Somewhere in Greece 1941

I have long been a fan of Jeff Plowman's military history writing, and have a number of his books on my shelves. Once again just recently I delved into two of his books looking for inspiration for a WW2 Spearhead scenario to play out with Murray this week,. My 20mm Spearhead armies seemed to be in urgent need of some exercise. I dragged his Pen and Sword book on Greece, 1941, and his After the Battle title on Pinaeus Gorge from the shelf and browsed. I wasn't so much looking for an historical scenario, as I was for inspiration for a game that might make use of some of the 20mm collections. 

So this scenario took shape: a polyglot mixture of British forces (and therefore not strictly adhering to any specific TOE) is retreating towards a river line at which they hope to make another stand and stop the German advance. German forces are hot on their tails. I wanted to reflect the confusion of the situation, and so the British force had two infantry battalions, limited artillery and AT support, and two separate tank companies retreating towards the river line and the bridge. The infantry has set up positions on the German side of the river trying to retain possession of the bridge long enough for the armour to get across. To reflect the confusion there is no British brigade command stand, so once orders have been given there is no capacity to change them. The British objective is to get as much of their forces across the river as they can,. The Germans aim to secure the bridge crossing.

The German force has two infantry battalions, and two armoured companies, with a mix of Pz1's, 2's and 3's. They have artillery support but fire missions are limited. They also have three armoured car recce platoons.

The initial set up, with British armour speeding down the two roads from the left, trying to make it to the bridge on the right in order to get across the river. The German forces are in pursuit from behind, entering from the left.

Vickers Mk VI's

A9 Cruiser tanks

The German advance on their left

German right flank where the German armour is concentrated, mixed with a recon group.. the situation is very confused already

British armour closing in on the bridge, and comparative safety

Murray deployed both infantry battalions forward in order to buy time for the armour to get across the river. Each battalion had timed orders on which to withdraw. He'd given this fighting withdrawal a lot of thought.

The German left flank comes up against one of the British infantry battalions screening the bridge crossing. 

The German right flank advance

The British armour getting across the bridge

A series of armoured overruns take place as the German armour attempts to halt the British infantry (withdrawing under a timed order).

The German left flank battalion in action against the defending British right

The extreme left of the German advance

The British right executes its timed order for withdrawal. They had however taken losses with two platoons defending on the extreme left of the photo eliminated

That British right flank withdrawal in motion

German right flank forces push forward. At about this time the British battalion defending their left fails its morale roll and continues its withdrawal

The German attackers push into the centre, opposed by the British carrier platoon

Meanwhile the German recce company pushes on towards the bridge. The British armour, having successfully crossed the river, sitting in position to cover their infantry

. 

The German armoured car on the right of the photo is a Kfz13, a conversion gifted to me by Gerard Davey a year or two before he passed away. Another beautiful piece of his work, and here just because I wanted the model on the table.

The pursuit of the British right flank battalion begins

Congestion for the German attackers as British infantry flee across the bridge

The German lead recce platoon closes ...

... 

too rapidly and is eliminated by fire from the British A9 platoons across the river

Meanwhile the Germans flock towards the river

Lucky shots suppress one of the MkVI platoons

British infantry crossing the bridge

Honours were mixed. The British armour had made it across the river, but one battalion was broken, and the other had German attackers pushing ahead between them and the bridge.  The best compliment of the evening was Murray's comment that he could feel the chaos of the situation as he tried to engineer his withdrawal. That was exactly the 'feel' I wanted.

The game was fought using my 20mm Spearhead armies.

Battle of San Francisco, South America, 1879

 I'm currently trying to rediscover my hobby mojo, and it's not proving easy. Last night I had my first game in weeks, a 15mm Volley and Bayonet game refighting the Battle of San Francisco, set in Peru in 1879. We played the game using Jon's 15mm South American armies. It was a lot of fun, albeit a hard ask for the attacking Peruvians, Brazilians, and Bolivians. Here are just a few photos.

