Precipice by Robert Harris

 I recently read another one of Robert Harris' excellent historical novels, this time "Precipice", covering the last Liberal Prime Minister of the UK, Herbert Asquith, in the run up to and first part of the First World War. 

Like all  his novels it is meticulously researched, and many of the incidents and much of the reproduced correspondence is true, as in his Cicero trilogy. It is extremely well written and pacey, although some of the characters have clearly been dropped in to aid the narrative and enhance the plot, most of them are real people and we find their eventual fates at the end. 

I dont want to give away the plot, but Tbh the staggering levels of incompetence and entitlement on show are just jaw dropping. As the poor Germans in the infamous Fawlty Towers episode noted "How did they ever win?".  Highly recommended. 

Hedgerow Hell Pt 2 - Vire

 Following on from the previous 'Hedgerow Hell' game covering St Mere Eglise in June 1944, we are now off to the battle for St. Lo. It is July 1944 and the US 9th infantry division is pushing west towards St Lo and has established a bridgehead over the Vire canal near the village of Le Desert. This is another scenario from the 'From Normandy to Lorraine' s enario book converted to One Hour WW2.

Battlefield from the south. The Vire canal is the narrow waterway on the right, it is impassable. Otherwise there is the small town of Le Desert on the main road  in the top right, and the hamlet of La Caplainarie up the dirt track in the top left. The battlefield is otherwise completely covered in horrible bocage hedges, the actual hedge features are representational. The bocage restricts visibility to one hex and offroad vehicular movement to one hex.

The Germans are counterattacking and need to take Le Desert and retain at least a unit adjacent to it at the end. If they take Le Desert and one of the road exits, they immediately win and the US can only play for a draw.

And here are the forces a deployed, a mighty horde indeed.

KG Phillips from Panzer Lehr, transferred to this sector from the Caen front. Tim and Jerry are playing these.

The core strike force is this lot, 130 Jagdpanzer Bn freshly equipped with Jagdpanzer IVs (yes, I know they should L48 not L70s) , the whole of Panzergrenadier Regt 901 mounted in halftracks and supported by SP infantry guns and a company of Panthers, and finally Pz Engineer Bn 130, also in halftracks plus various LOG vehicles (Unimog ambulance, Bergepanzer recovery vehicle and KG HQ). The Unimog featured in last week's blog, and has a temporary ambulance label on it. 

Deploying all these vehicles in the bocage is going to be challenging.

Fairly lavish artillery support. A battalion each of Wespes and Hummels (I substituted my Lorraine 150 for the Hummels) and Army Artillery Bn 628 with 170mm guns! (they should be 210s but I only have a 170). All are a bit short of ammo but the 170s can conduct counter battery fire if they wish. The artillery are protected by Flak , which makes them a harder target for US aircraft than the Germans LOG units.

There is even a minor Luftwaffe presence, some Ju 88s and my newly painted Fw 190-D.

Tacked on to the KG is a battalion from 6th FJR with some towed AT guns. These boys are sneaking up the banks of the canal.

The US force is the 39th Infantry Regiment in and around Le Desert, and elements of 47th Infantry Regiment further west with the 9th Div recon troop filling the gap in La Chaplinarie.

John A and John B are playing these, with Pete and Ian (probably) joining in on Wednesday.

The 47th only has one battalion deployed, at the extreme west of the table. Another battalion supported by Shermans is en route, as is the divisional 899th TD battalion. The 9th Recon Tp is the combat debut of M8 Armoured cars and US recon jeeps.

The 39th IR has two battalions in Le Desert, one is supported by a company of M10s. There is a mass of LOG vehicles behind the town, two supply columns and an ambulance column.

The third battalion of the 39th IR is marching up the road, accompanied by an FAC in my Roco Dodge radio truck. 

9th Div Recon Tp in the village, reinforcements on the way. I've modelled the 899th TD Bn as one M10 and one M8 as they had such extensive recce elements. The Sherman and infantry are the second battalion of the 47th (supported by a tank company). 

In support are three battalions of artillery, one of which are 155s and fleets of planes. Two wings of bombers (B-20 and B-25) and two flights of P-38 Lightings. The Lightnings can't get into action until the FAC arrives. The bombers are restricted to interdiction missions but can attack the German guns if they locate them.

With all these reinforcements arriving, the Germans need to strike hard and fast to take Le Desert, then hold it against the inevitable US counterattacks.

