Target for Tonight - Battle of Berlin Campaign

Next month at the DWG I will be picking up where we left off in our Target for Tonight (TfT), Battle of Berlin Campaign, last reported here on the blog back in February 2020 with our sixth of eight planned linked games recreating the early attacks made by Bomber Command in late 1943, heralding what historians would refer to later as the Battle of Berlin. 

Right, the original rules I purchased back in 2000, next to the new rendition, not as glossy but unchanged in content, published a few years ago by John Curry. Our early games from 2017 run at the DWG can be followed here.
https://devonwargames.blogspot.com/search/label/Target%20for%20Tonight

I had been playing TfT for a number of years prior to the launch of the new look rules from John Curry and had been dabbling with the idea of putting together a group level campaign game back then, whilst expanding my collection of model aircraft to enable the larger game over that of the individual squadron, outlined in the original game.

A section of my 'Aircrew Selection' spreadsheet from which I can randomly draw a prepared crew roster for each aircraft selected for any given op, just with a couple of die rolls and helps speed up the Pre-Planning part of the game that I do prior to club, sending out an Ops Briefing for players to look at prior to our game and including all the record sheets they will need for individual aircraft.

The idea behind the campaign is to provide a framework around a very neat set of rules that models the crew experience of flying a night bombing operation over occupied Europe, that includes ops planning at the group level of Bomber Command, rather than just individual squadrons, together with the inclusion of target planning, target marker selection by weather conditions and placement over the target, bomb lift and fuel load out arrangements, for a series of linked games that measures bombing effectiveness against planes lost and aircrew casualties, and to test the rules before putting them out there for others to have a go with.

Our games are run at the Group level with the number of aircraft each group is able to put up (maximum six) for each op, rolled for in the pre-planning stage of the game by me, here showing the aircraft available at the top for each group in our next op, Op Seven to Hannover, showing five veteran Halifax crews from 4 Group alongside a similarly veteran turn out of Lancasters from 5 Group, which includes an Elite crew on their second tour. 

As well as the Battle of Berlin, the campaign game system should allow us to look at the earlier Battle of the Rhur Valley Campaign, with the focus very much on Bomber Harris' period in command from the early one-thousand bomber raid on Cologne and the inclusion of the twin-engine Wellington bomber, still very much a key part of Bomber Command's Mainforce, until replaced by more four-engine types, and retired from the long range raids into Germany that included Berlin.

The bomber stream musters over eastern England before heading out over the North Sea on the last op to Mannheim.

The first six games, covered in the links below, have seen Bomber Command's victory point lead gradually clawed back by the Nachtjagd through a combination of casualties inflicted and some indifferent bombing caused by the bad weather that helps to mask the bombers at night but can make accurate target marking difficult. 

The situation, as we prepare to play Op-7 to Hannover recreating the attack by 678 Bomber Command aircraft on the night of 27th-28th September 1943, sees the current state of play standing at a drawn campaign with the headline report,

'Mounting losses cancel out the effect of the bombing'

Op 1 - Berlin, 23rd-24th August 1943
Op 2 - Nuremberg, 27th-28th August 1943
Op 3 - Berlin, 31st August-1st September 1943
Op 4 - Mannheim, 5th-6th September 1943
Op 5 - Hannover, 22nd-23rd September 1943

Op 6 - Mannheim-Ludwigshaven, 23rd-24th September 1943

The narrative captured in the game reports comes from that generated in the games we play, with the players carefully noting the details of losses sustained in their respective groups, combined with heroic fights, bringing badly damaged aircraft back having sustained damage early into the flight, still continued on to the target and then limped home, dealing with navigation errors, flak and the hazards of landing after a long tiring flight in freezing temperatures.

Nachtjaged intercept and, if the bomber spots the fighter in time, a Corkscrew combat ensues as the bomber attempts to escape into the dark by evasion off the opposite end of the board and/or by shooting down the fighter - a very tense stage of the game.

In addition to managing their respective aircraft through each leg of the flight too and from the target, combatting intercepts, when possible, by enemy nightfighters, the players also assume the role of Group Commanders and higher command, deciding on the bomb lift and fuel load out combination for the groups and the mix of bomb load.

Pre-game planning as the players make decisions on the bomb and fuel load outs for their respective groups, the placement of TI's Target Indicators, before lining their models up ready for take off.

Before the squadrons set off into the night the players have to decide on the numbers of 4,000lb 'Cookie' High explosive bombs to take, designed to take the roofs off large areas of residential, military, transport and industrial zones alike, accompanied with more small high explosive bombs and incendiaries better suited to starting mass fires to further extend the damage caused to homes, factories, rail yards and dock yards, with the Halifax, Stirling and Lancaster better able to carry different loads and thus compliment one another.

The 'bomb lift' is simulated by a number of bomb type tokens being put into a cup, based on the decision to take a particular load and mix. These tokens are then drawn blind by the players as their bomber model completes its bomb run over the target, and placed on the target board and recorded on the target map along with those of other aircraft, with any drift of the TI's calculated at the end of the game to see where particular bomb types had actually fallen and the outcome, with multiple and specific bomb types liable to generate fires adding to the destructive effects and which will generate a victory point calculation at game end.

Of course planes shot down or who turn back prior to the target reduce that bomb lift, with tokens taken out of the cup in the required numbers according to the bomber type lost from the op.

