The Battle of Carenvan; A Bolt Action batrep

Welcome To Carenvan

Can you ever get enough of wargaming in Normandy 1944? Apparently not. My chum Richie, freshly returned from a family holiday in Normandy was gagging to play yet more games set there. And who was I to say no? With some new terrain and a desire to get my Fallschirmjager onto the table after too long a hiatus we rattled together a scenario, agreed a points limit and went to it with a will.

The Scenario: Set in the town of Carenvan, in the US sector of the landings, a force of 82nd Airborne with an attached Sherman and a squad of Rangers are advancing to take the town. Scouts have reported the town deserted by the locals and free of Krauts so their commander, Leutenant Richard "Dick" Moncher is rushing his men forward to take advantage of this state of affairs.

Unbeknownst to Lt Moncher a kampfgruppe from 6. Fallschirmjager Regiment were advancing on Carenvan from the south,  and things were about to get interesting

the Norman town of Carenvan prior to the battle

    The big motorcycle combo roared up the road to the wood and halted by the first of the vehicles parked under it's leafy protection. By the first of the vehicles, Lt Gunter Huhrt watched as the driver and passengers dismounted then cuffed to driver around the head "Stelleman, you big idiot, stop driving so fast; all that dust will have the Jabos on us!" The big Para who had driven the bike snapped to attention "Sorry Herr Leutnant, but we were in a hurry, Herr Leutnant; Amis, Herr Leunant, in the town, Her Leutnant!" 
     "Alright, alright  Stelleman, calm down and give me the details" replied Huhrt.

The Para relaxed, grinned and resumed his report "We drove up to the town as ordered and saw no  one, not even a Frenchman. The local unit has also gone; scampered off to the rear, I reckon, anyway, seeing as the town as empty we drove on up the road a bit and that's where we spotted the Amis". 

"How many?" retortted Huhrt
      The big Para paused and gazed upwards as he started calculating the enemy strength mentally "About a platoon, Herr Leutnant" interrupted the pillion passenger, a young Gefrieter "A platoon plus a tank; one of those Tommy Cookers from North Africa" 

     "Was that all, Schnieder? No more than one tank?" said Huhrt

This time it was Gefrieter Schnieder's turn to pause. "Yes, Herr Leutnant, we saw just the one; we could see a good stretch of the road, sir" he added 
      Huhrt considered this "Stelleman, run back along the column and fetch me all the squad commanders and also the commanders of that recce halftrack, the Marder and the Flakvierling, oh and Oberfeldwebel Shnabel too, of course." A gruff voice replied from behind Huhrt "I'm here, sir". 

Turning  Huhrt saw Oberfeldwebel Shnabel, commander of the second platoon of his kampfgruppe "Good, Herr Oberfeldwebel; you've heard the news?" Shnabel nodded as Huhrt drew out a map  from his mapcase. "Okay Gerieter Schnieder, just where were these Amis" 

The Fallschirmjager advance cautiously into the town. 

The recce half track moves up the road behind the town

hall

...whilst the Marder and flakvierling cover the

town square

..and Leutnant Huhrt, with 5 platoon move up to the

 edge of the town square

   "Sir! Sir! Krauts!" whispered Pfc Lamarr,. "What's that. Lamarr?" shouted Lt Moncher in response "Why the hell are you whispering, Lamarr,, when there's a bloody tank in front of us?"

    "KRAUTS SIR!" shouted Pfc Lamarr, pointing towards the far side of the town square. Moncher looked to where Pfc Lamarr was pointing as an automatic machine gun opened up beyond the big building on the squares edge.

   " Holy crap!" muttered Moncher. Around him the troopers from the 82nd had gone to ground and were staring to return fire on the Germans; Germans they could evidently see and that he couldn't. What he could see he didn't like. Across the square, besides the Krauts firing and dashing from cover to cover, he could see a truck bristling with flak guns and a self propelled gun, probably a tank destroyer judging from the thinness of it's barrel. "Holy crap" he muttered again then bracing himself he got up and ran to his left where 3rd squad had where crouched by a shed in a garden. "What've we got, Sgt Crosby?" 

   "Square heads dead ahead, sir. We reckon a squad and a light mortar" replied Sgt Crosby, shouting over the sound of a nearby explosion. 

     Moncher looked around and considered for a couple of minutes, oblivious to the sound of battle around him before turning to the squad sergeant "I want you to keep your men here, Sgt Crosby, and keep the Krauts busy. Send a runner to Sgt Hope; he should be the other side of this house, and tell him to take his squad into that farm and flank around the Krauts. got that?

The 82nd arrive in town...

Sgt Hope's squad head off on their flanking move...

...while Sgt Crosby's squad keep the Germans occupied

....and the rest of Moncher's force, including a

 light howitzer, deploys for battle

      The Marder rumbled slowly over the cobbles . "Keep close to the wall, Bentner...closer..closer...halt!. As the tank destroyer jerked to a halt, Unterfeldwebel Dietrich, commanding the tank destroyer spotted the Sherman lumbering around the corner. "Target left! panzer!" "Target left!" responded the gunner and started turning the Marder's gun towards the left. "On!" he shouted as the Sherman's bulk filed his gunsight. "Load!" shouted Dietrich and the loader slammed the armour piercing round into the gun's breech and closed it. There was hardly a gap between the loader's cry of "LOADED!" and Dietrich's barked "FIRE!" and the gun recoiling as the shot sped towards the Sherman, missing it by a hair's breadth but missing it nonetheless. As the loader automatically started to reload the Sherman's gun fired. The American tank's response was even less accurate than the Germans. And so the not so deadly duel began.

"LOAD!!"

"FIRE!!....how could you miss?"