The action opens with an impressive pre-dawn bombing raid by Ju 88s which hits every single US LOG unit (all three of them).  While this is visually spectacular, it doesn't actually affect anything as the US don't need resupply yet...

KG Phillips moves up the road and starts to fan out into the surrounding fields. It is all a bit of a traffic management problem at the moment.

The FJ sneak along the river under cover of the hedgerows. The US are vaguely aware something is happening, but cant locate anything yet. After the bombing raid they start to fortify their positions.

KG Phillips forms up in the fields half a mile away and out of sight of the defenders of Le Desert, but the US recon troop probes down the track and discovers a field full of Jagdpanzer IVs! The troops in Le Desert peer nervously into the hedgerows. 

A squadron of A-20 Havocs bombs the Germans supply lines, but veers away from the very obvious ambulances.

Kampfgruppe attack! KG Phillips rolls forwards to the outskirts of the town, leading with the infantry and engineers. The Jagdpanzers can't easily deploy due to the poor going so instead take a shot at the impudent Recon troops.

While this is going on, the FJ manage to occupy the road exit. If they can hang onto that and the town falls, it is an immediate win for the Germans.

KG Phillips and the defenders trade shots. The US artillery hammers the German infantry, while the Recon troops fall back to La Chaplinarie. Their place is taken by 1/47 IR who engage the Jagdpanzers with their attached towed tank destroyers.

USAAF B-25s engage the German Wespe battalion who have revealed their location by firing, but Flak drives the bombers away.

More of the USAAF have now rolled up in the form of two squadrons of P-38s who rain down death from above. Losses are mounting around Le Desert with one German unit disorganised now and M10/Infantry unit taking heavy losses. The German 170s conducted CB fire against the US 155s and manage to suppress them.

In return the B-25s are back and this time make it past the Flak to hit the 170s!

The fighting is becoming very heavy around Le Desert. Ambulances ferry away the German wounded, just as a column of US reinforcements motors on down the track led by a TD battalion. The other Panzergrenadier battalion becomes disorganised, but heavy German fire clears the western end of the town. They haven't occupied it yet though.

Another battalion of 47th IR marches on, supported by Shermans and M10s. Too far away to locate anything yet in the close terrain. 

The reorganised Recon troop piles down the road to take on the FJ, as the third battalion of 39th IR marches on through the fields. The FJ have had time to dig in though, so can they hang on?

The German engineers take the western end of Le Desert but artillery and airstrikes rain down on the rest of the Germans. The 9th Recon troop were repulsed by the FJ though, and fall back disorganised.

The US mount an aggressive counterattack from the northwest, forcing half of KG Phillips to turn to face them. The sneaky US Tank Destroy battalion even makes it as far as the road junction. The infantry battalions and their supporting tanks move through the fields. (you can just see the disorganised Recon troops in the top right).

The critical action of the turn is here however. The US drop all their remaining artillery on the FJ, and the US infantry assault behind the barrage. By just one hit they manage to overrun the German paras and the road exit is recaptured, and with it go the Germans hopes of an immediate victory. Now they need to take the town and hold it.

We broke for the night at that point, with everything to play for.

The Germans reorganised the front, the Panthers withdrew to reorg in peace and their place was taken by the PGR with the Infantry guns. In return the US battered the Jagdpanzers with concentric attacks and they became disorganised while waves of P-38s strafed the German engineers in the town.

The B-25s took out one of the German LOG unit,  a bit of a problem as the Germans had so many units to reorg now.

In a shock development, a tip and run raid by Fw 190 Jabos came screaming over the table while every gun in range fired at the church. The engineers fired in support as the PGR overran the battered US defenders of the church. The Germans had taken Le Desert! The US now needed to recapture it. The Germans used their one remaining LOG unit to reorg the Panthers, while the Jagdpanzer IVs fell back. 

The US was closing in on the town from all sides now. The Germans engineers re-oriented themselves to face the northwest, the reorganised Panthers hopped into the west end of town and the engineers occupied the church. The (by now) battered PGR pulled back to reorg. The Jagdpanzers weren't so lucky and were despatched by the US Tank Destroyers. This really isn't good tank country. In a surprise development the US Recon troop also reappeared down the main road, now accompanied by the FAC.

