Target for Tonight - Nuremberg

This weekend at the Devon Wargames Group a few of us got together to play the second in a series of eight planned games to work up a campaign system for Target for Tonight (TfT). Normally I would post about games at the club on the club blog, but this project to design a campaign around the basic game has been detailed here on JJ's and so for completeness and ease of looking back over previous posts I have decided to post about these games here on JJ's.

The first game in this series, which is recreating the first month in the Battle of Berlin conducted by Bomber Command between late August 1943 through to the end of March, started with the first attack on the 'Big City' on August 23rd - 24th 1943 and you can follow what happened in the link to the post below.

Target for Tonight - Berlin Game 1

As described in my recent post covering the planing for this next game, the raid on Nuremberg on the 27th-28th August 1943, I am following the list of Mainforce ops composed principally from the Bomber Command War Diaries and The Berlin Raids as mentioned in that post and listed below.

The Berlin Campaign list of raids used to inform our ops planning for our eight games

Target for Tonight- Mainforce, Nuremberg Ops Plan

As can be seen both these raids saw a maximum effort by Bomber Command, now able to put close on 700 aircraft up when required, with both these first two targets deep into enemy territory, putting a greater strain on aircrews and increasing their risks with the long flights to and from the target.

This period was another one of those turning points in the night-bomber war against Germany as Bomber Command looked to take advantage of the disarray caused to the Nachtjagd by the use of 'window', aluminium foil strips dropped in mass bundles to disrupt the signals picked up by German radar, which since the mass raids on Hamburg the previous summer, had forced the German nightfighter crews to adopt new tactics to find the bombers and destroy them.

The situation after game one 

However the struggle to accurately navigate to the target and then to mark and bomb it in sufficient numbers to cause multiple fires and mass destruction continued to be a challenge, especially when the bomber crews went further into Germany restricting the accuracy of their blind bombing technology and, when making best use of bad weather conditions to blind the nightfighters, this also tended to impact on the accuracy of target marking as well as the bombing of them through thick cloud and haze.

As covered in previous posts leading up to this series of games, we are working through a play-test to see if we have the balance right on points scoring our raids. Quite clearly these games are designed to 'bath-tub' the actual campaign by allowing the players to enjoy the best part of TfT, which is the tension generated during the flight of the multiple model aircraft along our ops route to and from the target, with the aspect of raid planning, bombing up and fuelling the aircraft and attacking targets in such away as to maximise the damage caused and victory points that will outweigh the inevitable loss in aircraft and crews.

The target plan outlined to the players with the wind direction indicated and forecast to be light and with haze over the target

The losses sustained in TfT do not accurately reflect those that Bomber Command typically suffered and it would be a very boring game if they did, so the trick, it seems to me, is to marry up results with the cost of lost assets to come up with a simple number that reflects that analysis of the game result, namely victory points.

The result of game one produced a crushing victory from a very concentrated bombing of Berlin, but seeing just under half of the aircraft used failing to return, which leads me to conclude that the VP loss rate for aircraft lost is not correct and I wanted to run a second game to a similarly deep target to assess that conclusion and this post will show what happened and my conclusions that followed.

The order of battle for the five Mainforce bomber groups with the aircraft they were able to deploy together with the losses they sustained

Pre game planning for the op puts the players in command of the five Mainforce bomber groups as seen above showing the number of aircraft they have been able to put into the air, and in this example also showing the lost aircraft from the mission marked with a red X.

As Group commanders the players, following the briefing on weather and intelligence, have to decide how much fuel and bomb load will be carried and what the bomb mix will be, ranging from Cookies (4,000 lb HE) 1,000lb HE and incendiaries, which in different quantities and combination will cause major fires to the different targets within the city being attacked.

The players on this op decided to be conservative by selecting a light bomb load with maximum fuel but with an equal mix of HE and incendiary, having the Lancaster groups primarily bombed up with Cookies.

