The '45 with Dominion of... Part 3

 Well, we have finally made it to the big one, Culloden in April 1746, but first there is the small matter of Littleferry, which was fought the day before.

Prince Charlie was concentrating his army at Inverness and had sent the Earl of Cromartie north to look for supplies. This force was marching back south towards Littleferry when it was ambushed by loyal Scots forces (mainly Sutherlands under Ensign Mackay) and attacked in the rear. This was a tiny engagement, a few hundred men on each side, so in 2mm is actually over-represented, figure wise. 

Battlefield from the south. Descriptions of it are a bit vague but I've put the river on to represent the shore of Loch Fleet which is in the Jacobite rear with Littleferry as the town with their baggage. There should be some hills on the right, from whence the Sutherlanders came.

The Jacobites have six units of (surprised) Claymores and are nearest the camera facing north. The Sutherlands have two Elite Muskets (Independant Companies) and three normal muskets (local militia). The two Elites are on the British right. I didn't mark them, but they have different flags to the line units.

Claymores against muskets doesn't bode well in the absence of any Jacobite advantages.

The British are attacking and engage with one of their Elites on the left, which is indecisive. The Jacobites attack the line unit on the right are are shot down by musket fire. This was a better matchup, but the muskets are still hitting on 4+.

Both flanks engage again, and this time the Hanoverian Elites mow down some Highlanders.

More carnage among the Highlanders, no government losses so far. The routers are piling up in the Loch (where irl many of them drowned trying to escape).

The Highlanders finally manage to rout one of the muskets, but another steps up to take its place. On the left more Highlanders are mown down. Not looking good now, and the Scots fail to rally.

Last round and a complete wipeout of the Scots, which was the historical result. Charles had to make do without both these troops and their supplies at Culloden the following day. The Earl of Cromartie was captured after the battle and put on trial for High Treason (and amazingly escaped execution).

Well, lets give that another go and see if it is as onesided as it seems.

Well, in a shock development the Highlanders manage to rout one of the Elites in turn 1! But lose a unit themselves. Reserves move up.

The Sutherlands are obviously not feeling it today. Another one heads for the rear, but so does another Jacobite. The Sutherlands still have one Elite left in the centre so that is where they focus their energy (as it hits a Claymore on 3+ and gets to fire first).

And suddenly things aren't looking too good for the Jacobites. Two more of them head for the rear, no losses to the Sutherlands.

The Scots do manage to rally one unit though, who moves up to fill the gap. It doesn't help as the Elites blow a big hole in the Jacobite centre.

And then we are back where we were in the previous game, with lots of Highlanders fleeing across the Loch or surrendering. I think that fairly amply demonstrates that melee infantry in this period don't really stand a chance against muskets, unless they have some sort of terrain or morale advantage, which is as it should be.

Righto, onto Culloden, which was fought the day after Littleferry and followed a catastrophic attempt by the Jacobites to make a night attack on the Duke of Cumberlands position. The attack fell into confusion in the darkness and Charles' army fell back before making contact and left the army exhausted and demoralised the following day.

The field of Culloden (near Inverness), view from the east. The Jacobites are drawn up in the west between two enclosures (which I've marked with walled farms) and with a river in their right rear. The front line is Claymores, the one on the left is Elite the rest normal to reflect demoralisation. Normally I'd swap 'Elite' for 'Disciplined' but as the Jacobite attack in this battle was an act of desperation I've left them as Elite. Their second line are two musket units, one of which is Elite (The Royal Ecossaise) - the Elites have white and yellow flags. Prince Charles is in the rear with the baggage.

Cumberland is nearest the camera with an all arms force, artillery and two Elite muskets in the front line and Cavalry (Dragoons) and a line musket in reserve. The Jacobites are attacking in this scenario.

The action opens on the left, as it did historically. The first round of fire is ineffective but the Jacobites attack here too and rout the guns. It is a much more favourable matchup here than charging those elite muskets.

The next round is pretty brutal, two of the Claymores are routed and the Jacobite muskets move up to fill the gaps (The Royal Scots are on the left).

