Guards Counterattack October 1942

 More Tigers at Minsk, and onto the next scenario in the Fireball Forward rule book. This one is titled 'The Guards Counterattack', and is obviously inspired by the classic Squad Leader scenario so many of us cut our teeth on in the late 1970s. There was a Crossfire version of the TGCA, and I'd say that this scenario is largely based on the Crossfire one rather than the SL version. Looking at it, the German OB in this iteration is slightly different but the Russian OB is identical to the Crossfire version.

Battlefield from the east. The Russians are trying to break through to relieve the Tractor Factory which is under siege off the top of the table. The Russians start in the bottom two rows, and the Germans are in the building complexes in the central area bounded by the roads. Each side gets 1VP per enemy unit destroyed, and two VP per building hex in the central area controlled at the end of the game.

This is my best effort to convert the scenario terrain in a TaM hex grid, the original has a lot of multizone building complexes. In the setup above, if there are contiguous model buildings, it is a building complex and units can move (or assault) from one hex to another without being subject to opportunity fire, but if there is a single building or a gap, they can be opportunity fired as they move between building hexes.

I know it wasn't particularly snowy in Stalingrad in October, but I used my snow boards anyway. The buildings are a mixture of my Timecast Russians buildings and I used my wooden block buildings for the complexes. They dont look too bad grouped together, although the red roofs aren't very Russian. I managed to fit the layout onto an 8x7 grid.

The German defenders. Three rifle platoons and a pair of HMGs. The Crossfire scenario has an extra rifle platoon. There are a lot of squads in this scenario and not much space, so I'm using one base per section instead of two.

And the mighty Russian horde! Twelve rifle sections, eight SMG sections and three Maxims. In the original scenario (both Crossfire and Fireball Forward) these are grouped into large four squad platoons which tbh is just silly in late 1942. I'm going to run these as two weak rifle companies with three platoons of two sections each, and a stronger SMG company with two platoons of three sections and one of two sections. That is more like a battalion in 1942 terms.

The rifle sections have poor morale, but the SMG sections are Guards and have average morale (by the time Id factored in leadership etc).  The main problem for the SMG sections is that they only have a range of one hex! (120m)

The Germans have to set up in the central BUA. I've got MG posts supported by rifle sections covering the front, and otherwise I just tried to cover all that horrible open ground around the buildings. There are two sections held back who are intended to dash to buildings at the top to cover the streets on either side, just like the city fighting manuals say. If the Russian first move goes badly, they should be able to make it in one bound, I can't risk the getting caught in the open.

The Russians have to set up in the buildings in the south, distributing the rifle sections along the front (there need to be at least one section in every building). The Guards SMG platoons are a hex further back. I'm weighting the Russian right as the long building on the right looks the most vulnerable, but I'm also going to try and get some troops into the row of buildings on the far left to open up the frontage a bit. At the moment everyone is terribly bunched up.

I have to say it doesn't look hugely promising for the Russians, but there an awful lot of them.

Last bit of admin, the German breakpoint is six and the Russian breakpoint is twelve. The game will last 60 minutes.

Russian C2 isn't bad on turn 1, two groups out of command and I push some of the SMG sections further forward.  The Russian prep fire is dire though, every single shot misses and in the end I push some rifle sections out in the street to try and draw the German MG fire. Naturally the German MGs don't fail any of their ROF rolls and half the units in the street are pinned or shot down by opportunity fire. 

In the German turn, the flank cover sections dash for the buildings in the rear to cover the flanks and everyone else shoots up the Russians. All the surviving sections out in the open are pinned or killed.

At the end of that turn the Russians are down three sections and have not advanced an inch, while the Germans have improved their position. That didn't go very well did it? The Russians have at least managed to get all their Maxims into the front line.

Next turn the Russian C2 is just dire, no less than four groups go out of command, ending any sort of attempt at manouvre. The pinned section left out in the street is able to retire to cover at least. The three MG positions are all in command however, and supported by the rifle sections, open a devastating fire on the Germans. Between them, the three MGs rolled five sixes, two of them ran out of ammunition but combined with the rifle fire, managed to destroy no less than two German MGs and two rifle sections. Ouch!

