Attack the Hauptkampflinie, June 26th, 08:00

The British make their assault on the main German defence lines, the "Hauptkampflinie" as they call it.

The previous campaign turn was not a proper battle, the Germans fell back since they viewed the position as less ideal and thought they had a much better chance of success defending the main line i.e. Hauptkampflinie.

This is the seventh battle of our Operation Martlet campaign. The mission is Attack on an Objective. The British win if they can force the Germans to withdraw. 

If pushed back the German platoon will be retired for a fresh one, so they are prepared to Do or Die to stop the British. The British objective is to help them achieve the second but not the first of those...

The chateau seen from the British lines.

Forces

The bagpiper watches the enemy lines from a reasonably safe spot behind a line of trees.

British platoon

The British platoon looks as follows at the start of the battle

  • Lt Stuart
  • Plt sgt Scott
  • Light Mortar
  • Piat
  • 1st Section, Cpl Wilson, Full strength
  • 2nd Section, Cpl Brown, +1 man in the rifle team
  • (3rd Section, Cpl Smith, misses out on the battle, not enough men for 3 sections.)

Opinion

  • CO's opinion: -3. -1 to Force support.
  • Own opinion: Droll. No effect
  • Men's opinion: -5. -1 to Force Morale

British support (19)

  • AVRE (7)
  • AVRE (7)
  • Extra squad (4)
  • Adjutant (1)

German platoon

"Enemy ahead" no doubt...

The German platoon looks as follows at the start of the battle:
  • Oberscharfürer Weiss
  • Unterscharfürer Frey, two 3 man MG42 teams, 2 panzerfausts
  • Scharfürer Raus, two 3 man MG42 teams, 1 panzerfaust
  • Scharfürer Wegner, two 2 man MG42 teams (reduced size), 1 panzerfaust

Opinion

  • CO's opinion: +4. +1 to Force Support.
  • Own opinion: Merry. No effect.
  • Men's opinion: +5. +1 to Force Morale.

German support (8)

  • Mortar observer (4)
  • Extra Senior Leader (2)
  • Entrenchment (1)
  • Panzerfaust (1)
  • Free entrenchment for falling back in good order last battle (0)

Patrol Phase and Jump Off Points

Aerial view of the battle. 

The German patrol markers (4) start at the crossroads. The British (3 patrol markers) choose to enter at the road, moving up as fast as possible. 

The British patrols objective is to get Jump Off Points as far forward as possible to the right of the low wall, to attack up towards the forest and then swing up behind the German lines and take their Jump Off Points from the rear. An advance over the field straight towards the Chateau is deemed reckless. The AVREs can support up to the Chateau, but once inside the infantry would be on its own and unsupported.

German patrols brown, British Green.

The Germans set up their JOPs to be well placed to support each other. If one is taken, they can easily deploy from a neighbouring JOP to retake it and seriously punish the enemy troops occupying it,

The British JOP setup is similar, but focuses on reducing the time the troops have to advance in the open.

British JOPs (3) ang German (4)

The Battle

Early game

The AVREs arrive.

The British plan is to have the two AVREs move up towards the forward British JOP so that the infantry and tanks can move forward with mutual support. 

Full speed ahead!
(the advantage of a double phase - full speed, then overwatch)

Either one of the AVREs is a bit impetuous or the supporting infantry a bit too cautious. Anyway the AVREs arrive at the JOP before the supporting infantry. 

What's better than one AVRE on overwatch? Two AVREs on overwatch!

Now worries though, Jerry can't be so reckless as to go up against two AVREs on overwatch. Right...?

Ambush! The first team of Wegner's squad pop up behind the wall and take aim,  conveniently out of sight of the second AVRE... 

Statistically, an AVRE should be able to withstand a panzerfaust strike without too serious damage. Statistically...

7-11. Seven out of eleven panzerfaust strike dice end up 5+. Even the very good roll of four out of eight AVRE armour rolls can't solve that. 

Fortunately the AVRE is just KO:ed and the crew bails out and survives. Wegner's team pulls out rapidly and rejoin their squadmates.

The British deploy the first section under Cpl Wilson and the Light Mortar. The section goes tactical while the light mortar lays smoke to stop any flanking fire from the Chateau. If they had deployed the previous phase they would have screened the AVRE from ambush. Timing is everything.

