Flanking Metz

Flanking Metz Patton never one to let fuel shortages get in the way had bounced the Mosselle to the south of Metz in a bid to encircle the city. The 5th US infantry division was tasked with enlarging its bridgehead at Arnaville (a previous game) to allow the 7th armoured division to push on through and this was the excuse for our game. 

 This is the village of Lorry to the southwest of Arnaville. A small kampfgruppe of the 17th SS are holding the town in reduced company strength with a couple of StuG IV in support. The American task force consist of an infantry company and 3 shermans. The objective is to secure the village. The Germans have a counter attacking element, 1 mechanised infantry platoon, released after the Americans have captured one building. 

The Americans chose to break up their command into 3 groups of 1 infantry platoon and 1 tank. The plan was to screen the village with 1 group while flanking it with another keeping the last in reserve. The Germans were allowed 2 stands in front of the village and the StuGs were to be placed in the last quater of the table with the infantry in the middle. They were allowed 1 ambush unit.





The first few turns were uneventful as the Americans moved on, spotting was done but the nazis were lying low. As the yanks were lining up to rush the wood on the hill, to the south of the town, the first sparks of resistance were ignited. A concealed StuG forced one of the advancing Shermans  to retire and Germans had been spotted at the fringes of the town.




 

The rush up to the wood was causing a small amount of concern.  A squad was sent forward to see what was up there with no reaction the rest toddled up only for the  Germans to  unveiled a platoon which raked their flak. The battered troops went to ground as we scrambled to see what we could do them.  Thankfully the germans were content to be passive and we had soon established a base of fire on the hill.

It was decided to move the reserve platoon up and through the position into the town.  Meanwhile yanks facing the town were having fun hosing any kraut they could see. Soon the edge of the town was clear as the defenders had withdrawn from the fringes. The yanks soon occupied a few of the buildings this however triggered the German reinforcements which came on down the road. The one Sherman had manoeuvred to cover the road but this revealed another StuG looking straight down the road good American gunnery soon started winning that fight. 

The Americans were now poised to storm the rest of the village the game was drawing to a close and it was clear team nazi didn't have much hope of holding on. The StuG would have been able to cover the withdrawal without too much risk to themselves.  On a side note the Americans didn't lose a stand while the Germans were down 6 stands of infantry.

Crossing the Moselle

Pattons 3rd Army had been having a blast chasing Germans across France now, due to the well documented fuel shortage, it was lurching to a standstill on the banks of the Moselle. Patton was very keen to establish a few bridgeheads, for when the supply situation eased he would not be faced with a river assault.

Having tried their luck Dornot to the north, a new attempt was made at Arnaville on the 10th of September. Arnaville had a ford and a highly defensible ridge line but incredibly bad access. Storming across, the Americans soon captured the ridge and began to dig in for the inevitable counter attack while the ford was being prepared to accept armour.

Our game represents the initial German counter attacks on the 11th of September. The River Moselle is just off to the right of the photo. The Americans are holding the ridge with 2 reinforced companies. A reduced infantry company of 17th SS Panzergrenadiers with an attached mechanized recon platoon occupy the village of Corny at the bottom of the photo. The 3rd Panzergrenadiers are in the woods just off table on the left of the photo with a reduced company and a couple of StuG III. The smoke just in front of the village runs all the way back to the river, the Americans had set up smoke projectors to cover the crossing from direct observation.

Team Nazi had decided to coordinate their attacks against the end of the ridge and utilised their artillery in a peliminary bombardment. The rounds however fell on empty woods and the inital scouting produced no results. The Germans began to advance quite cautiousally, it soon became clear that team Yank had left this undefended and then it became a race to the top for the Heer and the SS.





17th SS recon unit moved out of the village to the smoke screen to do some spotting. This attracted the attention of the American FOO who bracketed the command with a stonk, 2 vehicles went up in smoke and the rest of the command fled back the village. 




 

The Americans it would seem had neglected to garrison the half of the ridge and the rather surprised Germans captured it without a casualty.

The next few moves saw the Germans pushing slowly along the ridge while the Americans began rushing troops over.

Eventually the push along ran into some resistance the ensuing firefight produced fairly even results. The 3rd Panzer Grenadiers began to concentrate their troops to continue the push along the ridge.

 The 17th SS meanwhile had been advancing on a broad front. Not much had been seen but they had attracted more artillery fire.

 3rd Panzergrenadiers had pushed up their StuGs to assist in the firefight  this however revealed a 57mm a/t gun which sent one of the StuGs scuttling back.

The ford was now deemed usable and the americans began rushing tanks over to assist in the defence.

At this point time had caught up with us. The position was not looking good for the Americans. With half the ridge captured the Germans would be able to establish observation and bring observed fire down on the crossing point. It would have been interesting to have played a few more turns the Americans would have had to made some attempt to retake the hill.


A good game using our favourate ww2 rules battlegroup panzergrenadier.

Dompierre

This is an engagement that took place in September 1944 at Dompaire south of Nancy. The Germans had launched an counter attack with on of their new Panzer Brigades the 112th in an attempt to halt the 2nd French Armoured Division. The panzer Brigade advanced to the village of Dompaire and halted.

 The French proceeded to encircle the village and subjected it to a relentless air and artillery bombardment. In desperate straights the remaining Germans are attempting to break out and link up with the relief force. 

 The main command crept out of the village into the low ground at the edge of the village. In a string of ambushes their panthers were whittled down by French M10s and Shermans.