All the Germans could do in return was open fire and make sure all the approaches in the open were covered.

The Russian commander recovered from his surprise and all groups bar one were in command this turn. Devastating prep fire knocked out two more German sections, forcing morale checks on the rest. On the left an SMG platoon took advantage of gaps in the defensive fire to run across the street and into first building on the left. On the right a rifle platoon supported by an SMG section made it into building complex on the right.

All the Germans could do was either fire or shuffle their sections around to shore the position up. Unhelpfully the section in the top left went out of command. By now the German sections were setting up on the far side of the buildings to avoid the covering fire.

Another command disaster for the Russians as almost every group west of the road went out of command. The two assault platoons (one led by the Commisar) were OK though.

The SMG platoon on the left cautiously moved out into the street, but the German opportunity fire missed. On the right the platoon in the building assaulted the Germans  holding the far end, which provided an opportunity for the only other mobile rifle platoon to dash across the open ground.

Outnumbered 3:1, the Germans in the right hand building were overwhelmed although they did pin one of the attackers. That forced another morale check and all the remaining Germans fell back a hex. Amazingly they were still winning on points (11 vs 10), but only because the Russians hadn't occupied all the buildings yet.

One plucky German section reoccupied the four hex building complex. 

But the Russians were able to rush forwards from all sides, largely untroubled by defensive fire.

A random event produced a minefield in one open hex (those three green blobs) but it was all too late as the Russians overran the last German section in the buildings. There wasn't any hope of the Germans retaking them, so a crushing Russian victory!

tbh after turn three, I don't think the result was in much doubt. Both sides had outrageous dice rolling in the first couple of turns, after which it settled down to more average results. The 'forward defence' is always a bit of a problem for the Germans though - it covers all that open ground but leaves them open to crushing prep fire once the Russians get rolling. Perhaps defending the line of building hexes further back is the way to go, but then it allows to Russians to get in close. Decisions, decisons.

Anyway, that was good fun and captured the flavour of the original quite well, but I didn't feel any great inclination to replay it.

Best, 19th September 1944

 This is the last game in my 'Operation Market' trilogy. The first two scenarios covered 1st Airborne at Arnhem and the 82nd at Nijmegen, so now it is the turn of the 101st 'Screaming Eagles'. No 'Easy Company' I'm afraid, but we do have the 502nd PIR.

The 101st was assigned the southern portion of the corridor and captured a number of bridges in the initial landings. Once Guards Armoured Div was stheafely on its way, Maxwell Taylor took a number of steps to improve the security of 'Hells Highway'. The bridge at Son was a particular concern as large numbers of German infantry were operating to the west, using the town of Best as their base. On the 19th September the 101st set about clearing the town.

As usual this game was played using my One Hour WW2 variant of Neil Thomas's rules, and the scenario is based on one in the Command Decision 'Market Garden' scenario book.

Battlefield from the south. Son and Son Bridge are bottom right, crossing the Zuid Willems canal. Best is the town mid left and there is a partially demolished crossing site south of it (something else Taylor was interested in). There is a large wood just north of the canal, otherwise the countryside is flat, interspersed with fields which block LOS. The main highway to Nijmegen and Arnhem is the grey one, the road leading off the northwest corner goes to Hertgenbosch. I visited this area some years ago on a cycling trip.

And here we are with some toys on the table! Unsurprisingly there is a mass of Allied stuff on the right, and a mass of Germans on the left. The bulk of the German force was drawn from General Walter Poppe's 59th infantry Division, which had been evacuated across the Scheldt some weeks previously.

There are five objectives, the northern road exit on Hells Highway, Son, Best, the Best river crossing and the centre of the forest. Whoever holds the most objectives wins.

On the northern edge of the forest is 3rd Bn, 502 PIR (Major Cassidy). Two units of veteran paras with an attached British FOO stand. Generally the Allied battalions were twice as strong as the German ones, so I'm modelling all the Allied battalions as two units each representing a two company combat team. This level of representation works well for Market Garden as most of the German 'battalions' are lucky to muster more than a couple of company equivalents.  Russell commanded these.