A city map from the Mannheim op, used to plan and record bombs dropped on the target by type and specific location in relation to target markers that can, and often do, drift, causing bombs, as seen here, to fall in open fields, mixed in with inevitable 'creep-back'. Here example locations include Residential, Rail, Factory and Town Centre Commercial, together with a potentially important Oil production facility, indicated by the 'oil drop' factory location to the north of the city limits, and the Newhaven Target Indicators position, used when the target is clear skies or covered with broken cloud.

Once the plan is decided on and the aircraft are off, all that planning can be for nought as the nightfighters, the weather and simple good or bad luck takes a hand in deciding the outcome of each game and with the return of surviving bombers, the gathering around for crew debriefs at the game end to assess the results of the bombing, offset by the losses in crews and aircraft and the overall effect on the outcome of the campaign.

I have put together a Cyberboard module that helps me pre-plan each op and record the detail as we go along, for reporting in my post game AAR's as well as giving the players a quick reference point on the screen as they make their bombing runs over the target.

I should add that, rather like the crews themselves, the players have no idea of the efficacy of their attacks until the accuracy of their bombing with that of the target marking, aligned with the map of the target, reveals the result, all adding to the final piece of drama to all the decision making that preceded, and adds a little more effect to the overall game that Target for Tonight creates and I think explains why this air-game is so different from the normal whirling-turning-shooting air games that seem to be the norm and why it is a game I have kept coming back to since its publication. 

A broad and suitably painted collection of models helps bring the game alive 

So next month we will pick up where we left off and resume our campaign, never forgetting while we play the sobering thought that the game simulates Bomber Command's huge contribution to ridding the world of Hitler and his evil regime, and paying a terrible price while doing so in young men's lives; with the loss in aircrew amounting to some 55,500 men, killed in the air or as prisoners of war, in flying or ground accidents and in ground-battle action, with 8,325 aircraft lost in action, and of course the German civilian casualties that will probably never be known accurately, but with numbers ranging from 350-500,000 and as much innocent victims of the Nazi's as other civilian casualties caused during five years of total war.

Lest we Forget

In the lead up to planning our next game I happened to come across a very interesting recent presentation by the Imperial War Museums which looks at the development of the Avro Lancaster bomber and includes a detailed look at the example held by the museum at Duxford and is well worth a watch to get a feel for the conditions a Lancaster crew could face flying in the dark skies over wartime Europe.

As usual a full AAR of our next game will follow on the Devon Wargames Group blog with a linked posting here on JJ's.

For those interested in learning more about Target for Tonight, the Facebook Group focussed on the rules would be a good place to start.

Target for Tonight - Facebook Group

More Anon

JJ

8th Army: Operation Crusader, The Winter Battles for Tobruk 1941, Game Designers’ Workshop on Vassal

 

You have to be of a certain age to remember first encountering a new game that was published in 1984, but I have an original copy of this game in hard copy format and both Steve and I were captivated by the novel blind play that the game offers by using two copies of the same map, one for each player, when we first had a go playing Operation Crusader from GDW back last century!

The Empire Map set up with the British armoured brigades out on the left flank and Indian, South African and New Zealand infantry brigades linking them to coast in front of Bardia on the Egypt-Libya border. The Tobruk garrison is waiting to be relieved ready to launch a breakout to link up and behind the line of German crosses lurks Rommel and his Italo-German Afrika Korps.

Needless to say, when I saw there was a Vassal module for the game I was really keen to see how well it translates to the age of computer moderation, ideally suited for facilitating blind play; and so about six weeks ago Steve and I brought our computers together in the same room as lockdown restrictions started to ease and set about seeing if it was as good as remembered.

The 'nerve centre' of the game, seen here at the conclusion of the second turn, with a record of time gone, supply consumption, reinforcements, replacements and rebuilt units, air support availability and combat resolution, when units in a battle hex on the map are set up on the combat display, the only time enemy units are visible to the opposing player. Note the supply situation at the start of the offensive with the Empire forces seen here with 17 points in reserve and a replenishment point every day for the first eight days of the offensive, reducing to one every other day and compare that to the Axis tracker.

The premise behind the game Operation Crusader is to recreate the eighteen day battle that started on November 19th 1941 when in the real attack, that came after months of build up by 8th Army as Rommel was focused on the problem of removing the garrison of Tobruk sat on his lines of communication (LOC), the British 4th, 7th and 22nd Armoured brigades supported by two Army Tank Brigades in support of Empire Infantry began the offensive, catching the 'Desert Fox' unprepared and definitely unconvinced that such an offensive was happening.

The game map at turn 2 with arrows indicating my (Empire) plan of attack aiming to knock out German airfields at Sidi Rezegh and Sidi Azeiz, thus reducing Axis air support, whilst 'crumbling attacks' by Empire Infantry and Army Tank Brigades push the enemy back along the coast, cutting off any defenders in Bardia (Note that the display shows my units faded out letting me know that they are hidden to Steve. When at full resolution they are visible to both players.)

Thus the victory conditions for the game are relatively straight forward in that both commanders are comparing their result with that achieved by their historical predecessors, with the Empire commander looking to have a link with a held Tobruk perimeter by Turn 18,  and for a decisive victory, six Axis units destroyed, twice the combat strength in Empire armoured units to Axis and three times the strength of Empire infantry to Axis, or for a tactical victory, the historical outcome, Tobruk relieved but a failure to achieve the other conditions, with any other result leading to a drawn game.

