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 ❤️

Capture the ‘flag’ scenario : RCW : Bolt Action

As a change of pace from our Chain of Command campaign George came to the dungeon  for some ‘jolly’ gaming ? Well it had been a while since the RCW collection had been out on the table so I set up a capture the ‘flag’ scenario. Both sides would be seeking to defend their objective and capture the enemy objective represented by command figures and their transport vehicles.

The terrain includes a small village, a stream only crossable on foot some light woods. A sopwith carries out recon for the Reds, the two objectives would be at either ends of the battlefield forcing both sides to make lots of decisions on deployment and how to attack the enemy ?

The Whites (literally) advance on their right towards the lower bridge, their home objective is to the left of the village in the distance. 

Babooshka the Reds commissar (the Reds home objective) impatiently waves a unit of conscripts forward

In the village a the whites have a Tachanka by the white building the Reds are able to eliminate it quite quickly with fire from a maxim in the woods and their Lanchester armoured car.

A second armoured car is brought up while infantry try and force a way through the village

Whites are massing a big push across the bridge, there is an infantry unit in the truck as well ! But they have to get across the bridge

Both sides have air support which flies about attempting to machine gun the troops on the ground

Whilst the Reds waste time hunting one of the buildings for vodka ! Yes a very unfortunate special event, the white charge across the bridge , the small Cossack unit is deadly in close combat.

The attack gets pinned down, but some kind activation test rolling for the whites allows them to push up to the objective. The Reds fight back but are now struggling….to keep them back

Almost no Reds remain on the left flank, but the objective is only lightly held

Attention turns to the village where the Reds are desperately trying to force a way through, some incredibly stubborn village folk aligned with the whites are helping to hold the flank.

The Austin armoured car is rushed across the battlefield to try and save Babooshka, but it is too late and another unit is crossing the river to support the attack

With the villages finally eliminated the Reds make one final bid to the Whites objective, they throw everything forward but the Officer Corps Unit has been kept in the village for just such a purpose and the  Reds are easily held back in the last turn.

A fun game giving lots of tactical challenges for both sides.

Not a lot of painting this week but I have completed the first Highland unit for the ECW

These are Peter Pig figures and a mix of packs to add variety.

10 or 11 per base giving just enough sense of mass. I have no idea if they would have had a flag but I gave them one anyway.

The merest hint of some tartan on the cloaks which can be seen here from the rear of the unit, I kept this unit predominantly ‘green’ although some variations, I have a second unit to paint where I will swop to brown/reddish tartan cloaks. The base colour for both units is olive/hodden grey. Very happy with how they have come out.

That’s it for now, some more painting this holiday weekend and a remote game planned for next week before a holiday hiatus for a few days, a trip to Salute and a trip away.

Thanks as always

Matt ❤️

Norway WW2 : the Battles of Dombaas 16th/17th April 1940

After the hot dusty weather in the Peninsular I cleared the table off for some snow. Norway 1940…..

We have played a number of scenarios from this excellent book. A couple of the scenarios based around the activity of the 324th Fallschirmjager Regiment are quite small, with a small number of German Paratroopers attempting to capture and hold the strategically important Dombaas Crossroads. There are two scenarios as the battle lasted over two days. We thought it would be fun to played the two scenarios as a linked pair in the same session.

We modified the forces to work with Bolt Action and set to…..

The central key objective is a Barn located close to the road junction. Some light woods but also a lot of open ground. A small ruined building can be seen to the left of the barn which will provide cover if needed. 

The small Fallschirmjager  force deploys from the light woods beyond the ruined building. The Norwegian troops arrive from three other directions , this includes at least one unit of Norwegian ski troops seen here coming over the low hill.

As expected the Germans dash for the bar and the strong defensive position it will 

provide.

With the Germans in the barn, Norwegian infantry approach from several direction opening fire, but ultimately they only have six turns to get into the barn which will require them to assault.

Norwegians closing in on the backyard of the barn, but with limited cover they get pinned down.

The Norwegian HQ crosses the road to lead the attack

The first infantry unit, carries out the first assault on the building, they wipe out the first unit in the building but as we agreed the building could hold two units they can push in yet.

After several tough rounds of hand to hand combat and right in the last turn the Norwegians are able to secure the Barn and a win in the first battle.

Now they must hold the area against a German counterattack

Both sides have some additional reserves for this scenario. The Norwegians setup in and around the barn.

The Fallschirmjager attack from two sides using the light woods and the hills as cover for their advance

The defenders dug is as best as they can, they keep their ski troops in reserve in case the Germans break cover

Germans can be seen assaulting the barn through the ruined building but they have also broken cover from the woods the elite ski troops swoop in to finish them off.

They only need some 5’s …arghhhhhh !

The paratroopers win and cross into the yard. From the left you can see some ‘French’  reserves arriving (don’t look too closely as they are actually Polish infantry 🙂)

The Germans force there way into the barn from the back

So it is upto the French to clear them out, after several further tough rounds of combat

The last of the Germans are driven out but it has literally taken all of the Norwegian force to complete the objective.

Two excellent and fun battles/skirmishes very close and brutal with nowhere to hide for either side. I’m sure we will be returning to Norway some time later in the year. But I do need to paint some French for the Battles around Narvik.

Thanks as always for taking the time to checkout the blog. More to come soon…..

Matt ❤️