Last nights Battlegroup Overlord game put 600 points of British Airborne up against 21st Panzer Division in the second of mine and Garry's narrative campaign between these two forces. While the first battle was an utter whitewashing of the Germans, this second game turned out to be a real nail-biter!
The game was an attack/defend scenario where the main objective is a hill. The British got a 'free' MG bunker, section of trench and minefield in this scenario… Some of which were to prove a pain!
German Forces
British Forces plus 2 x 3" Mortar batterys, an HMG Bunker and a minefield
The game started with the first German wave comprising of the recce troops, my artillery and a tank. My Germans got off to a good start with the first of my RTPs placed around the bridge pinning some Paras, killing others and generally being a nuisance. My Panzer IV and my recce command 250 raced off down the road to take the first objective – the old ruined barn.
Then it all started to go wrong… The first 3" mortar battery of the British managed a very flukey roll and scored a direct hit on the Panzer IV with a bomb and one of the 250. While the Panzer IV didnt notice it, the other one must have gone in the back of the 250 as the resultant explosion destroyed the vehicle and the three-man recce command team. To add insult to injury, the second battery of british mortars fired and by yet more flukes, dropped a bomb through the open hatch of my Armoured Forward Observer… His little Hotchkiss conversion wasnt made of as sterner stuff as the Panzer IV and the vehicle brewed up. The only consolation was a 'Call of Duty' result for the Panzer IV which saw him put two HE rounds from his short 75mm into the Para's 6-Pounder. One actually hit the gun, taking it out and the crew retired.
So by turn two, I had lost my artillery observer and my recce command and even had my recce infantry patrol pinned down. Not a great start. With my attack looking like the first wave was going to get massacred, but with the 6-pounder covering the bridge gone I raced the Panzer IV forward to bring the MG bunker by the bridge under direct fire… and ran straight into the British minefield! Of course the Panzer IV promptly went up like a bloody balloon! So I was left with little to do other than dump mortars on the RTP… Which did little.
It all looked to be going downhill fast for the Germans, especially when the Tetrach moved and started calling mortar fire onto my artillery half-tracks and the munitionspanzer. By luck the rounds came down and did little. Now the German second wave arrived and the converted French half-tracks raced on to the table on the right flank, thus able to avoid the river and its mined bridge. They came on supported by the Hotchkiss StuG, while the headquarters and the half-track mounting the Pak 40 came on, on the left. The British reinforcements however came on slowly (d6 per turns) and the Half-Track managed to get a shot off at the Tetrach. It was its first ever shot, in its first ever game, so I wasnt expecting much… It spotted twice. I then rolled to hit… and up came double six… The Tetrach expired with a flash! This took out a key mortar spotter, so the half-track mounting the 20mm flak moved up and poured a ton of fire into the MG bunker, killing all the occupants.
Now the initiative passed to the Germans. The British, suffering with slow moving reinforcements became out-paced by the mounted Panzergrenadiers who surged forward to attack the farmhouse and poured a storm of shot and shell upon it, finally wiping out the British recce patrol in it. In return, a mine struck the StuG and it too went up like a Christmas tree, shortly followed by the Half-track with the Pak40 as a mortar bomb landed in the back of that, and then one in the back of the one carrying the 20mm flak! British mortar fire was unnervingly accurate! But despite this the Panzergrenadier now had the farm, and victory would go to which sides infantry fought the best.
It was all to play for as the British advanced on the German held farm and a blistering barrage of rifle and MMG fire almost, but not quite, wiped out the defenders. They had done their job though. The British had halted along the road to fire, in view of the German commander on the hill… As the last rocket was loaded into the launcher, the Somua half-track let rip a salvo of 8cm rockets into them. Bearing in mind only sixes cause a direct hit, the British really didnt like this roll…
The battle still carried on, but the British were now out-numbered. The battle between the farm and the British hill continued, with both sides taken losses and the chits mounting. The British command team even took to the trenches to lay down fire as things got desperate, but an 81mm mortar bomb landed in with them and killed all three of them. As both sides weathered a storm of gunfire losses continued to mount. Finally the British, with only a handful of men left called defeat as a chit finally took them over their 46 point Battle Rating…
The Germans morale at the time? Well the Germans were on 39 out of 40 Battle rating…
Like I said, it was a close run thing…
