Somewhere in Normandy 1944 : Part II

As hinted at by the title of my previous post we played a second Normandy Battle. Basically with the previous game finishing quite late and an early start on the Saturday I didn’t have much time to create a completely new battlefield.

But this wasn’t a continuation, but a completely new battle. Those eagle-eyed we spot I did change a couple of things adding an extra road and growing the village slightly. The forces would be a bit larger as we had more time. We would again be using Bolt Action with the 28mm ranges to give a fluid battle. For this battle the Germans advance from the South (this end) the Americans from the North. The objective for both sides would be to capture the two river crossings, the river no longer in spate would allow infantry to cross if needed. We gave ourselves 10 turns to complete the battle.

The Germans want to use the advantage of their hill and look to deploy their Pak40 overlooking both bridges.

German armour and infantry heading for the White House 

And then advancing down the road

The Americans deploy slightly more cautiously 

German tanks surge towards the right bridge but one gets a track knocked off and is immobilised (it can continue firing though)

German commander oversees the battlefield from the White House whilst the Stug now engages the enemy across the river at long range

American infantry line the river, whilst the leading Sherman advances over the bridge

The two Sherman’s close to the right bridge are also now immobilised

The Sherman in the village crosses over past another burning Panzer

Quick thinking by the tank commander and he pivots into the woods catching the next Sherman in the open and it too is brewed up.

The woods see really fierce hand to hand fighting several units end their battle in the woods.

The Sherman (armed with Howitzer) manages to knock out the Pak40 and then advances over the bridge

Another burning Panzer and you can see just to the right the lead Sherman has driven right into the German lines, distracting the Germans who eventually knock it out with theStug 

Very close now to the end of the battle, the several German units have thrown themselves at the bridge, eventually a unit gets across past the burning Sherman.

In the final turn the Germans manage to get across the bridge, and knock out the American AT Gun, the two remaining tanks in this sector trade shots across the river.

At the other bridge the Germans are also pushing forward, they have eliminated any Americans near the bridge and the Stug has been brought up to lead the advance.

Seem to say this quite often but another fine battle. Very close and hard fought especially around the central wood. The higher quality of the German infantry won through in the end with random dice rolling not really playing a big part in the outcome. As a couple of people mentioned on the previous post the 15mm is very effective and we are enjoying the simplicity of Bolt action and the larger ranges and mobility. This was such a fine battle that we mistakenly started thinking about more WW2 15mm projects, over a post battle cup of tea. Always dangerous to make decisions in the warm glow post-battle but a plan has already been hatched and implemented 😂 for the new year. More of this in future blogs of course. Who doesn’t need another WWII project !!!!!

Back to the painting desk and hopefully more to share by the end of the week.

Matt