If they had gone for a heavier bomb lift, but with less fuel, it runs the risk of aircraft not having enough fuel for the return flight and less chance to evade nightfighters on the flight to the target with all that weight restricting manoeuvrability, but a bigger bomb lift, if they can get it to the target, likely to cause greater destruction.

With the aircraft bombed up and the aircraft identified with their unique call signs, the squadrons took off heading for the North Sea and in this case without any pre and post takeoff mishaps as shown in the picture above together with the long, long flight track ahead of them to and from the target with potential nightfighter interceptors awaiting them.

The flight proceeded without mishap until the stream came in over the enemy coast when the first casualty of the night occurred when Halifax, 'L - Leather' from 4 Group fell to the guns of an NJGI Me 110 patrolling over the Dutch coast with only the navigator able to bail out but posted as missing.

We had a new member, Steve, join us for the day's play and, as this was his first game of TfT, I had the pleasure of watching his pulse rate race away as one of his 1 Group Lancasters 'A-Apple' had a 'Monica' nightfighter warning alarm sound over the Khamhuber Line and he put the Lancaster into a corkscrew on the nightfighter board with the enemy Me 110 about to administer the coup de grace, when the model was returned to the bomber stream track and he was informed that the it had been a false alarm.

Further on to the target we had a couple of night-fighter intercepts and this gave us the opportunity to try out the nightfighter rule adaptations from the chaps on the TfT Facebook Group which allows air gunners and nightfighter crews to have individual ability factors plus a more enhanced use of the bomber's defences from its various gun positions.

Our bomber stream heads on into Germany, target Nuremberg with window streaming out in its wake

These rule changes produced yet more drama with nightfighter pilots weighing up the risk of enduring bomber return fire from mid-upper and tail gunners whilst trying to ensure that close in tail chasing kill shot with zero deflection.

In addition, nightfighters and airgunners are no-longer 'vanilla' in their abilities and bomber pilots can no longer assume that the nightfighter pilot knows what he is doing until he tries to cause a hit, when his gunnery factor is revealed, likewise some airgunners were equally deserving of respect or not and the change certainly adds to the game without any added complexity.

With the Monica alarm sounding a Lancaster is flung into a corkscrew with a rearward  Me 110 in hot pursuit

As well as nightfighters to contend with we had our usual mix of navigational errors and drifting off over searchlights and flak zones leaving various aircraft carrying reduced fuel loads and damage dice from flak and nightfighters but leaving an intact bomber stream minus L Leather to arrive in the flak zone over Nuremburg.

In the main the flak was intense with plenty of buffeting and a couple of aircraft picking up extra damage dice but again the stream remained intact ready to turn in over the target ready for the bomb run.

It was at this stage that the Nachtjagd unleashed part of its new tactics with radar carrying Wild Boar single seat fighters zooming in on the bomb-run and attacking three of the bombers causing extra damage and seemingly to cause already jumpy bomb-aimers to lose control and release early, with several bomb drops looking likely to have found just fields.

'G - George, a Stirling from 3 Group starts its run in over the target, not particularly well lined up and with early bomb drops of cookies, HE and incendiary littering the forward edge causing a scattered bombing pattern  with better drops into the city up ahead.

As with the Berlin raid it seems the Nachtjagd were still not able to predict the target location until well into the op and it was on the return flight that the stream started to succumb to further attacks from fighters and damage sustained on the way in.

The next casualty was O-Orange, a  Lancaster from 5 Group that was attacked on the first part of the homeward leg by an Me 110 from NJG VII which caught the bomber as it seemed likely to evade into the dark only to see multiple hits start fires in the port and starboard outer engines as the German fighter sprayed rounds across the target with a swift kick on the rudder.

Even then the pilot of this veteran crew, managed to side-slip putting out the fire on the port side only to whip up the fire on the other engine causing him to lose control and see the aircraft lost with all its crew.