The 'actual situation' map for turn 2 with all forces 'uncloaked' and revealing the Axis defenders, with a thin screen of Italian infantry (light grey) surrounding Tobruk, Panzers opposing my armoured brigades in front of Sidi Rezegh, and no Axis garrison in Bardia and thin line of Italians on the coast in retreat before my South African (blue) and New Zealand (dark brown) infantry brigades. Note Steve's placement of Axis supply units across his line within five hexes of his forward units, allowing him to launch counter assaults as required.

Our game pretty much followed the historical offensive and both Steve and I revelled in the hidden display that for us really captured the vast nature of war in the Western Desert in WWII with units seemingly appearing out of 'the blue' and just as quickly disappearing back into it.

A very straight forward terrain effects table, easily memorised for fast game play

The nature of the fighting is beautifully captured with supply units (the box truck on wheels counter) within five hexes needed to support a full out assault in any one hex, where defenders can either retreat to lessen combat hits but where assaulters take all hits recieved and probing attacks that don't require supply but allow a hex to be investigated by the probing unit and for the both sides units to withdraw if it takes casualties, thus reducing them by one level,  but to press the probe into a reconnaissance in force should the defender prove to be weak and fail to cause any casualties with defensive fire.

As supply is used up the little truck counters are first revealed to the enemy player so that he can confirm it is range of where the assault is taking place, then removed and put in the 'Supply Units' box on the game tracker; available to come back on to the map as a supply point from the pool is spent, thus allowing it to drive up a road track or open desert from its friendly map edge using its five movement point allowance to get it to where it needs to be to support future assaults.

A likewise straight forward Combat Results Table, with ratio between attacker and defender strength points establishing the basic column to be modified by aspects such as terrain or air support, but with infantry generally halving their attack factor vs armour unless anti-tank capable. Note the effects are generous with even 1:1 assaults only missing on a 1 allowing infantry to prepare the crumbling attacks favoured by Monty.

The Turn Record Track shows on which days new supply points are received and the appropriate player records his total reserve supply accordingly, from which he replenishes his used truck counters.

A very simple but clever system that restricts the players freedom to throw in assaults here, there and everywhere without a thought for the days ahead in a very long eighteen day offensive operation.

Supporting operations on the ground are the respective air forces which can be prepositioned over a hex to offer offensive or defensive air support, effectively shifting the combat result column left or right, with opposing air units generally cancelling each other out and the opportunity for ground forces to use the anti-aircraft defences to drive off supporting enemy air, before the combat resolution.

The ‘Honey’ equipped 4th Armoured Brigade composed of the 8th Hussars, 5th Royal Tanks Regt. and 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, with an anti-tank capable red dot, top left and factors along the bottom (attack-defence-movement) 

Pressing forward with my armoured brigades at the start of the offensive I managed to make rapid progress advancing on Sidi Rezgh, with Steve throwing in occasional counter attacks but, as he later recounted, making the mistake of not hitting back harder with more powerful groups and thus burning valuable supply and losing units for little tangible gain 

Turn 4 - 22nd November 1941 and 4th and 22nd Armoured brigades have punched their way into Axis lines and are sitting astride the airfield at Sidi Rezegh among wrecked Luftwaffe and Italian aircraft and only four hexes (sixteen miles) from Tobruk, but the armoured brigades need to halt having consumed a lot of supply in their offensive and with the cruiser tanks of 2nd Hussars, 22nd Armoured brigade written off in the fighting (British tank unit bottom left forming my 'dead stack') supported by the 4th Indian Infantry Division (white counters) to their right.

However my early armoured offensive burned up a lot of Empire supply points and the loss of the 7th Hussars cruiser tanks and most of the Panzers had still not been encountered in battle leaving me rather concerned that Steve was preparing a counter attack to drive me back to my start line.

The Panzer Regiments 8th and 5th in two battalion groups forming the punch in the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions of Afrika Korps (Note the attack and defence factors compared to the British 4th Armoured Brigade above)

As I feared, Steve had been conserving his supply and armour after his infantry and antitank gun screen had absorbed the brunt of my armoured assault by conducting a pincer offensive to cut off the head of my attack at Sidi Rezegh setting up the rather tragic and historical battle by Brigadier General Jock Campbell and his 7th Support Group on the airfield in the historical battle.

Knocked out tanks litter the airfield at Sidi Rezegh in the Crusader battles of 1941

Thus by turn seven, November 25th the situation had changed on the armoured sector of the battlefield as the Panzers rolled on to Sidi Rezegh airfield and pushed back Empire armour and infantry as they surrounded the defenders and crushed the last remaining units of honey tanks bravely resisting to the last.

Turn 7 - 25th November and the British armoured assault to Sidi Rezegh has been halted and cut off with the battered 5th Royal Tank Regt. soon to join their comrades, written off the Empire order of battle as I prepare to shift the weight of the Empire offensive to the coast and send in the infantry.

The desert war is all about supply and the game really captures the importance of it to enable assaults to take place, the most effective way of taking ground. My armoured thrust had left me needing to hold the ground taken, with my air force put on to patrolling defensively over forward ground units as I spent the next few days rearranging my line and husbanding supply ready to initiate the infantry battle to come.

