Operation Market Garden Part 2

 It has been longer than I had hoped to conclude this battle, but events have conspired against us.  COVID has stuck in Will's household and then Phil arrived and we played three Napoleonic battles (more later).  After Phil departed I was struck down with a bug, which I thought might also be COVID, but turned out to be something else.  Eventually I finished off the game but had to do this solo, which worked but was not as satisfying.

In the last instalment, the US 101st Airborne had captured the Grave Bridge and linked up with XXX Corps, who had pushed up through Eindhoven.  However, the US 82nd Airborne was still a long way from taking Nijmegen and its important bridge, having fought off numerous attacks from German armour and infantry. 

Meanwhile, British 1st Airborne was struggling in the outskirts of Arnhem and so far had failed to make into the town and onto the bridge.

The situation hangs in the balance.

Some XXX Corps tanks meet up with the now depleted 82nd Airborne and begin their move towards Nijmegen:

In Arnhem, 1st Airborne close in on the town but struggle to shift the determined German defenders.  Meanwhile, more Germans arrive from the south to beef up the defences.

1st Airborne attempt an assault using two battalions, and while they cause some damage they fail to evict the German defenders, who receive additional armor and infantry.

German artillery south of the river is also now in range of the British paras.  The British attack is beaten off with the Germans now heavily reinforced.

Back at Nijmegan attacks by the 82nd supported by tanks fail to get close to the town and its bridge.  The Germans try to demolish the bridge, but fail on their first two attempts.

With the 82nd held off and 88mm guns destroying the tanks on the highway the Germans try a third time to blow the bridge.  This time they succeed and the situation for the allies has altered significantly

Up in and around Arnhem the Germans now outnumber the British airborne, who now have less than a Brigade that is operational.  They conclude that the town cannot be taken.  Furthermore additional German troops are moving up from Nijmegen now that the bridge has been destroyed.

The battle ends at this point.  There can be no allied attempt to force a crossing at Nijmegen until XXX Corps moves up, captures the town and builds a crossing.  The 1st Airborne cannot take the Arnhem bridge and will simply have to hang on or be captured.  

This was a very interesting and enjoyable game.  For the Allies it is a very tricky situation and the battle was lost (I feel) because the 82nd could not get into Nijmegen.  They should have moved faster and not become embroiled in the battles to the north of Eindhoven during the early stages of the operation.  

A scenario worth playing again!

Operation Market garden

Part 1

Today Will visited,  providing the opportunity to play a game or two:

Operation Market Garden is a battle, or series of battles I have wanted to try for a long time.  I have had an eye on the Memoir '44 scenario, which is played using the 'Overlord' rules.  The map is enormous and quite complex.  To make things even more problematic, I wanted to use figures on a wargames table.  After pondering for a while, I decided upon 1/300th scale figures and vehicles.  I already had most of the stuff needed to represent XXX Corps as well as the 1st Airborne Division.  The Germans were also largely catered for and I just needed to make up some more infantry units. Most of the scenery was also available.

This is the Memoir '44 scenario (north is on the left):

As can be seen, although complicated, it is a rather simplified version of the campaign map.  The many waterways and canals are reduced down to the three main crossings; Arnhem, Nijmegen and the Meuse/Wilhelmina Canal bridge to the north of Eindhoven (I assume this to be the Grave bridge).

As I planned to use figures I decided upon a larger battlefield, which was set out on an 8 x 4 table.  Here is a picture taken during the setting up.  Arnhem is closest to the camera, then Nijmegen, with Eindhoven in the distance, with the three main water obstacles clearly visible:

The battle begins on September 17th 1944, the landings have taken place and minor rivers and mopping up of isolated German units is complete.  However; the germans are now alerted and are pushing reinforcements into the area from the east.  

Here are the opening stages. The British 1st Airborne Division has landed west of Arnhem and is starting to move towards the town in an attempt to seize the bridge (top right), while the US 82nd Airborne Division has landed south and west of Nijmegen, tasked with capturing the town and its bridge (top left):

XXX Corps cross the start line (the bridge is missing!):

In the area of Eindhoven, US paratroops of the 101st Airborne Division have landed between the town and the Grave bridge.  German reinforcements are on the move and in the distance, top left, the leading elements of XXX Corps can be seen.

The 101st attempt to rush into Einhoven to secure the route for XXX Corps and a brisk battle breaks out.

Meanwhile, the 82nd Airborne begin to move towards Nijmegen, which is strongly held by german infantry.

Up in the north, the British begin to advance from the landing ground:

Back in Eindhoven elements of the 101st become embroiled in a battle on the northern outskirts of the town and take heavy casualties:

The 101st hopes are raised as tanks of XXX Corps begin to engage the Germans in villages to the south of Eindhoven.  However, German tanks arrive and begin to drive the US paratroopers out of the northern outskirts:

The 101st are forced back away from the bridge.  One of their landing grounds are captured, but US anti-tank guns also reduce the german tanks.  despite managing to force back the 101st and halt the XXX Corps advance only a small element of the original German force clings on to the town.