Soon after this, another veteran crew of Halifax R-Roger fell to the guns of a Ju 88 using Schrage Musik upward firing guns which managed to approach the bomber undetected and shoot the aircraft down without the crew realising they were under attack until it was too late. However the tail and mid-upper gunners managed to bail out just in time.

Then the final casualties occurred on the run back over the Belgian coast as two Lancasters from 1 Group succumbed, B-Beer and D-Duff, with both captains losing control of their aircraft from damage sustained early in the flight only to see all their hard efforts to return in vain, as the English Channel coast was about to be crossed. Only the tail gunner survived from B-Beer.

Another 1 Group Lancaster C-Charlie had a close run thing with a tyre blow out on landing but with the pilot managing to apply enough opposite rudder to stabilise the aircraft and to only sustain minor damage to the undercarriage whilst still landing safely.

In the post raid analysis it was found that the light winds had meant that the target indicators had been accurately deployed on the Oil refining plant, north of the city, but a slight drop back had meant that the serious fires had been inflicted on the nearby residential area, and with the early drops likely caused by the notable nightfighter activity, the other two major fires broke out in the industrial and urban areas to the south close to the river, but with a large bomb drop falling in nearby fields.

So points scored on the raid would be 11 for the target, 8 for the major fires, 6 for other bombs not causing fires hitting the target less 5 points for aircraft lost for a total of 20 victory points and another crushing result which again does not reflect the losses incurred.

On the next series of Ops I plan to make some changes to the victory point scoring which will increase the points loss for downed bombers to better reflect the attrition caused to bomber command.

My thinking will be to increase the basic cost of a lost aircraft from 1 to 2 points for these previous two ops and from op three onward, to cost losses similarly but with a premium added for more experienced crews.

The debrief, an important aspect of the op and in our case an opportunity to look at the game overall and the campaign structure.

As it stands then, with these basic modifications, the Berlin op would net 18 points and the Nuremberg op 15 points leaving the current situation running at a British victory at just over 16 points per mission described as;

'the targets have been plastered with losses kept at acceptable'. 

If that average should drop to 12 points, then the situation would be a draw, described as;

'mounting losses cancel the effects of the bombing' 

which would reflect the historical result and keep the campaign interesting from that perspective.

If the average should drop to 10 points then we move into a German minor victory where;

'losses outweigh the damage inflicted' 

and thus the campaign would be unsustainable.

Anything less that a 10 point average and we enter a disastrous outcome for Bomber Command described as;

'unacceptable losses causing a pause and rethink of the night bomber offensive'.

The aim will be to allow for those disastrous missions to cause pause for thought but balanced out by those that cause massive destruction for an average or less loss rate, all impacted by the changes brought about by the technological battle running alongside the air campaign and making fuel and bomb load decisions in the prevailing weather conditions that critical part of planning.

So the next game is planned for July with another op to The Big City and a chance to test out these ideas.

Thanks to Ian, Steve L, Stephen H, Si and Steve (Our new member) for flying this op and here is looking forward to the next one.

Chain of Command - 29 Let's Go, Game Eight, Cardonville Radar Station Attack!

US mortars blast the infantry onto the German position

Our Chain of Command campaign continued this week with a return to table 4, The Radar Station at Cardonville, following the US victory on table 2 last week and the German troops deciding to pull back from the Arthenay position astride the main road to Osmanville.

Following the US victory in our first game at Cambe on table one, we have charted the games played so far which can be followed in the links below.

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

As the titles in the links suggest the US forces have have been given a hard fight with two crushing German victories in games five and six which caused the US command team to take a very close look at the tactics we were employing and to initiate some key changes to our attack methods.

Game seven and the aggressive use of the US armour changed the balance back to the attack with the US finding a way to overcome the German mortars in defence by advancing in the barrage and enabling US Jump of Positions (JOPs) to be moved up prior to a US infantry assault at close quarters.

