Stonne 2: Set Up

Looking at the landscape around Stonne and possible table sizes, I decided on using just one 35" x 22" wargaming table which, if using what is now my usual 1.5" = 100m ground scale, will give me a 2.3km x 1.5km battlefield. This is enough to recreate all from a little West of Stonne village all the way over to Les Cendrières Farm and including the Northern approaches to the escarpment and Mont Hébreu and the Terre des Dix Cents.

Stonne plateau, 2.3km x 1.5km

I found the insulation foam landforms that I had always used for fictional games a bit restrictive for recreating an actual landscape, so I had to chop them about a bit. Fortunately I had some old river bend sections which were geographically too extreme for most wargames tables, so they got customized for this scenario.

Le Bac de Stonne, below the escarpment

Les Cendrières Farm

Terre de Dix Cents

This will be the scene for a series of encounters, recreating the various attacks and counterattacks on Stonne village, involving elements of:

• Großdeutschland infantry & other regiments
• 37mm AT units from the 14th PzJagr Abt
• Panzer IVDs of the 8th Panzer Regt and attached PzJgr Is
• Stuka air attacks
• Panhard 178s of the 6th GRDI
• Char Bs of the 41st & 49th BCC
• Hotchkiss H39s of the 45th BCC
• FCM36s of the 4th BCC
• 25mm AT pln

I will be making significant use of Walter Moore's Armoured Fist Stonne scenario booklet (which is available on Wargame Vault here), as he has done much of the organizational work already.

The only delay might be in putting highlights on a few Panzers for photography reasons.

Stonne: 1 Research

Someone in the France 1940 Wargaming Facebook group posted about receiving Critical Hit's Stonne boardgame and while looking into some of his queries about the action, I found out why so many gamers end up playing out this scenario.

The village changed hands 17 or 18 times in the space of a couple of days but I don't know if you can call it a skirmish as there were apparently 30-odd dead tanks in the aftermath.

I couldn't resist doing a few Then & Now's with some photos taken by (presumably) the eventually victorious Germans (there are loads on the internet and beyond)...

Panzer IVD "711"

Rue de 15 Mai 1940, as the main street is called today

Pz IVD number 711 was photographed a great deal by passing Germans due to the graves of it's crew alongside...

 Some of the French Char Bs hulks in Stonne itself...

"Gaillac". Crew died in their tank.

"Hautvillers". Crew captured.

Not the exact angle but shows the resting places of the two Char Bs

"Chinon". Crew killed while baling out.

Approximate position of "Chinon" on open land called le Moulin à Vent

Then I started planning the table size and looking at the landscape a bit closer, to see what features I'd want to include in the tabletop.

Distances & gaps

 From a Google Earth view, I could now visualise the area involved.

It is only 1800m from La Besace to the Gallo-Roman burial mound, now called the "le Pain de Sucre" in Stonne and 1250m across that valley. Other gaps between the various forests are 90-640m, perfect for translation to the wargaming table.

Topographical map

Then I started screen grabbing various views off Google Earth which illustrate the landforms and
general feel of some of the approaches & landmarks.

View down Le Grand Rue in Le Besace 

Stonne escarpment on the left

The lane to Les Cendrières from the D3

Terre de Dix Cents, between Les Cendrières & Stonne (centre horizon) 

On the D130, Stonne is beyond Mont Hébreu (centre left)

The road from Les Grandes Armoises with the Moulin à Vent beyond the ploughed field

Les Cendrières Farm

Back road to  Les Grandes Armoises

Gaillac & Hautvillers lay down to the left, dead Panzers on the top road

Rues des Pâquis and Napoléon III (left), Stonne 

Back lane up to the hairpin bend area, forested rear slopes of the escarpment (Les Cendrières obscured)

This has been an interesting diversion that I've been able to do while away from home or when not working on the production of my Kickstarter forest rewards.

I can hardly wait for the day when I start terraforming the tabletop for my Stonne recreation and 'what-ifs"