France 1940: Return to Tagnon (WWII Battlefront Scenario) 3

The German Probing Intensifies: 

A small scout car (221's and 222's) company edges around the French left flank. Everything is suspiciously quiet, but the question is, "For how long?" (see below):

Somebody's home, well at least a FOO, not much lasting damage, just a bit of disorder and suppression that comes off once the armoured cars find some protective cover (see below):

The central German attack looks more determined and meaning, as the motorcyclists dismount into the woods, but the French receive some last minute armoured reinforcements from the "rushed up" AMR's (see below): 

Sensibly the motorcycle battalion CO draws upon the divisional artillery for some much needed smoke cover and support, as they intend to undertake one of the most difficult assault operations in the infantry manual, attacking across a defended river line (see below):

On the French right flank the Panhard armoured cars bolster up the defence of Aincourt ahead of the spearhead of Panzers (see below):

However all this frantic motorised traffic has been brought to the attention of Goering's Luftwaffe and a 'tactical' flight of two Stuka's comes a calling on the column of AMRs (see below):

The Stuka's dispatch two AMR's with surgical precision, narrowly missing the company commander (see below):   

The French know they are snared in the teeth of the wolf and they will be up for tough fight to the death. If the river line falls there is no other suitable defensive terrain to fall back on.

Early war Panzer "Mediums": Panzer IV (Short Barrelled)

To be fair the Germans did not pretend to have any heavies in their early war order of battle (OoB). The Panzer battalion had its two companies of "lights" and one company of "medium" tanks. These latter ones were the short barrelled 75mm Panzer IV's designated as a specialist infantry support (or should I say Panzer Grenadier) role (see below):

These chaps are the classic Airfix kit made up in the early was Panzer Mk IV F1 variant.

These boys were painted "long, long ago" (note, still no decals on them) in the mid-1990's but seem to hold their paint jobs against my more recent stuff.

I still rate the Airfix kit as a classic and I have two kits made (see previous post) ready to paint and a third still in the box of the long barrelled mid-later version to complete (technically the Pz IV F2).

Strangely "as by means of necessity" this initial "infantry support tank" supplanted its cousin the Panzer Mk III in its various 'Ausf' up-gunned and up-armoured guises as the Main Battle Tank (MBT) of the German Army from 1943 onwards. This was down to the virtue of having  a bigger turret ring that could fit the long barrelled 75mm gun that was needed to combat the Soviet tanks (T34's and KVI's)  encountered on the Eastern Front. The poor old Pz III was stuck at the long barrelled 50mm having its 'Kursk swan song' and was finally turned into a "infantry support version" in its end-of-life Ausf N version.

Exciting stuff as I am nearing the end of the early war German Panzers. Next I better sort out mu Orders Of Battle and get them onto the table-top for a bit of Command Decision III action (he says dusting off my copy of the rules).