The German defenders chose to pull back before the US infantry were able to close and so our battle has moved back to the Cardonville Radar Station (table 4) which held bloody memories for both Steve and I (See link to game five above) as we recalled how our infantry squads were decimated on the slopes of the nearby hill, unable to close down two German JOPs and without any support from HMS Glasgow which retired from our battle early.

The scenario is pretty much straight out of the rule book with an attack and defend scenario requiring the US to either break the German defenders or force them to retire from the position.

The map below illustrates the position and the start lines of the two forces prior to the Patrol Phase.

Because this was the second time US forces had fought over this ground, HMS Glasgow would not be on call in our support and with the German defenders having plenty of time to prepare the position we expected and found they had mined two positions close to the US start line, with the road bend and large house next to it heavily mined and booby-trapped.

The table below shows the position of the game after the US infantry had advanced from the JOP (top left of picture) onto the nearest German JOP in the small orchard near the house (top right of picture).

The US infantry have advanced behind a US mortar barrage that plastered the two closest German JOPs allowing them to take the JOP without a German soldier being on the table, and with the JOP captured US forces have just ended the turn using a CoC dice.

Whilst the attack was being pressed US tanks can be seen positioned at the back along the road (top left of picture) to give covering fire should the mortar barrage have ended prematurely.

In addition the position of the US FOO is indicated in the grey house with a senior US commander who has controlled the FOO and his barrage as well as directing an engineer team to clear one of the German minefields in preparation for moving up to clear the next one.

As the barrage ended to secure the German JOP with the ending of the turn, German troops immediately emerged from the next nearest JOP further up the road and, with US infantry moving among the orchard securing the position, immediately opened up on them with withering machinegun, small arms and HE from a dug in 7.5cm infantry gun.

US infantry securing the first German JOP

The German fire was massive in dice rolled causing just two casualties, both riflemen, but seven shock, and putting the whole US attack plan in the balance with only one German force morale point removed along with their lost JOP.

Some relief came in the form of fire from one of the supporting Shermans using HE and managing to inflict two shock on the German defenders, but the firefight was not in favour of the US infantry who could only go tactical and keep their heads down and hope to keep the shock under control with support from the second US commander who moved up to rally the troops.

The US officer commanding directs the engineer section to clear mines whilst also relaying commands to the mortar FOO in the grey house.

The Shermans proved valuable for their fire support once the mortar barrage dropped.

US infantry come under rapid close range fire from newly emerged German defenders - top right

The game had reached a critical point and with a second German section deployed next to the first with a plan to destroy the nearest US infantry squad in the orchard, radio link was re-established with the 81mm mortars and a satisfying marker round exploded ominously amid the German position.

Not only that but the US force had rolled a double six which allowed the fire for effect order to be issued immediately and the German position disappeared among smoke and exploding bombs.

The black plume bottom right marks one corner of the mortar barrage with red pinned markers sprinkled among German troops manning the hedges beyond

The mortar fire was not initially particularly effective in causing casualties and only a modicum of shock, but the fact that the German position was now pinned and masked allowed the US infantry to remove its shock and get into position to launch its own close attack with tanks moving up in support once the barrage lifted.

The whole German position, pinned, is laid out with both their two remaining JOPs, two sections and a dug in infantry gun squarely amid the explosion markers showing the boundary of the US mortar barrage. US infantry gather in the buildings beyond preparing to attack when the barrage lifts

However persistence started to pay off and successive mortar attacks with the Germans unable to end the turn and lift the barrage started to wear down the defenders with accruing shock and casualties, making their chances of resisting any US attack when the barrage lifted more and more unlikely.

The US squad that was badly hit when the first barrage lifted is now down to just one point of shock (red die) from the seven it had received and, having lost just two riflemen, is ready to reengage. The other squad has just entered the building to the right, facing the German position. The explosion marker shows the proximity of the US mortar fire keeping nearby German troops pinned and masked.

With their position becoming more and more untenable with each successive turn, Ian decided to order a German pull out and the US troops moved onto the position to mop up and secure it in the wake of the next advance.

