Probe Among the Hedgerows (Von Luck PSC game #2)

 

Last week three out of our gang of four reassembled for scenario 2 of the Von Luck PSC for Chain of Command. Von Luck's Kampfgruppe had easily brushed aside the airborne outposts further to the south in the previous game, but now they were on the edge of the village of Bas Ranville and the Paras were expecting trouble.

Jasper surpassed himself again in preparation for this game with a sunken road and surrounding terrain. 

 

 

Force morale turned out 9 for the Paras and 11 for the Germans.

The paras had suffered some casualties previously, and new reinforcements were slow in arriving. The night drop must have been pretty scattered! With 4 points of support, Jasper opted for an adjudant, a Bren gun team and gammon bombs. He also reorganised his squads which ended up like this:

The PanzerGrenadiere started with a fresh platoon and 13 points of support. This was spent on 81mm mortars plus FOO, and extra senior leader, a Unic P107 (f) and an extra PzGr squad.

The Patrol phase has the Paras spread out evenly at about 1/3rd of the table forward. 

 

Germans at about 1/6th and leaning towards their left flank 

 

So, there it began...

Turn 1: A German FOO deploys. 

 

And what do you know? A shot rings out from further down the road, barely missing him. 

 

Next turn, Panzergrenadiere appear. 

 

Another shot rings out, and this time it hits and kills the FOO (German force morale drops from 11 to 9). 

 

The Panzergrenadiere start to leap frog forward, slightly unnerved.

As the Panzergrenadiere creep forward, another squad arrives on table in a Unic P107 (f) APC. 

As the Panzergrenadiere team in front nears a ploughed field, fire erupts from the hedges. Two bren teams wreak havoc, followed by small arms fire from a different direction. 

 

The Pzgrenadiere team turns tail.

The fleeing PzGr team doesn't impress the rest of the platoon. A senior leader steps up to bring some order and then the remaining team starts machine gunning the hedges and manages to kill the junior leader of the double bren squad (force morale drops from 9 to 8). 

 

The brens retaliate, savaging the PzGr team holding its ground.

With only one man left, the senior leader decides 'to go get help' at a safe distance of the remnants. The Unic APC makes a bold move forward, past the senior leader, to distract the enemy.

The Para's reply is vicious. One salvo tears in the fleeing PzGr team, forcing them (incl jnr Ldr) off the table (-1 FM). Then the sniper wounds the German senior leader (-1FM).

But the coup de grace is: ambush of the Unic! 

 

A gammon bomb drops in the passenger compartment. APC KO, 2 killed (-2 FM).

The survivor tumble into the sunken road. 

 

The Germans deploy another squad in the orchard,

 

and push the survivors of the APC forward down the sunken road. They also manage to take out the sniper (Para FM drops to 7). 

But the Para's kill off the last man from the team on the right flank and German morale drops to 3.

The PzGr squad in the road get attacked from the rear but persevere on their course.

More losses from the rear finally pin them.

 

The Para senior leader jumps over the wall, in case something desperate must be done

 

With the situation that desperate the PzGr squad push forward from the orchard. 

 

But time runs out as more fire is poured into the pinned but exposed squad on the road: they break (-2 FM to 1) 

 

and as the Para's force the turn end the routing junior leader of the team makes German morale drop to 0. Victory to the Paras! Although it was a closer run thing than the force morale and loss statistics suggest.

The Paras lost 2 men and an NCO, which are ignored for next game because of the big difference in force moral at the end of the game. Best news is that the NCO of section 2 is recommended for a Mention In Despatches for his courageous throw of a gammon bomb into the APC.

German losses were heavy, but mostly on support units (the squad in the Unix P107 was the extra 4^th squad). There were 2 permanent losses on the core platoon, and for the rest of the campaign there are only 2 Unic P107s available.

The battallion commander of the Paras has a much improved opinion of the platoon commander (+2) and so do the men (who appreciate the low losses as much as the repulse of the Germans (+5). The platoon leader himself feels affable.

Von Luck is not as happy with the PanzerGrenadier company commander, who is back at 0. The men also dislike the heavy losses so their opinion drops to -3. The platoon leader himself is now merely content.