Back at Son we have 2nd Bn, 502 PIR (Major Chapuis), plus a strong squadron of Cromwells from 15/19 Hussars. All the support stuff is here too, a jeep supply column, a British ambulance column and an entire Regiment of Sextons (86th Field Regt Royal Artillery from Guards Armoured Division). there are also light and medium bombers from 2nd Tactical Airforce to fly interdiction missions. All the tac air is up front with Guards Armoured. 

Terry was the overall CO and also commanded 2/502 while John A had the British tanks and artillery.

Marching down Hells Highway to join the attack is 2nd Bn, 327th Glider infantry (Major Rouzie). These troops generally had more heavy weapons than the paras, but more akin to normal infantry. So these guys are rated as  heavy infantry, but regular morale. Jerry commanded these.

The 502nd Regimental HQ. There are plenty of supplies available, perhaps too many as Hells Highways became notoriously congested.... there also seems to be someone from the Dutch resistance in attendance, perhaps they can help.

The defence of Best initially fell on KG Rink (719th Infantry Div) but a regiment of the 59th was isolated in the woods east of Best at the start of the battle. The overall CO was Mark who had a bit of flexibility in where to put the Best garrison.

In the woods is Grenadier Regiment 1034, 59th Infantry Division. They have two weak battalions plus the regimental anti-tank company. Fortunately for them the canal is impassable except at a bridge. Jim commanded these. These are all regular infantry, one battalion has AT guns.

The Best garrison itself was a bit of a hotch potch. There was a battalion of police from Tilburg, rated as light infantry as they had no heavy weapons. There was a weak regiment from 719th Static Division, the 723rd with just a single infantry unit but reinforced with Flak so rated as 'heavy'. They dug in just south of the town to create a continuous front of ZOCs. Finally there was a static Flak position south of the river next to the blown bridge. This was was rated as infantry with heavy AT guns, but if they moved, the guns would be lost as they had no transport. Mark commanded the 88s, while John B had the town garrison on Tuesday, being relieved by Simon on Wednesday. All these units are poor quality (5 hits).

Yes, that is an Airfix gun emplacement. 

Riding to the rescue (literally) are IR 1036, 59th Infantry Division. Two regular leg infantry battalions, one with AT guns, commanded by Tim. There is also the 59th Fusilier Battalion mounted on (stolen Dutch) bicycles. That gives it a movement bonus on roads. Also regular infantry, commanded by Mark.

They arrive on turn two from Hertgenbosch. 

Finally all the support stuff. A couple of horse drawn supply columns, our ever favourite ambulance and field kitchen, plus the 59th Division artillery regiment with a single battalion of 105s and only three fire missions. While the Germans don't have any aircraft to interdict the Allied supplies, they do have long range artillery (my K18) to shell Hells Highway and raiding parties to directly attack it. There is also a serious risk of traffic congestion, we will see if any of that happens during the game. Finally, General Poppe himself can be dimly seen riding his horse near the supply wagons.  

Right, off to battle!

Things started well for the Allies as US Marauders plastered the German supply lines.

The various Allied contingents then set off. The 327th marched on from the north, 3rd/502 put one combat team into the forest to make contact with the GR 1034, while the tanks and 2/502 set off westwards south of the canal. The Allied plan was apparently to clear the forest then take the demolished bridge site with the 327th running interference in the north.

We will see what the Germans make of that.

Fairly unsurprisingly the Germans concentrated all their infantry and artillery fire on Russells isolated para team and they were suppressed by the German artillery. The FOO could spot the Germans in the forest now though.

The Cromwells, paras and artillery blasted GR 1034, inflicting less than impressive losses on the entrenched Germans. 2/502 shook out into line south of the tanks, apparently planning on pushing west. Personally I'd have concentrated on the Germans in the forest first, or simply ignored them and put in a full blooded attack towards the bridge site.

Jerrys 327th moved west through the fields while Russells other paras traded shots with the Tilberg police. The police took enough hits to become disorganised. Oh dear!

The field kitchen rushed to the rescue to reorganise them, as GR 1036 and the bicycle Fusiliers came piling down the road. The cyclists put on such a turn of speed that made it to the T junction. This caused a certain degree of consternation among the allies. That Fusilier unit is a complete pain in Victory Games 'Hells Highway' too, as it charges about all over the map.

