The Battle for Bridge : Operation Sealion

This week we had planned to play out in the shed but the weather in a crazy twist became too hot ! So we stayed in the dungeon for a return to our Sealion campaign. The Germans are pushing inland on S-Day plus 1, having secured much of the south coast of Kent on S-Day they are driving North towards Canterbury. The direct route along the A2 has a potential pinch point at the Village of Bridge where the  Nail Bourne (river) cuts the road.

The Germans recognising the challenge have sent a small recon force who have successfully captured the bridge. The British have missed the importance of the objective, luckily the retired colonel of the Barham Yeomanry has taking things into his own hands and called all the home guard forces for the area to attempt to take back the bridge. The local population can only hope the regular British army will reach the village to support the battle before the Germans are able to get their support to the village.

Looking North up the A2 towards the Village of Bridge, a German Stuka has been called in to support the small German force.

The German recon force holding both bridges (which are the objective for the day) including motorcycle MG teams rushing up the road.

The first wave of British are the Home guard and local residents, including the mounted Barham Yeomanry. The British also have Bofor Anti-aircraft gun

A view from behind the windmill to the village of Bridge and the objective bridges on the Nail Bourne

The A2 is a very straight Roman road linking the coast to Canterbury. The advanced German infantry cross the bridge and dig in to the small white cottage by the bridge

German armoured cars push forward to hold the advancing Home guard back

The RAF enter the battle

As the battle progresses both sides begin to bring reserves on, the German rush forward in trucks

The RAD 8 takes a hit and bursts into flames blocking the road unless a heavy tank can be brought forward to push it out the way. Home guard can be seen edging along the rear of the houses but they come under fire from German machine guns dug in on the other side of the river.

British regular infantry finally starts to reach the battlefield

The spitfire swoops on the German infantry knocking out one of the trucks luckily the majority of the infantry are able to dismount unharmed

The British bring on a Matilda II whoch drives the German AC back towards the bridge

The Yeomanry gallop forward on their horses catching a German unit in the open behind the white cottage they are nearly wiped out

More German reserves are pushed forward, this Pioneer Hanomag armed with a powerful antitank weapon

The Matilda strikes and another armoured car is burning, but behind that you can see a large crater where sadly the Yeomanry were targeted by the Stuka a direct hit saw them literally wiped out !

British regulars advancing down the A2

Matilda pushes the AC off the road and prepares to rush the smaller of the two bridges, you can really see from the photos the intensity of the battle which focussed around the white cottage the British bringing more and more troops to assault it but them being driven back by the defenders.

The Matilda attempts to smash the German vehicle but fails to destroy it and they become locked on the bridge

The Germans attempt to advance on the right, but a Vickers tank has managed to take the bridge, and only the arrival of German armour will be able to drive this away

The Matilda is hit but rather than destroyed it is driven back off the bridge. The infantry behind assault the German Armoured vehicle but they too are driven back, lucky for them only move back onto the bridge.

In the meantime the spitfire has been chasing the German bomber but has been unable to knock it out. And that without anymore photos was about the end of the battle, both sides had taken massive casualties, the British did manage eventually to retake the white cottage, but with German tanks moving up the road they have limited resources to hold the village. Always fun to renew the Sealion campaign, a tough battle for both sides with a lot of infantry casualties.

Earlier in the week I also played  another  CoC game down with George

The Germans find themselves defending another wood

The British launch a cleverly planned mortar barrage which hits hard

Almost finished, the Germans fight back making it a tense and close battle but eventually the German morale breaks giving the British a fine win 👍

My Partizan loot, not too much just some bits and bobs. What I did buy secondhand was a couple of boxes containing lots of bits for a Star Fort. It was very cheap so I wasn’t too worried whether it was complete or not (I didn’t unpack it at the show) so when I got it all out back at home here is what I found.

A basic triangular shape, 10mm SYW figures shown above

This extended version with my ECW figures

A bigger version with extra bits added including the broken wall sections.

I played around a bit and it does seem to be missing some sections, and the shape seems slightly odd ? It would be easy to make a couple of extra sections, above is how it might look in the corner of the table which I guess is most likely as I wasn’t planning to play any siege battles in the near future. Food for thought anyway depending on when and how I might use it ?