US tanks rumble forward equally protected from anti-tank fire by the US mortar barrage

This was the first time our game plan worked as envisaged and saw the US force finally get their various units working together as an all arms combat team that took control of the battle early on as soon as the US armour and FOO deployed on turn one, seeing the barrage dropped on the German position within three turns and the German JOP captured within six.

In addition this attack differed very much from the previous one in that it was lead by the infantry, not the tanks and combined with the US mortar support gave a very different attack but no less effective, with even the engineers contributing with a cleared minefield.

Ian played the German position as well as he could given the circumstances, as we have all learnt to maximise our effectiveness from the experience we have gained since game one.

Each and every game has been very different even when played over the same table and Chain of Command has created lots of decision points for all players throughout. All you can do is hope to improve you chances of a favourable outcome by stringing periods of play together that shifts the game irrevocably in your troops favour.

Ian, Steve and myself have experienced the rollercoaster of emotions those game shifts create spanning the spectrum from utter frustration when the wheels of a plan fall off in a period of play to the satisfaction of seeing a plan move through the gears and take the game away from the enemy.

Anyway from a US perspective Colonel Goode, our boss is 'almost happy', with a US victory costing the loss of just two US riflemen and an advance enabled to the German HQ at Osmanville and a potential to breakthrough to Isigny and Carentan beyond.

Thank you to Jason, Ian and Steve for a very entertaining evening of play and off to Osmanville we go, next week, for our next game in our campaign.

Chain of Command - 29 Let's Go, Games Six & Seven, Pushback and Riposte

Following the US defeat on table four, the radar station at Cardonville, on the campaign map below, Ian our German commander opted to push the Americans back to table two thus delaying the US advance and forcing a refight on old ground.

The map below shows the position with the US troops having to get across a significant amount of open terrain to have any hope of getting into the German position and grabbing one of the German jump off points to secure a victory.

The battle for this table has proven a jump up the learning curve for all involved and hence the fact that I am posting about two games fought over this ground separated by the recent Easter bank holiday.

Game Six

The table below shows our set up for game six with three US jump off points (JOPs) at the top of picture tucked in behind the hedgerow to the left of the road, one in the orchard on the other side of the road and the third on the table edge, centre top of the picture.

The German JOPs were all placed mutually supporting in and around the buildings of the village.

German JOPs in the form of an Opel Blitz truck, supply dump and another truck amid the orchard

The US attack plan had become rather predictable in that we turned to using the tanks massed and held back, out of hand held anti-tank weapon range, ready to shoot up any spotted German positions as the infantry attempted to sprint across the fields, throwing out recon teams, as and when the opportunity presented, to force the Germans to deploy in defence of their JOPs.

US tanks massed in support with infantry close to their supply dump JOP, ready to cover the approach of the other platoons on the US left flank

In this game Ian applied the attack shattering tactic that is a medium mortar barrage catching our squads doing their best to dash into the German position before getting caught out in the fields beyond.

Still a lot of ground to cover and down come the bombs!

The mortar attack stopped the US advance before any other German troops had needed to deploy and, with our force morale shot up as badly as our squads, Steve and I called the attack off giving the German force a second victory.

Recon team forward, with the squad ready to move in in support just before all hell let loose

Game Seven

Ian chose not to follow up this win with an immediate counterattack but instead opted to carry on with the delay his two wins had imposed by holding table two, adding some field defences and forcing the US to have another go.

This of course forced Steve and I with some input from Jason our Gamemeister to seriously rethink our tactics if we were to avoid another defeat to similar German tactics.

US infantry tactics are built around the advancing fire ability that the M1 Garand offers their infantry squads allowing them to fire on the move as well as put down a significant amount of suppressive and covering fire.

However with the German mortar barrage, likely to be a feature, given the amount of ground needed to be covered before the proximity of US troops to their German counterparts limited the safe zone for such an attack, we needed to change the approach.

The table below shows the position of the respective forces when the game ended with the Germans opting to withdraw rather than carry on the battle.