Artillery fire inflicted enough losses to disorganise the Germans at the east end of the woods, but 2/502 and the Cromwells resumed their advance westwards. The Cromwells only managed one hex due to ZOC and ran smack into the line of fire of the Pak 40s in the wood.

Team Bravo, 2/502 shot up the cyclists on the road junction while the 327th moved closer through the fields.

The Germans managed to knock some Comwells out with their AT guns (a much better target than firing at the US paras in the dense forest) and the leading Combat Team from the 327th ran into such a hail of fire they became disorganised. The Germans reorganised II/1034.

Mosquitos bombed the German supply lines. I havent been taking pohotos but the Germans had also some success in disrupting Hells Highway with long range artillery fire and traffic jams.

The Allied focus switched to I/1034. The artillery and tanks shelled the AT guns and Team Alpha 3/502 assaulted them! That attack was repulsed but the Germans were left disorganised and unable to reorganise. In the north the Allies reorganised the battered 327th, but Allied fire was sufficient to disorganise the Fusiliers on the T junction.

Sneaky German infiltrators cut Hells Highway!

The German anti-tank guns inflicted enough losses on the Cromwells to disorganise them. In the far south 3/502 finally came into range of the Flak guns at the bridge site and the 723rd, Fire from the massed Flak shredded one of the US combat teams, it took five hits and became disorganised.

In the north something of a stalemate threatened as the Germans reorganised the Fusiliers in turn. The rest of the Germans firing managed to disorganise one of the glider combat teams again.

In the forest the 2/502 launched another close assault supported by fire from the Cromwells and this time managed to overrun the German guns. The paras busied themselves painting stars on the captured Pak 40s.

In the north however the Fusiliers became disorganised and were reorganised again. The rest of the Germans got three hits on one of the units of the 327th, enough to finish it off. Ouch. Suddenly the US position up here was looking a bit shaky.

The heavy commitment of Allied units in the south and north of course meant that Hells Highway was unguarded.... the remaining troops of GR 1034 broke out east, heading for the bridge. There was a certain amount of consternation in the 502 Regimental HQ as heavily armed Germans appeared on the edge of the forest.

At least the USAAF turned up to bomb the German supplies.

The battered Cromwells set off in pursuit of Jims Germans near Son, Russells paras finished clearing the now vacated forest position, claiming the objective. In the south the battered US paras fell back into the middle of the fields to reorganise in peace.

The Germans moved the 723rd and their light Flak down to the canal to threaten the remaining US paras.

II/1034 occupied Son, claiming the objective. US HQ personnel scattered.

In the north the remains of the 327th fell back to guard the road north to Veghel, and the Germans moved menacingly southeast, threatening the US paras on the north edge of the forest.

With the fighting 'rather confused' we left it for the night at that point. So far it nicely captures the horrible situation on the corridor where the Allies have to attack and defend all at the same time, without enough troops to do both properly. So far the Germans have done a good job minimising their weakness and maximising their strengths. Lets see how tomorrow goes.

The US moved up the other half of the 503rd to face Best but even after reorganising, the northern team was still quite weak. The Germans hammered it with artillery, shot it up with the Fusiliers and Police battalions and then close assaulted it with II/1036! I/1036 didn't want to move into spotting range of the 327th (who had been assigned the FOO) so just starting digging in across the road.

The US were already weakened and disorganised, and unable to resist the Germans assault. The combat team was overrun.

Further south a team of the 502nd had rather unwisely moved in range of the massed Flak around Best bridge, and was shot to pieces. Taking so many losses it became disorganised. 15/19 Hussars were now in range of the bridge but seriously hampered by German ZOC from Son in actually getting over the bridge (it would take two turns). For now they parked up and called in artillery on the German defenders.

The battered 502nd pulled back out of sight to reorganise, and the British tanks reorganised in place. The artillery kept shelling Son, but tbh without supporting ground fire or an assault, it is just a waste of ammunition. In the forest the remains of the 503rd moved northeast to confront the Germans who had broken in.

While II/1036 called in artillery fire on the 503rd, 59th Fusiliers and the 723rd with their flak guns enveloped the 503rd on a broad front. The US would have been better served defending further back. The 723rd had actually retaken one of the forest objective hexes.  

