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!

 

Roco WW2 Leader Set

 I have been after the elusive Roco WW2 Leader set for decades, since the late 90s in fact when I started with 15mm WW2 as an alternative to 20mm and 6mm. I can't say it has been a particularly dedicated search, but when I mentioned it recently, one of my blog followers helpfully pointed me at a set for sale on eBay.

And here it is, still in the original packaging held together with very rusty staples. It is a very odd collection, being a mix of national leaders and some senior commanders. Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini and De Gaulle, but then Eisenhower, Rommel and no less than two Goerings! How about Patton and Monty? In my head I'd convinced myself it it included a Montgomery, but clearly not.

Howls of pain from Roco collectors worldwide ensued as I prised the pack open. Here are the guys all stuck on their painting base sitting on top of the air fryer. They are such lovely slender sculpts and perfectly proportioned, just like small AB figures. No ugly metal blob dwarves here! Tbh, they are a wee bit big for 15mm, OTOH most of them are larger than life personalities, so why not be a bit bigger. 

I need to have a think about paint jobs for these guys - I've already got a Hitler and Rommel so I can do them in different uniforms. The big question mark is Goering, although I'm minded to do one of the Goerings as Kesselring. I'm very pleased to have a De Gaulle, I need to get him painted up before the next France 1940 game! Stalin will also come in very handy as I'm a bit short of senior Soviet officers, the same applies to Eisenhower. As for Churchill and Mussolini, well, I'm sure I'll find a use for them.

I'm thinking this is going to be a bit of a slow burn painting project, so batches of these figures will appear in the next few months.

Tigers at Minsk - Day of Days

 After trying out the 'Livry' Fireball Forward scenario, I thought I'd re-visit the Brecourt Manor scenario featuring E-Company 505th PIR on D-Day. I've previously played this with Platoon Commanders War and more recently with WRG 1925-50. 

It is a slightly complex scenario as the game length and victory conditions are based on how many shots the German artillery get to fire, but it is a pure infantry engagement with no complicated artillery, tanks etc and I feel I need to get my head around the TaM infantry combat system better. It is also a good test of my troop quality mods. 

I've only previously done this scenario using a conventional table layout. The map of the various hedgerows, trenches, gun positions etc is above. It was a bit of a pig mapping the Livry scenario onto a small hex grid so I gave up on a notional ground scale and just used a standard 6x8 board, so assume the hexes are maybe 60m across? In low level tactical combat if you can see it you can usually shoot it, so ranges matter less.

The extra elbow room meant I could do a pretty good approximation of the published table layout on hexes. The trenches are hard up against the hedges, so there is cover on either side of the hedge. The guns are set back from the hedge to clear it though, so essentially their LOS is blocked directly across the hedge sides.

The protagonists. On the left are the Germans, four artillery pieces and the battery defence platoon  with two rifle sections and no less than three(!) tripod MGs. The infantry and MGs are average quality but the gun crews are poor. I rated the overall force as average, so their force morale is 3.

On the right we have the remnants of E-Company, the two para teams of Lt Buck Comptons platoon, Dick Winters with another para team and a pair of .30 cal MGs and finally Lt Spiers platoon with two more teams.   As these guys are the 505th PIR assault company I'm treating each team as if they are a full rifle squad, they also have high morale so the squads rally on 3+ (unmodified) and their overall force morale is 4.

Apologies about some of the photos, it was a very sunny day and I ended up closing the curtains but of course then it was too dark...

Anyway, here is the German setup. The four guns are pre-positioned around the perimeter, one section and one MG set up in the trenches between guns 3 and 4, while the rest set up in the triangular hedge section. I stacked the infantry with the MGs to absorb any pins which came their way.

In the standard scenario the Germans get 1VP per gun surviving at the end of each turn, plus 1D3 VP per gun which fires. Fireball Forward turns are much longer than TaM ones as units can undertake multiple actions, so I changed it to 1VP per surviving gun per turn and 1VP per gun which fires per turn.

The game ends when all four guns are destroyed or the Germans accumulate 24VP of shooting VPs.

Here are the US waiting to enter. I didn't bother with the game clock for this as Lt Spiers enters on turn 4 otherwise there isn't a turn limit, either the Germans get to 24VP or they lose before then. The red and black dice are tracking each sides force morale. Winters 'company' comes on from the west (left) and Spiers from the north (top). I've just realised that the number of figures is actually E Company at 1:1! 'Two squads of 3 men'.

Winters guys take advantage of the hedgerow to move 2 hexes as they start out of LOS. The .30s set up a base of fire, Winters leads a team into the trench corner at the top while the two other teams storm the first gun position! I subsequently found out I'd made a mistake, units can only assault adjacent units. Oh well, these guys are Paras. Currahee!

