Holding the Jaws Open

[Cmdr_G]

Over Easter weekend I ran two demo games, the first I shall write a brief note about here. Using the key components of A Leader of Men II, I had a game with Tony from Wellington, who had never played. I was pleased to note he picked things up very fast.

The scenario was a tired and depleted SS force trying to hold open the the jaws of the US southern hook at the Falaise Gap. The US initially held the ground with a Recon Platoon, with reinforcements coming up from behind. The Germans had a real Kampfgruppe with a mix of infantry, recce and some armour.

US Forces
Cavalry Recon Platoon (on-table)
Infantry Company (reinforcements off-table)
Sherman Platoon (2 M4a1 and one M4a3e2)

German Forces
Infantry Company
Battalion Mortar Platoon
Pz IVh Platoon (2)
Light Armoured Car Platoon (one SdKfz 221, 2 SdKfz 222)

The US Recon held a village astride a crossroad at a river. Their light weight would not hold much being primarily Jeep equipped, the M8 a/c's were token power really. I positioned them to cover the approaches into the village, and with scouts watching the flanks. I was hoping for early reinforcement.

The Germans started off their probe/attack by approaching from the US right down the road with their Recon Platoon. On the other side a more complex plan emerged as an infantry platoon supported by the two Pz IV's came down the other approach road while another platoon in halftracks moved down the flank to approach from a rather exposed flank. The speed of this manoeuvre had me rather worried as the cards fell all Tony's way. This he seemed rather pleased with.

After a couple of turns the action started, the US Cavalry started to be engaged by the Pz IV's and supporting infantry. With their rather light equipment they held ineffectively. The good news for me was the first reinforcements arrived in the form of an infantry platoon, followed the next turn by another with Co. HQ. The scouts were now starting to fall back to secondary positions in the next houses.

Having detected the German halftracks on the flank manoeuvring hard through an orchard the newly arrived reinforcements were deployed into a large house on the flank to cover. Mean time some Shemans arrived, the hope was they might arrive in time. The scouts were now under attack in their fallback positions, and under more firepower and outnumbered their morale started cracking and they fell back to the church in the village centre where their HQ was, and where I as the Infantry Company commander was directing traffic and reinforcements with sketchy information.

The Gemman Pz IV's were creeping cautiously into town, and the lead Sherman could see the lead Pz IV at the crossroads, so a few shots saw the demise of the Panzer IV. This sent the remaining PZ IV scuttling out of town to a position watching the crossroad. The Shermans mean time advanced and found the area near the crossroad infested with German infantry. The started shooting up the village and all felt good for me. At this point the German flank attack crashed into the newly arrived reinforcements on the flank in the large house. After a short and bloodly bit of house cleaning they ejected the few US survivors and started to reorganise themselves.

I was now rather worried. 'Me' the Infantry Company commander was standing in game terms about 50m from the German flank attack that was now threatening to sweep in. This was compounded as the German halftracks looked to provide a sweep right into the flank of my advancing forces who were unaware of what was happening. The Shermans were driving up town to busy to remember the infantry, and up till now the cards were not going all my way.

My first response was to try and shore up the church area, getting the Recon M8 a/c's to fire on the house. Next was to try and get infantry ready to attack the house. Then the rain fell, 81mm mortar rain from the German Mortars. Casualties were light but disrupting. A Sherman reached the crossroads and the lone Pz IV now took revenge punching a neat 75mm hole into it. The Shermans fell back through the village and the German Infantry now pushed forward in their wake. It was a fighting retreat in reverse gear.

As the German halftracks moved in, the combined weight of their MG fire hitting the new infantry on the road and the mortar fire looked set to send the US running. The one thing that worked for me was that the Shermans were now back at the church. After a knock on the hatch I quickly redirected them to the rear to stop the halftracks. The remainder of my recce forces now felt the remaining German weight as fresh infantry infiltrated the village, it was full- auto almost everywhere.

As the halftracks came in the Shermans arrived, and it was not pretty, Sherman vs halftrack was never really in doubt. The halftracks burned, the position held.

It was here we called it quits. The US now had the numbers and was holding. The Germans were rather battered and would need to reorganise. A slight win for the US.

It has given me some more thought on ideas for ALoM 2.

Here are some pics from late in the game when I finally remembered my camera.