The Royals and their opponents suffer mutual annihilation! The Dragoons fill the gap, as they did historically.

But the Jacobites have got the bit between their teeth now and win both the fights on each flank. Cumberland fails to rally and Charles Stuart is the winner. History is reversed! Bonnie Prince Charlie has beaten the Hanoverians. 

Well that was exciting, time to try again.

This time Cumberland routs the Jacbobite right in  the first round, the Royals fill the gap.

A very bloody turn sees Cumberland rout both the left and right Jacobite flanks, the Royal Scots take out one of the Elite musketeers as well though. The British artillery are doing a very fine job!

The Scots rally their line muskets and this time it is Cumberland who loses a unit. The artillery hang on but the other Elite in the centre is routed and the Dragoons go in.

The battle is suddenly going 'oblique' - each side routs the others right flank. No-one has any reserves any more now.

Mutual flank attacks rout the centre of both sides. 

The last Jacobite musket needs a 4+ to hit the British artillery, and gets to fire first as it is a flank attack. They duly roll a 5 and it is game over for Cumberland. If they had missed, the artillery would have returned the favour with their own flank attack.

Another Jacobite win but that was actually very close. The Culloden scenario is very interesting in terms of the troop and types and matchups and seems very well balanced. One change to try would be to make the Elite Claymore into a Disciplined Claymore instead.

I really enjoyed that series of games, it really brought the Jacobite Rebellion to life and each of the scenarios captured the essence of each engagement with its own unique flavour. I know this sort of thing is too lightweight for a lot of peoples tastes, but for me it very much met the AHGC mission of 'Bringing history to life'. I'm looking forward to trying out more games in the series, particularly those I can link into a mini campaign, or at least historically sequential in the real campaign setting. I must get some more 2mm bits and pieces as well, now that the Irregular 2mm range is available again. It makes dong these sorts of things so easy, without having to paint loads of larger scale soldiers who are lucky to get used more than once.

Sink the Bismarck!

 Another week, another team play outing on a solo game, this time Worthington Games 'Bismarck'. Rules summary etc here: https://www.worthingtonpublishing.com/bismarck-solitaire

The solo game is aimed at playing it from the German players pov, but for this game Jim also had some British player(s), namely John and Jerry running the Home Fleet and RAF/Coastal Command respectively. 

The Kriegsmarine were Mark (Bismarck and CinC), myself (Prinz Eugen) and Tim (U Boat Fleet).

The Germans roll up a random mission, and ours was help the effort in North Africa by staging a strong raid into the North Atlantic, sinking at least 8 points of ships and ideally at least three convoys, then returning to Bergen or Brest at some point after turn 15. To give an idea of VPs, Hood is worth 3, PoW 4 and a convoy just 1, so we'd need to do rather better than historically to 'win'.

The campaign was plotted on this map of the North Atlantic, it has an 8x8 grid of major sea areas, each subdivided into four quadrants. Our ships started at sea east of Iceland and north of Scotland.

The ship stats can be seen underneath, combat is really simple in these - ships have flotation boxes (eg Prinz Eugen has six as does Hood) and they are sunk when they are all crossed off. Ships typically fire 2-3 dice each round of combat, hitting on a 1-3 (why not 4-6 ffs?), so combat is very attritional. No sinking Hood with one salvo.

The Germans can try and close or extend the range with various bonuses and penalties and both sides can opt to break off after a round of combat, but breakoffs aren't automatic.

On the first turn, the Germans declared where they were, but after that we used hidden movement, communicating via the Zoom chat function.

And here is the Bismarck! A fine old ship. Its speed was 2 sea quadrants, but could burn extra fuel to move 3, whereas PE could do 3 quadrants, 4 on maximum speed. Extra fuel was limited however, Prinz Eugen had two loads and Bismarck four.

So what made the whole game work is this fearsome looking chart. There are several different versions of these (you dice for which one to use for a particular mission), and each turn you dice to see which of the twelve sub charts are used.