Veterans from the Battle of Crete in May 1941, the three brigades (4th 5th and 6th New Zealand Infantry) and the 28th Maori battalion that composed my 2nd New Zealand assault division. Empire infantry have powerful attack and, importantly for holding ground, defensive factors, and the New Zealanders are the best, great for making probing attacks as well as offensives with army tank Matildas and Valentines in support.

However the respite of the next few days where both sides drew breath was not a quiet period at all as I was quite keen to launch probing attacks along the front line to keep a clear picture of Axis units opposing my forward line and to expose areas vacated by retreating Italian infantry near the coast and the possibility of inflicting casualties that would eat in to the much limited Axis replacement pool, referred to as 'dominating the ground' in British training manuals.

Turn 11 - November 29th and the Axis have destroyed any remaining resistance around Sidi Rezegh as the Empire rebuild their supply base but conduct aggressive combat patrols on the right front with the New Zealand and South African infantry supported by army tank brigades and armoured care regiments cutting of Bardia and driving along the metalled coast road as they turn the Axis flank as I prepare to drive on to Gambut airfield which would allow a possible breakout offensive by the Tobruk garrison.

The next big push by the Empire forces would likely decide the game as, with the need for a breakthrough using the last remains of Empire supply and a small reserve to press a link up with Tobruk, faced by Steve's clever but stingy use of Axis supply to allow any required last ditch counterattacks to break any such link up, I set myself the goal of reaching Gambut airfield in force by turn fourteen, December 2nd and then to reassess my chances from there.

Luftwaffe air support with the deadly Stukas and their +2 column combat shift only countered by Empire antiaircraft fire hitting on 4+ which really made a difference in the later combats.

Well as the saying goes 'time spent on reconnaissance is not wasted time' and as the game reached its closing stages on turn eleven, November 29th, my South African and New Zealand Infantry had elbowed their way forward past Bardia and set up a jumping off point to press on to Gambut; through a series of probing attacks that revealed a hotchpotch of Italian and Germain infantry and reconnaissance battalions, thinly spread and trying desperately to hold key nodes to block rapid approach to either the airfield or Tobruk, along the main coast road.

Boston medium bombers of 12th and 21st South African squadrons part of
the Empire air support, that defended gains and supported attacks.

With my supply restored, my remaining armour replenished and my infantry set up on their jump off points before Bardia and Sidi Azeiz airfield the big push kicked off with mixed results with the New Zealanders encountering stiff resistance and dogged attacks from the Luftwaffe that kept them pinned back around Sidi Azeiz but the South African 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions able to turn the Axis flank through the rough terrain between the coast and the coast road with armoured car patrols pushing the line up to just north of Gambut airfield.

Turn 14 - December 2nd and the Empire high water mark has been reached with a stolid Axis defence of the coast road preventing the New Zealand and South African Infantry closing on Gambut Airfield and no realistic chance of linking up with Tobruk and holding a link up until Turn 18, December 6th. 

However just to get to that position had burnt up the last offensive reserve of Empire supply leaving just a small amount to cover emergency counter-attacks and with the Axis very unlikely to be able to break the Tobruk perimeter we called our game a draw but effectively a win for Steve as he had out generalled Rommel who faced with an Empire tactical victory withdrew from Tobruk, setting up his successful offensive in May 1942 at Gazala.

This game is a hidden gem in the catalogue of Desert Campaign games, and the unique double-blind map moving only made easier with computer moderation is amazing at capturing the uncertainty that the real life generals had to contend with whilst gazing at their situation maps trying to assess their chances by pressing forward in any particular area.

Turn 14 - December 2nd and with the cloaking removed, the real situation is revealed at the end of the game with a solid line of Axis resistance blocking any further Empire advance along the coast road, backed up by both Panzer Divisions ready to deal with any break through and plenty of Axis supply to allow counterattacks.  The South African armoured car patrols were pushed back from Gambut in the last Axis move. Note the stacks of destroyed Empire (extreme bottom left) and destroyed Axis units (top right, in the sea).

The final map above revealed the truth of the situation and confirmed my decision to concede early with a solid Axis blocking line between Tobruk and Bardia with the likelihood of significant losses in Empire infantry had I persisted in pressing the offensive to the point of no supply in reserve.

The empty areas marked by each others national symbol shows the bluffing ability the game offers with areas we both suspected to be vacant but never checked out thoroughly, based on the fact that surrounded areas cut off from supply could not conduct assaults, only probes, and time spent mopping up distracted from the offensive operations that had moved past such areas.

The game chart display at the close of our game with both sides carrying multiple units in their 'Remnants Boxes' , top and bottom right and with Steve sitting on six supply points (Supply and Replacement Track) to just two Empire with just another two to come (two supply markers on the Empire Turn Record Track).

In addition the Empire left flank is hanging out 'in the blue' based on the fact that I was content for the Axis to throw units out there, away from where I wanted to attack, and supply them if he wished, but Steve was too canny for that, and as can be seen both forces contracted their line closer to the sea as units were written off the order of battle and remaining forces had to focus on control of key roads and tracks.

The only downside with this game is that the Vassal module is an old one and given the relatively low rating (6.8) given to the game on Boardgame Geek (BGG) probably explains why it hasn't been updated to remove a few glitches on units wandering to different areas of the map occasionally. Not a huge problem and it didn't affect our play or enjoyment.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6814/8th-army-operation-crusader-winter-battles-tobruk

The other aspect, more to do with our play rostering, is that leaving the game each week to play the next, often meant that the picture of the enemy front line garnered from previous play had dimmed, requiring further probing to re-establish it, but again seemed to add to the 'fog of war' and further embellish the situation.

