Operation Sealion : The Dover Command Tunnels

As S-day of Operation Sealion draws to a close the German advanced forces have closed in around key command locations in and around Dover. Taken by surprise the British Forces have been slow to evacuate senior staff and as Dover has been gradually overrun a panic has spread through the army command that Winston hasn’t been seen. As the remaining escape route north is held open a daring search and rescue mission has been implemented. At the same time German Forces are assaulting the command tunnels hoping to capture the Prime Minister and gather any other secret information that might be of use later in the invasion.

The scene is set at the start of the scenario

The scenario set up, a series of complex inter-linked tunnels, the red dots indicate the potential entrance and exit points for the British rescue force. This will be led by Gen Sir John Dill as the senior commanding officer, he is accompanied by Churchill’s bodyguard Walter Tommy Thompson, a sergeant Matthews and a selection of well armed private’s. The entrance point will be randomly selected and this will indicate the exit as the opposite side. The Germans led by a Hauptmann Schmidt, a selection of Sergeants and Private’s will be split and enter the tunnels randomly form the two other sides. There are three objectives for the British.

1. Locate and rescue Winston exiting the tunnels from the appropriate point (really nothing else will do) he is hiding in one of the rooms unknown to either force !

2. In every ‘square’ in the tunnel complex there is a piece of intelligence collected by the first figure to reach it, these are represented by small gold die which will be seen in later pictures.

3. Kill as many Germans as they can or escape as many British either would be the deciding factor in any victory.

The British rescue forces charges into the tunnels, Thompson on the right with Gen John Dill behind him

Private’s are sent in all direction to hunt for Winston, he will only be revealed once a figure enters the relevant room. In each room there is a figure and a marker indicating the potentially hidden Winston. This private searches the bathroom but to no avail.

The Germans have now entered the tunnel and begin to block off the obvious exit routes.

More Germans rush into the officers mess, but again Winston isn’t found

The Germans spread out and soon begin to collect the intelligence tokens

Including documents left in the Mess !

Using one of the doors the British continue the search

But the Germans have also made it into the Map room.

Becoming quite desperate Dill and Thompson rush through the map room but Sir John is knocked down, luckily he is only winded and is able to jump back into the fight

More intelligence gathered in the command room....but no Winston

Finally a German bangs through the storeroom door and as he approaches some of the store boxes an angry looking gentleman in a bowler hat smoking a cigar opens up with a Tommy gun !

Meanwhile the General is being overpowered, he is putting up a fight but can’t hold for long

One of the Germans is cornered.....

Whilst Schmidt hides in the next room

Another of the Germans is taken out

But the two on one combat is too much for Sir John his bravery may just have bought the others enough time 

Small combats have broken out everywhere with desperate hand to hand struggles in the tunnels, the British are trying to open an escape path the Germans looking to capture the PM

But Winston is also in trouble !

Another German is on the way into the store 

But Winston is no slouch, he will fight them on the beaches and in the tunnels........

He makes a run for it, while two of the Private’s hold back the Germans....it is getting desperate ......

Having knocked out another attacker Winston makes a dash for the exit, he is one move away when the German officer charges him to block the way, from nowhere Tommy Thompson comes to Winston aid.....surely he can rescue his boss ?

Nooooooooooooo.......... the Hauptmann has got off a single lucky shot and the Prime Minister goes down literally the last roll of the die !!!!!

This left me in something of a conundrum, surely Winston couldn’t be dead ? Perhaps wounded, perhaps captured to be rescued later, then we realised that this was in fact an actor impersonating Churchill, Winston had been changing clothes in the store room as a last and final attempt to slip out phew............

A splendid game, which really did go upto the wire, we had characters chasing about all over the place and then vicious hand to hand fighting to capture the PM. Sadly based on the criteria we had set the Germans definately won, not only was Winston (apparently) killed but they had collected significantly more intelligence as the British had been more focussed on the rescue.

This was one of the those games I had had in my head for a long time so it was nice to finally get it played 😀