In response the US put in a strong counterattack on the church, supported by all the air and even  ground assault by the 3/39th. This disorganised the engineers, and having been assaulted, they weren't able to reorg. The Germans shot up the US infantry northwest of the town, inflicted enough losses that they had to reorg, while the TDs slipped around the bottom of the town.

The USAAF had great success and managed to entirely interdict the German LOG this turn. The diecast B-20 "Havoc" proved to be extremely unstable on its base however and next time I'll just put on a cup like everything else.

Back in the town US fire and a ground assault managed to disorganise the Panthers, although the assault was repulsed. With maximum air support and aided by the Recon troop, 3/39 managed to retake the church however, and the German engineers withdrew exhausted.

In turn this was followed up by yet another German counterattack with the last of their artillery ammo and those errant Fw 1-90s once more, which kicked the Americans out again! I don't imagine there is much church left now. What a back and forth battle.

It was all over for the Panthers however, who were overrun by the M10s, shot in by the remaining US infantry. M10 TDs aren't perhaps the best weapons systems for street fighting, but if that is all you have.... The Recon Troop encircled the Germans remaining in the church, who were frantically fortifying their position.

On the penultimate turn, the Germans managed to destroy the US Recon, although by now the FAC had relocated to join the M10s. Their place was taken by 1/47 IR and the rest of the US units massed for the final showdown as the P38s were bombed up for one last mission. 

The Germans managed to destroy 1/47 and 2/47 took such heavy losses it became disorganised. Covered by the US artillery and all the P38s, the M10s launched one final assault on the Panzergrenadiers around the church, and.....it was repulsed although the Germans had just one hit remaining! 

Goodness me, that was close. Upon reading the asymmetrical victory conditions (lifted from the original scenario), it seemed that both sides had won! The Germans still occupied Le Desert (German win) but had no good order units in or adjacent to the town (US win), so it was a winning draw for both sides.

They don't get much closer than that, although at various points I thought it was all over for one side or another. I found that one quite hard work to run as there were a lot of moving parts with all the air and artillery, but I wanted to include them as part of the flavour of the Normandy experience - particularly for the Germans who found every move thwarted by torrents of artillery fire and swarms or aircraft. The difficulties both sides had attacking also reflected the awfulness of the terrain for offensive operations, and a reversal in the relative combat effectiveness of armour and infantry. I thought it was quite funny that towards the end of the game the prime US strike force became their Tank Destroyer battalion! - a complaint of TD commanders throughout the war.

Many thanks to the players for indulging me with that, for playing it in such good spirit, and apologies if I got confused and mixed things up from time to time. There was a lot of active stuff in a small area.

There is one more game in this series to go, this time in August 1944, and I shall post that in due course.

Another Unimog

 Along with the dodgy British truck conversion, Tim produced another Unimog command bus for me from his never ending box of 'high quality merchandise' .

A lovely Roco model in this rather fetching paint scheme. While levering it off its old base a spare wheel fell off, but fortunately no other damage was sustained. 

I couldn't for the life of me work out where it had come from, there wasn't an obvious locating lug. In the end I just stuck it back on between the rear wheels and tow bar in the end. Of course what I should have done was find out the location from my other Unimog, but it didn't occur to me at the time. 

I pondered very much what colour to paint it. Grey or sand? I've already got more sandy command vehicles than grey ones, but I've already got a grey Unimog, so sandy it was. I essentially just refreshed the original paintjob, using VJ Dark Ochre as a base with some red/brown disruptive.

The cab tilt I did in mid khaki. I was also very undecided whether to mark it up as an ambulance, but in the end I went with a plain vehicle as my need for command vehicles is greater than my need for ambulances.

If I need more ambulances I'll take a leaf from Graham Evans book and just make up a temporary Red Cross label to to stick on the roof.

Otherwise it just got a drybrush as it has such exquisite detail, a drybrush picks it up well. I didn't bother with an ink wash, but I was pleased that I'd managed to preserve Tims custom made  number plate decals (just visible in this and the preceding photo). 

WRG 1925 to 50 (neu) Part 4. Encounter at Livry

 I was reminded by a recent post from Heretical Wargaming which set up Lt Turnbulls stand at Neuville-au-Plein on 6th June 1944, about the excellent tactical  scenarios provided by 'Fireball Forward'. 