The Germans decide to try and punish Cpl Wilson's exposed section and Scharführer Raus and his squad deploy in the woods in trenches, out of sight of the AVRE.

Jerry's in the treeline!

Corporal Wilson is not so easily fooled though. The British use a CoC dice and run into cover from the trees. Unfortunately this means that the full effect of the fire goes on the light mortar. One man is killed and the team breaks and runs. 

Oberscharführer Weiss joins Raus' squad and orders them to fire three rifle grenades at the light mortar to finish the job. They do, knocking out the last man, but British morale is unaffected.

The Germans can smell victory in the air and decide to knock out the second AVRE, deploying a second ambush, from Frey's squad this time. The dice are not so kind this time, however...

A fast-moving (!?) AVRE just outside of close range needs a 7+ to hit....

Suddenly, Sgt Scott shows up with the extra infantry section, deploying in the flank within 4" i.e. assault range. The Germans where obviously so focused on the AVRE that they didn't notice the sneaky British sergeant and his men.

"Surprise Jerry!" says sergeant Scott.

The single German squad panics and breaks for the rear (the British had more than 4x the number of dice) and don't stop running until they reach the crossroads. 

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. Not sure the Oberscharfürer agrees, though...

Scharführer Wegner's squad does not rest on their laurels after the successful ambush vs the AVRE. They deploy in the attic and fire out of the dormier windows through a gap in the smoke screen. They hit Cpl Wilson's section and actually manage to kill him and inflict some shock. The section with Sgt Scott also takes some shock but nothing serious.

The Germans smell blood and Oberscharfürer Weiss shouts "Handgranaten!" and the assault is on. The British, despite being leaderless, defend themselves heroically. They are wiped out, but all German rank and file in Raus' squad become casualties as well, Weiss is injured and Raus is knocked out! Bloody 'ell...

Oh my, that didn't go quite as expected...

This leaves British Force Morale at 5 and German at 4. 

Sergeant Scott spots his chance and orders a charge. Still, a leader with a SMG defending cover is not harmless in any way...

Sergeant Scott's revenge...

16 assault dice for the British vs 8 for the Germans. Should be ok, right? More than ok, it turns out.

The big grey dice are the Germans. Zero hits. The small white are the British. Six hits. 
Assaults are two things: Deadly and Random. As they should be.

Both Oberscharführer Weiss and Scharfürer Raus are killed outright. No mercy given or taken today.

German withdrawal

The German Force Morale crashes to zero, forcing a withdrawal.

Post Battle

British

Losses

Cpl Wilson killed and 8 men casualties (4 permanent, 2 miss next battle, 2 return to duty). The losses has a terrific effect on morale, making further progress more or less impossible, especially since the platoon is reduced to half strength.

The Scotts are removed from the front line and replaced by the Duke of Wellington's. We play that the opinion of men and the CO is halved and Own opinion rerolled since it is a fresh unit. This is not in the rules but we find the morale effect to harsh in this case for our liking, That's one advantage of Chain of Command campaigns - since it is not strictly competitive you can adjust.

Opinion

  • CO's opinion: Up from -4 to -3. 
  • Own opinion: Changed from Droll to Worried
  • Men's Opinion: Down from -5 to -10.
The new platoon from the Duke of Wellingtons start the next battle with ratings halved and own opinion rerolled.
  • CO's opinion: -1 which changes to 0 since the new Lt's father served with the CO. 😀
  • Own opinion: Content
  • Men's opinion: -5

Germans

Since the Germans have fallen back from the Hauptkampflinie the platoon is retired. Good news perhaps, considering the leadership casualties. 

On a positive note, Scharfürer Wegner receives the Iron Cross 2nd class for his heroic lone AVRE-hunting exercise in the first Pushing On battle. Considering his actions in this battle the Iron Cross was not misplaced.

Losses

Oberscharfürer Weiss and Scharfürer Raus killed and six other men as casualties (3 never return, 2 miss next battle och one retunr to duty). All this does not matter that much, since the second platoon takes over as the Germans have fallen back from the Hauptkampflinie.

Opinion

  • CO's opinion: Changed to +3.
  • Own opinion: Changed to Droll
  • Men's opinion: Changed to +5.


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