Another Zvezda 1/200th Ju-52

 Regular readers will recall that I already have a Zvezda Ju 52, but I got another one as I had a vague idea of doing a Condor Legion bomber. The 'plastic kit man' at Partisan was selling these cheap. 

Here it is in in its raw state. It was much easier to assemble than I remembered, I think I was mixing it up with the horrible Zvezda Dakotas, which were real pigs to put together.

I need to do something about that join line on the fuselage but generally it was a nice clean model. Even at 1/200 scale it is quite a large aircraft. 

And the underside with a nice sturdy undercart. It is hard to see in the photos but there are beautiful fine corrugations moulded into metalwork. 

And here is the finished thing in daylight.

And rather gloomy artificial light.

In the end I fairly obviously didn't do it as a Condor Legion plane, but I did find this interesting three tone splinter camo scheme used by some units at Crete. It is enhanced by the flashy yellow bits all over it.

The decals are largely those supplied with the kit, although I didn't put loads of fuselage markings on, just a cross and a single letter. As usual I didn't bother with decals on the underside.

Zvezda don't supply any swastika decals, so the tail swastikas are from one of the Doms Deals packs. German planes look much more in keeping with their crooked crosses on.

I'm rather pleased with how that came out, and if the Condor Legion really need a Ju 52, I can always buy another one! I've even got a couple of scenarios in mind where I might be able to use this and its pal. Watch this space. 

WRG 1925-50 (neu) Part 5. Brecourt Manor, June 7th 1944

 Back in June I thought I'd try the Fireball Forward "Brecourt Manor" scenario with the WRG rules as a D Day anniversary game. I actually ran this scenario back in 2018 using John As 'Platoon Commanders War', a distant relative of the original WRG set. This engagement is the one featured in Band of Brothers episode 'Day of Days' and is the assault on the German gun positions at Brecourt Manor on 7th June 1944 by D and E Company, 506th PIR. 

The battlefield. The German battery is entrenched around the outer hedgerow, the gun emplacements linked by communications trenches. The guns are firing on Utah beach and the Germans get VPs each time they fire. The US have to knock all the guns out before they get to 24 VP.

The four guns are more visible here. They don't  play any part in the tactical game, just get points each turn that they fire (one each). This is a 2 x 3 table at 6"=100 yards (so 400 x 600 yards). I used some of my desert artillery for these, a couple of German 105s and a couple of Italian 100mm howitzers as I don't have four captured Russian 122mm howitzers in German colours.

This is the battery HQ, with a rifle/cmd group, another rifle group and an LMG (MG42) group. They setup in the easternmost trench section. 

In the original scenario these guys are all average (think 4-6-7 Squad Leader Squads), and a very average leader (think 8-0 or 8-1). So I didn't give them a Company Command element, just  a normal command element for each sub unit (the battery and the defence platoon).

And this is the battery defence platoon. Two more MG42 groups, a rifle group and a rifle/cmd group. These guys all set up in the triangular hedge. They aren't dug in but the Normandy hedges provide cover.

And to attack them we have what is left of E Company, 505 PIR! The US units are insanely understrength due to scattered D drops and losses. 

Lt Winters commands one 'platoon' with a single rifle/cmd group, this is also the Company Command element. Lt 'Buck' Compton commands another 'platoon' with one rifle and one rifle/cmd group and finally Lt Spiers  from D Company has another 'platoon' with one rifle and one rifle/cmd group. Fortunately the E company weapons platoon has also rocked up with a couple of belt fed .30 cals.

All the US rifle groups are armed with Garands (self loading rifles in WRG parlance). No BARs for the US paras on D Day. In the original scenario these guys are veteran US paras, abo.ut as good as they get, with excellent leaders. So, Lt Winters is rated as a Company Commander (he was acting CO anyway) and Compton and Spiers each get a command group to command their single rifle groups!

On reaction tests they are going to roll two dice and pick whichever they wish.

On turn 1, Winters and Spiers advance cautiously as they haven't got enough movement to make it the hedgerow AND do advancing fire so they hang back out of LOS. The LMG platoon hops over one hedge and similarly hangs back a bit. I'm ignoring the 100m movement penalty for foot troops crossing hedges, that seems very silly! (and would completely break the scenario).

None of the US units are in sight so the Germans get on with shelling Utah beach. BANG!

Next turn things hot up. The LMGs move up and set up along the hedge line to cover the battery position. Compton storms the top left gun position and destroys it with advancing fire under 50m.

Winters tries the same trick but although they manage to acquire the gun, they miss the to hit roll (needs a 5+ as it is moving fire vs a dug in target).

The Germans are vaguely aware something is happening now, so the defence platoon relocates one of its MGs and the eagle eyed rifle group spot Winters and open fire (needed 5+ to acquire) but they miss.

Next turn Compton hops over the hedge into the abandoned gun position. The German riflemen direct the MG42s at Winters and they all blaze away, pinning him. Despite being a CC, he goes to 'cautious advance' on the morale test. Even though I'm allowing the US to reroll their morale dice, he still fails.

