Operation SURCOAT - AAR

[Hami]

Saturday was spent fighting over the wheat fields and bocage off Normandy.

Myself and two friends visited my Dad and we had a very eventful game of bolt Action.
Firstly let me introduce the commanders:
British - Me
American - Chris
Germans facing the British advance - My Dad
Germans facing the American advance - Hershel

Operation SURCOAT just began today. Led by Sherman Crab flails and Crocodile tanks, the British VIII corps spearhead, the 6th Guards tank Brigade supporting the 15th Scottish Division crushed the German positions despite a very difficult cross country progression in the bocage south of Caumont-l’Éventé.

In the afternoon, the 4th (Tank) Battalion Westminster Guards has lost contact with its infantry, the 1st Battalion King’s Own Strathspey Highlanders. The tanks were ambushed in a sunken road when they arrived near the hamlet of GRAND ODEUR . The commander described the action as a home guard style attack, Germans throwing grenades and firing ‘bazookas’. The fight was short, but the Hamlet seemed well defended by German infantry. Without any infantry support, the Churchill tanks decided to turn left and to advance through the bocage towards their objective, the Hill 309.

Later in the afternoon, the 4th (Tank) Battalion Westminster Guards finally joined the 1st Battalion King’s Own Strathspey Highlanders and together they moved towards GRAND ODEUR  aware of the enemy presence but not their positions.
When the German activity was finally spotted, the main body of troops bypassed the hamlet while units are sent to clean the place.

As the Officers in command of the British and American troops received their orders the could see the rest of the main body bypassing the hamlet. Both officers where happy to get the job of taking the hamlet went off and briefed their NCOs and troops to the task at hand. The commander of the Churchill listened in and butting in with some advice about his tank and bocage terrain. it was decided that the British would take the right flank of the hamlet and the Americans would take the right flank.

Once NCO's completed battle preparations the advance to contact started, the time was around 1400hours that afternoon. The advancing troops, knowing that the Germans were out there somewhere, advanced slowly through the tall wheat fields with nothing but hedges at the end of them, which is always better than a German MG team of course.

The Churchill commander placed his tank slightly rear of the advancing troops, popped his head out and was helping the troops as he could see a lot more than they could while keeping an eye out for targets for his tank to engage.

The difficult terrain seen a slow advance, and the Germans took full advantage of this slow advance with MG teams and German sections moving into firing positions on both flanks of the hamlet.


German section supporting the MG team (tail end of section can be seen in the above photo along the hedge row)


What was a slow advance soon became even slower when the German MG team opened up on the British section in the craters. Dirt and bullets flying everywhere around them, the Churchill commander seen the devastation that the MG team and supporting German section was causing and he took the shot with his main weapon, with a direct hit on where the MG team where seen the firing stop however the damage had been done, the section was pinned and dealing with injured troops and out the fight. The Churchill commander sent several more rounds from the coax into the building and supporting German section just to make sure they where not able to do any more damage.

The American advance was not going as well as the British flank, they where met with some accurate mortar fire which pinned them in position perfectly for the Panzer to open fire (the two large building looking structures in the distance are not buildings, the one on the right is the Panzer).


While the bullets where landing all round them and taking causalities the NCO decided that it would be mad of them to advance any further so they dug in along that hedgerow and spent time in cover treating the injured. The Commander agreed and asked the British for support. Smudge and Chalky (PAIT Team) where sent to see if they where able to deal with the Panzer but due to the amount of Germans and open ground it was a no go. All this time the Germans seen there opportunity and reinforced the farm walls.


Some even got over confident and took the fight to the Americans, which did not end well for them. With American MG team opening fire, British mortar shells raining down on them soon seen the unit tactically withdraw due to casualties sustained.

Seeing that the his fellow commander was having a bad day the British commander sent a section over to apply more pressure on that flank.


It was now pushing past 1545hours on that day and both sides where feeling the effects of the hard fight where units not following orders due to fatigue/casualties and some just digging in and hoping for the best.
What the British thought would be just a pile of rubble on the extreme left flank was not, the Germans had dug in and fortified it.


The Americans called in for Air-support, DANGER CLOSE DNAGER CLOSE Air-support request over! Sadly even the fighter pilots where tired and feeling the long hours fighting. FIGHTER ON ROUTE CONFIRM LOCATION! Sadly through miss communication and having a rookie fighter pilot seen the Fighter engage a friendly call sign. FRIENDLY FIRE FRIENDLY FIRE was called out over the radio. (Target can be seen in the corner of the wall)


seeing this happen the German MG team (the actual target for the Mustang) opened fire.

