Early morning S-Day +1 : Operation Sealion

 With the Sealion forces on the table we played another virtual game. After the ‘longest’ day the Germans are looking to expand out from their bridgehead. It is not clear exactly where the main thrust will come but a drive north towards Canterbury to cut of a significant area of Kent before moving on the capital is an obvious direction. The hurriedly constructed British defence line is thin as more troops are rushed to contain the Germans. The main road north through Densole from Folkestone is constricted between the difficult escarpment of the North Downs and Reiden Wood. A makeshift roadblock  has been put in place over night and the local troops hope to hold the advance just long enough  for reinforcements.

This was to be another virtual game so I shared the battlefield overview with Phil in advance. The plucky British would be allowed to deploy two units anywhere on the table, the Germans would come on in 2 waves. Whilst the British could advance as required, the objective was for the Germans to open up the road block for the armoured column following up from the south. The British just need to hold as long as they can.

A closer shot of the road block a Vickers gun has been placed with a good field of fire down the road.

The Germans advance at the run, the first wave made up mainly of Fallschrimjager, elite troops, armed to the teeth 

They will be up against....shopkeepers ! Will somebody get that cow out the way !

Luckily there are some regular British troops , one unit makes it into the rear garden of the pub giving good cover.

More infantry and a light anti-tank gun which should hold any lightly armed recon vehicles back

Oh dear the seconds wave of Germans advance with a Panzer 38t outclassed by more modern paneers but still pretty robust

A single vickers tank from the Royal Tank Regiment rolls down the road and opens fire but the shells bounce off the panzer !

The 38t misses with its shell but gets lucky hitting the dug in machine gun, enabling the paratroopers to rush closer to the road junction

The second wave German infantry is also advancing ....strength in numbers knowing the brits don’t have enough firepower to hold back everything

The paratroopers have made the road.

With covering fire from an MG34

The two tanks are exchanging fire but having little success, perhaps the gunners are tired or simply over excited in the early morning dawn the Vickers tank crew is temporarily stunned 

but then against the odds the panzer take a direct hit and is brewed up !

Things were looking good then go from bad to worse, just when a leadership test is required the German officer collapses apparently due to large quantities of schnapps consumed the night before. The elite paratroopers advance is stalled !

Luckily (for the Germans) things look better behind the pub, although one unit has shamelessly fled back into the trees the second wave have assaulted into and captured the pub garden and important tactical location. From here they can easily outflank the roadblock

Not wanting to be outdone the paratroopers are back on the move laying down submachine gun fire as they vault the hedges

Outflanked the British Mortar crew are over run (we play the Bombard Rocket launcher as a medium Mortar Otherwise it would never get used!)

The last line of defence.......

...is the shopkeepers/Home guard as the last British regular infantry are assaulted and knocked out by the advancing paratroopers.

At this point the last turn the battle is pretty much over, the Germans having outflanked the pub now knock out the anti-tank gun leaving only the isolated Vickers tank, this decides to withdraw having held back the advance for a long as possible and perhaps they can already hear the rumble of more powerful tanks in the distance ?

The Germans have made it to capture the cross roads, but like so often it has cost them dearly

Splendid fun, think the Germans had the better of the dice rolling which helped, and the British perhaps missed a trick by not occupying the pub as a strong defensive position from the start. Perhaps they didn’t want to get trapped ?

Only one scenery shot taken out on my bike on Saturday , lockdown is good for cyclists !

Keep well all 👍