Hi folks,
With this year being the 80th anniversary of D-day, and with our collective 15mm collections having been added to but seeing little game time in the last year or so, myself and DaveD decided to try and do a summer of beach landings. Specifically, we are aiming to play a scenario game for each of the five beaches throughout the summer.
We've been kindly aided in this aim by Leon and the folks over at Pendraken - who have allowed us to use their gaming annex. This has given us a 16' by 6' playing area.
Our first game in April had to be on a British or Canadian beach, as I wanted to use my figures. The reason for this was due to a visit from my eldest boy J at the same time. I started painting and collecting my Flames of War British when he was just a toddler, and it was a dream come true to get to show him my hobby.
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| Myself and my eldest son J |
Me and DaveD had spent some time researching and decided early on that it would be cool to feature the landings of our local Division/regiment. When J visited last summer, I'd taken him to the Green Howard's museum in Richmond. This then led us to model the landings of the 6th Green Howards/50th Tyne and Tees Division on the King Green sector of Gold Beach.
We also wanted to try and include the units advance up to Crepon, paying some attention to the locations where
Stan Hollis won his VC.
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| The blue outlined area roughly denotes what we tried to represent on the table |
I had done some work looking at the
landing tables for Gold Beach and had used these to come up with a rough schedule of units and equipment that would be landing. No points are used for this game, just the historical units. This meant that the main problem the players face is time. German resistance in this area was fairly limited and the marshy ground behind the beaches proved more of a hindrance.
As the preparatory bombardment of this beach was seen to be quite effective historically, we started with all German units pinned.
Thus the troops arriving were scheduled to be:
H hour -5 minutes (Turn 1) – 15 x DD tanks (Players were given the option to launch these to arrive early, but at the risk of losing them to rough seas - or land them late but intact. They decided to launch five early, with the rest turning up later in the game)
H hour – (Turn 2)
LCT: 1 Bobbin, 1 Fascine, SBG, and AVRE. 2 Sherman Crabs.
LCT: 1 Bobbin, 1 Fascine, Bullshorn, and AVRE. 2 Sherman Crabs.
H+5 (Turn 4)
3 x LCA – A Coy, 6 Green Howards, +2 teams of Engineers, +1 OP team
3 x LCA – D Coy, 6 Green Howards (includes a platoon with Stan Hollis as a command team), +2 teams of Engineers, +1 OP team
H+10 (Turn 6)
LCT: 2 Centaurs (RMASR), Crusader 40mm AA towing a 40mm Bofors, OP carrier
LCT: 2 Centaurs, 1 Sherman (RMASR), Crusader 40mm AA towing a 40mm Bofors
H+20 (Turn 8)
3 x LCA – B Coy, 6 Green Howards, +2 teams Engineers, 2 MMG teams
3 x LCA – C Coy, 6 Green Howards, +2 teams Engineers, 2 MMG teams
LCM – Green Howards HQ + carrier, FOB (Naval OP) team, OP team
H+45 (Turn 10)
LCT: D7 Bulldozer, 3 mortar carriers, 2 MMG carriers, 2 M10 (3”), 2 Churchill Crocs
LCT: D7 Bulldozer, 3 mortar carriers, 2 MMG carriers, 2 M10 (3”), 2 Churchill Crocs
LCM – Provost jeep, ambulance jeep,
H+60 (Turn 12)
LCT: 3 Loyd Carriers + 3 6pdr, ARV, 2 Firefly
LCT: 3 Loys Carriers + 3 6pdr, 1 Firefly, 4 Loyd Carriers (4.2" Mortars)
H+90 (Turn 14)
LCT: 2 Sextons, 3 Cromwells + Firefly
LCT: 2 Sextons, 3 Cromwells + Firefly
Up against this onslaught were the defenders of
Wn35, some additions HMG Tobruks along the beach,
Wn35a (aka the Mont Fleury Battery), and various inland dug-in positions and units. We also had the chance each turn of German 88mm fire along the beach from the positions at StP31 (Courseulles) and Wn36 (Asnelles), alongside a battery of 100mm off-table artillery guns firing from
Wn32 in the Juno Beach area.
The off-table batteries had a chance of falling silent as the game progressed, based on dice rolls which determined the progress of other allied troops.
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| Similar to the Utah Beach game, allied egress from the beach was limited due to marshy low ground. We did have foam under the matt which did have the ground rising beyond this. |
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| The beach area the night before the game - setting up in advance is key when playing on a 16' by 6' table. |
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| Wn35a, with its two incomplete casemates. |
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| For this type of game, and given the size of the table, the locations and sizes of the towns were fairly 'squashed'. |
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| A view back down to the beach. |
We were joined in playing this game by StiG, Bren, J, R, and MartinC. During the game, we also had a few folks drop in to see it, thanks to DaveD and Leon doing some social media posting. Myself and DaveD umpired/played the Germans.