The German MGs fired opp fire as targets presented themselves, but the cover everywhere meant they were only hitting on sixes. They managed to pin one of the .30 cals, and one of the MG42s was stuck with an opp fire marker while the other managed to avoid it.

The German gunners don't get any CC dice, just 1D6 for defending cover, whereas the two teams of Paras rolled four dice. The gunners missed, the Paras got one hit so the gunners had to retreat, abandoning their gun. BOOM! The Paras spiked it. German force morale now 2.

The Germans put their leader with the MG nest, everyone else had to fend for themselves, but the other Germans all activated. BANG, BANG, BANG went the other guns for 3VP (plus 3VP for surviving). The German MGs managed to pin one of the victorious Para teams, and the rifle section in the trench moved to defend gun position 3. The unpinned .30 cal fired opp fire at them but missed.

Winters and his team were already adjacent to gun no. 2, so they stormed it and once again won the Close Combat to destroy it. German force morale now 1.

After this early success things went a bit pear shaped. Winters pushed along the trench to gun no. 3 covered by the .30s, but one of the teams moving up the trench from gun no. 1 was shot down by vicious MG42 fire. US force morale now 3. This seems a common development in this scenario, the first two guns go down easily but then it becomes a struggle.

To add insult to injury, a German rifle section  managed to pin Winters down, and then the section defending gun no. 3 charged them! 

Pinned units only get 1D6 in close combat, and although they did pin the Germans, the Germans managed to finish them off. Winters ran back down the trench to the smouldering gun no. 2. US force morale now 2. Oops.

The next US turn featured some ineffective shooting and the US rallying all their pinned units ready for next turn. Thank goodness these Paras are veteran.

There was great excitement as Lt Spiers arrived and stormed gun no. 4!

Once more the German artillery crews didn't prove to be a match for the US Paras. BOOM! went the gun as it blew up.  German force morale now 0....

Cue morale tests for every German unit. I used the standard game morale rules for the 'fall back test'. The German infantry and MG in the forward trench fell back, but hilariously the poor quality gun crew stuck it out.

One of the battery defence MG42s also wavered and retreated.

In their turn the Germans managed to activate the MG and get it back into the trenches, but the other retreating units stayed where they were. The US managed to pin the rifle section in the open AND the German MG as it reoccupied the trenches (all opp fire I think).

The only exciting development was that the other German MG42 managed to roll a whopping number of 5s and one 6 firing at Spiers. The result being that one of Spiers teams was pinned and the MG jammed - the first time that has happened in a game. The MG was now useless.

The US concentrated fire on the pinned rifle section in the open who were duly routed, triggering another round of morale tests. The gun crew held firm, the last functioning MG in the triangular hedge retreated off table, so another morale test...

And finally the gunners had had enough and they fled from their position. The other Germans were now falling back in disorder and some were cut down as they ran across the open ground, just like the real battle! Or at least as depicted on TV. In his recollection in the book Winters said "We cut them down like wheat".

And finally Winters and Spiers met up in gun position 3. and blew the final field piece up. Game over and a US victory with 19 German VP on the clock.

I really enjoyed that, it felt very dynamic and I particularly liked the German collapse in morale at the end as it went some way to reflecting the confusion of the German defenders. The individual unit morale differences didn't make much difference although it meant the US were pretty much guaranteed to rally off any pins. The 'force morale' concept worked very well as it contributed to the German collapse without them fighting to the last man. 

I did have to fudge some of the LOS issues in the scenario, in Fireball Forward 'hedgerows' are a very specific terrain type with all sorts of restrictions, as opposed to 'hedges' but it produced the sort of dynamic I was after with the US being able to close behind the cover of the hedgerows but then fairly exposed once they were in the German communication tranches.

The main mistake I made was allowing units to move two hexes into close combat, although as they were ut of Los for the first hex, maybe it was OK? . It probably wouldn't have affected the overall outcome, but it may have given the Germans three or four more VPs as each gun would probably have survived an extra turn. I also erroneously gave the gun crews 3D6 in close combat to start, when I eventually realised they should only get 1D6 (for defending cover), which makes quite a big difference! There weren't many other errors although because I wasn't using the game clock, I kept forgetting to roll for random events. 

The red letter event was one of the MGs rolling enough on its fire dice to malfunction/run out of ammo. Although that is a bit Squad Leader like, it actually added to the feel of the game I felt. As it only happens if you roll high, you can rationalise it as running out of ammo or something.

I'll try a few more of the US Para scenarios with TaM, particularly as they include The Poupeville Exit and the Niscemi Biscari Highway, both scenarios in the original Squad Leader US Para extension published in the AHGC General which I played a lot at the time.