… "All Americans Hold St Mere Eglise"
Hi all,
I usually post an AAR of the HAWKs monthly retiree game on the CD Forum, but there's a problem with large posts. Since it's been a week, I decided to post here as an alternative.
Last Thursday, after digging out of the snow, we played the March, 2018 game in the HAWKs retiree series. Once again, we're playing through Jake's scenario books. Starting this month we're using "From Normandy to Lorraine. This was Scenario #1 "The All Americans Hold St Mere Eglise; June 7th, 1944."
The Game, Intro
This game is set in France as the American paratroopers try to hold and expand their grip on the vital St Mere Eglise crossroad and elements of 4th Infantry Division drive to link up with them. Eric Schlegel, Geoff Graff and I played the Germans. Kurt Schlegel, Chuck Frascatti and Bruce Kohrn played the Allies.
Game Play
The table set up looking north.
The 505th PIR is deployed in St Mere Eglise (middle) and elements ot 4th Infantry Division enter from bottom right. The German Grenadier Regiment 1058 of 91st Air Landing Division deploy around Neuville au Plain (top left) and Bondienville (top right) and 7th Army Sturm Battalion enters from the west, about 2/3 up the table.
The table set up looking south.
Aerial reconnaissance photo.
St Mere Eglise (largee town near center) and Neuville au Plain (top left) are the objectives.
Turn 1505 PIR holding St Mere Eglise.
One company presses forward to lead the attack on Neuville.
1058th Grenadiers advance toward St Mere Eglise. Their mission is to wrest part of the town from the Americans.
Turn 2
Top Right; 7th Army Sturm Battalion enters. Direct fire support weapons stay clear of the hedgerows and head for Neuville, indirect fire weapons deploy in the first field and the attached Marders of 709th Panzerjager Battalion set off to block the direct road. Beyond, the infantry begins a slog through the fields to support the right flank of 1058.
1058 continues the advance. H&I is falling on forward element so both sides, while first contact is made on the far right, though without loss on either side for now.
Turn 3
1058th continues to press toward St Mere Eglise. Those templates are still H&I. American reinforcements can be seen beyond.
On the west side of the St Mere Eglise Neuville road a company of 1/1058 and a company of 505 PIR have exchanged fire a German platoon has been eliminated and an American forced back. Those beads on the table mark artillery missions that failed to arrive. At Far right the lead company of 7 Sturm Battalion threatens the paratroopers left flank.
Turn 4
On the German right things are looking pretty good. 7th Sturm Battalion has flanked the lead American company which will be compelled to withdraw. [Had I known that the next Americans behind them were phantoms I'd have pressed more.]
A different story on the left. Two companies of 1/1058 reached positions from which they could fire on St Mere Eglise being spotted as they arrive. They Americans played a FoW card that gave them extra dice in Op fire on top of being veteran paratroopers. To make matters worse, Chuck chose that moment to roll the hottest dice of the game, getting more than average hits and killing everything he hit including an improbable proportion of command stands.
Meanwhile a company of 2/1058 is drifting off to the far left overshooting the objective.
And, yes, those are 5 platoons of Shermans rolling up from the beachhead.
Turn 5
The northern most sector of St Mere Eglise is under pressure and vulnerable. However, 1/1058 is too battered to take advantage of it and the tanks of 746th battalion have moved in to stiffen the defense.
The advancing paratroopers turned to face the threat to their left and have been shot up. At this point, though, the arrival of the tanks and more paratroopers emerging from St Mere Eglise (off camera to the upper right) have forced the Germans to abandon the attack and concentrate on defending Neuville.
2/1058's lost company continued drifting south and got caught in the open losing a stand. Tanks swing over to finish them off.
Turn 6
With tanks in front and two more companies of paratroopers sweeping toward their flank, 7th Sturm Battalion begins a withdrawal to a more defensible position nearer Neuville.
The HQ of 746th move up to help drive 2/1058 back from St Mere Eglise.
The lost company got caught in the open under multiple IDF templates.
The Marders are in position to block the road, but will soon have to displace to the east where the greatest threat is developing.
Turn 7
7 Sturm Battalion in an intermediate position. Beyond the paratroopers have been delayed by FoW and H&I. C/746 is pinned (green markers).
Tanks and artillery have hit 2/1058 hard B Company, 70 tank battalion has arrived. Note that the northern most sector of St Mere Eglise is empty, but no German stands are in a position to grab it.
The morale phase brought massive German failures. The yellow tag on the left is a lone survivor of 1/2/1058 shaken. The red markers are 2/2/1058 demoralized.
Turn 8
7 Sturm Battalion has reached their new defensive line. The paratroopers (top right) continuing to drive toward their flank will force them to thin the line, extending to the right.
Shermans and paratroopers prepare to start a drive toward Neuville that will bypass the shattered remnants of 2/1058. 1/1058 has fallen back on the defense, but they are also badly used.
Turn 9
This picture tells the whole story. The Germans hold a line too thin to stop the Americans. On the far right 8 platoons of Paratroopers are going to hit 4 platoons of German infantry. Left of the road a large combined arms force is advancing on 1/1058 remnants and some support troops. The Marders might do some damage, but they can't stop 8 Shermans.
A closer view of the American right. Note that the lost company (top left) is still in its death throes.
When turn 9 was complete we were just about at our nominal end of play time. The objectives were for the Germans to hold one sector of St Mere Eglise at any time during the game and hold Neuville au Plain. The Americans had to hold all of St Mere Eglise and take all of Neuville. Thought the Germans got within break or two of grabbing a sector of St Mere Eglise they did not and could not win a full victory. With 5 turns left (minimum) we thought that , though the Germans could not stop them, they'd have a very difficult time getting Neuvill in 5 turns. So we called it a draw.
Observations
I played this game at a convention years ago probably a playtest. I played on the American side then and though we kept beating the Germans off they never seemed to stop coming. My recollection is that we held St Mere Eglise but were not able to get a serious drive going toward Neuville, and that game was also a draw. There may have been more Germans and fewer Shermans in that game I'm sure Jake will enlighten us.
I think that this is an interesting problem for the Germans. They have to drive forward quickly and grab a piece of St Mere Eglise before the Paratroopers, already a difficult opponent, get reinforced. They the Germans have to shift to the defensive and keep the Americans away from Neuville. Few wargame scenarios present that dual problem.
I think that the Germans had a chance to win. Not concentrating 2nd battalion of 1058 Regiment on the objective hurt. When 1st battalion got shot up, 2nd was too far away to immediately resume the attack. Some good American die rolling, including an annoying habit of killing company command stands, did the rest.
til next time,
Duncan