Two thirds of the German force have deployed and the US armour together with the first squad of infantry are now up close to the village ready to press the attack.

The Germans opted to place a minefield on the US table end close to the road in an attempt to interfere with any similar US tank deployment as set up in the previous game.

Likewise they opted to position their JOPs similarly close in and around the buildings although Ian admitted that he should have put one of them in the orchard to the front of the position to allow rapid deployment in there as required.

The US JOPs were similar to the previous game except that the table edge location was shifted to the other side to offer a different approach opportunity.

German Pak 38, knocked out one Sherman but couldn't stop the advance on the other side of the village

The German plan followed the prediction with a quick deployment of an OP in the forward buildings, but were met with an empty battlefield except for three US Shermans rumbling across the table as mortar bombs fell among them.

Apart from an odd bit of shock the Shermans proved the best way of advancing on the German position using the cover of the mortar barrage to aggressively close on it.

The tactic worked in that the first troops to deploy were German with a section and a Pak 38 AT gun which eventually knocked out the Sherman command tank, although the crew baled out without loss.

The US commander then ordered up a mortar barrage of his own via a deployed FOO that got off one barrage before a double one caused the support to be lost!

The US tank commander's Sherman burns as the other tanks press on to the other side of the village

With an inevitable lull in the German barrage, the American tanks were able to push closer to the village, surviving another antitank attack from a rapidly deployed German section, lobbing a panzerfaust at long range in a desperate attempt to stop the forward momentum.

The advance of the tanks enabled the US to bring forward one of their JOPs and deploy a squad off it allowing both tank fire and small arms to start to soften up the closest German squad near to the most forward German JOP.

With the potential to bring on more American infantry close in to the buildings and with their tanks up in support, the Germans ordered a withdrawal.

The Sherman starts to shred a nearby German section as the newly advanced US JOP (the scout car) allows a US squad to deploy forward in support

Obviously Ian's platoon had done their job and imposed a two game delay on the US advance which works well for the German overall plan and thus a needless bloody exchange with the US troops at this stage with two more tables still to fight before the end of the campaign was wisely avoided.

The German section in the house was taking a battering from tank fire and US small arms when the order to withdraw was given. Note the JOP close by.

The US armour has been a significant factor in the games that the US forces have won and continues to be so, however this was the first time that events had forced a more aggressive use of them which proved their worth in open ground under fire that would have shredded an infantry advance across it.

The clever part of Chain of Command is that the rules really force you to think about the way you use your troops to deal with the challenges these scenarios are constructing.

I don't think I have played a set quite like them, other than Carnage & Glory, for a very different period, with both leaving a very satisfying feel when a plan works and a real hard think when it doesn't.

Thanks to Jason, Steve and Ian for a lot of fun and back to the Cardonville Radar Station we go.

Chain of Command - 29 Let's Go, Game Five

The 352nd looked relaxed after their win at Cardonville and having pushed the Amis back to Arthenay

This week saw our fifth game in our '29 Lets Go' campaign as US forces following their hard fought battle at St Germain du Pert now found themselves north of the Osmanville road as they were forced to deal with another German force threatening the US advance from that direction.

Thus our battle was on table 4 in the situation map below at the Radar Station at Cardonville supported by some naval gunfire in the form of a pre-bombardment of German positions from HMS Glasgow.

Feeling confident that the Royal Navy would allow our troops to make rapid progress across the table snatching German Jump Off Points (JOPs) as we went, both Steve and I planned our JOPs up on the hedgerow line ready to jump forward as the situation presented itself following the patrol phase.

The US plan of attack and the German defences (black boxes) encountered after the patrol phase

Feeling confident in our plan, things took a decidedly different course as the original intention had been to grab the house in the bottom left of the map as a position to turn the German flank; only to find that Ian had placed a section of wire in front of the hedge bordering the orchard together with mining the road and the house opposite.

