The Battle for Petham : Operation Sealion

This past weekend we revisited my Operation Sealion campaign.

The Germans are driving north towards Canterbury on day Two. With the Germans advancing in multiple directions the British defenders are spread thin, they have called out Home Guard units as well as any locals armed with weapons. It is hoped these advocates forces can slow the advance to allow the regular army to plug the gaps. As the Germans drive their Panzers north along the old Roman road towards Canterbury a reconnaissance force has been sent to the village of Petham to outflank and potential roadblocks on the main road.

In this scenario, the British Homeguard could be setup in advance together with two roadblocks and 4 sections of barbed wire anywhere up to half way across the battlefield. The Germans and regular British would arrive in three waves.

The germans advance towards Petham with German mountain troops released from their assault along the coast on day one. These are supported by several light armoured vehicles

..they are also supported by German air power !, this targets some of the homeguard caught out in the open

The defenders at the back of the village

Armoured vehicles and Motorbike machine gun teams

A unit of local miners have been left to hold the barricade on the main road !

The second wave of German infantry advances onto the table

The Gebirgsjager have pushed forward into the village while the armoured cars pour fire onto the defenders behind the barricade here

The British second wave includes some much needed armour…oh and the Beaverette !

British infantry move into the village from the north 

But moving up the main road the German Panzers arrive

German support attempts to knock out the Matilda with no luck

Some of the home guard have pulled back into the orchards north of the village

Yet more German infantry comes in on the main road

But the Matilda is a hard nut to crack and the Miners are holding on tenaciously

Little activity in the centre where the British have set out some of the barbed wire

The Germans are now pushing into the village

The germans using a side road to try and get past the British artillery in the orchard

Eventually the Matilda is immobilised and the leading German tank drives up to the barricade to crash through it, i should up to this point the British had been pretty unlucky with their dice rolling

And then a single Bren gunner managed to hit and destroy the Stuka 😢 

The Gebirgsjager rush the defenders of the post office, this was the second attempt to take the PO by storm, the British must have had a few good dice 

The Germans have now dismantled the barricade on the main road, and broken through the miners

They are also holding the village having secured the majority of the buildings except for the one beyond the Y junction

There were still plenty of defenders especially behind the village and in the orchard, but at this point we declared it as a minor victory for the Germans. As their objective was to break through.

A campaign that seems to keep on giving fun and entertaining battles, as long as we don’t focus too hard on the objectives. A great day gaming ……

During the week I also headed over to the NE for a Barbarossa game with Martin using rapid fire. Lots of fun and fairly simple rules to get your head around…..I’m wondering if they would work with my 15mm stuff ? We’ll see if I can pick up a copy sometime.

That’s it for now thanks for checking in, a return to Chain of command tomorrow and hopefully a big peninsular battle at the weekend.

Matt ❤️

Something to post…….

After getting back from America, a week down in London and then Easter away in the van I am finally back at home, for a few days at least.

Not much painting but I have managed to complete the first of the extra Confederate cavalry, the Union are well on the way too, we are hoping for a Cavalry battle in the near future ?

During our Easter trip we visited an interesting Nuclear Bunker near Nantwich in Cheshire, now a museum jammed full of stuff

Lots of Cold War Russian bits

Operations rooms

Some interesting Russian uniforms

As it happens as it was the Easter weekend there were loads of Cold War re-enactment people, they seemed to be having fun ?

Most chilling they have a number of ‘presumably’ de armed nuclear bombs and missile !

Much later than most but here are a couple of shots from Salute of my favourite games, most of which turned out to win the various awards on the day

Napoleonics

Massive what a tanker battle

Beautiful french terrain

And something very quirky !

Some loot, I really only intended to buy some Spanish, had a nice chat to the Perrys and ended up with three boxes ! Also picked up a new Rendra windmill, and a couple of Spanish command figures

Finding history everywhere, we visited Crewe Queens Park over Easter and I noticed this interesting info board

Finally a shot out in the lakes although I haven’t been at home much.

We have a game planned for Saturday and played Rapid Fire over at Martins yesterday. I do need to spend some time painting 😢

Thanks as always Matt 

MacPherson Ridge : Gettysburg Day 1

We had planned this battle before my trip but was delayed. Anyway not surprisingly I’m full of enthusiasm for ACW gaming so a good start back from our holiday. The basic scenario is again from Brad Butkovich’s Gettysburg Scenario book. It picks up the renewed assaults by Heth along MacPherson’s Ridge and the Herbst Woods, defended by the Iron Brigade.

A shot from the recent trip, taken from the modern bridge over the railway cut looking towards the Chambersburg Pike, beyond that the MacPherson Barn and beyond that Herbst Woods

Our setup, Macpherson ridge on the left

Daniel’s Brigade advancing on the left of the cut

Baxter’s union brigade is pushed up into the line of defence

Confederate artillery open up, histprically they were further back but we put them on the table 

Pettigrews brigade advances towards Willoughby Run to drive the Iron Brigade back

The rest of the Union defence line along MacPherson ridge

Daniel’s splits his force to find a weakness along the Pike 

The iron brigade have rallied slightly but are hit in fierce hand to hand combat by the rebels in Herbst woods

By the cut the advance slows and each side throw volleys at each other

The initial assault in the woods is thrown back but the iron brigade is very close to breaking 

A second assault in the woods, but with some impressive valour rolls the Iron brigade holds again !

Can the iron brigade hold much longer ?

On the right half of Pettigrews brigade exchanges shots across the creek

A third combat in the woods

And then a fourth…..the attackers are exhausted and the Iron Brigade somehow holds, good Valour rolls and the timely use of a bonus card to pass a failed fortitude test !

In the woods the sting has been taken out of the attack but fighting continues on the right

The iron brigade also exhausted continue to hold the woods

On the left there is still a chance of a break through

The leading rebels have made it to the MacPherson Barn but they are hit by fresh Union defenders. The rebels are also pushing up the Chambersburg Pike, but the rest of Daniel’s brigade is thrown back and they don’t have the numbers left to secure a victory.

A fun return to gaming and great to play another Gettysburg scenario. The Iron Brigade really were close to breaking but just managed to hold out long enough to take the sting out of the confederate advance. Played with V&F it gave a good game and a close result.

Painted up before the holiday another bit of Italian armour for a future Sicily battle.

Next up Salute and I’ll try and take some photos. Let’s see if there are any Perry Spanish left for me to buy ?

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out the blog Matt ❤️