On a bitterly cold Sunday morning our reporter arrived in an unfamiliar location. The Lost Ark Game shop in deepest Stevenage. Taking advantage of an offer from John Leggett to come in and use their 8 x 6’ table, I had arranged a Battlegroup Blitzkrieg game set in June 1940 near Abbeville, on the River Somme. Unlike most France 1940 games, this would not see rampaging grey Panzers, but rather an attack by gaudily camouflaged French armour supported by a more soberly painted British force. The scenario saw the French 2nd DCR supported by the 11th Hussars and Queens’ Bays trying to fight through the German 57th Infantry Division to capture the bridges over the Somme and hopefully counter-attack the German forces to the west of the Dunkirk salient. The terrain was taken from Google Earth and was as representative as I could make it, with a flat rolling centre and the small villages of St Maxent, Warcheville and Onicourt lying on the flanks. Chris and Greg took the infantry heavy and well dug-in Germans, with Phil taking the French and Tony the British. The ORBATs had been slightly “tweaked” from history in order to help with game balance.
The game started with Tony moving his armour up the road towards Warcheville.
His infantry commander debussed into a house no doubt to reconnoitre. Disaster. It was booby-trapped and the resultant explosion saw one dead and a “pin”. Chris’ dug-in PAK36 and Pzjager I both opened up at long range and unsurprisingly missed. Phil, suffering from poor command and control moved his mechanised infantry up the road from St Maxent, and his mighty CharBs rolled across the open fields south-west of the village.
Greg’s dug-in ’88 opened fire and missed, but his 105mm howitzers put their PRTP to good use in inflicting pins on the carrier.
Turn 2 saw Phil’s CharBs pour suppressing howitzer fire onto the ’88 position, and Greg regretting not using his surplus orders from turn one to put units on “opportunity fire”. On the allied left Tony kept up his relentless advance in true cavalry style. As he manoeuvred two A9s across a ploughed field there was a loud explosion. He had driven straight into a minefield. Cue one dead tank, and the other sitting immobile and exposed.
Turn three saw the allies launch a co-ordinated, planned artillery barrage across the German line. The main results were a dead Mg34 team and a loader team but the German BR chits were starting to accumulate. Tony also continued to pour more armour up the road and through the fields, headed by light Vickers MkVIs. Chris responded by charging a MkVI with his infantry and despatching it with anti-tank grenades. It was all getting very bloody and messy. Things became even bloodier when up the road charged the British infantry platoon in their light trucks. The bemused German infantry poured fire into the convoy and soon all three trucks were ablaze with their infantry crouching beside them seeking cover.
Back with the French Phil had managed to swing some of his H39s into action and together with the remaining infantry they began to wear the Germans down.
Chris too was suffering on the German left and as his Stug and Pzjager I continued to fire ineffectually they both succumbed to the mighty 2pdrs of the British armour. His senior leader was also forced to flee when his Horch staff car was destroyed by a rampaging MkVI.
Both German forces were nearing exhaustion. The French were still in good shape but the British too had taken quite a battering thanks to the lunatic infantry platoon. However, they still had plenty of armour and off-table artillery support. Greg finally got lucky as his ’88 killed two Char Bs in a single turn but both German forces both broke, leaving the table to the allies. Greg’s second to last token was an “air attack” but even this only resulted on a rather ineffective Me109 strafing attack. Where were the Stukas when you needed them!
The game had lasted 6 turns and 4 hours, including a lunch break which saw the Banks and Tony disappear for a noodle-based lunch. History had been rewritten as back in 1940 the Germans had held the Allies. Even then it had been a close-run-think with the Allies running out of impetus and ideas, plus poor co-ordination and mechanical breakdowns. With this latter point in mind I now realise that In hindsight I forgot the “unreliable” rule that applied to the British A9s and A13s, and Tony who also possessed a copy of “Blitzkrieg” either hadn’t read the rule or “conveniently” forgot it!. If Chris had drawn any BR1 chits he could have played them on Tony’s armour as “breakdowns”. It may have made a slight difference.
Many thanks go to John and Lost Ark for hosting us again and supplying tea and coffer plus warmth. We will be back!
Simon
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