The various different coloured boxes show effect patterns on the main map for different types of encounter ie they semi randomise the encounter types in the various boxes of the main map. eg the pink boxes are Hood and Prince of Wales, the light blue boxes are various types of RAF/RFA activity, the orange boxes are convoys. If any German ships are in any of the coloured boxes for a particular chart, then a potential encounter takes place. On this sheet charts 1, 3 and 2 are particularly depressing as the entire Home Fleet scours much of the North Atlantic. Presumably this mechanism is to maximise the solo replay value, but it is an interesting concept I've not come across before.

Anyway, briefly our sortie via the Denmark Strait was intercepted by Hood and Prince of Wales. Admiral Lutjens was a bit gung go and closed the range and we managed to sink both Hood and PoE! Sadly this was at the expense of damage to both our ships, which didn't bode well for the rest of the trip. Prinz Eugen actually delivered the final blows to both British battleships (torpedoes maybe?).

While this was going on the U Boats were having a fine old time attacking convoys and we rapidly gained 9 VP, more than enough for mission success. 

After that the Germans played it safe and skirted across to Greenland and then due south. Prinz Eugen was released to head south to the convoy routes and then to Brest, while Bismarck played at fleet in being and floated gently back towards Bergen. 

Prinz Eugen did make it down the convoy routes and found a convoy, only to discover it was escorted by HMS Repulse! It turned out on encounter sheet 2 that all the convoys were escorted by battleships, which we hadn't realised.

Taking on a Battlecruiser in an 8" cruiser seemed a very foolhardy thing to do, but the Germans were forced to fight one round of combat anyway. I focussed on the convoy and hit it, but Repulse in turn hit the Eugen. Down to two hits left I tried to break off, failed and took another hit!

I finally managed to break off and headed for Brest at top speed sailing due west. I burned all my extra fuel and made it to the map square just outside Brest. At this point, inevitably, the RN rolled chart 12 and poor old Prinz Eugen had an encounter with King George V just outside the port. I managed to extend the range which saved me from one salvo, but then  although the breakoff attempt succeeded, took another hit and poor old Prinz Eugen limped into Brest with irreparable damage and was classed as 'sunk'.

What a shame. With hindsight I should have sailed south into Biscay then run into Brest from the south at top speed, which would have avoided the British patrols, but hey ho, hindsight is a wonderful thing. At least Bismarck made it back to Bergen, albeit missing half its flotation points.

Totting up the the VPs, we got seven for Hood and PoW, five more for convoys sunk and lost three for losing PE. Net total nine, so a decisive victory, as we'd sunk more than three convoys as well.

That was really good fun, although the game itself is so abstract in many ways it barely bears much relationship to naval warfare apart from the map plot. Not so much the operational decision making which was OK, but the minutiae of the combat system, such as it was. It worked very well as a team effort, even if Admiral Lutjens couldn't figure out how to use the Zoom chat function, but we are used to doing this sort of thing.

I couldn't make it to the Wednesday session but they were going to try it with a different operations map sheet. Many thanks to Jim for putting it on. 

Battlefield 3D Resin Tiger Trio Pt 1.

 As regular readers will be aware, I already have a number of (metal) Tiger 1s, so why on earth do I need more of them? Well, Tigers crop in all sorts of interesting places and I've frequently been vaguely unhappy with eg using a midwar Tiger as a stand-in for Panzer Company Hummel at Arnhem in late 1944 etc. Anyway, I thought it was time to bite the bullet and scratch this particular obsessive itch. My metal Tiger 1s are all fairly standard mid production models.

And here we are, three Battlefield 3D resin Tiger 1s undercoated and ready to be painted. They all look so similar and yet.... 

Being quite large vehicles, these are all four part models. Hull, turret and a pair of tracks. The master STLs are by Night Sky Miniatures who also did some of the excellent US vehicles I recently got. These are proper scale models, so some of the detail is quite fine.

This is an early production hull and turret. You can see the primitive commanders cupola.

And obviously the engine deck is festooned with all the gubbins which makes up the Fiefel air filters. This one has the smaller straight sided turret bin.

The second Tiger is also an early production model, identical to the first except it has a mid production angled turret bin on the early model turret. This was a custom print very kindly made up by Phil at Battlefield 3D.

