Final attempt at St Nicholas, June 27th, 04:00

Having again taken the German Hauptkampflinie at Fontenay, the British strike (again) at St Nicholas farm. Will they be successful this time? 

The view from the British lines...

... and from the German lines.

This is the 11th and last battle in our Operation Martlet campaign. The British have received replacements and are more or less att full strength. The Germans are just a few men short.

If the British are successful it will result in a Minor Victory for the Germans in this campaign, otherwise it will be a Major Victory. This will have effect on the upcoming Scottish Corridor campaign, so how this battle goes has an effect on the German advantage in that campaign.

British platoon

• Lt Featherstone
• Plt Sgt Yates
• Lt Mortar, 2 men
• Piat, 2 men
• Section 1, Cpl Barker, 3 man Bren team, 6 man rifle team
• Section 2, Cpl Grant, 3 man Bren team, 6 man rifle team
• Section 3, Cpl Bath, 3 man Bren team, 5 man rifle team

Opinion

• CO's opinion: 0.
• Own opinion: Content.
• Men's Opinion: -6.

This gives a total of -2 to the Force Morale roll and reduced command range of 6" for the Lieutenant.

Support (21)

• AVRE (7)
• AVRE (7)
• AVRE (7)

Yes, three AVREs again. It worked well last time, so why not again? Since there are three of the same/similar vehicle, it constitutes a platoon and one of the vehicles is commanded by a Senior Leader. 

German platoon

• Obersturmführer Dr Otto Hahn, Senior Leader, SMG
• Scharfürer Frey, two 3-man MG teams, 2 panzerfausts
• Unterscharfürer Schneider, two 3-man MG team, one panzerfaust
• Scharfürer Wegner, two 3-man MG teams
• Scharführer Lange, Panzer IV

Opinion (10

• CO's opinion: +5. +1 Force Support.
• Own opinion: Cheerful.
• Men's Opinion: +6. +2 Force Morale roll.

This gives +2 Support Points and +2 to Force Morale.

Support (11)

• Mortar observer (4)
• Panzergrenadier team (3) - 5 extra men to put squads at full strength
• AVF entrenchment (2)
• Extra Senior Leader (2)

Patrol phase and Jump Off Points

British and German Jump Off Points

The Battle

The British roll 8 for Force Morale, the Germans roll 11.

Early game

The Germans have the first phase and deploy Schneider's squad and Obersturmführer Dr Otto Hahn at their most forward Jump Off Point ad throw a smoke grenade for extra cover.

The British Churchills start arriving, eager to repeat the success they had last battle.

Here we go again...    

The Germans counter by putting a second squad (Wegner's) and a mortar observer on the road. The observer contacts the mortar HQ.

Schneider and Hahn (and the first squad) rush towards the forward British Jump Off Point, again throwing smoke. Hmm, aren't the Germans supposed to be defending in this scenario?

A second AVRE arrives, this time the AVRE platoon commander. He orders the first AVRE to rush forward and engage the enemy infantry. The AVREs are more or less immune to mortars, but get very restricted movement, so it's best to move up before the bombardment begins. 

Go get 'em!

The observer calls in the bombardment at once, not bothering with a ranging shot. It scatters wildly. Close, but not too close, to Hahn and the men.

The British realise that they had better engage the forward German infantry before they close down two of the three Jump Off Points! Some infantry would be nice...

Oh my, these British command dice are not conductive to deploying infantry...

Hahn senses the British confusion and sends scout team to grab the other forward British objective!

The AVREs make the scout team pay dearly for following orders...

Meanwhile, the third AVRE arrives. Three AVREs should be enough to handle a small infantry squad, right?

The Germans roll a Double phase and get a CoC Dice. Time to seize the initiative. Schnell!!

Hahn and the men rush forward towards the last remaining British Jump Off Point!

The AVREs look on helplessly as the German panzergrenadiers overrun the forward positions.

Same view from the German side.

On the second German phase they overrun the last British Jump Off Point...

Viewed from above.

German victory

The Germans end the turn, not only damaging the British morale but also eliminating all three Jump Off Points. We play that if one side loses all JOPs they automatically withdraw, since they can no longer deploy to the battlefield.

The Germans have managed to outmanoeuvre the British spectacularly. Not the British proudest moment. It could easily have been avoided by parking an AVRE on the last JOP or deploying an infantry section instead of the last AVRE...

Post Battle

The British have only gotten to table four in the 11 campaign turns, which results in a Major German Victory!

Congratulations to my opponent, well played!

Our next campaign will be Scottish Corridor. The Major German victory means the German attack starts at 07:00 hours and Kampfgruppe Weidinger having three instead of two platoons for the campaign.