We still rate Rommel in the Desert as our favourite Desert Campaign Game, but the unique hidden movement in 8th Army puts the game up there with it as a 'Very Happy to Play' game, and more than repaid our six week investment to play it, so don't always follow what the folks on BGG think, this is a much better game than the rating portrays and it is well worth checking out.

Next up; Let's Build a Sloop, a post on exactly how to construct the flush-deck, ship-rigged sloop from an excess of Warlord 1:700th Brig models and with a video tutorial to help illustrate the process

Gus Murchie Memorial Game - Devon Wargames Group

Yesterday was spent in the company of the chaps from the Devon Wargames Group as we celebrated the end of the club year with one big game, this time using Chain of Command and their 1940 lists to recreate the battles that typified the German invasion of France in May 1940.

I took time out from actually playing to move around the six tables we had up and running to capture the day in pictures and video clips as we gathered at mid morning and played through to the end of the afternoon.

Days like this are special and great fun and, for those of us who knew him, a nice way to remember our old mate Gus who though not with us, was very much with us, enjoying all the fun and laughs.

If you would like to see a report of the day, then just follow the link to the club blog.

Gus Murchie Memorial Game 2019 - Devon Wargames Group

Tigers in the Mud, The combat career of German Panzer Commander Otto Carius - By Otto Carius

I admit that when it comes to games I tend to lose interest once the internal combustion engine is involved (Ion drives don’t count) however with books it’s a completely different matter as there is nothing better than a good memoir and WW2 gets its own shelf in my library. I have recently read two very similar books both by German tank commanders and both in almost identical units. The second book is called ‘Panzer Ace’ by Richard von Rosen and which I will write about later but what
I will probably do is to refer to the two books as I go along in each review because it is interesting to compare the two styles and the difference in content.

Both authors were in Heavy tank battalions, Carius in Panzer-Abteilung 502 and Von Rosen in 503 and both saw action on the western and eastern fronts.

Otto Carius

Tigers in the Mud is quite a well known book and is regarded as one of the better WW2 memoirs, it was initially published in 1960 so I have been a bit slow in getting around to reading it but in my defence I have been rather busy.

It starts with a brief description of how Carius joined the army, in his case the infantry and there is very little on his initial training, he describes himself as small in statue and skinny which meant he was only in the army due to being drafted in mid 1940. At this time there was no rushing of the training regime so he saw no action in the fall of France and in October he volunteered for the tank corps. Despite having no mechanical knowledge he was surprisingly accepted adding that his CO was only to happy to get rid of the skinny half pint.

His unit is involved at the start of the Russian campaign where he is a loader in a Panzer38t, by July 8th his tank is hit and he receives his first wound.

Carius and Pz 38t

We are now at page 9, I said it was brief. I really wish there was more on his early experiences as no one really writes about the lighter tanks much, probably due to being dead.

As appears common in both books, wounded tankers if not patched up at the front get re-allocated to new units or new equipment or to training. He writes little of what happened to him until August 1941 when Carius is promoted to sergeant and sent on an officer training course which he fails so in February 1942 he is sent back to his old unit and where he does achieve promotion to tank commander however it’s not made clear what they are armed with during this period.

Home on leave in January 1943 he is transferred to the 500th Replacement battalion and gets to see his first Tiger (page 21)

Carius’ 1st Tiger tank during training

After training they are sent to the Russian front around Leningrad, it is now July 1943 so in three years its not that clear how long he has actually seen action, again this theme of short bursts of activity followed by long periods training or recovery in case of wounds runs through both books.

Small snippets of information are widely scattered throughout, for instance he mentions that his early Tiger has a demolition charge fitted inconveniently next to the commanders’ position along with some hand grenades, these are all soon removed and replaced by a bottle of schnapps and that they were using captured Russian tactical notes about Tigers for their own training because they still hadn’t received the correct manuals yet.

502nd Heavy tank battalion insignia

He then breaks the book down into a series of actions that he was involved in and these are the bulk of the book. There is much more combat detail than you would normally see in WW2 memoirs and the first detailed account covers the fighting along the Newel and Narva and takes up over a hundred pages.

After this (June 1944) he is given sick leave and whilst recovering he is told of his award of the Knights Cross however sick leave lasts only two to three days and he gets immediately recalled to the front.

June /July 1944 has another fifty pages about fighting in and around Dunaburg (its on the Latvia/Lithuania border) and this is where he wins the Oak Leaves for his Knights Cross when he and another Tiger knock out twenty-three Russian tanks, many of which were the new Stalin versions, he then pulls back, deploying his six tanks in ambush and they knock out another twenty-eight tanks along with numerous trucks and other vehicles.

Carius giving a briefing

The Heavy tank battalions rarely operated as a full unit instead the individual companies were usually split up and sent to wherever the greatest danger was, quite frequently without much support, Carius gives an account of having to defend a village, at night, on their own:

“Soon the village was under extremely heavy fire. The Russians had noticed that it was occupied and wanted to `clean up’ the affair before they advanced further to the west. Their methods showed, however, that they certainly didn’t suspect an entire `Tiger’ company in the village.