And finally we have a vehicle I've never owned before (unless you count the very bodged Airfix kit and a few 6mm ones), a late production Tiger with the Tiger II style steel rimmed wheels. These were far and away the most common types in Northwest Europe in 1944.

Along with the turret being festooned with track links, it also has the later cupola and AAMG mount.

The engine deck is also free of Feifel gubbins. If you look very, very carefully, the hull and turret sides are also covered in Zimmeritt, although in this scale the corrugations very fine.

I don't usually put up pictures of vehicles in undercoat, but it illustrates how they end up when I've prepped them. I usually do them in matt black, then mist them with white spray from about 2' away. It gives an excellent 'tooth' for the top coat and also provides some instant highlights and shading, if you put the paint on thin. The contrast is more marked than the photos show. Many thanks to Dr Faustus Painting Clinic for that method. 

I've got specific plans for each one of these, and I'll post up each model as they are done. That will be bring me up to six Tiger 1s, four Tiger IIs and one Jagdtiger. 

August Storm, the 1945 Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria

 I recently read 'August Storm' by David Glantz. As the title suggests, it covers the Soviet offensive into Manchuria in August 1945. 

Like many of Glantz's campaign histories this is liberally sprinkled with very legible maps, full orders of battle and the sorts of things I like such as the detailed March Order of various types of military formations.

The campaign itself was primarily a victory of logistics - the Soviets managed to manouvre overwhelming forces into the places the Japanese didn't expect and at a rate they didn't expect, so the overall defence just fell apart in a matter of days. Tactically the few Japanese units which were seriously engaged fought well, but but general they were outmanouvred, outflanked and either largely cut off and left to wither on the vine or fell back precipitously before surrendering.

The stuff on Soviet planning, force structures and execution of operational manouvre are fascinating though, particularly the way the force structures carried over into the postwar Soviet Army eg the vast majority of the Rifle Divisions had attached Tank Regiments or Tank Brigades which prefigured postwar Motor Rifle Divisions. Colonel Glantz's style can be a little repetitious and hectoring at times, but that doesn't detract from the content. The sections on riverine warfare in particular were every interesting and something I know little about in the context of the USSR.  Based on the very lengthy and detailed Orbats, it is a theatre which also involve the deployment of many, many armoured trains. 

As it is available for free from the US Army military press, it is hard to argue with the price either! Highly recommended.

It is available for download here: https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Glantz-lp7.pdf

One Hour Drop Too Far, Arnhem 17th September 1944

 As it was September I wanted to run an Arnhem scenario. I'd done quite a few during lockdown using NATO Brigade Commander, but this particular one I'd only run at the Sheffield club some years ago using John As 'Battlegroup' rules so I thought it was suitable for the One Hour WW2 treatment. The original scenario is from the Command Decision Scenario book 'Market Garden' and its full title is 'A Drop Too Far, or a drop too far from the bridge?'. It covers 1st Airborne Brigade on the afternoon of 17th September 1944.

Battlefield from the south, you can see it is heavily wooded. I've cycled along the airborne route to Arnhem and it gives you a good feel for the terrain.   Oosterbeek is in the bottom right, Wolfheze station top left on the railway line and the Hartenstein Hotel is right in the middle just south of the railway next to a T junction. The grey road at the bottom is the main road to Utrecht (Utrechtsweg) and the one at the top right is the main road ot Amsterdam (Amsterdamweg). Deelen Airfield is off to the northeast and Arnhem itself is off to the east. There are five objective locations, Wolfheze, the road exit down the Amsterdamweg, two hexes in Oosterbeek and the Hartenstein. The British need to capture four to win.

Sadly for the British Kraffts 16th SS Training Battalion is in the way. I've used the scenario setup, but irl one of these companies was further south. 4 Ko is at Hartenstein accompained by an SP Flak platoon, 9 Ko is at Vallenburg on the west side of Osterbeek with the mighty battalion AT platoon (Pak 36!) and the battalion mortar platoon provides indirect fire support. I'm using company sized elements for this. 

