Crehen, Belgium 1940… a big playtest for the new Battlegroup Blitzkrieg we are currently working on.
French troops valiantly try to hold off a mechanised German assault on Crehen, while trying to bring more forces into action.
The game began with the German recce troops mainly heading for the walled farm complex on the Crehen-Hannut road. They worked their way through the network of fields and orchards to get into position to occupy this key position, while the German mortar support kept up fire upon the ridge held by the French with some of their artillery dug in upon it. The French would respond in kind.
At Crehen, german forces probed the village, hindered at first by roadblocks, and then by a minefield, all the while a lone French 75mm gun with a solitary crewman who fought to the death after his comrades were killed… All alone manning his gun he knocked out an approaching armoured car and then a Panzer IV before being cut down.
The actual German assault on Crehen would prove to be a violent close quarters affair, with each house having to be cleared and taken, often with the use of flamethrowers and tank support. But the key position in Crehen – a fortified house – refused to fall. Despite everything thrown at it, the defenders refused to quit and the Germans couldnt take this final and vital piece of real estate. The defenders held on so long that the French reserves put in an appearance and the French launched an armoured counter-attack which saw the Hotchkiss H39s indulge in a long range gunnery duel with the Panzers… and come off better!
Towards Hannut, a battle between recce troops developed and this alerted the reserves in Hannut. As a gaggle of German Panzer IIs rolled forward to support the recce troops, from Hannut out rumbled four Char Bs. Then began an unequal firefight that raged for sometime, but eventually left one Char B knocked out, one with a shed track but with five burning Panzer IIs opposite them.
In the end, the French defence proved too tough for the Germans to crack and with losses mounting, and options running out, the German high command called off the attack… With the German BR broken the French secured a well deserved victory, albeit at heavy cost.
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goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
