North of Caen

Yesterday evening, at the White Hart, Mark, James and I again fought the first scenario from I Ain't Been Shot Mum; "North of Caen". We had all been painting figures and terrain, so this time we played in Normandy - if you remember the last report we played it in the desert .

Mark had painted a platoon of Germans, I had painted a company and James had painted two platoons of British, as we were a platoon of British down, we substituted a platoon of US Airborne from my 82nd Airborne collection. The terrain was from the collection of myself and James.

Again, Mark and I played the Germans while James played the British.

Initial German deployment:

As well as the Blinds we drew a map and placed a lot of our squads in buildings and behind hedgerows. They do not get a chance to move, but can be very useful.

The initial British Stonk did very well. One squad had one dead and two Shock; one squad had three Shock; one squad had two dead and five Shock; and an MG squad we were hiding had two dead and six Shock and was effectively out of the game as they only had a Level 1 Big Man with them.

No.3 platoon occupies the orchard:

James started with a swift advance up the center, his third platoon was soon occupying an orchard in the center but was stopped in its tracks by a rifle squad in another orchard, one in a building and a MG34 positioned out on the flank. This platoon was badly shot up, losing two sections, and made no other progress in the game.

Flanking MG34 fire:

One of Marks Grenadier squads:

 On their right, the British did much better, dazed by the concentration of the stonk on that side, the two rifle squads and MG squad were not able to effectively counter the Allies.

Thin line of Field Grey:

 The concentrated light mortar fire and mutually supporting infantry platoons advanced at good speed up that flank and were eventually able to clear the hedgerow with a bayonet charge.

Fix Bayonets:

The defending Germans were scattered to the winds and Tommy Atkins was able to occupy his first building.

Tommy clears out the Germans and now has somewhere for a good brew-up:

By the end of the game, the advance up the right was locked in a fire-fight with my remaining Grenadier squad occupying one building getting the upper hand of the exchange, but the British did have more troops on that side.

The British had lost two rifle squads and occupied one building, the Germans had lost two rifle squads and a MG34 squad but still occupied three buildings despite being thin on the ground now. Another three or four turns would likely have seen the British getting the upper hand, but it was time to wrap up.

Paul Scrivens Smith