There is a destroyed German artillery park burning northeast of the Hartenstein.  John B and Russell are commanding the Germans, with Tim joining. on Tuesday. This game attracted an insane number of players for a remote game, but I wanted to keep the Germans as a tight team with just a couple of commanders.

Up at Wolfheze, 2nd Ko is dug in accompanied by the engineer platoon. Historically these are the guys who ambushed Goughs 1st recce squadron. I'm going to deploy all the German starting forces as hidden, as the 1st Airborne Brigade didn't have a clue they were there although the South Staffs had already skirmished with them.

West of Wolfheze Station is a burning Flak train, destroyed by the RAF. There also various Dutch civilians lurking in the woods, including some escaped patients from the nearby psychiatric asylum.

Up on the Amsterdamweg, 9th SS recce battalion already has armoured car patrols motoring up and down the highway. The 9th SS response was so fast that these guys were deployed before 1st Airborne Brigade had even moved off its DZ. They spent some time motoring up and down here unable to find any British paras, and then motored off to Nijmegen to try and find anyone down there, crossing the Arnhem bridge before 2nd Bn got there. Thanks to the crazy assignment of priorities in the 82nd Airborne sector (just one company assigned to take Nijmegen Bridge), they didn't find any US paras in Nijmegen either.

The South Staffs noticed the German armour on the main road and actually sent a fairly decent sighting report of '20 tanks and halftracks' on the main road, but it never made it to 1st Para Brigade.

On the way are the immediate reinforcements, KG Weber, a bunch of Luftwaffe signallers handed rifles and sent south and KG von Allworden, the 9th SS Panzerjaeger battalion. KG Weber aren't very good and I'm treating them as raw light infantry (so 1D6 at long range) as they haven't got any heavy weapons. KG von Allworden are a different matter, these are veteran SS troops with a company or so of dismounted panzerjager crews operating as infantry and the only actually functional fully tracked AFVs possessed by 9th SS, a pair of Jagdpanzer IVs. 9th SS may have also had a pair of Panthers, accounts vary. The Jagdpanzers should be L48s but I only have L70s, and I'm assuming some SP Flak is with them too as some SPAA guns were in action very quickly. The British reported these as Stugs or 'SP guns'.

irl these guys were in a blocking position on the Amsterdamweg north of Oosterbeek long before the Paras even got marching, but for game balance reasons, they rock up on turn 6.

The Germans threw more and more troops from 9th SS into this blocking detachment overnight, as they mobilised including at least a dozen SP Flak guns and two battalions of artillery crews fighting as infantry, eventually becoming KG Spindler under the 9th SS Artillery Regiment CO.

The top left of the battlefield is part of the 1st Airlanding Brigade LZ, so there are a few gliders scattered around. 1st Airlanding dropped closer to Arnhem where the terrain was better for gliders, but had the job of securing the LZs. There are a couple of platoons from the South Staffs in the woods staking out a perimeter and a small group of Germans on bicycles checking out the gliders. Well, they did say there would just be old men and bicycles at Arnhem. 

And here is 1st Airborne Brigade. 1st and 3rd Battalions anyway. 2nd  Battalion is down on the river road. All the Para units are rated as Veterans. John A is overall commander. I had loads and loads of players so I gave most of them to the British to reflect the breakdown of communications and the very hesitant British advance.

First up we have Freddie Goughs 1st Airborne Recce Squadron. Despite what Cornelius Ryan said, most of the jeeps survived the landing and they formed up to lead the coup de main via Wolfheze and then into Arnhem. John will run Gough along with the brigade.

Behind them coming up the road to Wolfheze we have 1st Para Bn with three rifle companies, one of which is accompanied by engineers and the other by the battalion MG/Mortar platoon. Jerry and Michael are running these, with Michael being replaced by Jim on Wednesday and Ian joining in too.

Behind them we have 3rd Battalion, run by Pete and Simon. One company is accompanied by towed 6pdrs and the other by the MG/Mortar platoon. They enter in the northwest corner over the LZ.

