The Battle for Bridge : Operation Sealion

This week we had planned to play out in the shed but the weather in a crazy twist became too hot ! So we stayed in the dungeon for a return to our Sealion campaign. The Germans are pushing inland on S-Day plus 1, having secured much of the south coast of Kent on S-Day they are driving North towards Canterbury. The direct route along the A2 has a potential pinch point at the Village of Bridge where the  Nail Bourne (river) cuts the road.

The Germans recognising the challenge have sent a small recon force who have successfully captured the bridge. The British have missed the importance of the objective, luckily the retired colonel of the Barham Yeomanry has taking things into his own hands and called all the home guard forces for the area to attempt to take back the bridge. The local population can only hope the regular British army will reach the village to support the battle before the Germans are able to get their support to the village.

Looking North up the A2 towards the Village of Bridge, a German Stuka has been called in to support the small German force.

The German recon force holding both bridges (which are the objective for the day) including motorcycle MG teams rushing up the road.

The first wave of British are the Home guard and local residents, including the mounted Barham Yeomanry. The British also have Bofor Anti-aircraft gun

A view from behind the windmill to the village of Bridge and the objective bridges on the Nail Bourne

The A2 is a very straight Roman road linking the coast to Canterbury. The advanced German infantry cross the bridge and dig in to the small white cottage by the bridge

German armoured cars push forward to hold the advancing Home guard back

The RAF enter the battle

As the battle progresses both sides begin to bring reserves on, the German rush forward in trucks

The RAD 8 takes a hit and bursts into flames blocking the road unless a heavy tank can be brought forward to push it out the way. Home guard can be seen edging along the rear of the houses but they come under fire from German machine guns dug in on the other side of the river.

British regular infantry finally starts to reach the battlefield

The spitfire swoops on the German infantry knocking out one of the trucks luckily the majority of the infantry are able to dismount unharmed

The British bring on a Matilda II whoch drives the German AC back towards the bridge

The Yeomanry gallop forward on their horses catching a German unit in the open behind the white cottage they are nearly wiped out

More German reserves are pushed forward, this Pioneer Hanomag armed with a powerful antitank weapon

The Matilda strikes and another armoured car is burning, but behind that you can see a large crater where sadly the Yeomanry were targeted by the Stuka a direct hit saw them literally wiped out !

British regulars advancing down the A2

Matilda pushes the AC off the road and prepares to rush the smaller of the two bridges, you can really see from the photos the intensity of the battle which focussed around the white cottage the British bringing more and more troops to assault it but them being driven back by the defenders.

The Matilda attempts to smash the German vehicle but fails to destroy it and they become locked on the bridge

The Germans attempt to advance on the right, but a Vickers tank has managed to take the bridge, and only the arrival of German armour will be able to drive this away

The Matilda is hit but rather than destroyed it is driven back off the bridge. The infantry behind assault the German Armoured vehicle but they too are driven back, lucky for them only move back onto the bridge.

In the meantime the spitfire has been chasing the German bomber but has been unable to knock it out. And that without anymore photos was about the end of the battle, both sides had taken massive casualties, the British did manage eventually to retake the white cottage, but with German tanks moving up the road they have limited resources to hold the village. Always fun to renew the Sealion campaign, a tough battle for both sides with a lot of infantry casualties.

Earlier in the week I also played  another  CoC game down with George

The Germans find themselves defending another wood

The British launch a cleverly planned mortar barrage which hits hard

Almost finished, the Germans fight back making it a tense and close battle but eventually the German morale breaks giving the British a fine win 👍

My Partizan loot, not too much just some bits and bobs. What I did buy secondhand was a couple of boxes containing lots of bits for a Star Fort. It was very cheap so I wasn’t too worried whether it was complete or not (I didn’t unpack it at the show) so when I got it all out back at home here is what I found.

A basic triangular shape, 10mm SYW figures shown above

This extended version with my ECW figures

A bigger version with extra bits added including the broken wall sections.

I played around a bit and it does seem to be missing some sections, and the shape seems slightly odd ? It would be easy to make a couple of extra sections, above is how it might look in the corner of the table which I guess is most likely as I wasn’t planning to play any siege battles in the near future. Food for thought anyway depending on when and how I might use it ?

That’s it for now likely more to come soon although very little progress on painting.

Thanks as always for visiting

Matt ❤️

Must try harder ?

Since my trip down south I have been inordinately busy mainly with some household maintenance activities, whilst the hobby activity has continued blogging has take a back seat. So a bumper post to catch up on three games and some painting.

Not quite in order ….. first up we played a small French Indian War skirmish, using Rebels and Patriots 

The  British would attempt to get across the table from the left along the track through the woods. The French would ambush from the two further corners.

The french supported by a sizeable Native contingent

For the British, the Rangers lead the way, these fan out to open the road. Whilst the French infantry looks to cut the road behind the barn.

The Natives swarm around the church

The British infantry face off but somehow the Natives fail their activation to charge leaving them in a vulnerable position.

Not surprisingly despite charging the British they don’t last long.

The British skirmishers and rangers push on down the road as quickly as they can

After a double 6 activation the French receive some Native reinforcements these are able to charge just in time

Where they catch the British Militia by the Barn

These are butchered to a man including the British commander who is unfortunately with them. With the time limit now up for the battle this final assault by the french has levelled things up leaving the battle a tight draw. A lot of fun and a welcome return to the FiW which hasn’t seen much love for. Long time

Next up on the advice of Steve J I have been looking for this book finally it came up at a respectable price ! Looking forward to reading it and it is on the list…..

A bit of painting over the last couple of weeks

Some 3D printed windmills, these are 10mm scale for the SYW/ECW/TYW

Some ECW markers for units which are waivering 

Martin recently gifted me some spare FiW/AWI figures all are woodsmen or irregular militia figures. So rather than hide them away I pushed them to the front of the painting queue, they took a bit longer than expected as there isn’t much uniformity in the figures. But they are done and fought well in the FiW battle above.

Last week saw a trip down to George’s he has already blogged the result so no surprises here just some photos of his beautiful early war collection.

The Germans prepare for battle

I made a few mistakes in the setup allowing the British to get the advantage

The British are able to bring greater numbers into the battle and the Germans are outgunned

Eventually the Germans are driven back into the woods, a good win for the British and on to the second scenario

This week I visited Erik to play another historical ECW this time Ripple Field, just a few photos here of the battle

William Waller (my command) is holding the high ground outside of Tewkesbury they are outnumbered by the Royalist army but the slope is difficult ground so this might enable them to hold their position

This was Erik’s play of the scenario each trying slightly different approach, here the Royalist attempt to assault directly up the hill with their cavalry supported by their limited infantry. On the Royalist left their cavalry decide to pull back, this gave the numerical advantage to Waller.

When the cavalry attempts to assault back up the hill a very lucky volley from the Parliamentary dragoons sends them feeling back down the hill

The other side of the battle is much closer but again the Parliamentary forces win out including killing Maurice the Royalist commander. So a tough battle but in the end a decisive win for Parliament. A fun battle and the detail Erik puts into recreating the battle is impressive.

Thats is for now, another battle planned over with Martin tomorrow and then I’m heading down south again for a week or so, visiting some ECW Battlefields a trip to Oxford and finally heading to PARTIZAN wargame show. So if you are heading to Newark on the 17th it would be great to catch up.

Matt ❤️