I saw muzzle fire in the woodline. It moved farther to the right from flash to flash. Those had to be tanks moving along the woodline. They wanted to reach the road at the opposite end of the village. Obefeldwebel Zwetti was in position there. Behind him was von Schiller’s tank. I radioed to Zwetti. 

With the help of a flare, I could determine that a T34 was moving no more than 50 metres away from Zwetti. Due to the firing, we couldn’t hear any motor noises. Because of that, the enemy had already made his way to the village. Zwetti shot his neighbour into flames, but we saw in astonishment a second T34 in the middle of the village street, right next to von Schiller.

It often proved fatal to the Russians that they kept completely buttoned up. Because of that, they could scarcely see anything, especially at night. They also had infantrymen riding on the tank, but even they didn’t recognise the situation until too late. Von Schiller wanted to turn his turret but in the process hit the Russian tank with his cannon. He had to back up first in order to be able to knock it out. I didn’t feel confident enough to shoot. One of the craziest situations I ever experienced!

After Zwetti had finished off another three tanks, the Russians pulled back. Apparently, the losses they suffered were enough. We stayed in radio contact for the rest of the night and could hear the Russians quite well on one channel. That meant they couldn’t be too far from us.”

Otto Carius (left) and Oberfeldwebel Zwetti

However on July 24th Carius whilst out on reconnaissance patrol was very seriously wounded, his normal practice whenever his company moved to a new area or prior to attacking or defending would be to check the area out first and usually, despite direct orders not to do so, would do it in a Kubelwagen (APC’s were supposed to be used). Unfortunately he had run out of Kubal’s so he borrowed the medic’s motorcycle and sidecar and on the way back ran straight into a Russian patrol who shot him up. Hit several times and with a Russian officer standing over him he was only saved by two Tigers coming up to see what was happening, The Russian quickly fired three times, missing twice and then ran off.

Otto Carius in Kubelwagen

It wasn’t until October that he was fit enough to attend his Oak Leaves award ceremony, this award was usually only presented by Hitler himself but he had transferred the task to Himmler. He tells of this event, a special dinner was held and then a private meeting with Himmler who quizzed him on the war and especially about tanks, he also invited him to make any request he wished. Carius asked to be returned to duty immediately and to be sent back to his old unit; Himmler offered him instead promotion to captain in the SS which Carius refused.

Himmler presents Carius with his Oak Leaves 

With more hospital time and recovery leave it was the end of December 1944 when he reported to the Paderborn replacement depot for re-assignment, he was instructed to report to a training company but using a letter Himmler had given him he managed to get posted to a combat unit instead.

This turned out to be the 512th Heavy AntiTank Battalion with Jagdtigers and the rest of the book is about his time fighting in the Ruhr pocket mainly against the Americans until forced to surrender.

JagdTiger from 512th AT Battalion

His story finishes on Page 231 however there are another seventy pages of combat reports which he either kept or had access later to and following this there are photostats of his commendations, letters/telegrams and newspaper cuttings.

I have deliberately omitted a lot of the detail and anecdotes but there are several general points I would like to make about what Carius has written.

1. He does have a problem with how the ordinary German soldier was treated after the war; this is mainly at the start of the book but does crop up occasionally later on.

2. He is very strong on tank commanders staying up for as long as possible when in combat, I think you can see from the quote above what his views are on ‘buttoning up’. Recently I have seen this doctrine raised as a detrimental effect in some writings on German tank tactics, being called foolhardy or suicidal so it was interesting to hear from someone who had to make this decision in actual combat.

3. The shear paucity of infantry that accompanied his tanks on most operations. During the fighting on the Narva he went to liaise with a company of infantry who he was to assist in defending a position, there were just twenty-five men and that was only because they had received replacements the day before, in one counter attack his infantry support was eight men.

4. Every bridge has to be checked prior to crossing and we are not just talking about road bridges as there usually tended to be only one tarmacked road in the vicinity, combat engineers would be sent to strengthen any key crossings prior to attacks or they would accompany the Tigers and improvise as they went.

5. How many tanks were ever actually available at any one moment. On page 307 amongst the AAR’s there is a company report for each day in July 1944 on the total tank numbers, how many were combat ready and the number returned from repair, it’s usually under 50% available .

6. The Jagdtiger period was most interesting as by this time Carius was operating with inexperienced crews and officers, the number of basic mistakes they made is most enlightening. Poor driving, immobilised vehicles, not fitting the travel lock on the gun barrel knocked it out of calibration, not lowering the gun until trying to engage the target and then turning the tank to escape instead of just backing up.

7. Carius doesn’t come across as an ardent Nazi (I wouldn’t expect this anyway if I wanted to sell a book) but he has that fanaticism (maybe not the right word) that you sometimes see effecting people; at the end of the war whilst fighting in the Ruhr pocket it is obvious that no one really wants to fight on but he does and continues to try and hold back the enemy for as long as he can.

8. This is his view on the Americans:

“Practically all our Kubels were disabled so we therefore decided to fetch a replacement from the Americans. No one should think this a heroic deed. The Yanks slept in the houses at night, as was proper for ‘combat soldiers’. Who was going to disturb them anyway! At the most one sentry was located outside but only if there was good weather.

The war started in the evenings only whenever our troops pulled back and they then followed. If, by chance, a German machine gun actually fired then the air force was requested as backup, but not until the next day.”