Our JOPs were so positioned to allow our plan to be flexible and thus the house would be taken by a single section, whilst two sections together with two flamethrower teams advance up the hill and nearby road to clear the other flank, bringing on a single Sherman to be kept back to provide covering fire.

Our table with the gentle slope above the lower house (top right)

Again things changed almost immediately as our first die roll turned up three sixes that immediately ended the bombardment from Glasgow and meant that Ian would find it a lot easier to deploy his troops in response.

View from the German lines

However US fortunes continued to prove interesting as the three next turns provided double sixes to allow a rapid advance into the German position threatening two JOPs before a single German soldier appeared on the table, not to mention five pips on the US Chain of Command dice hopefully on the acquisition of a sixth pip to allow us to take those JOPs and end the turn before any response with all the bad stuff happens to follow.

Everything in position - just give me a five!!!

That was then the wheels fell off the plan!

Three German sections in the same field and a sniper close by, Where was HMS Glasgow when we needed her!

The next four turns saw not one five rolled among the twenty die rolls made by our team coupled with German troops turning out to defend their one remaining corner of the field with three sections and their MG 42's pouring out their hurt on the two lead US squads, causing one to rout and one left decimated with multiple shock.

Where there was once a squad there is now just a pile of shock dice. The flamethrower teams are on the road lower left trying to close up on the German position.

In desperation the other US squad did its best to fire suppressing fire from the lower house, and the flamethrowers tried to close up under fire from a German sniper only to see their half effect fire miss with all six dice.

The squad by the lower house did their best to bring some relief

The final throw came as the sole Sherman tank rolled on to the table to try and equalise the fire-fight by putting its HE into a field full of Germans but the situation proved hopeless and without the first turn ending the US morale broke under the onslaught leaving a return battle back on the main road at Arthenay on Tuesday as the Germans opted to push the Americans back to the road and let them try to take the position yet again.

I know lets try using the tank!

I have not played another game that generates quite the same sense of feeling a plan fall apart on first contact with the enemy quite like the one Chain of Command creates.

In the end you can plan and plan and hopefully more often than not those sequences of play you had prepared for come out in favour of those plans but sometimes there are aspects of the game you simply cannot plan for like rolling twenty d6 and not getting a single five - a bit like a real battle, but thankfully all our metal men get to fight another day.

So as things stand we are on to game six with three US wins, one bloody draw and one German win.

More anon
JJ

Chain of Command - 29 Let's Go, Game Four

The US troops press on into St Germain du Pert on a mopping up operation after a hard battle to take the village

Last week we played our fourth game in our linked campaign with a replay of scenario three in '29 Lets Go' that sees us refighting on table three on the map below, looking to clear the village of St. Germain du Pert of German troops who have been enfilading the main road to Osmanville with their fire.

The link below will take you to the first post covering our initial games in this campaign and the background to starting it.

Chain of Command - Devil is in the Detail

In the last game Ian, commanding the German forces, forced Steve and I to go away and rethink this battle after we had only just grabbed a bloody draw after seemingly been staring our first defeat full in the eyes.

On reflection we felt we had not stretched the German defences enough, but worst still had our troops poorly deployed and unable to mutually support one another leading to our attacks going in piecemeal and being defeated whilst others could only look on and do nothing to help.

This time we were determined to do things differently and not squander the opportunity to get the US series of wins back on the road, conscious that poor old Ian was probably reeling from the casualties he sustained in the last battle for this village with a lot less opportunity to repair those losses than us.

The picture above gives an idea in the slight change made to the US attack in that this time all three US squads supported by their two platoon commanders deployed supporting each other around the hedged field top left with two bazookas and a flamethrower attached.

In addition the US tanks quickly deployed from the road taking advantage of an extra vehicle with a troop commander aboard better able to coordinate their movements and set up over-watch as the US infantry closed on the nearest building.