I had a brief flurry of enthusiasm for these rules a few years ago as a sort of Squad Leader/Crossfire crossover. Although I lost interest in the rules, the scenarios are very good (many are based on Squad Leader) and are typically pitched a level up from the Skirmish Campaigns scenarios at company+ engagements, so similar to IABSM or whatever. I thought the smaller scenarios would work rather well for WRG games. 

Along with the scenarios provided in the FF rulebook, I'd also bought the Villiers Bocage supplement, which covers Operation Perch, 7th Armoured Divisions ill fated attack towards Villiers Bocage in Normandy in July 1944. 

Welcome to Livry! This is a tiny 2' x 3' table, oriented pretty much as real life. Left is northwest, right is southeast. For ease I'll just call them west and east. The road to Villiers Bocage runs East-West through the buildings. 

The fields are mostly bounded by hedgerows, proper Bocage stuff so they block LOS at ground level, are significant obstacles to movement etc. Although it is hard to make out, the road leading into Livry as far as the crossroads is bounded by a normal hedge on the south side, so concealment for infantry but not an obstacle or LOS block. 

There are a couple of small orchards and building clusters. I'm going to use a ground scale of 6" = 100m for this, so the battlefield is about 400m x 600m.

Lurking in the vicinity of Livry are these chaps from the Panzer Lehr Escort Company. Two panzergrenadier sections each with a pair of the rifle/MG42 groups. Each section has a single panzerfaust. There is also a platoon HQ, a Panzerschrek team and as a variable attachment, a tripod MG42 team. 

There is a towed Pak 40 with a tracked tow (I'm using a Kettenkrad!) and a "Detachment commander". 

Fireball Forward is very big on Squad Leader type section and leader morale ratings, a concept alien to WRG. In the supplied scenario the German infantry are pretty average, but the CO is the best leader as you can get, a proper 'Lt Stahler' (SL fans know who I mean). 

So, for this scenario I'm treating the CO as  Company Command element, which gives +2 morale to everyone within 200m. I've got a few thoughts about how to deal with elite and green troops too, but that is for future games! 

The wicked Germans have ambushed the leading elements of 7th AD and knocked out a Cromwell, leaving a burning wreck on the road. Yes I know it's a Sherman, but I only have three Cromwells.... Anyway, the worried tankers have summoned some infantry to clear the pesky AT gun away. 

And here come the Desert Rats. A troop of Cromwells from 8th KRIH and an infantry platoon from The Rifle Brigade. There is also a chap in a jeep with a radio.

Who can call upon these with his radio, a troop of 25pdrs. In the base scenario there is only one fire mission, so in WRG terms I put these guys in 'General Support' which seriously restricts their opportunity to fire on-call fires and also restricts the number of pre-planned fires to three. Hopefully that will avoid unbalancing things too much, and it means we finally get to try out the artillery rules, which are quite detailed. 'Bill' has extensively rewritten the artillery rules and a jolly good read they are too. 

This is a tiny game but the British don't have a CC element ( I deliberately didn't give them one as 7th AD were distinctly 'sticky' in Normany), so I wrote a plan instead. My scribbles are reproduced above. I do like a plan, it reminds me playing of Spearhead. 

The orders to the tanks and infantry are pretty simple, clear the village and orchards going left flanking. The more complex orders are the artillery ones - for a battery in GS I'm allowed three pre registered targets, so I picked the crossroads and both orchards as suitable terrain features.

I also get to do three pre planned shoots with a GS battery, so I opted for a rolling barrage of three linear concentrations of ground burst HE. There are lots of mission types in the new rules, as well as a nice variety or ammo selections (ground burst, airburst, shrapnel as well as smoke), you can even opt to mix smoke in with the HE barrage to create some obscuration rather than a pure HE barrage.

Anyway, I went with a linear concentration as with a four gun battery it produces a beaten zone 200m wide and 100m deep. As a rolling barrage it advances at 100m per turn, so three rounds of fire starting on turn 2 and centered on that hedgerow northeast of the village should carry my chaps forwards nicely.

After the British wrote their orders, the Germans get to set up. Most of the guys get to set up dug in, but if the AT gun wants to be dug in, it has to set up within LOS of the wreck. I moved the wreck to the crossroads, and dug the gun in 150m down the road. In defilade from the front. but able to cover the fields either side of the Hedgerow. I spent a lot of time on the AT gun placement as it is quite important. The only other sensible spot is the southern Hedgerow, but that is very exposed. 

