Valle delle Marie, Italy, August 1944.
Here is the set up for the latest encounter set around the Gothic line in 1944. A British company attack this time supported by Sherman tanks and artillery against Germans dug in and determined to fight for the last inch of their territory.
The valley lies between two fictitious towns but is typical of the terrain encountered by the Allies during this campaign.
Again we will be playing this game using the three new mats from Geekvillain, a new mat manufacturer based in Leicester. A fantastic product and highly recommended is the rocky grass mat for this geographical area.
For those interested in this scenario appears in a Too Fat Lardies Special and was penned by Mike Whittaker.
The Game
The village of Sante Magdelene; the British second objective.
We played this game again using the Too Fat Lardies rule set "I ain't been shot Mum" and played it over two evenings. Barry and Ralph played German defenders whilst Bruce and Richard aided by myself play the attacking British force. As ever the tea and refreshments were kindly provided by Steve and Archie.
The scenario albeit fictitious is typical of the sorts of frequent missions carried out in this theatre of war during 1944. The terrain was arduous and frequently mountainous. The roads that did exist were passable in summer but during winter quickly turn to mud.
The table layout includes two villages, one burnt out yet still occupied (Santa Maria) and the other intact and occupied. The intact village of Santa Magdalene and its associated church were on the rising slopes of the northern end of the valley, the main road passing from south to north with a branch off via the destroyed village to the east which then took a D shape swinging back to the West and joining up at the village of Santa Magdalene.
There were frequent copses and small woods along with copious amounts of high crops adjacent to the road, on its western edge and on the eastern edge of the table there were large vineyards. The two southern corners of the table both had sloping fields and along with the northern slope where the village of Santa Magdalene lay combined to make the Valley of the Two Marys.
The Germans set up quite far forward and could occupy the village of Santa Maria, drawing a line back through the central ward and in front of Santa Magdalene. This deployment area gave them considerable amounts of cover options as well as the high ground around the church from where they could see most of the battlefield.
They elected to set up their two depleted infantry platoons, one in each village and their forward observation officer on the high ground outside the church, surveying the whole of the battlefield. He had access to an offboard battery of four mortars of 81 mm calibre with unlimited fire missions and a couple of preregistered fire points.
The Germans also had a surprise in a depleted platoon of two STuG III assault guns that they deployed in the central wood and in the corner of the vineyard adjacent to the D-shaped road. All were on hidden blinds.
The table looking from the northern edge hill, held by the Germans and looking towards the village (fall left) of Santa Maria. The magnitude of the smoke bombardment is obvious.
The British had to deploy in the South Western corner under blinds with a maximum of two arriving per turn. Very cleverly, they elected to put their forward observer and a lone Churchill close support tank on the high ground adjacent to that corner of the board.
The next two blinds arrived and were quickly automatically spotted by the hidden German troops as they passed through open terrain. The first was a column of five Sherman 75 mm tanks, the second a standard British infantry platoon; both platoons with an appropriate number of Big Men to hand.
The tanks with infantry support and the benefit of the Churchill set about creating a massive smokescreen between them and the village of Santa Maria, conducting a brisk advance as they did so. Unbeknown to them either they were under the gaze of the German forward observer who had contacted his off board battery to bring down fire on an adjacent preregistered target point. This was a key point in the game as fire was maintained in the region almost constantly, pinning the vehicles and infantry in that area.
The scenario used a game turn indicator card as well as the Tea Break card. The scenario had a maximum of 15 turns before it was considered to be nightfall; by which time the British had to take both villages to achieve their objective. The Germans had to defend both villages in timeframe for them to win.
The first seven turns of the 15 turn game seemed to race by and it appeared that the British would run out of time long before they even crossed the centreline of the battlefield let alone got close to their objectives. However IABSM is a clever set of rules with twists and turns along the way, aided somewhat by the chance sequence of cards drawn and obviously the way in which players maximise their opportunities as a result.
The next three turns seemed to take a little longer with probably six or seven packs of cards being used but it was at this time that the British troops started again and with their armoured thrust through the centre. Having driven the German troops out of the village of Santa Maria they were surprised to receive fire from the camouflaged assault gun in the corner of the vineyard. It claimed the lead Sherman and disabled it for the rest of the game.
That assault gun continued to pick fights with each other Sherman's rapidly destroying a second containing the tank platoon commander. He was a survivor of that attack and rapidly dismounted from his wreck and commandeered the tank of a subordinate within the platoon!
The three remaining Shermans then set about the STuG with a vengeance, quickly they placed shock upon it and immobilised it. Further hits resulting in the crew abandoning the vehicle. At which point the second assault gun appeared in the centre towards and entered into a firefight with the three remaining tanks. Smoke was called for from the Churchill who could view the fight developing from his hilltop position and under such pressure the STuG fired a shot and then withdrew back into the wood and out of sight.
More smoke cover as the British prepare to assault the beleaguered Germans
This was the moment the British were waiting for and having been dealt a succession of their cards the general advance followed at a pace into the centre area of the battlefield; infantry advancing along both flanks with the tanks desperately trying to fill the vacuum the centre. At this point it became quite inactive in terms of offboard artillery strikes with both sides waiting for their cards to be dealt, yet to no avail. A couple more turn cards were drawn very quickly and the game then rapidly moved into the next phase.
Who would win, the odds were quite even but with only three more turn cards available the British had to do something quickly.
Under the cover of another almost continuous smoke screen barrage from the Churchill and the infantry mortars there followed a number of infantry assaults on the German occupied buildings within the village of Santa Magdalene. These attacks were made from both the left and the right flanks; both of which saw the Germans withdraw from their cover and back towards the church upon the hill however they had made the British pay for it dearly and it is about this point in the battle that the British had lost approximately half of their force. A costly day indeed..
The two Shermans remaining on the table supported by their friendly Churchill continued to pound the village of Santa Magdalene until all resistance there ceased. It looked as if they were on the edge of victory with the Germans occupying just the church with a depleted machine gun team and a couple of badly mauled sections heading back to the hillside. Could the British make the final advance in time?
The answer was unfortunately no as just in time for the Germans the final turn card was drawn. The Germans had managed to achieve their objective just by the skin of their teeth but at a great loss.
This is a very interesting game and required considerable skill on the part of the British to use combined arms tactics and the cover of smoke well in order to proceed at a reasonable pace in a hostile environment against a determined enemy dug in and supported by significant amounts of firepower. However all agreed that again the rules had through and produced a very realistic representation of this sort of combat frequently endured in this theatre of operations.
Tim Whitworth