We had concluded from the last game that it was imperative for our tanks to get onto table first and get deployed wide of the road to give them over-watch down the road into the village able to reply on any deployment by the Germans be that infantry weapons or Marder IIIs from behind the rearward buildings, that so badly shot up our infantry in the last battle.

The battle reflected the casualties sustained in the last fight as far as the Germans were concerned in that Ian could only afford to hold one part of the village in force and he had decided to make the church and its high walled graveyard his main point of defence, leaving the farm buildings, that had caused us so many casualties in the last attack, open to being taken quickly by a squad of our infantry.

However the reward the German force attained for its repulse of the first US attack was an opportunity to strengthen their position with the addition of a minefield that they chose to place astride the road next to the church wall, as seen in the picture above.

That said, the squad approaching the corner of the churchyard, using the hedgerow as cover, whilst others were on over-watch during their movement suddenly caught the wrath of the MG42 and its supporting riflemen as up they popped along the church wall and delivered a withering fire.

However this time they invited a prompt response as both a supporting squad of infantry to their right and three Shermans on over-watch to their front, replied with small arms, machine-guns and HE fire that punched holes in the wall and killed and wounded the troops along it.

Ian's men were taking a beating in the firefight and so he deployed the Panzerschreck that missed our tanks in the last battle but left the armoured troops cautious about getting to close to the buildings in this particular battle.

It still took the German team two more shots to get a successful strike against the American tanks but in the end a rocket streaked out across the open ground and the first tank was struck effectively enough to knock it out hitting the troop commander's vehicle in the centre; but luckily both he and his crew made a successful bail out and retreated to the safety of the hedgerow behind, as their tank cooked off.

Whilst the duel between the German infantry and US armour went on the US infantry closed on the village, taking the farmhouse on the furthest side of the road from the church and deploying the flamethrower in the field, to fire its deadly load into the churchyard via the large iron gates facing the road, catching German troops falling back from the battle they had had on the front wall.

The effects in terms of casualties were moderate, but the effects of double shock were most impressive and when further rounds of tank HE and hull machine-gun fire were thrown in for good measure, the German troops in the church-yard were left reeling and forced to try and take cover as best they could, behind the building.

Facing this onslaught of fire the Germans were left with no other card to play other than trying to get the Marder's into the fight, but this time the Americans were ready for such an eventuality and the US tanks were well sighted along the road to get in an early strike damaging the gun on one of the arrivals, leaving it with just its machine-gun.

Now occupying the farm house, the US infantry were also able to deploy the bazookas with one achieving a hit causing shock on the offending crew but leaving the Marder in a dangerously close position to the infantry nearby.

With the German command teetering on one more morale point to cause them to break off the combat, the US tanks fired and one got a grazing shot on the hull of the German AFV that was not enough to knock it out but serious enough to cause its crew to abandon it and enough to break the Germans will to resist any further.

Wow! What a game, the best so far. All of us around that table were exhausted with the tension the game produced in that the battle was both hard fought and never predictable, being only over when it was over.

Ian played a hard, well fought defence with limited resources and pushed the American force to battle for a win all the way and both Steve and I were as much relieved at closing the game out as any other feeling.

Our platoon earning a well earned break after four gruelling battles clearing the road to Isigny

This week we are taking a break from our normal Tuesday gathering but will be back next week to resume the fight along the coast from Omaha beach to Isigny as our troops are ordered to neutralise the threat of a German held position to the right of the road, the radar station at Cardonville, table four.

So far in our four games we have committed a total of four platoons with attached support, totalling 189 men and nine Sherman tanks.

Our losses have not been inconsequential with fifty men killed and wounded and four of the Shermans knocked out.

In return we have killed an estimated twenty-one German soldiers, injured another twenty and knocked out a Marder III and a 7.5cm infantry gun.

Still lots of hard fighting ahead with at least two more scenarios to go and Ian, Steve and myself are progressing up the learning curve in discovering the delights that Chain of Command has to offer.

Thanks to Jason for setting up the games with his delightful collection and guidance throughout.

More anon
JJ