In support we have two batteries of pack 75mm guns from 1st Royal Airlanding Artillery Regiment and a couple of jeeps towing supplies. The guns have three fire missions each. There are also figures for Brigadier Lathbury and General Urquhart, who may roll up at some point. The British have comms problems so messages only get through on a 3+.

And of course we have fleets of aircraft. The Dakotas are just for fun but I'm allowing the British to have RAF interdiction strikes on the German logistics even though the main wave of raids is over. They will get a good chance of one strike per turn, either of B-25s or Mosquitos.

So, to battle....

Goughs Jeeps rolled up the road to Wolfheze passing cheering crowds of Dutch civilians. They were flagged down by some South Staffs who vaguely indicated that there were 'some Germans down the road', but they pressed on to Wolfheze Station. 1st Para marched in column behind them.

3rd Para marched on across the LZ, past odd figures in robes in the woods. The Germans on bicycles inspecting the gliders ran away, but the paras ran onto some more South Staffs who reported 'at least 20 German tanks and armoured cars on the main road'. Nothing was in sight however.

All hell then broke loose as 2/16th SS spring their trap. Mortar bombs, MG fire and even flamethrowers tore into Goughs jeeps. Even worse, 4/16th SS with their SP Flak opened up on them from the Hartenstein. Gough took enough damage to become disorganised.

The British response was swift and brutal. Gough withdrew into the woods south of the railway to reorganise, while the leading companies of 1st Para shook out into combat formation. 2/16th SS was plastered with 75mm artillery fire and suppressed. The German return fire suppressed B/1 Para but was otherwise fairly ineffective. 3rd Para meanwhile marched across the heathland towards the Amsterdamweg, undeterred by tales of German armour.

The combat debut of my Mosquito! It rolled up and strafed the German logistics units, carefully avoiding the ambulance. 

Every single available British unit opened up on 2/16th SS, including most of 3rd Para. This was enough to disorganise them and the Germans wisely fell back down the track to some woods. Krafft called up his 9th company to support 4/16 SS at Hartenstein but otherwise there was something of a lull in the German fire as the Germans resupplied their mortars. Some German armoured cars appeared on the Amsterdamweg and motored off into the distance. They didn't seem overly bothered by the Paras milling around the gliders.

With Wolfheze clear, Gough was able to get his reorganised Jeeps under the railway embankment and north of the railway. 3rd Para resumed their march eastwards and made it onto the Amsterdamweg, just as KG Weber appeared and blocked the highway. 1st Para redeployed to attack the Hartenstein but took heavy fire from Kraffts 4th and 9th companies. In turn the British artillery shelled the hotel and grounds. 2/16th SS was well out of harms way and reorganised.

Next turn saw a general British advance. 3rd Para deployed to attack KG Weber. Gough pushed his Jeeps up to recce 2/16th SS. 1st Para lined up to attack Hartenstein and the combination of small arms and artillery fire was enough to disorganise 4/16th SS. It turned out I'd made a mistake in the briefings and got 1st and 3rd Para mixed up in terms of unit objectives, but a conference between Gough, Fitch and Dobie sorted it out and everyone set off in the correct directions. 

The reorganised 2/16th SS shot up Goughs jeeps again, but to far less effect this time. 4/16th SS fell back down the road to Oosterbeek covered by 9/16th SS.

In the north 3rd Para laid down a hail of fire on KG Weber, enough to disorganise it, followed up by a charge by A/3 Para which was enough to rout the hastily armed Luftwaffe signallers.

2/16th SS had also taken a battering and fell back disorganised towards Hejendal. In the nick of time however, KG von Allworden (9th SS Panzerjaeger battalion) turned up and blocked the main road.

Meanwhile 1st Para took the Hartenstein as 4/16th SS reorganised. A/1 Para was badly shot up as it tried to attack 9/16th SS over open ground and became disorganised. At the end of turn 6, the British are are actually making decent progress towards their objectives and have captured two of the four required.

We broke for the evening there and would resume operations the following day.