The landings surged ahead as planned, with all 5 of the risky DD launches succeeding - 4 tanks making it to the beach and beginning to put fire down on the defences. These were swiftly followed by the breaching teams.
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| My scratch-built Landing Craft Tank (LCT) saw use again to deploy the first breaching team |
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| While my Pendraken/Red Vector LCT landed the other (and reminded me I still need to do some work on it) |
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| Risky business, this edge of table beach landing stuff... |
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| The breaching teams make the long trudge up the beach, as a couple of 88mm shots miss over their heads. |
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| Most of the initial DD tanks landed in front of Wn35. |
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| The last remaining smoke from the preparatory bombardment lingers over the beach. |
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| Initial landings were swiftly followed by the infantry - no doubt happy to see they are not alone! |
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| Breaching teams moving forward, trying to clear a path off the beach. |
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| A Coy spreading out and trying to find cover - we house rule that infantry on the beach have a 4+ rather than a 3+ save. |
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| D Coy coming ashore |
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| My recently painted Spits doing a flypast. |
Relatively swiftly the limited beach defences were overcome. There was only one dedicated AT gun present on this stretch of coast, and it was a 5cm gun and incapable of penetrating the leading Churchills. My recently painted Bobbin AVREs led the way, with the following vehicles not having to make a bogging check on the beach.
The infantry (A and D Coys, 6th Green Howards) hit the beach shortly afterward and had to be chivvied slightly to get shifting. Once up to the minefields within the 'dune' area, the armor reshuffled to get the Crabs forward, while the newly painted Bullshorn plows also saw some action.
I'd have to add, in all honesty, from around this point onwards hardly anything of the following waves saw action. It couldn't get up the table fast enough to have any impact and just led to the (historical) queue of kit trying to leave the beaches.
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| Clearing minefields is a risky business - Bren lost both of his Crabs trying to clear this one. |
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| Thankfully the local German (Ukrainian) garrison had had enough! |
With the abundance of minefields, and a smattering of sHMG and artillery fire, the British lost around a company worth of troops moving up the table.
Tank losses were, however, light.
J and Bren took the decision to speed up the advance by mounting the remains of A Coy's infantry on the advancing AVRE and DD tanks. This led to a pretty strong combined arms force that suppressed and assaulted any German resistance they encountered in fairly short order.
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| The Umpire reveals new German positions... |
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| Allied armor starts moving around and through Wn35a. The battery is lightly defended and suffers horribly from the effectiveness of Petard fire. D Coy is also involved. |
D coy infantry moved forward quickly, using tank support and terrain to get into the battery position. A swift assault by one platoon cleared the initial bunkers, before taking out the house. On the other flank, A coy infantry with supporting armor shifted further and further forward. J's infantry had some particularly successful assaults and 'random effect' tokens which resulted in nearby German units surrendering. As such, the road before them was clear...
We had more or less called it at that point, with little German resistance still on the table and Crepon within easy reach of A Coy. Just time for some glamour shots:
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| Supporting artillery lands and sets up, ready to provide fire. |
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| More support units land, trying to make their way inland to help with the advance. |
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| British forces stream inland! |
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| The first French settlements are liberated! |
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| The large anti-tank ditch, crossed with the aid of a Fascine. |
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| A random 'broken down' vehicle roll led to an AVRE causing a traffic jam - and then being knocked out by AT fire. It was swiftly bulldozed out of the way. |
Feedback from the players was really positive - though I appreciate that five of these types of games this summer will get a bit samey. We're hoping to focus on different aspects of the landings for the various beaches and try to keep changing things up a bit. Next up we have Utah Beach in May - and possibly two games booked for June, with one of them being on the 6th.
I did identify a couple of options missing from my collection during this game, so a mini-project has been to work on rectifying these. No 40mm Bofors Crusader AA tanks and no limbered 40mm Bofors guns are some of these. So current work in progress:
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| A combination of the 20mm Crusader hull and the plastic 40mm Bofors kit. With spare metal crew I have from building limbered Bofors guns. |
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| Old metal Battlefront 40mm Bofors kits with extra gubbins built to show limbered guns. |
I think J really enjoyed himself. I was proud to show him my hobby and my collection. Being a real history buff himself he had a great understanding of what our aim was and what tactics he should be using. He got on great with all my gaming buddies and I was even prouder of him than ever with how he interacted and contributed. On the way home he asked if I could show him some painting basics, and we picked up some starter supplies for him before he went home. Hopefully, the next time he visits we can do some more gaming together.