Otherwise I put the two infantry sections dug along the hedgerows on the right, one behind the other and with panzerfaust teams covering the road. The SFMG42 and Panzerschreck team covered the large open field to the left, and also had a partly obscured LOS over the low hedge to the fields in the northwest. The HQ and detachment leader dug in behind the line, and the AT gun tow set up ready to move and hide in the eastern orchard. 

These guys were all dug in so unlikely to move, but I always had the option to shift the second section around if needed as the HQ was in close proximity. 

The British opening move was uneventful. The tanks and infantry rolled up to the convenient hedgerow, and the tanks sprayed the hedge on the far side of the field with suppressive fire as they moved up. This was ineffective. The Germans lay low.

On turn 2, things began to hot up. The first round of the barrage landed and was quite impressive! Sadly although it looked good, it only managed to suppress one German team. The British infantry hopped over the hedge (which took their whole turn) while the Cromwells continued to rain suppressive HE and MG fire down on the opposite hedgerow.

The combination of the suppressions and obscuration by the barrage made it very hard for the Germans spot anything. So the barrage had actually worked in providing cover for the infantry. 

Turn 3 the British line advanced behind the barrage which rolled onto the next German line. This was far more effective and a number of German units were neutralised ( a more serious state than suppression) and one of the buildings was destroyed. I learned a long time ago that unfortified buildings in WRG are a bad place to be. I also discovered on re-reading the rules that along with a beaten zone, artillery barrages have a 'danger zone' around the main beaten zone, which duly spread even more unpleasantness among the defenders.

The Cromwells moved up to support the British infantry who had advanced 100m across the field, but were careful to stay more than 50m from the German trenches.  Suppressive fire managed to suppress one of the German teams.

It was now or never and the German opened up. The SFMG42 suppressed one Cromwell, and the Panzerschrek team rolled a mighty 6 and hit another! Sadly it failed to knock it out.

More devastating were the 'suppressed' German infantry, who didn't have any great problems acquiring the British infantry in front of them now the barrage had passed over, and then proceeded to mow down three teams with MG42 fire. The casualties can be seen scattered in front of the Cromwells.

Woops! Perhaps I should have combat moved across the field and then assault moved to within range of the MGs, but I didn't want to lose the barrage.. Oh well, too late now. 

Naturally the British infantry rolled a '2' for their reaction test and they promptly halted and went to ground. The Cromwells were unphased however and a rain of HE blew one of the German infantry teams to pieces. The 2" mortar managed to spot the other one and suppressed it. Meanwhile the barrage rolled on, spreading neutralisations left, right and centre and came very close to knocking out the Pak 40! Fortunately for the Germans it was just neutralised, but the church in Livry was demolished by shells.

The surviving German team fired its one and only panzerfaust at one of the Cromwells. It scored a hit but failed to penetrate.

The Panzerschrek team made no mistake however, and got a bead on another Cromwell, hit it and blew it apart. Ouch!

Now it was the turn of the Cromwells to fail their reaction test. "Withdraw from located elements within 200m" . The last German infantry team was still suppressed by the 2" mortar, but they breathed a sigh of relief as the tanks backed up. They didn't realise that the FOO had spotted them and called down a concentration on their position...

Shells rained down on the German positions, neutralising most of the Germans. The stonk however missed the Germans outside the town, and the Panzerschrek rolled another 6 to hit....

And managed to hit and destroy another Cromwell. The tankers morale failed and it was game over at that point. Who needs Pak 40s when you have Panzerschrecks rolling sixes? 

And what a scene of devastation was left with shattered buildings, blazing tank wrecks and casualties scattered around the fields and hedgerows.

Iron Cross 1st class for these guys, still holding the line. 

That was actually really good fun, and I'm glad I got to try out the artillery even though it is a bit overpowered for a platoon size scenario! In such a small game, luck played a big part, and the ability of the Panzerschrek to throw sixes was uncanny. I should probably have given the British either a command element or a reserve infantry platoon, but hey ho.

I'm not convinced I'm going to play many more of these scenarios using WRG, but doing these tactical games has re-kindled my interest in some smaller scale actions, and I'd like to try out some of the 'forgotten' Fireball Forward scenarios with something a bit easier to manage that uses a grid. Possibly Shaun Travers 'Advancing Companies' or Norm Smiths 'Tigers at Minsk'. In any case, it has been fun trying these old/new rules out and I think I've given them a fair going over.