A bit of a personnel change on Wednesday, Micheal had to leave us but we were joined by Tim, Ian and Jim. Pete was also having persistent wifi problems so I had a bit of a rejig of the British. Simon, Ian and Pete ran 3rd Para while Jerry and Jim took 1st Para. John B stepped back to overall command of the Germans so Tim took over 4/16 SS and 9/16 SS while Russell had 2/16 SS and KG von Allworden.

2/16th was first victim, already disorganised and left in the open west of Hejendal, concentrated fire  from 1st Recce Squadron, 3rd Para and 1st Airborne artillery sent them back to reorganise further east and they vanished from the table.

4/16 SS and 9/16 SS continued their fighting withdrawal into Oosterbeek covered by the 120mm mortars. The dense terrain frustrated the British efforts to concentrate fire on them, and the British kept taking losses and having to stop to reorganise. They kept up a steady pressure on the SS however who could never quite muster the firepower to actually eliminate a unit.

There was an exciting interlude when General Kussin, commander of the Arnhem garrison, motored down the road right into the Paras and was duly machinegunned in his car. Various gruesome pictures of him hanging out of the door are in Ryans' Bridge Too Far'.

In the north the whole of 3rd Para was deployed now as well as 1s Recce. KG von Allworder didn't fancy the odds and fell back to the woods south of Hejendal carrying a couple of hits.

Back in Oosterbeek 9/16 SS fell back in disorder but 4/16 SS shot up C/1st Para quite badly and they became disorganised. B/3rd Para infiltrated down the railway line to the underpass.

To everyones amazement, massed fire from 3rd Para and 1st Recce (plus the divisional artillery) convinced KG von Allworden to head for home, leaving their Jagdpanzers behind. The British did roll four 5s and 6s on their combat dice, so they were somewhat fortunate. The German northern flank had completely collapsed and B/3 Para advanced into the vacuum. Brigadier Lathbury had meanwhile turned up at 3rd Para HQ asking what was going on.

Meanwhile back in Oosterbeek 16th SS were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. The British reorganised C/1st Para covered by A/1st Para but B/1st Para was very badly shot up by 4/16th SS. It was reduced to a single hit and became (very) disorganised. 

3rd Para and 1st Recce took Hejendal and set off to capture Oosterbeek Station, which would open a road route into Arnhem (the Amsterdamweg being thoroughly blocked by offtable German units by now). The marching columns looked rather grand! Lathbury had been joined by General Urquarrt himself, equally bemused by the situation. Later both senior officers would become cut off in the western outskirts of Arnhem, leaving 1st Para Brigade and 1st Airborne Division leaderless. Lathbury was seriously wounded escaping the encirclement.

16th SS were doing a good job holding off 1st Para, but the British superiority of numbers and (at this stage of the battle) logistics was beginning to tell. 1st Airborne arty stonked 4/16th SS who fell back to reorganise.  

By now 3rd Para was entering the fray from the northeast and the British communications were obviously working well for a change as once more they called down a devastating stonk on 9/16 SS who fell back to avoid encirclement. The German ambulances (fortunately spared from repeated bombing raids) were kept very busy. It was a case of Festung Oosterbeek now.

Outnumbered 3:1 it was just a case of time though, and as the Railway Bridge exploded down by the Rhine, 9/16th SS melted away and 4/16th SS became disorganised. The British held four objectives and there was no hope of the Germans retaking one in the last two turns so we called it there with a British victory!

Historically 1st Recce never really recovered from the initial ambush at Wolfheze, while 3rd Para got stuck on the northern outskirts of Oosterbeek although they did manage to infiltrate a company down the railway line to the bridge. So well done to the British, they did rather better than historically despite wrestling with bad comms difficult terrain and a lot of ground to cover. The Germans also managed to conduct that hardest of military operations and wargames, a fighting retreat, very effectively and they were perhaps let down by some hot British dice in the last few turns.  

That was quite hard work to run due to the number of players, but despite some confusion it seemed to go well and we reached a conclusion with time to spare, something I was doubtful of after Tuesday evening. Many thanks to players for making it such an enjoyable game and taking part with such enthusiasm. Excellent job on the hats everyone!