9/9 SBGC meeting and Operation Epsom battle report

 

Had another meeting of the SBGC this weekend. There were 3 games being ran, The Battle of Gitschin, a recreation of the final battle from the 1939 movie Gunga Din, and an Operation Epsom game, which is the game I played in. 

 Gunga Din game

Battle of Gitschin

 Operation Epsom

This is the game that I took part in. Operation Epsom was the British offensive to encircle and capture the Nazi-occupied French city of Caen.

Our GM, the illustrious Greg Guth put together this almost exact recreation of Le Haut du Bosq, one of the British objectives. Bay Chang and I played as the British, and opposing us was Pete Michels and Tejinder Mangat playing the Nazis. The Nazis were deployed as hidden units, none of them were placed on the map and our opponents marked their placement on a map that only they and the GM had access to. Therefore it would be on us to locate the enemies and avoid enemy ambushes. Our objective was to capture or burn 5 out of the 9 buildings on the table.

 

Deciding that the terrain on the left flank was too open, we opted to try to push through the bocage on the right. Our opening move was to land an artillery barrage on the first set of hedgerows. Bay and I expected it to be empty but we wanted to ensure the hedgerows were clear before positioning our units behind it. In return the Nazis launched their own artillery barrage on our tanks, which failed to call in. We moved our tanks slowly with the infantry advancing behind them. Once reaching the hedgerows we immediately spotted an element of Nazis hiding in the first building.

Rather than assault the building or waste any time getting into a fire fight with infantry fortified in a house, Bay moved his Churchill Crocodile flamethrower tank into range and set the house on fire. The Nazis lost some infantry and were forced to evacuate the building. Thats 1 building down, 4 more to go.

 

 Bay attempted to move his tank platoon through the orchards on the left flank but was immediately met with a PAK-40 anti-tank gun. It successfully managed to destroy one Churchill tank. Unhindered, the other 2 tanks of Bay's platoon continued moving left and took up positions. They managed to spot Nazi trenches containing an heavy machine gun position and a 20mm anti aircraft gun position manned by the Hitler Youth. The Churchill Crocodile continued to move up and managed to burn another house and destroy the HMG position. Two houses down, three more to go. At this point it was about turn 3. Bay and I realized that we were moving to slowly and would have to increase our tempo if we wanted to complete our objective within the 6 turn time limit.

Recognizing the value of the Churchill Crocodile's flamethrower in helping us burn buildings and achieve our objective, we began to use it rather recklessly. We pushed it far ahead of supporting units and used it to burn another house down. Unfortunately the Crocodile was now isolated and surrounded by Nazi's. They were eventually able to encircle it and destroy the flamethrower's fuel tank with the 20mm gun. No more burning houses for the Crocodile. A bit of a setback but it had managed to set 3 houses on fire before having its flamethrower disabled. Now the British just had to capture 2 more houses.

Pushing the Crocodile far up on the right also provided an additional benefit. It had moved far enough that it was able to locate a bulk of the hidden Nazi forces. Bay and I realized that the right and center were heavily fortified but the left flank was left relatively undefended. The PAK-40 was still a threat on that side but it would be easier to face that than the bulk of infantry guarding the other parts of the map. Bay had also positioned his remaining tanks on the left so they would be able to get opportunity fire on any Nazis moving to reinforce the left. We took all of our infantry and began moving towards the left to capture the 2 houses there. If we can do this, we'd be able to win the game, but we only had 2 turns to pull it off.

Back on the center of the map, the Nazi's finally managed to completely destroy the Crocodile.

The only hope for a British victory now rested on what was left of our infantry's ability to capture the last 2 houses on the left. I moved my own Churchill platoon to help providing suppressing fire on any elements that could fire on our infantry. Despite this, Nazi fire on the left flank was still effective and of the 6 infantry stands sent to the left, only 2 made it through to capture one of the houses. A 2 man PIAT team and a squad leader. With only 1 turn remaining, everything would rely on the ability of 3 men to capture 1 house. Luckily the Nazi's had left their left flank relatively undefended so the last house was empty. On the 6th turn, the 3 man team managed to capture the last house but would need to hold it for the remainder of the turn. 

The Nazi's conducted multiple infantry assaults on the house but were turned away by supporting fire from our Churchill's, or failed to make the morale tests needed to launch an assault. However, they fired on the house multiple times and managed to place a single BROKEN token on both British elements taking cover inside the house. One more hit on the units would destroy them, resulting in our defeat. Against all odds the 3 man team managed to survive everything the Nazis could throw at them except for the PAK-40 gun immediately outside the house. Everything would rely on this final Nazi attack. If our infantry was hit by the cannon just once, they would break and flee, if they survived we would hold the house through the 6th and final turn and secure us a victory.

Unfortunately for the Nazi's, the PAK40 failed its shooting roll! It somehow managed to miss a house that was positioned right in front of them. With this last attempt, the Nazi's realized they had nothing left that could reach the house before the turned ended and the British managed to secure a clutch victory at the last minute. Rule, Britannia!

 

Sorry I haven't been updating this blog in a while. Work has been simultaneously understaffed and unusually busy, which has kept me occupied on an almost daily basis for the last month. I have a bunch of stuff to post but haven't had the time to blog about it. Hopefully I'll  get to it soon. Until next time, folks!