Victory on this table means that the Paras can counter attack (onto table 1) for next game. We'll see how happy they are about that.

Encounter at the Ring Contour, KG Von Luck campaign #1

 

After our adventures on the Eastern Front, René. Arvid and Jasper felt ready for another Chain of Command campaign. A quick selection process showed that troops were available for the Von Luck pint sized campaign. This pits a Kampfgruppe of PanzerGrenadiere from the 21st Panzer Division under Major Von Luck against the newly arrived 12 Parachute Battallion of 6th Airborne Division on D-Day.

 

As the Paras have been dropped in the middle of the night, they have become widely dispersed and part will only turn up during the campaign, which effectively covers only the late morning to evening of June 6th 1944. This is the result of some dice rolling, with half the platoon ready for action at start and no supports.

Von Luck attacks in the morning (after some delay which is too complicated a story to bore you with, but takes a dozen pages in his memoirs) from the Colombelles industrial area northwest of Caen, on the eastern bank of the Orne river and canal.

His goal are the bridges over the Orne and canal captured that night in Operation Deadstick.

The original Pegasus bridge, now replaced by a broader one

If Von Luck can drive the Paras back to Pegasus bridge before glider reinforcements arrive in the evening, he will have cut 6th Airborne Division in two and will threaten the landing zones of the reinforcements. He has 8 campaign turns to do it. The German player must rotate his 3 platoons each campaign turn. This is first platoon, with the support options.

In the afternoon of last Saturday, we start out with the first scenario of the campaign: two patrols meet at the so called Ring Contour, on map #1. 

 

Force morale is 9 for the Paras, 8 for the PzGren. 

 

And here are the jump off points: Paras hold the hedge 

 

A squad of PzGren appears on the right flank.

And a bit later a couple of scouts on the left 

A Red Beret sticks out of the wheat. That's a 2" mortar team. 

 

But otherwise, all you hear are crickets. The Germans seem to be waiting for orders from higher up and time passes...

... but eventually the Germans start moving forward, cautiously through the wheatfields. 

 

And more appear! An FOO 

 

and another squad

This goads the Paras into action! A shot cracks just past the German FOO. Sniper! 

The PanzerGrenadiere look round but can't see where the shot came from...

It provides just enough distraction for a Bren team that has sneaked up on the FOO to open up. The FOO goes down, never knowing what hit him. 

 

A PzGren squad opens up in the right direction but misses the Bren team, which then disappears again...

German morale takes a hit, but the advance continues, while the sniper keeps sniping, killing a Grenadier. Yet more Germans appear

And then, one by one the para sections open up. 

 

The first two are not complete yet (their mates are still making their way from dispersed drops), but the third is full. 

 

They inflict considerable damage on the two Grenadier squad in front of them

The sniper keeps up his challenge but misses. And gets spotted. The German squad replies but misses

A firefight develops on German left flank. Their MGs pour out an amazing amount of fire while the paras seem paralysed. [In game terms, Arvid rolled a series of double 6s for command dice, meaning he got 3 turns in a row, after which René managed to roll five 5s, meaning not being able to activate units. Unlucky!]

[Arvid claims it was tactical insight, helicopter view, knowing your enemy, knowing your capabilities.... anyway!]

Before they know it 5 men have fallen in the 1st section and the rest "move rapidly to the rear". The remaining troops start feeling slightly unieasy about the prospects of holding the position.

 

At which point the British platoon leader thinks it is better to withdraw. Even though the damage isn't huge and force morale is still at 7, it is clear that the Germans have the upper hand in the firefight with 4 MG42s against 2 Brens. 

The voluntary withdrawal counts as a loss for the Paras and this disappoints the battallion commander. The men seem to retain their confidence in the platoon commander though, and he himself remains "happy". Two paras are permanently lost to the platoon and three will miss next game because of wounds or because they "withdrew a tad too enthusiastically".

The German 1st platoon has lost 2 men lost permanently. Von Luck, who hadn't seen the company commander in action before, is favourably impressed, and the company commander's mood improves from "content" to "happy". The men in the company however think that this level of competence is to be expected.

Next game will be on the edge of Bas de Ranville.