However, the superior firepower and the heavy guns have allowed the Germans into Ranville itself, and Von Luck has sent a platoon of Grenadiers to take and hold the church on the flank.
The church at Ranville is being held by a platoon of 13 Para, who have used the time bought by 12 Paras valiant defence to reinforce their positions, however a lack of heavy weapons may be the deciding factor in this battle.
However, if you can't hit hard you have to hit smart, and the Lancs of 13 Para will be keen to show themselves every bit as good as the Yorkshire lot of 12 Para - and if they can hold off the Germans here, the bridges will be safe. All to play for!
The Germans have 13 points of support, possibly 14 if Von Luck smiles on them again.
The Paras will have to be dug in, and hold out against any long range HE such as the Schlepper (7 points) or the Pak 40 auf s307 (5 points).
I was planning to defend behind the church line, using forward Snipers to take out leaders, mortar observers and manned guns on halftracks. Entrenched LMG teams would hold two corridors on the left and right of the Churchyard, sit back and mop up the Jerries as they advanced.
2 units of 2" smoke mortars would deploy to blind enemy lmgs and attempt to enable the bren sections to split their fire across the enemy LMG teams. This would also force Jerry to move enemy sections to reduce fire.
The smoke could also be used to to blind the enemy halftracks. The mission requirements for this are to hold at all costs. It's a free hit for the British, we can lose this entire platoon and fight to the last man. A draw would be enough as well, so if they can grind this map out we'll win the campaign.
An interesting plan on paper. However, as you can see from the board above (from the German PoV) Sam had set the table up with the church slap bang in the middle, which would become important as the game started.
(Pictures are from Sam's account of the game, I only took a couple as my phone died :( )
We rolled off for FM, Brits on 10 and Germans got 11. We then rolled for Sams free moves, and he hit a 5. I set up my patrol markers at the front of the church door as per the map, and Sam moved his free patrol moves right up to my markers and locked them all down without me even getting a single move!
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| What is left of an entrenched Para section tries to hold off the Germans |
This was a problem for me now, as my 'two corridor' defence relied on getting 1 JoP up and two back, but I was now going to be forced into the bottom left corner of the table - not a defence I had planned for. I placed one in the church (as far forward as I could manage) and the other two back on my left flank.
Sam kicked things off by bringing on a forward observer and calling in a ranging shot (naturalement), a section of Grenadiers, a Senior Leader and the Schlepper.
The Church was now acting as a giant screen from the Grenadiers as they moved up, and I was going to have to do something to slow these up. I deployed a sniper in the churchyard and a senior leader behind the church. The sniper had a pop at the observer, hit but no damage.
I wasn't really expecting the Schlepper (actually being played by a Hotchkiss H-39) and I was going to have to deal with the Grenadiers before they got through the churchyard. The smoke and PIAT teams who could deal with this beastie would be starting out a long way from the action in the rear JoPs. My plan was unravelling fast. The Schlepper surprised everyone by smashing a 105mm round into the church building, causing to it to begin collapsing, and forcing my sniper out into the open. Obviously the Schlepper crew were 7th Day Adventists!
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| The church and rear area is stonked by mortars. |
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| but they keep coming... |
Unfortunately, on the next phase the Schlepper rolled forward through the smoke and pointed its big gun at my guys in the entrenched position. The Grenadier teams opened up on them as well, killing the Junior Leader and a rifleman. Having no option now I deployed my second Senior Leader as back up to this section. My church sniper having redeployed out of the building was out of sight of the FO, so I brought a second sniper in cunningly concealed in the road and he took a shot at the German FO as well, missing.
The sniper also took a shot at the gunner on the Schlepper, and we rolled to see if it was the JL hit (which it was!) He was injured and lost a CI, so the Schlepper could either drive or shoot but not both - which it couldn't do anyway!
The german observer brought down the mortar barrage on the church, pinning my sniper team and senior leaders. The church was in danger of collapse, but the remaining PanzerGrenadiers began to move forward, finishing off my lads in the front of the churchyard.
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| The Church collapses, rendering my forward Jump Off Point unusable |
The unpinned soldiers pulled back to the rear of the churchyard, and the Schlepper moved up. At this point I managed to deploy my PIAT team, who took a long range shot at the big gun but missed. They took the full force of the Germans closing in and were removed from the table. Another Light mortar team popped up and tried to block LoS to the Schlepper, but the shots went wide.
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| Mortar smoke falling way out of where I wanted it to |
The remaining para sections tried to flank the church to the right and get to the German positions, but this opened up my left flank and the germans advanced and captured my JoP, ending the turn and finishing the game.
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| Paras try and flank the Germans |
Thoughts.
This Platoon were a throwaway so I knew I could be a bit less cautious, but my plan to hold a deep line and force the Germans to attack down two sides was disabled by the patrol phase being so short. This wasn't intentional on Sams part, you only need 3 free moves to get a patrol marker 24" up the table, but as the Brits started off in the middle of the table we were always going to struggle to move very far.
Digging in is good for veterans, but they are always going to be targets for barrages and HE. It might take a few phases to whittle them down, but you need to use that time to bring supporting forces up. I struggled to deploy my 2" mortar and PIAT teams, and when they did come on they failed to shut down the Schlepper.
It's down to the final map and the final game. see what happened here
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