 

With the poor visibility the German section just opened fired suppressing the British section coming through the hedgerow. A small firefight between the sections followed, with the help of the mortar team the Germans ducked their heads for a split second, this was there down fall. The whole time the fire fight was happening the British Flamethrower team backed with assault pioneers where doubling around to get the drop on them, and with the German heads down they took this opportunity


It was effect at taking the section out however the whole building caught fire, with flames spurting out of all places and the smoke bellowing out stopped them from securing that flank.


A quick condor moment (thinking time) seen the Vickers team advance and the flame team prep for another assault on where the German MG team where.


It had gone past 1700hours and the Allied assault was called off.

Summary:
The Allies where beaten by loosing more than 50% of deployed troops. If they where able to complete the move that they where in it would have been a draw due to casualties.

The British flank made it into the hamlet thanks to the flamethrower team however due to the well defended right flank, the Germans halted the American advance.

it was a good day all round both sides fighting and playing well.

[dadlamassu]

Nice report.  I commanded the German right flank and held it for the required 6 moves despite appallingly heavy casualties in my 2 rifle sections.  It was a very enjoyable game.

[Mark M Down]

What a fantastic looking game.

[Tim Haslam]

Perfect way to play BA
Well done on the report.
 

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Excellent stuff. I love it when people approach Bolt Action as a historical game and play it as it was intended. It’s a perfectly good game but struggles due to an unfounded description of WW2 40k (by people that don’t understand either game) and being incredibly easy to break if you have no ability to be reasonable about what you use. I’ve played it in 15mm up to about 4.5k pts and it was great. I like your scenery and layout, nice to see a properly cluttered and tight Normandy board. I think it’s my favourite board style to play on.

I think my favourite part (maybe not the right word) was the friendly fire, the picture showing the pilots view allowed you to see how they made a mistake at high speed and hit the obvious targets. Sad but apt.

BALM

[Hami]

Thank you all for the kinds words and reviews of the report and game. All credit for board layout and scenario goes to my Dad (dadlamassu), he gave each commander a briefing sheet stating what they had to achieve and special rules i.e. tanks in bocage, line of sight etc. Me and my friends turned up drank coffee, inflicted damage on each others side, had some lunch and then left at the end of a great day.

Excellent stuff. I love it when people approach Bolt Action as a historical game and play it as it was intended. It’s a perfectly good game but struggles due to an unfounded description of WW2 40k (by people that don’t understand either game) and being incredibly easy to break if you have no ability to be reasonable about what you use. I’ve played it in 15mm up to about 4.5k pts and it was great. I like your scenery and layout, nice to see a properly cluttered and tight Normandy board. I think it’s my favourite board style to play on.

I think my favourite part (maybe not the right word) was the friendly fire, the picture showing the pilots view allowed you to see how they made a mistake at high speed and hit the obvious targets. Sad but apt.

BALM

Thank you, Bolt Action is a good game, the rule book needs some TLC, less blah blah blah and more rules and how to do things etc. The close quarter rule really needs some TLC especially in the street fighting set of rules.

As for all the buildings and walls etc on the board are all my own designs and 3d printed on my own printer.
 

[dadlamassu]

Thank you, Bolt Action is a good game, the rule book needs some TLC, less blah blah blah and more rules and how to do things etc. The close quarter rule really needs some TLC especially in the street fighting set of rules.

I have to agree that BA gives a decent game but is spoilt by the terrible layout as a set of rules and the lack of a decent index.  We spent a lot of time trying to cut through the verbiage to find out what the rule actually meant and how to apply it. 

Despite that - the game was fun to set up and play. 

As for all the buildings and walls etc on the board are all my own designs and 3d printed on my own printer.

And painted by me!

[Hami]

I have to agree that BA gives a decent game but is spoilt by the terrible layout as a set of rules and the lack of a decent index.  We spent a lot of time trying to cut through the verbiage to find out what the rule actually meant and how to apply it. 

Despite that - the game was fun to set up and play. 

And painted by me!

Ah yes, I take no credit for the great painting of any of my figures or buildings. I am like a super excited small child on Christmas day when he wakes up and finds all his lego is already built so i can just start playing with it straight away (this also happened ).

All painting credit goes to once again my Dad (keeping him busy through COVID..........and every other day).

p.s. I repay him in designing things and printing things for him like his Roman Mile Fort (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=122216.msg1582900#msg1582900) so it works out well for him.

[Chrismck]

Great report hami and was a great scenario and board to play as a first game back after lockdown. Roll on next month so we can get another game in and maybe win this one!