Kampfgruppe Von Luck - Scenario 1

The much vaunted 21st Panzer Division tank crews slept, while their infantry took crawling through the cornfields, trying to work out where the Allies were!

After crawling a few hundred yards, Blue section was surprised, first by a vicious ambush by a British bren gun team, then by two infantry sections, one behind the hedgerow and one further back in the cornfield. Blue section sustained heavy losses, but rallied enough to return fire. After directing Green & Yellow sections to fire at the Northernmost Allied section, Lt. Altrich ran forward to stabilise the situation with Blue section. Pausing only briefly to yell, “It’s all your fault” at Sgt Bouue, Lt. Altrich screamed at the poor quivering FAO, to laydown a mortar barrage, which the FAO prompted did, but sadly on his own position!!

Lt Altrich rolled his eyes skyward and yelled again, at the FAO, to get him to roll the barrage forward.
The combined fire of Green & Red sections was too much, even for the stalwart paras and the Allied right flank section was soon streaming to the rear.

Meanwhile with the Allied left flank pinned under the barrage, the Allied commander called for a rather disorderly retirement from the field.

Phil

Encounter in Elsdorf

After a prolonged period of R&R our trusty reporter was back in the saddle, this week reporting from the West bank of the Rhine in February 1945. The Yanks had launched “Operation Grenade” which aimed to cross the River Roer and punch through to the Rhine bridges trapping the more immobile German troops in their wake to become POWs. Combat Command B of the 3rd Armoured had reached the small town of Elsdorf held by the mixed Kampfgruppe from 9th Panzer. Greg took the Germans and Tony the Yanks.

The historical battle was fought in the darkness of early evening, so we played initially using blinds to reflect poor visibility. Tony’s tanks moved painfully slowly, probably reflecting the actual pain Tony felt having done a vigorous workout with Chris the night before. If there was ever a reason for not exercising Tony was providing it! Greg responded with his Marder III covering the South, a heavy force in the North and a lone MkIV moving through the town down the main road. Suddenly Tony’s Hellcat raced across the road unleashing a single shot at the MkIV. A Catastrophic kill for the exposed Panzer.

Tony followed up with his own dash up the road to try and get behind one of the Panzers. When the tanks were revealed it proved to be a Stuart hunting a Tiger I with another MkIV trying to get in on the act.

Soon the Stuart was a blazing wreck.

Tony was still finding it difficult to manoeuvre into position but with an advantage in numbers and Greg’s Marder seemingly happy to hold ground, decided to concentrate on the German heavy armour. That said both his Shermans took damage, with one surviving two 88 rounds from the Tiger. A minor miracle. Tony still had Red 1 on a blind, when Greg remembered having read about Elsdorf and realised Tony’s unidentified tank was 99% certain to be an M26 Pershing.

Even the Tiger decided discretion was the better part of valour and began to edge gingerly back into cover. No such luck for the second MkIV as the Pershing swung round a corner into a firing position and destroyed the German tank with a single round.

Greg’s morale plummeted especially as his Marder saw multiple hits on both Shermans only inflict minor damage. I finally called a halt to proceedings declaring it an American win with two MkIVs knocked out for the Germans versus a solitary Stuart for the Yanks.

I hope both players enjoyed it. Back in the real 1944 the evening of February 26th 1945 had seen the first meeting between a Tiger I number 201 and one of the shiny new M26 Pershings named “Fireball” in the wreckage of Elsdorf. The Tiger had spotted the Pershing silhouetted by the flames of a burning Sherman, and then destroyed it with three shots. Unfortunately, the Tiger then disabled itself reversing into rubble and was abandoned by its crew and captured by the Yanks. “Fireball” was repaired and returned to service within two weeks.

Simon

Early war What a Tanker

This week our reporter travelled from dark days “In A Galaxy Far Far Away” to the first days of WW2. Inspired by the recent Battlegroup Blitzkrieg game over Christmas, plus my completion of Sarissa’s Russian Church and Dacha, I laid on a WAT scenario set in September 1939. The Army of Lodz’ 2nd Light Tank Battalion were fighting for control of the communication routes through the town of Piotrkow Tyrbunalski against 4th Panzer Division. Phil and Tony took the Poles, leaving Greg and Chris with the Germans. Greg quietly despaired at the thought of Chris trying to unleash Blitzkrieg.

