Battle of Noville : Ardennes, December 1944

Now despite my lack of posting I have been busy with a couple of battles to post. I have nearly recovered from my illness although it has been reluctant to go completely and have been massively distracted on a different hobby project more of that later 👍

First up and very timely played rolled out my 15mm late war collection for a battle inspired by my recent holiday to the Ardennes. Whilst the paratroopers of the 506 dug in around Bastogne other elements of the American forces held the German advance back. One of these ‘Team Desobry’ as it was known after the commander officer Major Desobry held much of the 2nd Panzer Division just north of Bastogne at the village of Noville. Initially he had infantry and tanks from the 10th Armoured Division, to which was added Tank destroyers from the 609th Battalion and eventually Paratroopers from the 1st Battalion 506th. For two days they held back the 2nd Panzer allowing the rest of the defensive forces to dig in around Bastogne without their efforts it is possible the defence at Bastogne would have failed. 

Whilst there is plenty of information available on the battle

and some period photos, this of the village I think after the battle I couldn’t find any other reports of the battle being played ?

Anyway it was one of our stops on our recent holiday of the area

The memorial in the village

and a shot of the cross roads as it is now looking south towards Bastogne Major Desobry set up his command is the beige looking building in the distance and where his was ultimately injured. As usually our battle is ‘based on’ rather than an absolutely accurate historical scenario. But we managed most of the key elements. One specific gap which I need to fix in the new year is the 2nd Panzers had Panthers at this time and this is a gap in my German armour. Roll on Vapnartak show where I might pick some up.

And on to the battle, the Second Panzer waiting for the order to attack, this was only their set up position and they could arrive from anywhere on the baseline. Their objective to break through. One key element of the historical battle was thick fog so we had some simple fog rules, which caused a lot of problems for the defenders as the fog rather than lifting gradually got thicker reducing visibility and allowing the Germans to get right upto the village ! I realised after the battle that I have a few snowy trees I should have added but forgot 🤔 next time……

The Americans are dug in in the village so have little reason to move at this stage so we gave the Germans a double move to get things going.

 Shermans and infantry in the village

In a brief opening in the fog the Americans get the first hit along the main road

But as the fog thickens the Germans advance closer

Holding the line

Whilst the tanks of each side blast away the Panzergrenadiers of the 2nd Pz rush into the village occupying the nearest buildings a lone American bazooka can be seen attempting to take out a Panzer he didn’t succeed 😢

Tank destroyers have now been brought into the line

But the main German attack is on the west of the village and the Germans get the better of the armoured exchange

Without making the battle impossible for the out numbered Americans the Germans had a small flanking force which would arrive randomly to cut the road to Foy as they did historically…..and here they are ! Just as the American paratroooers can be seen running down the road to aid the defence

To the east of the village some of the German armour has finally been knocked out, but the grenadiers are fighting in the buildings

The Germans flanking forces swings north to the back of the village

At this point the Germans have forced their way through on the west, and taken two of the key defensive positions, the Americans have made them pay but we judged it now time for them to pull back. A German win albeit a minor one, partly helped by the fog early on in the battle at one point visibility dropped right down to 6” allowing them to approach the village unmolested.

Now for something completely different during my recent illness I had started to clear out some unloved stuff from the dungeon. My old unpainted Skaven army finding a new home via eBay. As part of this clear out I rediscovered my old model railway stuff neatly boxed up. I had two choices sell it on or investigate if I could accomodate it in the dungeon. I chose the second option so after a lot of thought I have been building a raised shelf around the dungeon to run the trains. This has involved a lot of thought mainly due to the restrictions on space and has been very absorbing. But one of the key requirements was for the new project to have no impact on the use of the dungeon for wargaming ?

Much of the timber I already had

But it did require a lot of juggling to be able to access the space

A first test train on its way……part of the fun of the project has been problem solving as there were a number of challenges in getting the track up and running. I do plan to add terrain etc as the project develops. As it happened at the weekend there was a model railway show down in Manchester.

Some amazing military focussed layouts this one around D day overlord preparation

Some fantastic modelling ideas

Tanks on trucks 👍

…and tanks on boats

Anyway this blog will remain focussed on wargaming although I might share an occasional update on the track. Thanks as always for checking by, I do have another battle to post in the next few days.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and holiday celebrations. Depending on my distractions I’ll try and post up some end of year reviews

Matt 😀