Taking the high Road To Berlin With The Glendarrochs part 2

Operation Martlet Campaign Turn 3. 

A Hard Slog

Through the early hours of morning Brigadier Thomas "T" Strainer had listened with mounting frustration to the reports coming in of the confusion the fog was causing to his plan of battle. Battalions, rifle companies, tank squadrons, Engineer support all hopelessly thrown into confusion by the dense Normandy fog, further compounded  by the typical fanatical defensive fighting shown by the Germans. In a desperate attempt to save his plan and despite pressure from above he had ordered his battalion commanders to pause their advances and reorganise themselves in preparation for the mist lifting. Thankfully the artillery barrage was continuing 

and that should keep Jerry's head down

"Sgt Grouse!? Sgt Grouse!?" The platoon runner, Pte McKenzie, hugging the side of the house called to the group of infantrymen by the wall. One of them turned to face him "over 'ere, 73!" Dashing forward, McKenzie 73 flopped down beside the platoon sergeant. "What's up then, lad? Where's Mr Regal?" As bullets whipped over the top of the wall, Mackenzie 73 looked up in surprise. Looking back to his platoon sergeant "Mr Regal's back at the jump off point, says you've to pull the lads back as the artillery are going to hit this place again at 0700 hours" Another burst of fire striking the wall caused  the young private to start up again. "S'at all, 73?" asked Grouse as he checked his watch; 45 minutes to get back and reorganised. "No, sarge, we're going back in when the mist lifts says Lt Regal". What a balls up, thought Grouse to himself. 

2" mortar prepares to lay a smoke screen

a bit too far right!

In the farmhouse Oberscharfuhrer Hans Gruber, 22 year old veteran of France, the Balkans and the Eastern Front ordered his squad commanders too keep their men on their toes; the Tommies would be back. Stating the obvious, he thought to himself. He couldn't understand why the Tommie had pulled back, possibly it had been a feint attack and they had broken through further own the line; probably in the Panzer Lehr part of the line. Certainly they wouldn't break through the 26th Regiment's defences. The Hitler Jugend were the Fuhrer's finest and would never break. He was distracted from his revery by the sound of the artillery barrage increasing in intensity. The Tommies were coming back after all.

Sgt Ramsbottom and his AVRE addvance

"Driver advance!" The Churchill AVREs engine roared and it's track and wheels screeching, it moved forward alongside the crouching infantry section. Poor buggers, thought Sgt Harry Ramsbottom, the AVREs commander, who would want to be out there with all that metal flying around; bloody dangerous, it was. The mist was clearing now and up ahead he could see the smoke and dust rising from around the area of the farm. This was were the Jerries were according to the Glendarrochs sergeant. He smiled at the memory of his surprise as the sergeant with his highland bonnet on started speaking in a broad Cornish accent. Typical bloody army, he thought. "Slow down, Smiffy" he said to his driver. He had clear view of the farm now and could see the muzzle flashes of the German machine guns. "Gunner, target ahead; farmhouse; maximum range; minimum elevation.." the turret traversed till the huge mortart barrel was pointing squarely at the farmhouse. "On!" reported the gunner.  'FIRE!" Ramsbottom barked into his mike and watched the fall of their shot. he could clearly see the huge projectile's flight as it arced towards the farm. It struck the building squarely with a satisfying crash...

The farmhouse. Scharfurher Mahler's squad head for the hedge while in the arm itself, Scharfuhrer Wolff's squad attempt to spot targets through the smoke

Gruber picked himself up from the floor. God knew what that tank had fired at them but it had all but wrecked the farmhouse. Schrafuhrer Wolff appeared in the doorway. "Everyone okay, sir?" he shouted. Like the rest of his squad he was half deafened by the bombardment. " Yes, scharfuher, I think so" replied Gruber. He peered through the dust and out through the gaping hole in the wall. "Scharfuhrer Wolff, get your other machine gun into the outhouse, the Tommies are trying to outflank us" Wolff nodded and ran from the room, shouting as he went. As he did so, Grubeer moved to the back of the house. Behind him, the machine gun in the room opened up once more. Stepping onto the balcony, he shouted to the squad of SS men grouped below "Scharfuhrer Mahler, take your men to the hedge over there, we're expecting the Tommies. Stop them"."Jawohl, Oberscharfuhrer!" responded Mahler and led his men off.

Almost there. Cpl Glen Livet's squad race to get around the Germans flank

Watching the smoke screen develop, Cpl Livet turned to his men "Right lads, over the wall" The section scrambled over the wall and dropped to the other side. They were greeted by a burst of machine gun fire. Returning fire, Livet shouted  to his section to move, sensing that once the passed the window where the fire was coming from they would be relatively safe. As they moved, a shell struck the building, the firing stopped as the building crashed in on itself. "Bloody 'ell, that was lucky" exclaimed Livet. "Right lads, lets get around behind these bastards and we'll gie them a wee suprise" 

Effective smoke screen

The agonising wait while the loader reloads the Petard

Sgt Ramsbottom spoke calmly into the mike "Sapper KInkaide, do you intend taking all day loading that round?". "Me hands are slippy, Sarge. I'm doing me best as he manhandled the cumbersome projectile into the barrel. 'Okay lad, take your time but hurry up about it" A few seconds past then Kinkaide cried "Loaded!" "Driver traverse right!" commanded Ramsbottom.  The seconds wasted spent waiting for the loader to get back in his hatch before the turret could be traversed were seconds that couldn't be spared so turning the tank would speed up the process of aligning onto the new target. "Target!" he shouted into the mike "Right edge of farm wall; outhouse; seen?". "Seen" responded the gunner, traversing the turret slightly...

