On the Border

 Another last Friday in the month, and another big face to face game at the local hall. This time Tim hosted a huge Little Cold Wars game in 54mm. This was set in August 1961 in the BAOR sector of West Germany, just as the Berlin Wall was going up. Tensions were rising and the local police reported the sound of heavy engines on the other side of the border.

I was in command of 9th Brigade, BAOR, with Lloyd and Matt my trusty battlegroup commanders.

The hordes of Reds were John, Russell and Tom, all commanded by Pete.

There was a certain degree of pre planning beforehand, I had to mark out the brigade covering positions, war positions and fallback lines, while the Warpac did whatever planning it is that they do. We were aided by the provision of original 1980s BAOR maps of the area, which are very handy.

In the end we only modelled the line of main effort, so portions of 9th Brigade on the flanks were omitted from the game. View looking west from the Inner German Border. 

This is Wittingen, close to the border.

The vital bridge over the Elbe See Kanal.

And behind the canal, Hankensbuttel.

(Some) of the Warpac forces. Looks like two two Tank Regiments, each with two tank and one motor rifle Bn plus various other assets. The baddies were Russell, John and Tom.

The British 9th Armoured Brigade, 10th RTR, 1st Royal Highland Fusiliers and 2nd Yorks and Lancs. I was the brigade commander with Lloyd and Matt as my trusty subordinates. I'd had to do a wartime deployment plan covering a 10km front, and as the game only focussed on about 6km, various bits of the brigade were missing - basically two infantry companies and a platoon from each of the Centurian Squadrons. I divvied the forces up into three infantry heavy battlegroups of two infantry companies and one tank squadron, but stripping out the flank cover  left 1RHL and 2YL with two companies and a tank squadron each, but all that was left of 10 RTR was one reduced squadron of Centurians plus the brigade engineer company as a reserve. 

Centurians and Saracens places this firmly in the early 1960s. I had planned to use these great tank transporter models to rush our tanks to the front as the tanks were parked up back in Celle as tensions rose.

The covering force was a recce squadron up on the border, with forward rifle companies from 1RHL and 2YL holding the key river crossings until the rest of the brigade to move up. Here are 1RHL on the main road.

Various RAF planes available, including an Auster, Venom, Swift and the mighty Javelin which looks the size of a Vulcan next to the others. A glorious age for British jets!

The baddies had lots of planes. Various MiGs, a great big bomber whose name escapes me and a chopper.

Hostilities opened with enemy helicopters crossing the border.

Supported by waves of MiGs and a massive artillery stonk on Wittingen.

Russells arrival turned out to be bringing yet another enemy Tank Regiment with him. This one seemed to have a scary looking FROG in support as well....

The choppers were followed by these huge transport planes as the plucky Bofors team behind Hankensbuttel blazed away. These planes disgorged lots of Russian paras all over our rear areas, including the vital roads for reinforcements. 

The lead DDR Tank Regiment moved up to the border, Infantry mounted on the back. 

The Sov paras had brought some ASU85s with them. With the roads interdicted, the Centurians had got off their transporters and were driving cross country instead.

Soviet MiGs dropped bombs on the bridge defenders.

While 2YL was turned back by by 'German traffic police' and had to take the scenic route to the front.

1RHF squared off against the Sov paras and the British infantry dismounted. It was a very long way to walk to the front from there...

Meanwhile I sent the Brigade Engineer Company to talk to the 'German Police'. Along with their truck, the engineers had brought an Centurian AVRE with them.

The AVRE had a 165mm demolition gun firing cannister, which was very useful when the 'German Police' turned out to be Spetznaz... Cannister fire was simulated with a Party Popper.

Back the border, hordes of Russians were rolling forwards. The lead Tank Battalion curiously had lots of infantry riding on the back. It turned out these were a Penal Battalion. The Auster flew over to have a look and called in some ranging shots from the Royal Artillery.

Back in the rear, the 1RHF infantry took out a platoon of VDV, while the Centurians hurried past, heading for the front.

Wittiingen was now a smoking ruin having been repeatedly shelled and bombed, the waves of T55s got closer.

The Javelin had a go at the tanks but was driven off by AA fire.

Having cleared the obstruction at the roadblock, 10th RTR and Briagde HQ came rolling on. The engineers set off para hunting.

Russells penal battalion cleared Wittingden, while the other Soviet tanks bypassed the town to the north.

South of Hankensbuttel, 2YL were busy getting into position. The Centurians hull down up on the ridge covering the canal, and the Wombat moving to provide flanking fire.

A good job too as suddenly lots of enemy tanks were near the canal.

With even more crossing the border behind. 'Space Invaders on the Rhine' indeed.

The armoured wedge north of the town was commanded by Tom. They had a very prominent bridge layer with them, so it was easy to guess where they were headed.

View from the British end. 1RHF has finally got its Centurians onto the ridge north of the town but the infantry are still mopping up paras. 2YL on the right is in a good position (there is another bridge on the right near where Lloyd can be seen kneeling). 10th RTR is in position in reserve in the woods nearest the camera. The lone stand in the open in the middle is a Soviet air dropped ZSU AA gun! It spent several turns duelling with the Bofors battery just behind the town... 

Russells boys line up to assault the bridge, and Toms line up to prepare an assault river crossing. A heavy 'T10' (it is actually an IS-II) coming up the road. 

The penal battalion overruns the forward RHF company. The puff is British artillery fire. The Centurians knock some T55s out, but there are loads more.

There is an unseemly scrap for the bridge, while Tom flicks through to the 'river crossing' section of the manual.

View from the 2YL tank position. A Target Rich Environment.

And from the 1RHF tank position. Sadly both Centurians succumbed to a veritable wall of T55 fire as the enemy got their bridge into position behind a smoke screen.

Meanwhile, in the relative quiet of the rear (:most of the VDV had been mopped up by now), I set up Brigade HQ. All the toys were in the box, so why not?

Leaving a trail of burning T55s and dead Penal Battalion Infantry behind it, the T10 forced its way across the southern bridge. The central bridge was too choked with knocked out vehicles. Both attempts at demolition by the British failed.

And in the north, a column of T55s crossed the newly laid bridge.

The RAF Swift carried out a recce flight down the main road and confirmed there were loads more Russian tanks on the way.

The Russian tank column was now approaching the 2YL ridge and 75% of their Centurians were lost. The infantry in the wood were in danger of being cut off. 

And in the north, columns of tanks approached the ridge as the infantry prepared to make a last stand on the reverse slope.

With that, it was time to bug out to the next line (where 10th RTR were located) while we still had some troops left, so we called it a day. A clear, if bloody, win for the Russians - although in the envent they turned out to be entirely DDR troops. A cunning DDR operation aimed just at BAOR to take the pressure off Berlin as the Wall was just going up.

That was a very enjoyable game, I particularly liked all the pre-game planning (Tim knows what I like!) and the mounds of kit was very impressive, especially all the 1960s British kit. I was expecting his SLR infantry in DPM, but no, they were all in olive green Combat Dress and armed with EM2 bullpup rifles! Amazing, no idea where those figurs came from. It also had the distinction of being the largest Little Cold Wars game ever played inside.

Many thanks to Tim for putting it on, and for my fellow players for entering into the spirit of it.