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.