Hauptkampflinie Gebrochen

Yesterday myself and Mike had the next game in our Martlet campaign, this was our 7th game and my second attempt the to overcome the German line of resistance north of St Nicholas farm. By now the Scots Fusiliers had done what they could and the remnants of their platoon were withdrawn. A platoon from the Duke of Wellington's Own, who were advancing from the right, were sent in to take out the panzergrenadiers of the Hitler Jugend.

Again as in our last game, this was an attack and defend scenario as below, this time both sides had increased their supports by one point.

I should note that the German Platoon Leader was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class at the beginning of this turn for his actions in the previous turn.

He is looking a little frazzled though!

British (Morale 9)

2 SL's

Piat Team

2" Mortar Team

Rifle Section 1: 10 men

Rifle Section 2: 10 men

Rifle Section 3: 10 men

Supports (21)

Piat Team

2" Mortar Team

Sherman

Churchill AVRE

Germans (Morale 11)

1 SL

3 Panzerfaust 30

PG Squad 1: 7 men/2 LMG

PG Squad 2: 6 men/2 LMG

PG Squad 3: 6 men/2 LMG

Panzer IVH

Supports (9)

Senior Leader

Rifle team

8 cm Mortar with FO

Some Terrain Photos:

Two Italeri Houses

Houses from 4-Ground

Patrol Phase and JOP's:

Patrol Markers

3 British JOP's

3 German JOP's

The Battle(or lack there of):

German Panzergrenadiers

The ever present German Barrage

Finally they missed

British 2" Mortars

Pesky German FO

This was a do or die game for me. I have to admit that I thought Mike was going to bring out 2 Panzers rather than another FO. I prepared myself with 2 Piats, a Sherman and the AVRE. Antitank guns are not an option in this scenario when you are the attacker.

To test the waters, I brought out my support section first and brought them up my right flank attempting not to get caught in a mortar barrage if there was one. Well there was one and I was able to keep out of it twice. Mike sequentially brought on all his squads and at the end of the game he had only not deployed his Panzer IV and his Platoon Leader. I brought on two 2" mortars and they started to deploy smoke. I also brought on a SL as well as a Piat team. I was able to advance up my right flank to the crossroads and on a double6 CD roll, I attempted to cross the road. Unfortunately, I missed that Mike had both LMG teams of one of his squads on overwatch and of course they got chopped up losing 6 men before they could pull back into the woods. I also brought on my AVRE on my right flank and advanced it in order to bombard the stone houses where 2 of the German squads were deployed. In response, Mike started to redeploy his troops.

Having learned my lesson in the last game, my advance was quite cautious as I wanted to build up my CoC Dice before I tucked into the assault. After 3 turns, I had almost 3 CoC in reserve and my AVRE was ready to start the bombardment. Mike decided to withdraw his troops, he had no loses and knowing his troops morale was quite high he decided to maintain this. I still had a Sl, a Piat, 3 infantry sections as well as a Sherman not deployed.

The Campaign Tracker:

As you can see at turn 8 with only 4 games to go I have to win the next 3 games to get to table 6 and win a marginal victory, the opportunity for an outright victory has been missed. This is going to be quite tough even though I have a full platoon. The German's now have +4 on all Morale rolls, +2 on Supports and a SL with 4 CI as well a 12" command range. The Brits have a -1 on Morale rolls, +1 on supports and a Platoon leader rapidly falling in his Men's Opinion. Mike's tactical withdrawal was clearly a very clever strategy to win the campaign.