It was a cold morning as the sun was rising, the flashes from the constant bombardment of German positions and returning German artillery shells in nearby towns and fields light up the sky. The advancing Allied forces have secured Caen and pushing south securing key points and towns as they go. The job of taking a small town south of Caen fell to the King's Own Strathsprey Highlanders due to its strategic location and the roads leading out of it, it was in this small town that the advancing British forces met some fierce street to street fighting against a counter attacking German force.
The counter attacking Germans quietly moved in as they thought that they had beaten the advancing allied forces.
Panzer and its infantry support setting up in an overwatch position of the key building (blue and green shutters) watching the cross roads. This was both sides objectives secure and hold.
As both sides quietly moved into positions with just the rumbling from the tank engines making any noise, all commands where whispered or hand signals.
(Points to note for later - The rubble on the road on the right of this photo is where the British LMG Team and JNCO was located later on, the building with the green shutters and white windows on the end is where the German LMG team was, directly in-front is the objective buildings and the building on the left is the church that Cpl Payne takes and holds)
The British secured several buildings including the towns church, with Cpl Payne taking the lead on breaching the door as quietly as he could
It was this point the British got eyes on their first lot of Germans who where trying to sneak around the church, unknowing to them that the British where there.
(Point to note - the white building is where the German LMG team firing at the British breaching the objective building where located)
The crack of a rifle from the church seen the sneaking Germans off, critically hitting one and seeing the other return fire as he stumbled over his friend and fell into the door way of where his LMG team where located. While this was happening Cpl Payne squinted his eyes and said "Ehh Lads I think I can see a Panzer over there?". The loud crack and flash off its muzzle quickly followed by the shattering of the window and loud explosion as the shell entered and exploded in the room inflicting casualties and some minor injuries to Cpl Payne and his men confirmed it was a Panzer.
It was at this point this small quiet town was no longer quiet. Bullets where getting fired from lots of different locations, well dug in British LMG teams laying in the rubble in over watch of the road that the Germans need to cross to enter the objective building, this meant every time the Germans tried to cross the main road to enter buildings they where shot. If the LMG team and JNCO supporting them where not a big enough issue the Sherman dug in behind them was. The rattling of its machine guns and main weapon system firing at a German MG team shooting at British troops stacking up to assault the key building.
Very time the Sherman fired it seemed to miss the German MG team, it was in-fact Cpl Paynes lot that engaged them from the next building killing the No2 for the MG team which stopped its firing.
The germans now knowing that the Sherman was there and causing some trouble for its advancing troops decided to try and sneak up on it and take it.
The British LMG team and JNCO located in the rubble took some fire from the German LMG team located on the first floor of an adjacent building which crippled the No2 and seen the JNCO take his role. Which ended badly for him in the end whoever the LMG team did mange to hit the German LMG team crippling its No2 also. It was at this point on the other side of the high wall that the foot steps of Chalky and Smudge (a PIAT Team) could b heard, they had positioned themselves as they where trying to find a way around to the Panzer causing trouble for their friends.
This at the time seamed like a very good idea, however it did not end well for the poor team, although they fired one round off, which missed and hit the building behind the Sherman, alerted the Sherman commander to their position and as the MG was cooling down it rotated its turret and fired. The poor Panzerschreck team where not there at the end of the turn.
The fighting intensified with some savage hand to hand combat within the objective building, after seeing his fellow country men failing to maintain foothold within the objective building the Panzer fired a round straight through the window exploding inside the room causing casualties to the British troops who had just fought a hard round of hand to hand combat with the Germans who use to be in that room. After the smoke and dust settled in the room there was one solider left, he quickly stumbled out the door he just come in. The Germans took advantage of this and managed to dodge some bullets and get into the buildings. The British troops then decided to kick in the doors of the building, posted grenades and then assaulting the poor Germans who had managed to dodge the bullets crossing the street and got in the building. One german had just had enough, feeling exhausted from all the fighting and running and after drawing in hand to hand looked up and seen another British solider entering the room he was in already locked in fists with a British solider, the German solider had had enough and surrendered.
It was at this point both sides had taken sever casualties and the Germans where given the order to fall back as the panzer was required else where on different defence.
The fighting took all day (literally) and as this once quiet town become quiet once again the King's Own Strathsprey Highlanders had successfully secured the small town however prayed there was not another counter attack as there was not enough of them left to hold the position.
Summary
It was a great day and another well fought battle, a lot of rule checking and head scratching as the Close Quarter Rules do not play well. My Dad and I are relearning the rules and trying new rules out. We are having a think about how to fight Close Quarters etc.
We are currently using Street Fighting Rules which leads to a much better game I feel, one dice equals one figure / tank / LMG Team etc. Using the FOLLOW ME rule helps out a lot otherwise we might still be playing the game. The FOLLOW ME rule is any model within 6" of a NCO or 12" of an Officer can follow his action, that figures dice is then removed from the bag and placed beside the figure. We both had 21 Dice, approx 23-25 figures (LMG Teams are two figures but one dice) including Tanks.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 19, 2024, 03:24:59 PM