Up in the north the British airborne reconnaissance dash forward in their jeeps and ambush some German armour, but take heavy casualties.

The German column is severely mauled, but the remaining tanks destroy the jeeps and their crews:

Despite the heroics of the recce jeeps, this does not stop more heavy armour rolling into Arnhem town, although a parachute battalion manages to get into the eastern woods, but with heavy casualties. The newly arrived tanks begin to cut up the lightly armed british paratroopers.

Some help comes in the shape of some RAF Typhoons, but they cause little damage and the tanks maintain their onslaught.

German infantry sweep away the remnants of the parachute battalion

The German infantry move into the town as more infantry rush forward along the far side of the river.

Another allied airstrike comes in, this time it is US P-51s.  This time the effect is much more damaging and several tanks are destroyed.  But, the British paratroops are unable to enter the town and capture the bridge.

Back down towards Eindhoven the 101st Airborne, now with support from the tanks and artillery of XXX Corps clear the last german resistance from the town.  The US paratroopers capture the bridge over the Meuse.

The leading tanks of XXX Corps cross the Meuse, via the Grave Bridge.

However, the 82nd are far from taking the Nijmegen Bridge and the German are massing reinforcements in the town.

Unfortunaetly Will had to depart rather urgently and so the battle was suspended at this point. I am hopin to continue in a few days time.

The Portable Wargame - First Try

I have accumulated several of the Portable Wargame books by Bob Cordrey and whilst I have borrowed some of the ideas and mechanisms, I have not actually played a full WW2 game using the rules.  I liked the idea of a WW2 scenario, but I did not want to spend an age setting it up, basing figures etc etc. I also did not want to be bothered with keeping tabs on casualties and I wanted a solo game.

The solo game is well catered for in the books, using playing cards to determine initiative.  To cope with casualties I decided that one stand would equal one Strength Point (SP) and I was keen to make my units look like units, rather than single models on a base. I used the mechanisms laid down in 'Developing the Portable Wargame', particulalrly liking the pinning rule.  I took from Hexblitz the idea of having three states of activity, that is, moving, static or in defence. This is good for keeping track of which units are un/limbering up, or in defended positions, without the need for model defences.

For a board, I used a piece of 4 x 3 hardboard, painted green, with some roads and rivers painted on and a three inch grid drawn onto it.  Hills were 3 x 3 inch blocks of balsa.  For buildings I used Monopoly playing pieces. For troops I went to the nice Ian Kay at Irregular Miniatures and bought some 2mm armies. These are very cheap and arrived in about 48 hours.  I soon had the tiny tanks stuck onto 30mm MDF discs, with one disc representing one SP:

Within a couple of days, I had a board, two armies, one German and one Russian and it was time to try the rules. For my first battle I was going to have a small depleted German force defending a ridge line, to protect two river crossings. The Germans had two infantry battalions, a depleted assault gun battalion (Stug IIIs), two 88mm battalions, an SP howitzer regiment and in reserve a depleted tank battalion (Pz IVs).  The German end of the board was laid out thus:

The Stug battalion deployed forward into the village:

I am not going to give a blow by blow account, suffice it to say that the Russian, armour heavy steam roller rumbled forwards, initially taking a hit from the Stugs in the village, losing some heavy tanks and becoming pinned:

The Russians had a good run of card draws for initiative and soon the supporting Russian T-34 regiment, ousted the Stug Battlion in a flank attack, and a Russian Rifle regiment moved up through the woods to assault the main ridge:

The infantry attack was initially thwarted and the german reserve depleted Panzer IV battalion pushed the Russians out of the village:

With the Germans back in control of the village, the Russian commander decided to push his armour round to his right flank and attacked the German left. At first the 88s gave the Russian tanks a hammering, but were eventually overwhelmed and driven off the ridge:

The Russian attack built up, taking out the remaining Stug company, destroying the 88s and then pinning and subsequently forcing the German infantry (131 Regiment) off the ridge:

By now the Germans were close to their exhaustion point as the action shifted to the opposite flank. Here a second Russian rifle regiment swept around the defending 77 Regiment, with heavy artillery support.

With some rotten dice throws the Germans became pinned, and then were force to retreat off the ridge, taking more casualties. The Germans were finished, being pushed up against the river and reaching their exhaustion point. This was the board at the close of the game:

Overall I enjoyed this simple and fast game. I made a few mistakes along the way as I learned the rules. One thing I will do is write the rules out on a crib sheet as referring to the books each time was a pain.

2mm figures worked very well on the three inch grid and combat resolution was simple, allowing the game to move along at a pace.  I need to go back and study the rules. At one point it states that infantry cannot attck armoured vehicles, but I allowed mine to take on tanks when they were in an adjacent square - maybe I got that wrong.  I will give it another go soon.

Bank Holiday Battle - A Landing in Force

Appearing in Donald Featherstone's 'Wargames Campaigns' book, 'A Landing in Force' is one of those battles that has been on my list to play for many years.  I am guessing that it should be played as several actions, as it would be a tight squeeze on a regular wargames table, with a beach landing and an inland airborne operation.