And

”I spotted one enemy tank that quickly scuttled behind a house. For once I wanted to try out our 120mm cannon. I took a chance and fired at the house with a delayed fuse, after the second shot the American tank went up in flames.

The Yanks now came to life of course, we were soon in the middle of heavy artillery fire and the bombers appeared , there were no casualties but one of my tanks was disabled when it drove into a bomb crater “

All very sensible in my opinion.

This is getting a bit long so to quickly wrap things up; the field reports are most interesting as one of them is from the maintenance Platoon which lists all the problems that they have experienced so far with the Tigers and of course like all good reports includes suggested solutions to each problem; for example three or four 18T prime movers are needed to tow one Tiger and the tow bars are too weak anyway, uphill you need five! This activity to recover damaged vehicles is a frequent occurrence in both books and usually takes place at night.

“Recovery of Tigers in easier times”

The company after action reports and daily reports very rarely mention Carius as they cover all three companies so this adds to the book.

The two books I guess are quite similar but I would still buy both, they are both well written and both skip along quite briskly, Tigers in the Mud has more battle action described and both have interesting photos especially Von Rosen's who has around 400 although not all are of vehicles but he does get to play with King Tigers!

(Just before I sent this off to the editor I found the link below which gives a full timeline of all of Otto Carius’ activities so it might differ a bit from my memory)

http://timelinesandsoundtracks.blogspot.com/2018/06/otto-carius-timeline.html

Paperback, Kindle and audio CD
Readable pages: 308 + letters and citations
Best Paperback price 27th August 2019 = £10.63 ABE Books

This has been a Mr Steve presentation.

Chain of Command - 29 Let's Go, Game Nine, Home Run at Osmanville

Rearguard elements of the 352nd Division deploy to defend the former HQ at Osmanville

This week saw the ninth and final game of our Chain of Command Campaign recreating the battle by the US 29th Infantry Division to break out along the coast from Omaha beach and force a link up with US forces landing further west at Utah beach at the base of the Cherbourg peninsular.

The uniting of the two beachheads required the capturing of two important towns, Isigny and Carentan where it was hoped a link up could be established with the 101st Airborne Division dropped in the area to secure key crossing points.

From the German perspective, the battle was one of defence looking to delay and hold up US advances out of their beachheads to allow time for German reinforcing divisions to arrive from the interior to seal off further advances and to eventually allow a German counterattack to destroy the allied beachheads.

Planner map showing the position of the respective tables throughout our campaign

Thus far Ian's determined elements of the 352nd Infantry Division have been giving the 29th a real battle to press forward, and managed to inflict two defeats on the US troops with a corresponding delay on their advance.

However the US troops turned the tide in games seven and eight and now find themselves at the road junction outside the village of Osmanville on table 5, astride the main road to Isigny having driven the German forces back to their former HQ.

The area is held by a rearguard force hoping to join the rest of the division that, thanks to the two game delay, has fallen back over the key bridge at Isigny which they intend to destroy once this rearguard force has managed to push the Americans back and fallen back themselves securing an outright German campaign victory.

If you haven't followed the games played in this campaign, you can pick up the story in the series of links below covering events from game two onward and the final link to 'Welsh Wargamer in Devon', Jason's, our Gamemeister's, personal blog, where he neatly summarises the overall casualty rates and gives the umpires overview of how the whole series of games developed from his perspective.

Games Two (US Victory) & Three (Bloody Draw)
Game Four (US Victory)
Game Five (German Victory & Pushback)
Games Six (German Victory & Hold) & Seven (US Victory)
Game Eight (US Victory)

https://welshwargamesdevon.blogspot.com/2019/05/chain-of-command-29-lets-go-campaign.html

The question was, could the US troops snatch a small win out of the situation by destroying this rearguard force?

The map below illustrated the position outlined in the briefing with close country crisscrossed with low hedgerows and roads lined with drainage ditches. In the large northern field anti-glider poles topped with mines add further to the restriction on movement.

To reflect the surprise element of US troops rapidly moving up in the wake of their last win the German defenders will be deploying from the HQ building at the rear of their position after the US patrol markers have taken a D3 number of extra moves before they are able to react.

The  mission objective for the US troops was to capture the HQ building, by either occupying and holding it at game end or by breaking the German defenders in the battle that would facilitate the same outcome.

Our table recreating the map in the briefing

The picture below shows the position of the opposing Jump Off Positions (JOP's) at the end of the Patrol Phase.

US and German JOPs in position at the end of the Patrol Phase

With the dominance of mortar attacks in two recent games it was perhaps not surprising that both sides took medium mortars as an option and used them practically from the get go.

The cagey deployment by both sides reflected this anticipated troop type selection and the fact that both sides came with a poor force morale of eight for the US and ten for the Germans leaving little wriggle room to soak up bad events.

Down comes the mortar fire from both sides. The US Shermans are on and about to move up under the cover of this barrage

The Americans beat the Germans to the drop with the mortar barrage but only by one phase of play, by simply calling for an immediate fire for effect rather than taking the spotting round the German troops adopted, which with their follow up barrage, would have blocked the US observer from seeing the target area in the following US phase.

Thus the centre of the table and the forward most German JOP was engulfed in exploding mortar bombs.

