Plodding on the through the scenarios in Fireball Forward using Tigers at Minsk, another US Para one in Normandy. This one covers the attack on La Fiere over the Merderet River in June 1944, and is the action which inspired the final battle in 'Saving Private Ryan'. The 82nd Airborne captured the river crossing on 6th June and held off repeated German counterattacks from 6th to 9th June. The bridge was vital to allow the US forces landed at Utah Beach to advance westwards.
Battlefield from the east. The main feature is the Merderet River, all the ground west of it is flooded and impassable apart from the causeway bounded by high hedgerows which lead to the bridge. There are scattered farm buildings (La Fiere) to the left and a low hill to the right which can see over the tall hedges. Off table is a church steeple which can see over the whole battlefield, it is actually located 2 hexes behind and two hexes in from the right.
The scenario has rather complex and inconsistent descriptions of what can and can't be seen over the hedgerows. In the end I decided to just treat them as blocking LOS at ground level.
The plucky defenders, two platoons of US Paras and a 57mm AT gun. These guys are all high morale and have a break point of 3. In the original scenario they have no less than three bazooka teams (no manually chucking 60mm rounds here!) so I gave them an infantry AT rating of 5, recorded on the bazooka stand. They also have their CO figure, inevitably christened 'Tom Hanks'. irl the local commander was Major Kellam, who was killed leading the defence of the bridge.
In the original scenario the 57mm AT gun crew are 'skittish', so for TaM I ruled that they start the game pinned and always have to make a command roll, regardless of the presence of the CO.
The Germans, funnily enough no SS Panzergrenadiers or Tigers in sight. Instead we have two platoons of poor quality German infantry and three ancient French tanks (two R35s and an H39) from 101st Panzer battalion. There is also a tripod MG42 team and the nameless company commander. These guys have a breakpoint of four and dont have any panzerfausts or smoke.
Initial setup. The US win by preventing the Germans capturing any buildings, and the time limit is 55 minutes. The time limit in the original scenario is only four turns (!), so as usual I doubled it to eight and multiplied by 7 minutes.
I put two squads dug into foxholes directly opposite the end of the bridge, another with the 57 up on the ridge and the last squad in one of the buildings overlooking the bridge as a tactical reserve. Major Kellams HQ is in the building at the bottom.
The German MG team is in the church tower overlooking the battlefield.
The Germans have a miserable task, their only approach is along the causeway, but at least the MG can lay down covering fire. It fired at the 57/infantry team on the hill and missed, and then the German led with their tanks. In TaM units have to stop when in LOS of the enemy, so the hilltop position meant they could only go one hex. The 57 opp fired and hit one of the tanks, stunning it, then went 'no fire'. The US paras didn't have any targets they could damage.
There was a fairly ineffective exchange if fire for a couple of turns, eventually Major Kellam went up the hill to encourage the AT gun crew to unpin.
Eventually weight of fire told and the Germans scored a whopping three hits on the hill position. The infantry were routed and the AT gun pinned. One option I'm trying in this game is that tanks can fire MGs as small arms or HE direct fire, the latter rolls to hit and if it does, it ignores cover when resolving effect. Command Decision 2 used the same mechanism and it works very well. The R35s and H39 only have 37mm guns though, so they are hardly very good HE throwers! I used a mix of MG fire and HE.
The 57 manages to unpin, and the US reserve squad starts to move across to the hill. It can't move far due to the LOS of the pesky MG42 in the church tower but the stone wall gives it some cover as it moves.
The tanks and MG42 keep blazing away at the 57 and eventually the crew routs. Oh dear! That also reduces the US morale to one. The reserve Para squad has made it to the cover of buildings anyway.
With the hilltop cleared the Germans can start to move, the tanks roll one hex down the road (and stop as they are in LOS again), while an infantry platoon occupies the vacated hex. The Germans are out of bazooka range, so all the American can do is hunker down and hope.
Sadly a hail of HE and MG fire routs the US squad behind the stone wall. 'Tom Hanks' is still there but means the US have reached their breakpoint.
The Veteran US Paras aren't happy at all! Both surviving squads fall back. Fortunately they have lots of real estate so no-one retreats off table.
Major Kellam puts them both in command and they move back up, but sadly have now lost the use of the abandoned foxholes. One of them holds a building while the other hunkers down behind the wall.
Two of the German tanks lay down covering fire as does the MG while the third advances and an infantry squad moves up to take its place. The US bazookas fire at the leading tank but miss, while the squad behind the wall fail to pin the now visible German infantry.
At this point time runs out, and with the US still in possession of all the buildings, a US win.
OK that was interesting, a slow and sure firepower approach is viable for the Germans, but they need to be more aggressive to beat the time limit. The US in contrast took very heavy losses but still held the critical terrain.
As the first game only took an hour I thought I'd give it another go. This time I put two US squads up on the ridge as it is so useful being able to see over the hedges.
The Germans came on the same as before, leading with their tanks covered by the MG, but this time the 57 scored a direct hit and brewed one up, in fact it got two more opportunity fire shots off but missed. A rather nervous German infantry squad occupied the vacant spot in the hex.
The Germans were much more aggressive this time, the covering mG42 rolled an amazing 6,6,5 and promptly ran out of ammo, but it did leave the 57/infantry team completely pinned. The tanks pushed down the road and the 57 managed to brew another one despite being pinned. It actually burst into flames, providing smoke in the hex, very handy.
The Germans brought on more infantry, and the US squads on the ridge poured fire into the massed target although the hedgerows provided decent cover.
The Germans kept coming, the last tank approached the bridge with more German infantry shuffling down the road behind. Time for the bazooka to have a go, it fired and missed! The second squad tried the same thing, but also missed! The AT availability number had now fallen to three.
The US units up on the ridge poured opportunity fire into the massed German infantry, scoring a couple of pins. Sadly Major Kellam was down by the bridge and all the units on the ridge went out of command, so unable to remove their opp fire markers, rendering them ineffective.
The Germans reached their high water mark however, devastating fire from the two squads in front of the bridge gunned down two German infantry units. Combined with the loss of the two tanks, the German reached their breakpoint and some elements fell back, including the tank.
The best the Germans could do in response was pin one US squad by the bridge.
The US managed to kill another German squad and the remainder just fell apart, with 46 minutes on the clock there wasn't a hope of the Germans making it over the bridge so I called it there. A very successful US victory with no losses at all. The Germans suffered greatly from losing the use of their MG42 so early and their aggressive approach while initially successful just resulted in such heavy losses they couldn't go on.
I think that is enough on that one, but if I was doing it again I think the thing to do would be to make the game a bit longer, perhaps 70 minutes. That would give the Germans a bit more time for a deliberate approach but without enough time to just shoot the US to bits. The US counter would be to only ever put two units on the ridge (or one or none!) so the Germans would have to advance into the killing zone at the end of the bridge.
I greatly enjoyed modelling the terrain, it isn't obvious in the photos but I've done all the ground east of the Merderet using two layers of Hexon so it is elevated. I was also pleased with the direct HE shooting rule, it would make an SU152 genuinely terrifying, rather then just mildly inconvenient.
OK, more Fireball scenarios await in due course.
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