 Cleaver use of the woods and the hill enabled the french to shuffle forces to keep the pressure on the geermans.

 No Sign of the relief force.

In the end all of the panthers were knocked out the infantry were fleeing through the fields. The Relief force engaged in its own wee war against a French group in the small farm to the east. It was a resounding allied victory and quite close to what actually happened.

Sept Vents, Operation Bluecoat 1944

 Operation Bluecoat was another British attempt to break the deadlock along the Normandy front. The Americas had launch operation Cobra to the south east and the British were pushing up to put more pressure on the German line. Our game is based on the assault on the village of Sept Vents at the start of Bluecoat.

Von Dax and myself were doing our best with the 'orrible hun, while the doughty British were commanded by Major 'Jimbo' Loutitt and Corporal 'Old Soak' Hodge. The Germans deployed hidden with a large lump of nazi fiendishness, carefully placing their mines and machine guns.

So to the tale, after a long round of tea drinking, discussing the weather and the finer points of middle and leg, our British commanders got the troops rolling. Major Loutitt, obsessed with maintaining the proper formation of an echeloned attack, could be heard over the radio waves telling anyone who would listen. Corporal Hodge did not looked too interested busy as he was checking the beer in his knapsack.

The lead scouts, on the left of the British advance spotted some fresh faced Nazis in the next field. After arranging his troops into some kind of thin brown line, a mass of fire pored forth pinning half of the Nazis. The remainder opened up and then legged it back to the next field, deserting their pinned comrades. Major Loutitt leapt over the hedge followed by the rest of the company, 'Take that sausage eater!' drifted back over the hedge rows. The 8 or so Hitler youth were massacred in the bottom of their scrapes as the major leapt about shouting obscenities, empting his Webley.

Back to his old theme, the Major halted his company in the ex-Nazi positions to get his echelon back into shape. He had however fallen into a feindish Nazi trap, the blighters had pre registered their artillery on their hastely vacated positions. Resting his boot on the blond locks of the master race, Major Loutitt looked rather shocked with the whine of the approaching shells. Von Dax could be observed rubbing his hands with glee as the whole British company was bracketed, the Majors use of obscenities reach new levels.

As the Major's company was grovelling in the dirt trying to escape the fiendish Nazi trap, Corporal Hodges lot pushed forward. The more professional approach was paying off as a bit of spotting followed by fire and movement gained ground. True to form, more fiendishness was in store and a hidden MG put a staccatoed end to proceddings. The Corporal watched in horror as the devilish Hun pinned his mates in an open field. Fortunately a British tank boy was on hand and soon put paid to the MG's fun and the advance pushed up to the hedge by the sunken road.

After a brief pause behind the hedge Corporal Hodge and his men vaulted over the hedge and straight into a minefield. It would seem however that the German mines were faulty, probably manufactured in some French factory, and the British troops raced through with no casualties. A burst of Spandau fire and the sound of breaking glass brought disaster to Corporal Hodge, his precious beer was gone. Fighting mad, he stormed the Nazis position, which turned out to contain a full platoon, in a bloody encounter the corporal bayoneted every Nazi he could get his hands on. The remainder broke and ran leaving the British holding the position. VC all round was the cry, at which point the battle drew to a close.

While the Germans were not beaten the momentum was most definitely with the British. It was a good fun game with Corporal Hodges charge at the end being the highlight.

Reconnaissance in force

Our scenario was a reconnaissance in force mission with British units probing German positions. He context for this scenario was operation Bluecoat after the first day as the British try to open up the German defences. Jim and Derek would run as the Brits and Bob the Germans. Yours truly was umpiring again.

The main axis of the British attack was taking place to the north just off the edge of the table . The objective of the British was to investigate the strength of the German position and attempt to open up the road if possible. The British had a recon platoon and a Blitz platoon hidden on table and an infantry company plus a troop of Churchills marching down the road off table, arriving on turn 3 1 platoon at a time.

The Germans objective was to hold the allied advance and deny the use of the road. For this purpose they had a reduced company of infantry 3 hmg, 1 75mm infantry gun and a 50mm a/t gun. They also had a few entrenchments scattered on table.

The British started with some spotting on the woods in front of their hidden position having spotted nothing they moved forward occupying the wood. All this movement was hidden but Bob could smell a rat, well it was Jim.

Derek commanding the blitz platoon hidden in the village decide to advance forward. In typical British dynamism they jumped into their half-tracks and drove down the open road, you would think they would have learned by now. BANG the first half-track took a hit from the hidden 50mm a/t gun. BANG, you guessed it the second half-track got much of the same. Well the British infantry bailed out and amazingly neither half-track was brewed. Jim's recon platoon was well placed to flank the gun but Bob had this covered with an hmg and some infantry a firefight developed effectivly tying down the the recon.

The Blitz platoons woes were only just beginning, German infantry had appeared in the hedge line opposite and a hidden FOO had managed to range in the onboard 75mm IG. A few turns later and most of the platoon was legging it into the nearest wood. The British reserves had started to arrive and Derek wheeled to face the Germans behind the hedge line. This presented his flank to the 50mm waiting down the road this brought about a damage and a retreat. The British probe was failing miserably and time was drawing to a close it was time to wrap the game up.

Although the British had not taken many casualties any momentum was gone. The main German position was untouched and the British would have to pause and prepare a proper attack to achieve any success.

Yet again we used Battlegroup panzer Grenadier it is a great rule set and always produces a good game. The figures were all supplied by Jim and Derek, Derek had discovered a battalion of Germans he had forgotten some people have too much lead.