Today Bevan and I had a first try at a game based on the famous British attack near Arras on 21st May 1940. Yes the 7th RTR against the 7th Pzr Division, and the German's introduction to the Matilda II.

Unfortunately Trader Dave’s pictures disappeared into the technological ether, but here’s a picture from one of Michael Curtis’ Arras games: B Coy 7RTR Matilda II's and 8DLI cautiously advance towards Wailley

The British Attack had already broken through the main road west from Arras – the N25 - and this was an attempt to close the other viable road west Rommel would have to use to supply his over stretched tanks.  This road (the D3) runs through the village of Wailley just west of Arras, so the British mission was to take the village and block the road. The German brief was to keep the road open at all costs.

The British attack was designed to simulate reality, with poor liaison between tanks and infantry and poor communications all round. Hence the four troops of British tanks, consisting of a recce troop of Vickers Vib's of the 11th Hussars with 3 troops of 7 RTR attacked on time with no sign of the supporting infantry. Initially the Hussars were slow to move, and it fell to the Matilda's to do the main spotting work – not an ideal start!

The 3 Matilda II's and 6 Matilda I's moved slowly of course, but their armour was a shock to the Germans and the 2 pdr on the Matlda II hammered the opposition, not helped when the two assigned 2 pdr ATG's of  65 ATR turned up and fired from the northern ridge.  Panzer I's, II's and III's  were wrecked or burning everywhere, but the tanks of 25th Pzr Regiment died hard and used all the terrain to best advantage, thanks to some effective deployment by Oberst Rothenburg.

The German infantry – a platoon of the 6th Rifles - holed up in the solid village houses, and with no HE shells available, spraying the  buildings with MG fire from the Matilda I's was taking a long time to have an effect. What the British needed was supporting infantry, but the lads of the 8th DLI had taken a wrong turn and only their Coy HQ turned up and their light mortars and ATR's were never going to help much.

As time passed, the inevitable German response came.  A platoon of Pzr IV's was not seen as a great threat, but a Stuka attack took out one of the Matilda II's  whilst a couple of the  Matilda I's were now abandoned as the German fire slowly knocked pieces off them.  Finally, in the distance on the southern ridge, a battery of Flak 88mm guns appeared and some heavy artillery fire started to come in.  The British commander (Lt Col Heyland) decided hanging around with a reduced force against an enemy growing in strength was not a good idea and pulled back over the northern ridge.

Trader Dave