepower to kill the exposed FOO and stop the mortars. Unfortunately for Tony, the squad’s Panzerfaust missed its shot at the Carriers as they were moving flat-out plus counted as “small” and “low profile”. However, under more German fire Chris’ depleted left hand rifle team broke and ran back to the solitary Bren gunner, where the Senior Leader at least managed to rally off the excess shock and prevent them routing.

At this point the table looked quite bare, with only one depleted German infantry squad deployed facing two intact British squads and the Recce carriers. Chris pushed one section onwards through the fields leaving the second to deal with the dug-in infantry, whilst the carriers pushed on to try and capture Tony’s forward jump-off point. All was going well until Tony used his amassed “Chain of Command Dice”. Two Ambushes saw an MG42 team fire at the infantry, whilst his HQ’s Panzerschreck Team deployed to fire at very short range at the Carriers. This time nothing could save the targeted carrier albeit three men did manage to jump out.

Finally wiping out the stubborn German infantry in the entrenchments and wounding their NCO using the third infantry section was only a small crumb of comfort for the battered British.

To add insult to injury the Germans next move saw the Senior leader deploy, a 2nd infantry section deployed into the entrenchments alongside the bodies of their erstwhile colleagues, and the Panzerschreck turned the second carrier into a blazing wreck. The on- table British force morale was nearly gone and Chris’ personal morale was totally shot and he gave up, leaving the Germans in control of the bridge area and able to complete to blow the bridge.

I hope it had been a fun game for the players. From my side it was a good run-through of the CoC rules again, plus re-learning a few basics of infantry combat and in addition a few questions to pose to the more experienced players before we start on Saturday.

Simon