I then had the idea of playing it out using 1/300 scale figures and the seeds were sown. This is the battle area as laid down in the book:

It can be seen that there is a heavily defended beach, a small town, a defended bridge over a river, leading to hills and a road down which will come German reinforcements in the shape of armour and armoured infantry.

Here is the table (most of it) laid out prior to the action:

Some of the features:

The beach, with obstacles and mines:

The strongly defended town:

With strong points, such as these 88mm guns:

The bridge; the objective for the British airborne element, defended by bunkers and infantry:

And artillery on the high ground behind the town:

Although the airborne forces went in first at dawn, the beach landing followed soon after; however, despite there being concurrent activity, I shall deal with the two actions separately. For rules, I used modified Memoir '44 systems, although I dropped the cards and used a dice based unit activation system. This was heavily weighted against the Germans for the first 5 turns to allow the Allies an element of surprise.

The Airborne Operation

My initial thoughts were a parachute drop followed by some gliders, but I then decided to bring in the whole lot by glider.  The airborne forces had two tasks. Firstly to capture the bridge and neutralise the bunkers at each end. Second, they were to delay the arrival of German reinforcements. To do this they had three units of infantry and two units of anti-tank guns.


The initial landing went well, with all gliders arriving safely and undetected by the Germans:

The troops spill out and organise themselves:

A brisk firefight ensues around the bridge and the first bunker complex is swiftly overwhelmed:

The airborne infantry then attempt to rush the bunkers on the opposite bank:

This does not go well and a complete airborne company is cut down and destroyed; however, a second attempt, overruns the bunkers and the bridge is secured, having lost around a third of the airborne infantry. A small battle takes place around the farm near the bridge and a German HQ unit is driven off.:

Meanwhile, the anti-tanks guns take up position on the high ground to await the inevitable German reinforcements:

Phase one for the airborne troops is successfully completed.

The Beach Assault

As would be expected the beach assault begins with a preliminary bombardment by ship mounted guns off the table. The strong points and bunkers are the primary targets:

In the first salvo the left hand coastal defence bunker is damaged and a second turn sees one of the 88mm guns destroyed; however, the allied commander is concerned that an extensive barrage would mean that the airborne troops would have to defend bridge much longer on their own and its loss would mean likely defeat. So, after just two rounds of shelling the assault craft are ordered in:

The first wave consists of tanks and infantry engineers, tasked with breaking through the obstacles and mines. One tank is lost immediately, but the engineers push through and begin clearing mines, covered by tank fire.

The engineers successfully widen the minefield gap, but take heavy casualties from the now fully alert Germans:

A second wave of landing craft bring in more tanks, engineers and infantry, who fight their way into one of the strong points:

Some of the allied tanks begin edging into the town:

But do not make much more progress as the allied activation points are needed to fight off a German attempt to recapture the bridge.

Battle for the Bridge

German artillery on the high ground behind the town turns about and begins to shell the airborne forces defending the bridge:

At almost the same time German tanks appear on the approach road to the landing site:

But, the German tanks immediately come under fire from the anti tank guns, quickly losing three of the four vehicles, the fourth being driven off:

Whilst this is good news for the allies, it means that lack of activation points has slowed the beach landing down and the initiative is being handed to the Germans.

To deal with the German artillery on the heights, the allies launch an air strike, which takes out the guns over two turns:

To add to the airborne woes German Panzer Grenadiers come roaring down the road:

There begins a slogging match between the German armour and the anti-tank gunners. Bit by bit the guns are forced back, although remarkably take few casualties. For the Germans the cost is high and soon more tanks and half-tracks are burning:

The British Typhoons are about to be tasked with further targets when two German FW-190s appear on the scene. They down one of the Typhoons and force the remainder to withdraw:

To make matters worse a further German Panzer unit arrives that squeezes the airborne perimeter even further as the anti-tank gunners take more casualties:

But, remarkably the gunners fight on and soon more armour is burning in the valley, and the German armoured survivors withdraw:

Now, with bit of breathing space the allies concentrate on the beach landing, bringing in more tanks and infantry; however, the Germans are not finished yet as they mount a vigorous counter attack in an attempt to take the town:

The Germans come close to retaking the forward strong points:

But, soon come under fire from tanks and infantry newly arrived on the beach, who take heavy casualties themselves from the 88mm beyond the road:

Despite valiant efforts by the Germans the allied armour closely supported by infantry edges into the town:

On the allied left some Shermans from the initial landing successfully edge around the German flank, clearing some mortars before them:

 With the fighting continuing in the town, the Shermans move forwards and are soon in reach of the bridge:

German resistance on the left flank begins to crumble and the first allied tanks rumble over the bridge, connecting up with the airborne boys:

More troops enter the town as the Germans begin to surrender:

This proved to be an exciting and hard fought action.  The allies had a lot of luck and the airborne forces should have been overrun.

What a nice way to spend a bank holiday!

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