Time for a larger tank based game, methought and my Matilda IIs not having an airing for a while I decided to have an Arras style attack against a fairly lightly held supply line, with the possibility of reinforcements for the defenders.
There are 37mm AT guns on guard at the road junction in the forest and also at the forward edge of the churchyard. A Kfz 13
armoured car section is up front in the brickworks, other than that any other German unit is billeted in the village and may be diced for to activate at 50% probability each turn.
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| Sleeping village... |
German armour arrayed in nearby fields; Kfz 70s parked in the square ready to take crews out to guns.
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| MkVI tanks advancing... |
Mk VI tanks of a Light Recce Squadron advanced rapidly across the open ground towards the brickworks; a 37mm AT gun to the rear sends up the alert flare.
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| Turn 4 |
Matilda IIs are advancing across the central open ground, followed by Matilda Is who never really catch up & contribute to the battle. 18 pounders overlook infantry and carrier platoon approaching the churchyard but fail to cause any casualties with their shelling of the village. Panzer IIs race for the brickworks, not yet aware it has been taken and Panjagers and 35(t)s move to cover the church frontage.
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| Brickworks dramas |
The Panzer IIs are clobbered at short range by the MkVis and AT Rifles. They fall back to the wood alongside the Adler scout cars where they are gradually picked off & inundated by infantry following through.
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| Matildas out in the open |
The Matildas simply pull up in the centre of the open ground and choose their targets, 37mm AP from the churchyard and 75mm shells bouncing off. The Panzer IVs at last are in position near the road.
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| Assault stumbles |
While the carrier platoon struggles through the wood the infantry assault stops and retreats as the Panzer 35(t)s burst out of the village.
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| End of the road... |
The Panzer IVs fall back beyond the road after some 'bad luck' and heavy
losses; the Czech tanks are also no longer a coherent unit after their
attempts to bring the range down. But reinforcements finally arrive in
the form of the only effective countermeasure against the British
infantry tanks and the 88ms inexorably blunt the armoured centre.
The assault by the carrier platoon also falters when a section of MG42s sets up in the nearby terrace and the game is halted when the Panzerjagers swing back through the village to link up with a Schutzen platoon, due any moment.
