Right, nearly forgot why I can here!
Last night we ran the second game in our Epsom series. The Royal
Scots Fusiliers launched their second attack on St Mauvieu, this time
with the additional support of a troop of three AVRE Churchills.
An interesting game, in which the British sat the bulk of their
armour back to provide direct fire support as they attempted to gain
a foot-hold in the village. Their plan was to advance on three
lines. On the right two Platoons were to push up into the town
through the farm and small orchard they had recently cleared. In the
centre, through the main orchards, a further two Platoons were to
push up against the centre farm. On the left one Platoon was to
operate from the cover of the dried river bed against central St
Mauvieu. N.B. For those who have seen the map on the secnario of the
month, this is a different map in as much as it now takes in the
centre of the village to the east of the original map.
The plan was that the armour would give direct fire support to the
first two groups, and they had anticipated utilising a battery of
25pounders to stonk the defenders in the farm.
The Germans had problems of their own, in that they now had much more
frontage to cover with only one fresh Platoon to add to their
original two depleted ones. What was more they no longer had any
tank support, and their telephone lines had all been damaged or cut,
meaning that any fire from their mortars had to be done from map co-
ordinates ratehr than with a spotter. The did have a couple of close
support half-tracks, one with a 75mm hoitzer and one with
flamethrowers to aid them in their task.
The fall of the cards was critical in this game. The British player
mistakenly did not call in his artillery early enough, and then,
despite the extra "spotter" card in the pack, never got his shell
fall corrected. His battery continued to fire ranging shots without
any real effect on the battle. Brave as always the Scots decided not
to wait for such a trifling thing as artillery support, and pressed
on through the orchards in the centre. I rather think they wish they
hadn't, as there to welcome them was not only a large barn full of SS
men, but also an SdKfz251/16 - flamethrowers and all.
One assault blunted. On their right the two Platoons there were
hnidered by long range German MG fire, and found pushing their way
throug the boccage an unpleasant and slow experience. Too many
troops quickly became stuck in the cramped farmyard, and whilst
German fire from the buildings edge of the town was hampered by poor
visibility through the orchards, they could not fail to cause
casualties against such a dense target.
Here again the cards played their part. The tanks set back to
provide supporting fire were still on a blind, and for couple of
turns this stayed firmly in the deck, making the carnage in the
farmyard worse. The brave Jocks attempted to push home their attack,
making full use of the pipes, but their bravery only served to
provide the defenders with a better target.
At last the British tanks got their chance, and with alarming
accuracy all two troops plastered the house from where the bulk of
the fire had come, runing the wallpaper and wiping out the defenders
at one fell swoop. Too late, however, as the German Headquarters
Platoon had rushed one of its rifle sections forward to prop up a
sagging flank, and they did this with some style, aided not
inconsiderably by an SS Lieutenant controlling an MMG team in the
loft of another building - five dice, four for the MMG and one for
the Big Man - can certainly hurt!
Interestingly the British single Platoon on the left had more luck.
They advanced very cautiosly indeed, and were successful in spotting
a German section and MMG team dug into the base of the boccage. Fire
was traded here for some while, until the Company Sergeant Major had
clearly had enough. Taking control of a section firing he added his
dice and KAPOW, a lucky 17 and one German MMG out of action. However
this is not entirely surpising, CSM Calwell had always opened the
bowling for the Regimental First Eleven, and that was a yorker that
the Germans had no reply to!
So, extending the analogy, with their opening batsman on his way to
the pavillion the German Platoon on the main High Street decided that
the time had come to withdraw into the two itself to form a line of
defense and draw the Brits into close quarter action. Whilst I said
the British artillery had played no part, it had done enough for the
Germans in the centre farm to realise that they were about to becoem
a target, so, having hit hard they too were about to run back to
conform to their comrades.
An interesting battle, where again the British had suffered a bloody
nose, but they had also done enough to force the Germans to give some
ground. This is very close to what happened in Epsom in reality, and
all the more pleasing for that. The AVREs didn't get used, which
will please the wife as I spent the weekend painting them :-(
They will certainly be needed for the next battle as the British are
forced to go into the town to winkle the nasty nazis out.
Where are the photos? Well, to be frank we got so stuck into the
game we forgot to take any....whoops!
As mentioned, if anyone wants a copy of the orbats and map for this
bash let me know and I'll email them over.
Rich