The train was purely decorative, and played no part in the battle. IIRC it is a 'Peter Pig' model.

Attack into Belgium 1914

Much like elephants mating, wargames projects can be long in gestation. Murray began his 1914 Belgian division for Great War Spearhead quite some time ago, and having finally got enough troops painted and based to make for a 'playable' scenario (about half a division, 3 regiments) we had to give them a try. The figures are a mix of HaT 20mm and Lancashire Games 18mm. You probably can't tell the difference. In this scenario they are opposed by my early war Germans, all those old classic Airfix figures that actually date from some time in the early '70's if I recall correctly.

The scenario models a German division approaching a river crossable only at a major town bridge, and a ford a km or so upstream. An additional crossing has been found quite some way further upstream still enabling a flank march ... strains of the British on the Marne a few weeks later. The game was of course played using our preferred Great War Spearhead rules.

The Germans approach from the left, the Belgians have taken up position to the right of the river 

The Belgian deployment, with one regiment off able in reserve.. the eventual arrow of commitment appears on the bottom of the map.

The German attack plan, with the regiment that has marched upstream to investigate intelligence reports of a viable crossing

The German left flank.. Murray's deployment (at the top of the photo) was unconventional

The German centre (reserve) on the left of the photo, and the right flank 3rd Regiment advancing

Belgian artillery

The German left flank 1st Regiment takes its first casualties

Artillery and small arms fire against the German 1st Regiment

German fire starts to fall on the Belgian right, including an off table regiment of 77mm field artillery. These Belgians eventually also come under fire from the German 150mm Corps guns, but not yet

The German right flank 3rd Regiment takes casualties from the Belgian artillery seen at the top of the photo

German field artillery deployed in support of the German 1st Regiment

Getting messy for the right flank German 3rd Regiment

Belgian cavalry (proxied with British cavalry figures) advances from its position to the rear

The gaps in front of the German artillery (bottom of the photo) reflect the casualties that the Germans are taking from the Belgian artillery. However the German flanking regiment has arrived (after some delay) and takes the Belgian guns in the flank. One battery has already fallen

The impact of the German flank attack as the infantry bring fire onto the Belgian guns. German 150 mm gun fire is also now falling on the Belgians

The Belgian reserve regiment is committed and advances to counter the German threat to its flank

The German right. The Belgian artillery at the top of the photo has been reduced to two batteries after fire from German artillery (observed fire rather than counter battery, which is not available at this early stage of the war)

That Belgian artillery opposing the German right (3rd) regiment

Belgian fire has stripped away the German 1 Regiment infantry protecting the German artillery on the German left

The Belgian artillery supporting their left is eliminated

The Belgian reserve (top of the photo) advances from the Belgian baseline and joins the action against the German flanking regiment

Murray's Belgian divisional HQ stand

The Belgians opposing the German left push forward to threaten the German 1st Regiment

Reserves vs flanking force... this is getting serious

The German 3rd Regiment on the German right begins a shift to their left along the river (which is uncrossable anywhere except the bridge and the ford) to bring pressure onto the Belgians at the bridge

Belgian defenders at the bridge

The German flanking regiment is taking some significant casualties

However the Belgian regiment defending the ford on their right (the German left) has suffered significant casualties and fails two moral checks in the one turn (yes, it went from below 50% casualties to more than 2/3 casualties in one turn of fire)

The Belgian cavalry pushes across the bridge to take the half of the town on the other side of the river (which had remained unoccupied until now), but pays the price under fire from the German reserve which is immediately committed to attack the town and bridge with a command arrow 

The German reserve about to push forward

The German 3rd Regiment shift across from the right to the bridge

The game had a designated 12 turn length, and the Germans had to get across the river.  At this stage they had failed to take the bridge, and while the flank regiment was across the river, and their immediate opponents had been eliminated, the Belgian reserve had steadied the line and countered the flank attack.

We ruled the game a draw as neither side had effectively achieved its objectives. A great outing for the Belgians whose OOB as a fighting force are distinctly lacking in both MMG and artillery support.