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.