That’s it for now likely more to come soon although very little progress on painting.

Thanks as always for visiting

Matt ❤️

ECW Battlefields, Oxford and Partizan

Perhaps I need to spend some time painting and gaming, Rather than gallivanting about the country ? Such is the hard life of a retired war gamer.

The plan for the week was to visit some ECW Battlefields, then meet my wife in Oxford for a short break then head to see some friends before heading to Newark for Partizan show.

First up then. Trip to Naseby, the weather was lovely and I was really impressed by the battlefield, there is a local preservation society who have placed clear and well thought out information boards, the battlefield is also fairly unspoilt remaining mainly farmland, although of course more hedges and drainage than there would have been in 1645.

This is the Cromwell monument which roughly aligns with the centre of the Parliamentary line, Cromwell was probably further right in fact. This slight high ground gives a good view of the battlefield. This shot is actually looking NW diagonally across the battlefield.

By some random chance there were some re enactors on the battlefield these pretending to be Dragoons firing across the Sulby Hedges. A very fun visit all in all.

Next up I was staying in Cropredy Bridge and despite the slightly damp weather I set off on a walk around the Battlefield. Above the view across Silt Mill Ford, now a small bridge. Looking Waller took this route to cross to assault the Royalist, because of the gloom it looks further than it is but the road the King was taking runs up and over the low hills in the background.

A view from just below the road looking back down towards Silt Mill Ford

Cropredy Bridge itself with the only info board, the fields are where the Parliamentary Artillery setup having crossed but were then attacked by the Royalists. Cropredy Bridge is definitely on the list of battles to play when we can get into the shed and spreadout.

The weather improved in the afternoon so off to EdgeHill.

Having done a bit of research I knew this would likely be the most disappointing. Basically the majority of the battlefield is part of a large MOD ammunition storage facility and off limits it is actually pretty hard to access the battlefield. This shot is taken looking directly along the Royalist lines, the trees on high ground in the far distance is the far end of Edgehill. Because it is now wooded it is also hard to get a view from there either.

One nice surprise was Radway church

Where they have a nice little museum/display about the battle with some artefacts

The Battlefield monument marking the battlefield but actually placed off the edge of the battle itself. It’s a shame but a lot could be made of Edgehill if the land could be opened up.

Off then to the Kings Capital during the Civil war, we did loads of stuff but I’m only sharing the edited highlights.

castle and Prison, dating back to Saxons/Normans, used during Civil war and where Matilda escaped apparently during the anarchy. The prison is more Moderna and was used into the 1990’s !

The Ashmolean Museum. Free so worth a visit, this is the small gift giving by King Alfred.

Christ Church college headquarters of the king in the Civil war and the quadrangle was used for training and drilling troops, not allowed to even walk on the grass now !

Inside the church some regimental flags from the numerous Oxford regiments who fought in the Napoleonic wars.

This lovely/famous picture of Pavia was in the Ashmolean

I also managed a short (you don’t need that long) trip to the Soldiers of Oxford Musuem

One or two interesting artefacts but they don’t really make enough of the regimental history in my view

After a couple of days with friends I was off to Partizan. Many have already covered loads of the games, needless to say they was a lot of inspiration on view. It was also fantastic to meet a whole host of people and chat which made it a very pleasant day out. So just a couple of highlight battle picture from me.

Steve Jones AWI battle, I had a nice chat with him

Super Japanese battle, buildings and figures were lovely but they needed a bigger mat 

Gettysburg……lovely

Another AWI battle based on Bemis Heights I think

Seven years war I think

And another one

Lush indeed 😮 nice to see blankets the same as mine being used quite often around the show

Terrain heavy sub continent 

ACW if I recollect non historical but beautifully presented. These were the pick of the crop for me, notable by its absence were Napoleonic battles in 28mm perhaps next time there will be a flood of them ?

I did meet up with quite a lot of fellow bloggers and gamers and even remembered to take a selfie with Iain and Steve J we had a great chat about all things wargaming.

Loot you may ask, I wasn’t really in a spending mood but did pick up some stuff which I haven’t even unpacked yet so I will share that when I get a chance.

Hopefully some gaming next post ?

Thanks Matt ❤️