The battery HQ has moved up the trench to defend the third gun.

Compton spots the Germans moving along the trench, as do the .30 cals. The Germans are pinned. Hilariously the .30s cals are unable to see any of the MG42s blazing away 150m away across the field due to the foliage modifiers, and the Germans are equally oblivious to the .30 cals. That is one (perhaps the only one) feature of the dice driven spotting that I like - target fixation.

Winters withdraws out of LOS as he isn't doing any good there.

Now Spiers storms on, but the hail of grenades and Garand fire fails to knock out gun number 4. Unlike the TV show, his platoon didn't dash across open ground in front of two MG42s this time. The German battery has had an adverse reaction test now, but not enough to get them to surrender.

The German MGs are now spraying suppressive fire over Comptons platoon (as they spotted one element). It pins the HQ group but the rest of the platoon edges forwards. I don't want to move at full speed as it makes it far more likely they will be spotted.

Winters group has now recovered and is working its way up the hedgerow, while the .30 cals keep the battery HQ suppressed. The HQ MG42 tries to acquire Spiers platoon but fails the acquisition roll (being suppressed is -2).

The battery HQ is gone 'cautious' now but the gun is still popping away. In the face of all out assault by scary US Paras, the gun crews are proving surprisingly resilient. Compton is slowly leading his men along the trenches from the left trying not to be seen.

Spiers meanwhile knocks our gun No. 4 with one group and the cmd group enters the trench. The Germans are too preoccupied and/or suppressed to notice them.

Eventually they move along the trenches leads to some close range grenading which is equally ineffective on both sides. The guns bangs away again. In my test game number two, I definitely mis-measured when the Germans were overrun in the woods, they should have been able to get a shot off first. I was super careful this time and the attack/defence mechanism worked much better.

By now the Germans have spotted all of Comptons platoon and they are completely pinned down by MG42 fire. Winters is trying to sneak along behind the hedge but needs to be super careful not to get into LOS of the battery HQ MG which is peering over the hedge with a very restricted arc.

Essentially everyone is bogged down in a firefight now and I can't see the last gun being knocked out before the Germans accumulate 24VP, so I call it as a (rather Phyrric) German victory.

That was actually OK, but reinforces my impression that these rules are a bit of a slog for infantry combat, being very, very firepower focussed and with very little emphasis on troop quality and morale which is so vital in small unit tactics. In real life, the Germans just fell apart in the face of the rapid US assault. The German gun crews rolled amazing reaction tests though, normally have lost 75% of their number with enemy infantry advancing within 100m would be curtains, so it may have been a fluke result.

I think for this level of infantry heavy game there are more modern and better rule systems or even the venerable Crossfire, although WRG works fine for armour combat. Once again the dice driven spotting produced some very odd results, and I'm really not a fan of that although it did induce some realistic behaviours as units tried to avoid being acquired. 

That was a fun outing, but  it is probably my last WRG game  for now and I have a better idea of what I'm looking for in a tactical game. I think my focus for tactical stuff going forward will be Norm Smiths 'Tigers at Minsk' and derivatives thereof, and my long considered but not executed updating of Charles Grants "Battle".

Battle of Maldon, no COW and bad backs

In a shock development I'm posting this outside my normal two month backlog. Regular readers will be wondering where my Conference of Wargamers (COW) report is, but sadly I couldn't go this year as I injured my back the week before I was due to attend and I'm unable to travel at the moment.

 In fact I've not been able to do much gaming, painting, running, gardening or anything at all for a few weeks as I have a trapped nerve and struggle to sit down and spent a fair bit of time in a drug induced haze. It is all very tedious, particularly wrangling with the insurance company about a holiday cancellation, which is a real Alice in Wonderland experience. Various sessions of spine crunching are slowly improving things, but it is a way to go yet. 

So, it was a nice to have the opportunity to actually play something. 

One of our standby games is "The Battle of Maldon", and after the post COW chat and quiz session the previous week, we didn't have anything lined up, so Battle of Maldon it was.

I think Battle of Maldon is a postcard game? I'm not sure, but the map, rules and counters fit on two sides (as above). John has converted it into electronic format on PowerPoint so we can play remotely. 

I'm pretty sure I've covered this before, but the game is a representation of the battle which took place in 991 as described in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. English on the left, Danes on the right, with a river and inevitable bridge in between. 

The Danes win if they take Maldon (top left), the English if they capture the Danish king. I'm deliberately calling our guys English as this battle took place after Aethelread had finally unified England after th Battle of Brunaburgh. 

I recently read an interesting analysis of the Anglo Saxons Chronicles account of the battle in terms of themes of loyalty, cowardice, bravery, treachery etc but can't for the life of me remember where. A Folk History of Great Britain perhaps? I'm not sure. A shame as it was a very interesting analysis of the Anglo Saxon world view. 

There were only three of us to play at first, so Tim and  took the Brits and Jim the Danes. Tom arrived later. 