Chris arrived slightly late and refused his traditional tea, citing recent dental work and rubbing his jaw gingerly. We all politely enquired if he was in pain. The Germans advanced swiftly with their PzIV and a PzII to the North, a PzIII and PzII in the centre and eventually two PzIIIs in the south.

Everyone was amazed at Chris’ uncharacteristically swift advance and wondered if his dentist had given him a dose of Pervitin, the German methamphetamine, used to enhance performance but often induce reckless behaviour. Chris denied it. The Poles were more circumspect Moving their TKSD tank destroyer to cover the North, a TKS tankette in the South and the 7TPs holding the centre. 

The game started to settle into a flurry of ineffective firing, and after about four turns everything was still fully operational. Phil then rolled a set of dice giving him plenty of movement and a 7TP roared through the German lines crashing into a copse.

It was clearly trying to get flank of even rear shots on the German armour. A bold move. Tony followed up with an attack by his mighty TKS tankette on the PzIII in the south. The Germans moved to counter both attacks but found the Tankettes particularly hard to hit thanks to their “low” and “small” attributes. One of Chris’ PzIIIs finally brewed up taking hits from 20mm cannon fire and the 37mm of a 7TP.

Phil’s 7TP was forced to reverse into the open and eventually abandoned by its crew. Chris’ second PzIII found itself losing command dice thanks to the mighty TKS.

The German situation looked serious as they had lost more combat power, yet they were actually winning the scenario, as they had possession of the crossroads. However the two TKS both advanced and started to threaten the Germans from flank and rear.

A single volley of 20mm fire saw Chris PzII explode and at one point his remaining PzIII was down to one command dice.

At this point it was decided to call it a night and award the game to the Poles. Although the Germans technically held the objective their flanks were exposed and they had lost nearly three vehicles to the Poles solitary abandoned 7TP.

As ever with “early war” head-on firing had proved pretty ineffective and attritional. The winning move had been the Poles’ bold attack which exposed the German flanks. Once again the mighty TKS tankette armed with a 20mm cannon had proved its worth as a tank killer...much to Greg’s annoyance.

That’s it for this week!

Simon

Poland 1939

Full of Christmas spirit our reporter headed East and back six years to Poland in 1939. I dusted off an old “Battlegroup Blitzkrieg” scenario, amended it slightly and served it up for the delectation of Greg and Tony. The game was based on a historical Polish counter-attack at Tomaszow Lubelski which saw the elite Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade reinforced by the 1st Light Battalion attacking the troops of the German 4th Light Division. Greg took the armour-heavy Poles and Tony and dug-in Germans. In defiance of the cost-of-living crisis Tony supplied some truly excellent Marks and Spencer mince pies, and I provided warming hot drinks. I wasn’t going to have the heating costing me money!

Tony dug in two sections of infantry covering the centre and north of the table, with a PAK 36 emplaced also covering the exposed centre.

Greg rolled his orders dice and got off to an awful start for the Poles. A double one for orders. Indeed, the opening moves saw a total of five double ones rolled and other low scores which rather stymied the Polish attack. At one stage it looked as if the Germans may begin a counter-attack against the numerically inferior Polish forces on-table. Things picked up marginally for the Poles when their pre-planned 105mm artillery strikes the German positions killing most of an Mg34 team and pinning other troops. Greg’s frustration with the orders finally reached breaking point and he refused to use the allotted blue Peter Pig dice and changed two red dice. The result was 10 orders plus officers...

The main Polish attack seemed to be through the rough ground along the north edge of the table, and the similar terrain to the south.

Tony played a canny game of using suppressing fire to pin units and force Greg to draw chits to re-activate them, thus degrading force morale. However, Greg got lucky drawing several “air attack” and “breakdown” chits rather than “numbers”. But soon blazing Polish tankettes and an armoured car also littered the table,

only killing one PzII in reply.

Greg’s chit count mounted as he continued to un-pin units, and Tony now started to use a mixture of suppression fire and direct fire to kill units. One Polish infantry team routed when it was pinned and then failed its morale check.