The US made the most of this large display of exploding ordnance to move their tanks forward and in the wake of the two barrages to close on the German positions with a plan to advance the US JOP's closer as well to allow a close assault of the nearest German JOP once the mortar fire ceased.

The first units deploy, with the Germans hoping to defend their forward JOP (right). Whilst the Sherman burns in the background down by the stream

Needless to say the moves rattled by as the focus shifted to getting the armour up together with accumulating as many Chain of Command dice as possible and, by the time the turn ended, the US had a distinct advantage with three to one in accumulated dice.

When the mortar fire ceased the game changed completely as the US closely followed by the Germans lost contact with and further support from their mortars.

With a Sherman tank threatening the German position from the south close to the stream and having managed to bog itself, the Germans deployed a Panzerschreck that missed and was caught in the return fire causing it to break and seeing both sides move level with eight force morale points with the German reaction test.

Perhaps the standout unit in this final game, the trusty Sherman tank

With the German troops keen to defend the front of the orchard they were in and their forward JOP, that Sherman had to be dealt with and so with the failure of the Panzerschreck a Panzerfaust was turned to from a German squad close by and this time the German bomb found its mark, completely destroying the tank, but with the US force opting to burn a CoC dice with their lost vehicle and avoid the loss in force morale.

Then the German forward squad attempting to defend the orchard forward JOP was caught deploying by a US squad on overwatch in the nearby house supported by the remaining US Sherman.

The combination of close range HE, machinegun and small arms fire, quickly shredded the German unit and saw another two point drop in German force morale.

The battle was getting fierce and extremely tense as units started to deploy at close range and with little room to absorb losses both forces strove to keep in touch with the other by getting in damaging blows.

The German response to losing a section of infantry was to deploy a tripod MG42 in a dug in position that enfiladed another US squad close to the burning US tank and sheltering behind a hedge.

The German machinegun returned the compliment shredding the US squad which managed to hang on long enough to go tactical before becoming pinned, waiting for the other Sherman to come to the corner of a nearby house and fire on the offending German weapon.

The US rifle squad broke under the onslaught and this time the US force morale took a hit, but not before the American tank knocked out the German machinegun forcing another German force morale loss.

In response that daring Panzerschreck, now rallied, returned to the fray, firing off another rocket towards the lone Sherman peeking out from among the houses. The cover proved its worth causing the Germans to miss and this time the US tank finished the job, yet again, killing the remaining German operator and forcing yet more morale loss and lost command dice.

The US infantry advance across the road up to the hedge bordering the orchard. The forward German JOP has now been withdrawn to the back table edge near the HQ building

The battle was getting fiercer and more desperate reflected in the combined attack by another German tripod MG team firing on the US squad in the lane opposite the orchard and followed up by a second German squad operating in the orchard to come charging out of the trees to attack it.

Hand grenades heralded the German assault and, as always, close combat is often unforgiving to both sides, but in this case the US got the better of it, just managing to win and not break, but seeing the German section smashed with its loss and its leader killed dismantling the German force morale to within two points of breaking and reducing the German command dice tally still further.

The German squad in the orchard (top centre) is about to come forward to assault the US rifle squad lining the hedge on the lane by the houses. Note the German JOP bottom left soon to be approached by a US recce team.

The Sherman tank was being kept busy and the second German MG42 was dealt with by a quick round of HE and machinegun fire, which left one more German section still undeployed and so, to try and force the German hand, the third US quad, so far untouched and held in reserve amid the houses, sent forward a recce team towards the German JOP on their left flank.

The manoeuvre worked and the recce team were driven back amid a hail of German small arms fire but managed to only loose one of the two man team and were close enough to run back to the parent squad, sharing the shock and see the German section receive a return volley together with some tank HE as the Sherman brought its turret to bear.

The surviving US units at the close of a very bruising encounter

The US fire was enough to so badly hit this last German squad that the defenders broke leaving just one practically intact US squad, less one man and the remaining Sherman to mop up.

What a last battle to end our campaign on, with massive swings of fortune throughout and the US looking at times to be on their way out with low force morale, tanks burning and mortar support lost.

However as has happened a few times in our campaign, when the going has got tough it has been the trusty Sherman tank that has often proved to be the winning difference between the two sides often surviving anti-tank and mortar attacks to deliver knock out punches with well delivered HE rounds that has literally shot the US rifle squads onto the position and so it was rather fitting that they played such a prominent role in this final game.

Ian threw everything at the Americans to try and close out the ninth game that would have secured an overwhelming German win, but his forces did enough in the campaign to ensure that the bulk of their forces have survived to fight on.

We have really enjoyed playing this series of games and Tuesday nights wont seem quite the same, and from the comments I have received some of you have to, with many comments about wanting to play more CoC but not having quite got around to it.

All I can say is, that was me a couple of months ago, but following this series of games, I can highly recommend the time investment into these rules and I am looking forward to playing them again.

Thanks to Jason and his wife Tina for providing our venue for our gatherings and for Jason's tutoring and provision of some fine tables and figures that have really added to the fun. Thanks also to Steve and Ian for playing the games - great times.

I'm off up to Newark this weekend for our annual DWG Beano to Partizan 2019 as well as our usual gathering at Wargames Foundry for a pre show big game where we are planning to play Dux Bellorum again, so will aim to post on both those weekend activities, plus I have a book review from Mr Steve coming up so lots to come here on JJ's.