I very cleverly forgot to take a picture of our setup. The forces are somewhat asymmetrical, and represented by lovely Noggin the Nog styl drawings. Both sides have infantry (move 1, combat value 1) three English and four Danes respectively. The Danes also have two Berserker infantry CV2 delightfully shown biting their shields, while the English have to cavalry (move 2, CV 1). Both sides also have a +1 leader who can stack. 

The river is passable but at a significant combat penalty. 

The Danes massed their Berserkers to rush the bridge, flanked by regular infantry. I had a dim memory of great success in a previous game slipping the cavalry around a flank, so we put our I fantry opposite the bridge, and the cavalry on the extreme left flank. 

Sadly we had rather miscalculated and the Danes got to the bridge before we did, while our cavalry was a bit tardy advancing  which gave time for the Danes to defend the river line. 

You can only make two actions a turn and we vacillated and managed to cock it up monumentally. The battle for the bridge did no go well for our outclassed infantry. 

We did manage to get our cavalry over the river, but the slaughter continued in the fields southeast of Maldon as the Berserkers pressed on. 

The cavalry flank attack failed. 

And it was all over soon after that. A thumping Danish victory, and thoroughly deserved. Jim had a sound planand stuck with it, while we were all over the place. Well done Jim. 

Tom had joined us by now, so he joined  Jim and we swapped sides. 

Tim and I just replicated the Danish setup from before. The cunning British however put all their infantry around Maldon and massed their cavalry to rush the bridge!

Tbis worked swimmigly well for them, and by the time our rather arrogant Berserkers straggled up to the river, they were faced with conducting an opposed river assault against poor odds. How did we manage to cock it up again? 

Fortune favours the lucky however, and against the odds we beat one of the British cavalry. 

And then the other one. We were really lucky to get away with that. The English leader rode north to join the infantry who were fanning out from Maldon. Somehow we lost an Infantry unit along the way, I cant recall how. 

The British made a desperate counterattack against the isolated Danish  Spearhead in the hopes of capturing the Danish leader. Now their best chance of winning. 

It was a low odds attack though, and instead it was the English leader who perished. With him perished the English hopes and we called it at that point. 

We were very lucky to win that, but once we were over the river, there wasn't much to stop us. 

I really enjoyed that, it was great to actually play something again after a few weeks of forced inactivity, a real morale booster, even if I did keep having to change position, stand up, kneel on the floor etc. It is also a clever and thought provoking game as the limited number of units and activations means you need to have a very clear idea of what you are planning to achieve. Something Jim did and we didn't. 

Many thanks to my regular gaming pals for being so supportive over the last few weeks of my relatively minor, but quite painful, ailment. It does make a big difference. Thanks. 

Normal posting backlog will be resumed shortly and hopefully I'll be up to running a game myself in a few weeks. 

BPM 1/144th scale Auster AOP

 As I was looking at some later war European scenarios I realised that my Allied forces don't have any spotter planes! These were critical for artillery observation, and with total Allied air supremacy could roam the battlefield at will seeking out unfortunate Germans to shell. BPM do these in 1/144th scale resin. 

I ordered two of them as I wanted a British one and an American one. Although the Auster is British, it is based on the American L-2 so they are very similar.

They are nice single piece resin prints with very little flash, although like many BPM resin models, they have very obvious striations or contours  on the wings although these were easy enough to sand down as they were quite fine.

They both have the weird circular hole in the bottom of the fuselage, which I discovered on reading the blurb on the website is designed to take an earth magnet. 

And here they are in their final paint schemes. I've taken to undercoating planes in grey as the large expanses of monochrome colours look better on a lighter undercoat. I'm rather pleased that the OD on the L-2 looks slightly brownish in this shot, just like the real thing in photos!

And a rather dimmer picture in artificial light.

The US one is just in plain Olive Drab, a very variable shade of paint indeed as it is just black and ochre mixed together and it fades terribly. I mixed this up from VJ Russian Uniform and VJ Bronze Green. The first batch came out too dark so I had to re-paint it and you can see in this photo that it is actually a dark green, but it changes colour in different lights.

The wing decal is from Doms Decals, but I didn't have any small enough to put on the fuselage as this plane is tiny.

I did the underside in standard US 'Neutral Grey'. It looks a bit dark in this photo but is lighter in natural light. I couldn't actually find any guidance on how to paint the underside of US spotter planes, so I used the standard USAAF scheme for aircraft in tactical paint schemes (as opposed to those in silver finish). I didn't bother with a decal on the underside.

The British Auster is done in the familiar Dark Earth/Dark Green scheme with subdued wing roundels. Like the US plane, the fuselage was far too small to accommodate any of my yellow edged fuselage decals.

Now, although some Austers had their undersides done in black or eggshell, many of them seem to have been painted in the camouflage scheme on the underside too. I assume it is because they spent a lot of time banking at low altitude, so their undersides were exposed against a terrain background. Anyway, I thought it would make a change and did the underside in camo too although I didn't bother with roundels.

Did I mention that these are tiny planes? Here they are next to a rather moderate sized Hurricane for scale. I'm amazed they managed to pack two crewmen and a load of extra radio gear in them. 

Very pleased to have done those, I'm not sure why it took me so long. 

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.