"FIRE!! You missed, you bum!!" Reload!!"

The 250/9 fires on the Americans, drowning out the

 sound of the incoming barrage

    "Gefrieter Winkel, follow us over the wall" shouted Hurht, as a Fallshirmjager trooper passed a panzerschreck over the wall to his comrade in the mayor's office yard. "Jawohl, Herr Leutnant!" replied the young NCO as Hurth and his runner scaled the wall. Behind the waiting squad, the recce half tracked opened up on some unseen Americans and the noise of the firing drowned out the sound of the incoming howitzer shell that landed in the midst of the squad. Winkel was sent sprawling, his ears ringing and the taste of blood in his mouth. As he dragged himself to his knees another shell landed amongst the dazed paratroopers, scattering deadly, red hot shrapnel into the defenceless men...   

"On target; fire for effect!"

in the grounds of the mayor's office, the 

Fallchirmjager advance

..whilst the US paratroopers advance is stalled 

by the fire from the 250/9

    Oberfeldwebel Shnabel shouteed up the flak vierling commander "Weber, bring your truck; we have work for  you!". Unteroffizier Weber ordered the gun secured and  ordered the driver to follow the Oberfeldwebel. The Opel Blitz drove along slowly, the crew ducking to avoid the low hanging branches of a tree by the road. it stopped as the oberfeldwenbel raised his hand. He moved toward the truck bed and pointed to a small white house That garden is full of Amis, Weber, I want you to keep their heads down while we get close" "Jawohl, Herr Feldwebel!' replied Weber and turned to his crew "Achtung! Target!"

 The Flak vierling engages Sgt Crosby's squad

    Shnabel moved at the crouch towards the nearby Fallshirmjager squad just as the first mortar round landed amongst them. He threw himself to the ground, cursing himself for leaving his helmet in the truck that had brought them to Carenvan. As he lay there, he heard the flak veirling's firing stutter to a halt to be replaced by the sounds of automatic fire....

    Sgt Hope peered through the small gap in the farmyard wall. The camouflaged truck trundled towards them then stopped. Behind it's cab he could see the four barrels of the anti aircraft platform swing towards Sgt Crosby's position and start firing.

"Okay guys, the other side of this wall is lousy with Krauts. There's a big truck with an anti aircraft gun o the back firing at our guys. When we go over the wall, we give that everything we've got; understood?" The Paratroopers nodded and prepared to climb the wall....

In a hail of bullets the flak vierling is hit

    The first that Unteroffizier Weber knew of the Americans in his flank was as bullets tore into his side; it was also his last thought. Around him the crew were cut down amidst a hail of bullets. Smoke began to pour from the Blitz's engine and fuel tank as the gun slowly pivoted on its mounting, it's crew dead or dying at their posts. 

Lt  Huhrt pushes his last remaining squad forward to the wall

and, alert to the enemy tank, orders the Panzershrek team of

Gefrieter Karl Gustav and Jaeger Willi Hitt to deal with the

armoured threat...

The pair bravely dash into the street ignoring the small
arms fire criss-crossing the square....

...where Jaeger Willi Hitt takes careful aim

...squeezes the trigger and hits the enemy tank which signally fails

 to live up to it's name Tommy Cooker. Instead the Sherman

 is immobilised and the crew frantically get it to respond  

The US bazooka team try their luck against the 250/9

 but eventually lose out

Sgt Crosby's squad move forward to support Sgt Hope 

who, after dealing with the Opel Blitz, wipes out the 

pinned Fallschirmjager squad. 

Oberfeldwebel Shnabel and the MC Combo pull back, firing as they 

go, attempting to stem the Americans advance. With the deadly 

weakening of the German right flank, Leutnant Hurth orders a

tactical withdrawal, husbanding his forces for the counter attack

     In the cover of a house on the outskirts of Carenvan, Huhrt and Shnabel began re-organising their men. Summoning Gefrieter Schneider Huhrt said "Take Stelleman and get back to Battalion HQ. Tell Major Von Derring that we have met with a strong force of American paratroopers with armoured support. They currently hold the northern part of the town. We have suffered 25% casualties and will need more men and armour to shift them from the town....and more ammo"

Schneider repeated the message and turned to go. "And for God's sake, Schnieder, don't let that idiot Stelleman go too fast; too much dust and you'll have those Jabos on your tail!!"

That was a corker. I don't often run Veterans of any description but the chance of a mini campaign with my Fallschirmjager is too good to pass up. I had some very, very poor dice rolls including hitting one of Richie's squads with six hits and killing only one guy!! My dice tower almost took flight!! 

That being said, both Richie's tank and my Marder couldn't hit for toffee; it was almost unbelievable....except I know we have had a similar situation a few times before.

Richie also brought an air observer who was both bad and good, his first attack coming in on is own guys. But he was such a rubbish pilot he couldn't destroy a Sherman when he had the chance. He did, on his second appearance (or maybe it was a more experienced pilot) finish of one of my squads and put more pins on my Marder, making it difficult to get them to do anything, never mind hit and damage anything.

Richie's 82nd skillfully handled the Fallschirmjaegr on the right flank. The flakvierling is, like all softskins, very fragile and his squad jumping over the wall and getting the drop on it and. afterwards, the pinned squad, was impressive.

The flakvierling was okay but again my dice rolls were regrettably bad but I was just glad that I got it on the table cos it looked nice (it's with small crumbs of comfort like these that I feed my bruised spirit and convince myself to carry on, dear reader....though I have had about a large loaful of such crumbs to date...just as well I like bread, eh! )

Overall though, it was a very satisfying spectacle and I am, as ever. looking forward to the next one.

time for a swift snifter before my bridge four,

pip pip,

The General