Greg was sure the Poles were doomed, but gallantly pressed on. His armour and infantry managed to wipe a German dug-in infantry section, and the Vickers Es also knocked out a second Panzer II and the heroically annoying Sdkfz222 armoured car.

Artillery fire finally killed the Mg34 team who had hung-on grimly since being decimated in turn three, and a lunatic bayonet charge across open ground saw the Poles wipe out Tony’s platoon command unit and break the German morale. A close run thing as Greg was also close to breaking point.

Both Greg and Tony declared it a “good game”, and said they enjoyed it. As with most BG “Blitzkrieg” games this was a real “combined arms” encounter, and not the seeming tank-fest of the later years of WW2. The tanks don’t dominate, artillery is important but not battle-winning and the infantry have a real role to play. The game could easily have gone the other way if Greg had drawn “numbered” chits early in the game, but he didn’t! That’s one of the fun or frustrating aspects of “Battlegroup”, depending on your point of view. As ever we found a few oddities in the rules. The German 50mm mortar at one stage seemed a battle-winning weapon, and the rules and data cards had different interpretations of their use and effectiveness. I was also baffled by the potency of the Polish Vickers E’s 47mm gun. Knowing that it was a short, low-velocity gun, and to quote Osprey’s Polish Armour of the Blitzkrieg, the Poles found “the performance...disappointing”, I was amazed to find it has the same anti-armour performance as the high velocity 37mm Bofors the Poles selected for their own 7TP design. I also see that in BG Blitzkrieg the 7TP costs less than the Vickers E. Something is definitely not right here!

Saturday afternoon sees our reporter packed off to sunnier climes in Southern Italy during the 3rd Servile War for a large game of TTS.I can’t wait!

Simon

France 1940 - The allies counter-attack

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

Time to get the Winter Mat out Again

After a Thursday away on business with the Picts and Scotti north of Hadrian’s Wall, our trusty reporter resumed duties this time in December 1944. The setting was the North-West Ardennes, as the Panzers of 2nd Panzer Division’s Kampfgruppe Bohm headed for the Meuse bridges at Dinant. Rushing towards them were the hastily manned tanks of the British 29th Armoured Brigade’s 3rd RTR, re-equipping behind the lines with the new A34 Comet, but now ordered back into action with their old Shermans and supports. The clash took place in and around the small hamlet of Foy Notre Dame.

The Germans moved onto the table uncharacteristically slowly. Maybe they were conserving fuel? The Hetzer hunkered down behind a wall, the Pz MkIV advanced gingerly along the Southern edge with only the Panther craftily disguised as an M10 making a fast advance in the North.

The British deployed as best they could, having to use either the bridge or the ford as entry points. Luckily, they managed to get the Achilles into position facing the “German M10”. Less lucky was the Sherman who found himself exposed on the Bridge staring down the road at a Panther. His shot missed as did the return fire of the Panther.

The “decoy” Panther hunting down the Achilles or other targets, but acquisition amongst the farm buildings proved problematic. However, the Achilles did his job and soon one Panther was a burning wreck.

In the South the Pz MkIV and Tony’s Shermans traded desultory shots, resulting in damage to the Panzer. Chris decided to make a run for it with his Panther which charged up the road only to find the enemy melting away and hiding. Once again acquisition proved elusive, and the dice didn’t help.

The Hetzer also broke cover but Chris simply couldn’t manoeuvre into position for a shot.

The Panther took damage and Tony finally realised that by reversing his Firefly he could find cover and manage a side-shot into the German big cat. Cue another explosion marker being placed on a German tank.

With both Panthers out of action and all six Allied tanks still running the Germans conceded. The Meuse bridges at Dinant were safe and “Wacht am Rhein” had run its course in the North-West.

All had followed history, as Kampfgruppe Bohm was effectively wiped-out in December 1944. The points count had actually given the Germans a slight advantage, especially using the “unofficial” points system. However, most points were spent on the Panthers, so the loss of one so early in the game was a big set-back. It must also be said that the dice didn’t favour the Germans.

The WAT game also marked the nadir of Dave’s fortunes. Three games played that day; three losses. All of them featuring big doses of bad luck!

Next Thursday will see our indefatigable reporter pack his Havelock for duty at Cawnpore in North-Central India during the Mutiny.

Simon

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