The Allies continued shelling Son while the Cromwells inched closer, getting stuck in the German ZOC south of the bridge. They could really do with another para unit to help them. The 503rd fell back further into the forest to avoid envelopment though, and the FOO moved from from the 327th Glider to reinforce them. The 502nd spent the turn reorganising in the fields south of the canal.

German raiding parties attacked Hells Highway but were seen off by the Dutch resistance!

The entire 1036th moved up to the 503rd in the forest while the 723rd shot the US paras up. The Germans were anxious that the Americans were planning to attack Best bridge (again), so moved the Fusiliers down to the canal to support the Flak position. They have certainly burned a lot of bicycle tyre rubber so far.

The Allies kept shelling Son and the Cromwells moved over the bridge adjacent to the town. At least the shelling was keeping II/1034 disorganised but the Germans kept running supply columns into the town and reorganising them again.

Ambulances reorganised the 503rd in the forest, but the 502nd sent one team to line the canal while the other continued to reorg. I think they would have been better to send a team to support the tanks attacking Son.

Unsurprisingly the Germans threw everything they had at the 503rd in the forest, artillery, fire from I/1036 and the 723rd, and finally II/1036 close assaulted them.

The paras were overwhelmed and either surrendered or melted away into the forest. II/1036th had conducting its second successful assault, infantry assault badges all round!

The Germans now got worried that the 327th might counterattack down the road to Best (rather shakily held by the police battalion) so the Fusiliers hopped on their bikes and headed north, dodging RAF interdiction. During the course of the game the Allies managed an astonishing twelve interdiction sorties, rather more than average.

The Cromwells now tried a desperate close assault on the town, desperate as the Allies were running out of artillery ammunition...

As German heavy artillery cut Hells Highway. Nice to get the K18 out!

The assault failed and the Cromwells fell back into the edge of the forest. They had inflicted losses on II/1035 in Son though, and they would be unable to reorganise this turn. A team from the 502nd now turned up next to Son bridge, possibly a turn too late?

The Germans cleared the forest and the 1036th advanced east, making contact with 15/19 Hussars in the woods. the 723rd moved back southwest to support Best bridge, but the US paras had managed to get shot to bits again attacking superior forces.

With no units adjacent to assault, the Allies last hope was to shoot the Germans out of Son with artillery and the tanks, then rush the (empty) town with the US paras. That was a 'Hail Mary' move if ever there was one, although in fact the fire was quite effective and II/1034 was reduced to a single hit. they held out and there was no possibility of the town falling. The Germans then resupplied it, as it hadn't been assaulted this turn.

In the forest, the German infantry had the upper hand. The Pak 40s shot the tanks up, and then II/1036 assaulted the from the rear with panzerfausts! Double dice for a rear attack, and with armour vulnerable in dense country, it was game over for the tankers and 15/19 Hussars were destroyed. A third victorious assault for II/1036!

It was pretty much game over at that point. The Germans held no less than four of the objectives, and the Allies only one, so a crushing German victory.

Well that was pretty decisive in the end but fairly chaotic at times with fights breaking out all over the place, and in that at least replicated some of the confused fighting up an down the airborne corridor. I though the Allied plan was actually pretty sound, of sweeping both sides of the canal, clearing the forest and bridge on the way. They just seemed to keep getting distracted from the main aim and trying to do too much all at once. The Germans managed their forces more effectively, even though they were less effective on a unit by unit basis and weaker overall, but did have the advantage of defence. Rather like the Confederates at Bakers Creek, the attack on Son really threw the Allies off balance and they struggled to respond effectively

We've actually played this before using NATO Brigade Commander, and in that the Allies cleared the forest then launched a series of bloody assaults on Best using the canal to protect their left flank with all their force concentrated in the north, and eventually bludgeoning their way to victory.

Anyway, that was a lot of fun to run and many thanks to all the players who really entered into the spirit of things. That is it for Market portion, but we shall visit the Garden component in a future game trilogy. I have more ACW and desert games to run before that though, and of course we need to go back to 1939/40 at some point to exercise my new grey/brown panzers.