Saturday 23 October 2021

The Battle for Lyminge : Operation Sealion

It has been far too long since we played a Sealion game, although the campaign is always at the back of my mind. Anyway the Germans are starting to break out S-day plus one, they plan a drive in multiple directions to prevent the British developing a fixed line of defence. Several routes lead North towards Canterbury an obvious political if not strategic objective. The drive north will also potentially allow the Germans to cut off the whole of Kent enabling a better and more secure build up of forces before the assault on London.

The beautiful Elham valley is a key route of advance an late on S-day a small group of paratroopers were sent to Lyminge to secure the village as a first step. They have now been isolated and the British after a bruising first day have mobilised what limited armour they have to counter the expected advance. Having been informed by the Local Home Guard that German Paratroopers are hold up in the village they prepare to assault.

Lyminge village the black line denotes the area currently occupied to the south by the Germans on day one. The village was much smaller back in 1940 than the sprawl of today.
Lyminge from the East, the B2065 to Elham running away up hill in the distance. Lyminge railway station, still in service then in the foreground. The Parattroopers are dug in in the small white house on the far side of the village.
The Home guard have been watching overnight and are keen to get stuck into the Germans. Several of them outraged by the Germans occupying the village
A view up the railway north, no trains running today
The Germans have set up an antitank gun close to the church.
Advancing down the road the German officer orders a Panzer III to probe into the village
This is supported by infantry
British infantry and the H9me guard come under fire from a machine gun in one of the red buildings 
The centre of the German advance
The British armour finally arrives a Mark II Cruiser tank and a Bren gun carrier 
It blasts away but then hits a mine in the road immobilising it in a vulnerable position on the road
Fierce fighting by the station
The Pak 40 has been taking a lot of fire but is unable to hit the British tank
The Germans have also advanced a T38 tank and this takes on the Mark II
Which eventually takes a hit and bursts into flames.
On the right the Germans are making slow progress, the British defenders are occupying both the Pub and the Post office.
And now a British unit has outflanked the. Along the railway !
But ominously more german infantry is advancing on the centre of the village
The paratroopers who have been hammered from every direction are finally forced to run out of the building (this was caused by a special event allowing the British to miss communicate a German order !)
The British also have an armadillo effective at pinning down infantry but having less luck knocking out the Pak 40
An overview of the battle at this stage
The Pak 40 finally scores a direct hit on the armadillo which also bursts into flames
All the Germans in this area are pretty pinned down
With time now short the Germans push to capture the objective (centre of the village) a second unit charges into the pub and after a fierce hand to hand combat the British occupiers are wiped out
Out of sight behind the pub the British have an oerlikon anti tank gun it can seem to destroy the Panzer III but it does manage to immobilise it knocking off a track
The British at the station are forced to pull back by a blunder
The battle is now drawing to a close the Germans are in a strong position
They are holding the centre of the village
Both British tanks and the armadillo are either burning or immobilised, time for the British to pull back

A splendid return to our Sealion games. The British deployed their antitank gun poorly which hardly managed to get of a shot the British infantry and home guard were brave but out numbered by the Germans. Eventually when time permits I plan some maps to show the current positions etc. I will also post a better picture of the two new British tanks.

Thanks as always for looking.

Matt


27 comments:

  1. Great report Matt, it's good to see some more Sea Lion action

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    1. Thanks Phil , yes i need more Sealion as I still have quite a bit of stuff collected and needing to be completed.

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  2. That's a lovely looking game Matt and good to see Operation Sealion on the table again.

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    1. Thanks Steve one of my favourite ongoing campaigns more to come just don’t know when ?

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  3. Thanks Matt, great account helped by a lot of lovely pictures …. A very good visual of ‘a village’.

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    1. Thanks Norm. I have quite a lot of stuff so I need to be careful not to make the table unplayable for the battle. I am planning a big game in the spring next year !

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  4. Nice looking game Matt. Running an Operation Sealion campaign is still on my wish list, and I hope to make it a reality some day.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. If you have seen the background to this you will know this isn’t a campaign in the sense of win or lose more like a traditional imagination setting for individual battles. I may at some point build in some mini ‘campaign’ section but that is for the future 👍

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  5. Great stuff Matt! I well remember trying to play a Seelowe (we pronounced it See Low back then!)game with my neighbour based on some articles in Aifix Magazine circa 1975! We had 20p bath tub toy tugs and those odd shaped Christmas date boxes as landing barges, and use Airfix "Civilians" (which we unaccountably slightly larger scale than all the other figures - except the British Paras!) along with British and German infantry and some of my dads model railway scenery!

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    1. Thanks Keith, a splendid bit of background from your youth. Whilst this campaign has been running a while I am obviously still a novice 😀

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  6. Matt, you always outdo yourself! What a beautiful setting for a game. I wonder what tomorrow has in store?

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    1. Thanks Jonathan ……….more snow for tomorrow 👍

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  7. That's a splendid table Matt and a grand AAR. Still, let's hope the good guys can soon turn the tables on the vile Hun!

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    1. Thanks David , the Hun look like they are off down the Elham valley blitzkrieg style !

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  8. A lovely looking and sounding game Matt… as always.
    This is such a tempting period… I must resist… for now 😁

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly….a very tempting period indeed…one of my favourites as it allows my imagination to run wild 😀

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  9. Wonderful looking game. Sealion and VBCW scenarios are some of the few alternate history backgrounds that always entertain.

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    1. Thank you….obviously one of my favourites too. I realised I want following fish Tales but have now rectified that 😀

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  10. Excellent. I remember playing a scenario at that show in Cumbria a few years ago

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    1. Thanks David yes the campaign runs ever on….I don’t plan to finish it anytime soon and have plenty of ideas for the future 👍

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  11. Is it worrisome that the Germans seem to be doing quite well in the invasion of England? 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew geographically it’s is quite a long way to where I live in the North so I feel safe enough 👍

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  12. Nice to see an old favourite back Matt, wonderful stuff.
    Another tough day in the field for the plucky Brits.
    Regards
    Stuart

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    1. Thanks Stu yes the Brits got a battering….and I did quietly suggest they put their antitank gun on the hill but they apparently knew better !

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  13. Fantastic looking game, Matt. The troops and terrain are wonderful; and to top it off with using one of my favorite rulesets too.

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    1. Thanks Dean a fun game and I am a real advocate for keeping the rules simple and fun which bolt action does for me.

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