Another epic afternoon of gaming at the club……. this time in May 1940, with the French counter-attacking the Germans. The French, commanded by Terry and me, had under our command a full platoon of infantry supported by a sniper team, a Hotchkiss MMG Team, a 60mm Mortar Team, a Canon de 25mm AT gun, and three Somua S35 tanks.
On the other side, Tim and Dave commanded a full platoon (4 sections) of infantry, supported by an MG34 MG on a tripod, a Pak 36 AT, a Panzer 1A, and the notorious sIG33 Bison.
The game started with the French deploying all three tanks and an infantry section onto the table. The Germans reacted to the French move by deploying a section of infantry and their Panzer 1, hoping to cover some of the ground out to their extreme right flank. This only brought the French armour closer to them, and the German infantry, on that flank, were soon under heavy fire.
After discovering several German positions located behind the hedgerows, the French commander deployed his VB team and his 60mm mortar team. In addition, one of the Somua tanks was brought forward, and soon all three teams were concentrating their fire on the far-right German section, which soon broke and ran.
However, not all the German troops had deployed, and so in the next German phase, they deployed their Pak 36, and on the first shot, hit and destroyed a French tank. With the Pak 36 position revealed,d the French commander switched his attack from the left to the right, swinging the two remaining French tanks over onto the exposed German left flank. The Germans tried to halt the attack with a well-directed shot from the sIG33 Bison, but the round did not cause any damage to the French command tank other than to stun the crew.
The next French phase saw the tanks push further forward and to the right, away from the sIG33 and further enough forward for the French commander to reposition a jump-off point, and from that, the last remaining French infantry section was deployed. All the German commanders had in reserve was a single infantry section, which he deployed in a vain hope to stop the French advance. The German commander also pushed forward the Panzer 1 to cover the gap created on the German right flank.
But in the end, the French were able to overwhelm the single German section and forced it to withdraw due to heavy losses of men. This broke the German morale, and Victory went to the French.
Many thanks again to Tim and Dave (the German commanders) for the great game and fantastic banter. Many thanks also to Terry for his exceptional dice rolling, which almost single-handedly brought the Germans to their knees.
