Chain of Command - Kampfgruppe von Luck PSC

Scenario One - Patrol on the Ring Contour

"Right, round up what you've got and patrol these hedges south west of our position" barked the C.O of 'B' Company, 12 Para, jabbing his finger on the map board.  "We don't want any Jerries sneaking around, and they are bound to try and push back into town to get to the bridges."

1st Lt Ding looked gloomily around the farm yard at the motley collection of paras who had made it to the RP from the drop.

"twenty men and no support", he thought, "I hope we don't run into any germans".

The fields and hedges outside of Le Bas de Ranville are the setting for the first scenario of the Chain of Command 'Pint Sized Campaign' Kampfgruppe von Luck, representing the forces of von Lucks 2nd Battalion 125th Panzergrenadiers trying to rest control of the town from the scattered forces of the 12th Parachute battalion, to clear the way for the panzers of the 21st Division to retake the bridges over the Orne and Caen Canal and drive the Allied forces back from the D Day beaches.

A platoon of British Paras from 12 Para (with a little help from 13 Para) must hold off a company of Panzergrenadiers from reaching their objective over (up to 8) games over 5 seperate maps.

The first map is the toughest for the brits as they must try and hold up 3 german sections with limited resources.  A secret roll on a table told me that I had at my disposal 2 Senior Leaders, a Sniper, a full Section, a single rifle team and a single Bren team.  no Mortar support and no support points.  Jerry had 4 points of support and 3 full sections.

the map is as follows - from the german perspective.  I knew I had to hold the middle ground in the hedgerow for as long as I could, and try and direct concentrated Bren fire into the German sections in the hope I could kill a few and then withdraw (the Germans have 3 Platoons but no reinforcements, so any kills that stick remain dead for the whole campaign).

The Halftracks are German 'jump off points' not actual units.  My British ones are a little harder to see, there's one in the top left corner, one in the corner of the hedges and one behind the hedges to the right of the main road.  The fields are wheat and give light cover to stationary units inside them.

Immediately I realised with no smoke my plan of tying up the Germans and picking them off with concentrated fire was going to be tricky.  I wanted a JoP up in the hedgerow and kept two back for supporting troops to move up and finish off any pinned german units.

The Germans had 4 points of support and elected for an 81mm mortar battery and an Adjutant. The Patrol phase saw us both get one JoP forward and two back, although my two back as you can see were a long way away.  I went first (with a FM of 9) and deployed the sniper and a section in the hedgrow with a Senior Leader.  The Germans (who had a low FM of 8) arrived with 2 full sections and the Mortar Spotter, and immediately kicked things off.

Pvt Willis crept a few yards through the tall wheat and raised his rifle.  "Twelve Jerries" he whispered back "couple of MG's and a guy with binoculars".

"For gods sakes man, take him out first" replied the Sergeant in his clipped South African tone.  Pvt Willis fired, and at that same moment the German MG's opened up again, spitting dirt and splitting branches around the Paras position.  The whistle of a mortar round signalled a crump in the field where the sniper crouched, and a whiff of white phosphorous stung the air.

 The mortar barrage came in early on with a german double phase - one phase to fire the spotting round and the next phase for firing at full effect - pinning the sniper and the second rifle team to the right of the road (from the german point of view).  The Germans then opened up with massed MG and rifle fire (19 dice per section) and we took a couple of casualties and some shock.

"INCOMING, GET DOWN!" shouted Sgt Beir as the air filled with the shrieks of several more mortars, followed by the crump crump crump of explosions showering the paras with dirt.  More german MG fire raked the positions, and from the other side of the road the screams of the other section told that they had started to take casualties as well.  The Paras in the hedge dug down into the roots and branches as the mortar bombs exploded around them.  Inevitably one bomb found it's mark and Cpl Toomy, the Bren gunner, and a couple of other privates lay dead.  Sgt Bier waited, and as the mortar barrage paused briefly he yelled at his men to fall back.  Just as they began to rise up from their positions in the dirt, the mortar barrage started again.

I'm a little stuck at this point - my other JoPs are too far away to get anyone involved and I've only got one section with a JL and SL to activate.  I tried to get a couple of kills and move away, but we only managed some shock on the Grenadiers.  The next german Phase the barrage moved over my full section and killed the Bren team. 

Clearing some more shock, the Paras tried to withdraw to their JoPs, but I realised I'd played a phase and would have to wait to withdraw for another German phase.  More Germans turned up, and another mortar stonking followed, injuring the JL on that section, with a couple more casualties from MG fire as well.  British FM was down to 8.  ALthough we had put plenty of shock on the German section, the dice had not been kind and no casualties had been caused.

Once I had declared the withdrawal, we decided that as the units under the barrage were technically still 'pinned', the rolls for withdrawal would be for pinned units - 1 or 2 for Captured, 3 or 4 for missing next map and 5 or 6 for successful.

This, along with the casualties we had sustained from the MG and mortars, leave the platoon in a pretty bad shape.

3 Riflemen killed

2 Riflemen injured

4 Rifleman MIA

1 Sniper POW (captured)

1 rifle POW (Captured)

Still to return from the drop are a 2" mortar team, a PIAT team and 2 more Bren Teams

not deployed this turn were another SL, a Bren Team and another sniper.

So we lost 5 men dead or captured this mission, and will be 6 rifles down on top of that next mission.  However we should hopefully get some of the Bren teams back, possibly the 2" and PIAT teams, and we'll have 4 points to drop on support.

Back at the RP, Lt Ding did a head count.  Sgt Aldiss, one of the section leaders had received a knock on the helmet but had been patched up, but not everyone had made it back.  9 men had not returned from the patrol, including Willis the sniper.  Ding looked around the stone buildings in the garden where the RP was located.  "Lets get these windows sandbagged" he shouted, "the germans will need to come through here if they want to get to the village and I want everybody ready for them!".  He looked down the long sunken lane.  Only a few hundred yards down there, he thought, were a hundred or so germans with halftracks, self propelled guns and heavy weapons, and the only thing between them and the bridges were a handful of Paras.  We are going to have to do much, much better, he thought grimly.

The next scenario has a few buildings at the edge of the fields, but the Germans have a good support list and we may see some half tracks or the Lorraine Schlepper.  I'll need to cover a good 6' of table edge, with limited firepower.  At best I'll have 4 bren teams plus support, at worst only 2 brens and hardly any rifles to go around.

There are 8 'rounds' of this Campaign.  To win, the germans need to seize the chateaux on map 5, and for the british to win I have to get the full 8 rounds without losing map 5.

I have a couple of naval bombardements I can use to delay the germans later on, and also a single full fresh platoon from Scenario 3 onwards, plus the chaps on scenario 4 are from 13 Para and don't take into account any casualties from previous maps, so there is still plenty to play for.

next up, Scenario 2, Probe amongst the Hedgrows