Lindt's Panzer IV moves through the smoke in search of targets. Though he hit the AVRE his shot did no damage

Engine gunning, the Panzer IV reversed out of the huge berm where it had been hidden from the  British and protected from the bombardment. It's commander, Schharfurher Peter Lindt ordered the driver to advance forward slowly. Up ahead the British smoke screen was proving very effective and he had realised that he needed to move into it to be able to get a shot at the British tank that he knew was out there. Peering into the now thinning smoke, he saw it. "Target dead head, Schmundt!>. "Got it!" the gunner replied and the tank rocked as it's gun barked out a shot at the green behemoth up  ahead...

Falling back from the assault, the wounded Cpl Livet and 1 Section are pinned by LMG fire

Cpl Livet and his section, what was left of it, reeled back. A brief scrap with a German squad had left them with three dead. Livet himself was wounded, a nasty gas on his forehead poured blood into his left eye, blinding him. his head was ringing from the blow. Still, at least they had knocked some of the Jerry bastards down. "Hold on lads, no so fast, eh!" he siad to his men as they started carrying him back. As they neared the wall a burst of machine gun fire cut into them...

2 Section lob smoke grenades over the wall

"When I says throw, chuck 'em smoke grenades over the wall; got that?" Thee two privates nodded at Sgt Grouse;; grenades clutched in their hands, a finger hooked inside the grenade ring in readiness. "Throw!" cried Grouse and the two grenades arched over the wall. As they waited for the smoke to  build up the sound of shouts anger and the staccato noise of machine gun fire met reached their ears. "Right, over we go; 1 Section's in trouble"

On the other side of the wall, they were met with the sight of remains of 1 Section falling back in disarray their section commander stretched out on the ground behind them. Just ahead and just visible through the smoke, a German machine gunner was firing at the fleeing 1 Section. Beside Sgt Grouse, 2 Sections Bren gunner opened up on the German "Charge!!" Grouse heard himself shout and 2 Section stormed towards the gunner, firing as they ran. The German fell to the ground as they reached the hedge. Seeing other coal scuttle helmeted figures beyond the hedge, Grouse emptied his Sten at them whilst screaming for grenades. Three grenades flew over the hedge towards the retreating Germans "Get down!" he cried, hitting the ground just as the first grenade went off....

Sgt Grouse and 2 Section's rifle team push on around the German flank after seeing of Mahler's squad

Sgt Ramsbottom examined the large score in the side of his AVRE. "That was close, boys" he said to his crew as they leaned out of their hatches; the AVRE now in the cover of the recently vacated building. "We'll need to get some paint from the SQMS to cover that up" The crew exchanged glances; they had all felt the blow as the enemy shell struck the AVRE and had all felt the same fleeting feeling of terror, tensing themselves for the inevitable until they had heard the calm voice of Sgt Ramsbottom saying "it's okay, lads; just a scrape. Nothing to worry about" before telling the driver to reverse into cover, something the driver needed no second bidding to do.

2Lt Regal wasn't happy "I say, Sgt Grouse, what do you think you were doing, haring off like that. I wasn't quite ready". Grouse glowered at the leutenant "Sorry sir, but we didn't have time to mess about making sure everything was just so before we attacked. The longer we gave those Jerries to get prepared the more men we were going to lose. We had to keep them on the back foot and get in quick!" Regal snapped back "I'm perfectly aware of that, sergeant, but we still needed cover from the smoke to screen our advance". "Yes sir, we did;; and since you saw fit to start doing my job; that is controlling the mortars and laying the smoke screen I thought I had best do yourn and get the attack done!" Regal went to reply but stopped. He paused then, abashed, said "You're right, Sgt Grouse, I got rather carried away;  I'm sorry". An uncomfortable silence followed for a few seconds  then Grouse said "Ere's the casualty list, sir. Cpl Livet and three others dead and four wounded" Regal took the piece of paper, glancing at it. "What's left of 1 Section are a bit rattled. L/Cpl Black has them over there" he continued, pointing toward the farmhouse. 2Lt Regal looked up "Right sergeant, I  want the section Brens covering the direction the Jerries went in case they decide to come back. Get the ammo redistributed, L/Cpl Dhu takes over 1 Section. Move Ptes Miller and Deuchar to 1 Section; Deuchar can act as 2i/c.......

Brigadier T Strainer ponders the cost of battle.

Well that was a blast. Rather than risk the disappointment of my leaders and supports not arriving on the table as had happened previously I decided to deay my attack till the mist had lifted and I think it paid off. i got rather carried away and brought Sgt Grouse on before 2Lt Regal thus denying him his chance to shine and, instead, he was relegated to controlling the two 2" mortars while Amos led the attack. The AVRE was lucky with both shots it fired though the second was the more devastating in effect. Poor Cpl Livet, he and his section  almost made it to the table edge; a Chain of Command dice allowing me to interrupt the German LMG in the outhouse and attempt to run by before it fired...and it almost worked. The resulting German assault by  Scharfuhrer Muhler's squad led to three casualties each with both NCOs becoming casualties. 

An entertaining game played in the right spirit. Thanks again to my opponent, John. Looking forward very much to the next mission, Pushing On as the Glendarrochs attempt to clear the village of Fontenay.