Dancing In The Dark; Conclusion in Carenvan
And so finally...and in conclusion, Richie and I fought the last battle for Carenvan....perhaps. No, this was definitely the last battle for this piece of Norman real estate.
As we wanted this to be the culmination of this mini campaign we decided to shift the timeline on a couple of days (What? You didn't realise this campaign had a timeline? You really must pay attention...especially you lot at the back...now where was I? ...oh yes..)
Both sides have been slugging away at each other but the Americans with their greater superiority of men, armour and artillery and shorter supply lines have gained the upper hand and are intent on completing the capture of the town. To this end they have decided to carry out a night attack on the last point of German resistance. The Americans have plenty of infantry and armour with which to press the issue and one part of their force has been placed in the capable hands of Lt Dick Moncher.
The Germans have decided to cede Carenvan to the Amis and pull back to a new defensive line in preparation for a counter attack. To cover their withdrawal they have left behind a force of Fallschirmjager with some armoured support and a Nebelwerfer. This force is commanded by Leutnant Willi Schmelling
So that's the background. We decided that the Double Envelopment would suit this battle; the Yanks getting into the German deployment zone would easily represent them pushing the Germans out of town. Equally, the Germans preventing the Americans getting into their deployment zone could be seen as them holding the US forces back for long enough to allow their comrades time to reorganise outside the town.
So far so good, We set the points limits at 2000 for the US Forces and 1400 for the Fallschirmjager as we felt that that would be a good ratio for an attacker/defender scenario particularly because we played from short end to short end of the table. We did this to make the game feel a little more claustrophobic; To help move the game along we set the deployment zones 18" back from the centre of the table but units could deploy from 12" in.
A night attack suggested the Dawn Assault rule (and my goodness, what a long night ensued! But more of that later) and the Americans benefitted from some prophylactic fire in the shape of a preliminary bombardment.
And that was us set up and ready to go. After our usual hour of chat/froth about all things wargaming (with yours truly doing most of the talking but only because I noticed that there was a pocket of excess oxygen at my end of the table and I was trying to get it back to a normal, acceptable level) and general catching up we started to deploy our forces. Richie went for it by deploying all his force in the first wave while I split my force, setting up only half of my units. Order dice into the bag and off we go.
( One note of caution; those of you of a nervous, easily rattled disposition might want to avoid the parts of the batrep where I describe my dice rolls. It isn't pretty!!)
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| Carenvan from the Allied lines. The green line shows the American deployment zone, the orange the Germans |
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| The other side of the hill. The German side of the town |
The night was alive; alive with noise and smells. The town stank of dead flesh, burning petrol, metal, wood and rubber, all being consumed by the furious, voracious flames
In the distance, artillery rumbled, the flashes from the guns lighting up the horizon. The rumble grew louder as the shells hurtled towards the part of the town that the German soldiers cowered in. The bombardment, short and shocking, struck the German defences. In it's aftermath, the defenders pulled themselves together, officers and NCOs shouting orders and taking stock of the damage done by the bombardment..
As their hearing returned the Fallschirmjager became aware of the sound of armoured vehicles approaching from the American lines. "Achtung!! Panzer! Stand to!" shouted Leutnant Willi Schmelling to his men, crouching in the shattered ruins.. Dimly, by the light of the burning buildings, he could see his foremost squads preparing themselves for the coming attack.
"One man dead, Herr Leutnant" said his runner as he joined Schmelling in his foxhole. "Who?" he replied. "Knabel, 3rd Squad". Schmelling grunted, he briefly recalled the young blond jaeger who had joined the battalion on the Eastern Front. Not NCO potential but a good, solid soldier. "Any wounded?" he continued. "No, Herr Leutnant". Shmelling grunted noncommittally but inside he felt a sense of relief. Only one dead; if only it remains that way but he knew there would be more. Up ahead the sound of the approaching enemy armour grew louder and Schmelling turned his attention to the coming fight.
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The Germans watch warily for the Amis
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The American infantry, confident in the effect of their bombardment,
send their troop packed half tracks forward first
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The armoured personnel carriers growl forward over the rubble
into a devastated no mans land |
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| The tanks following behind |
The sound of the glass crunching beneath his boots was completely inaudible to Lt Dick Moncher as he moved forward just behind his foremost squad. The noise of the armoured personnel carriers and tanks reverberating from the walls of the silent buildings drowned out all other sounds. His face wore a grim expression; that artillery barrage had been too short and probably ineffective, doing nothing more than alerting the Germans that there was an attack coming their way.
Ahead an M3 Halftrack maneuvered around an obstacle in it's way, it's .50cal machine gunner silhouetted against the sky beyond, crouching over his weapon. Behind that came a Sherman tank in support.
Moncher recalled the briefing for this attack, a few hours ago. The infantry battalion's CO, a lieutenant colonel, seemed to be very much in the heroic mould. He wasn't for listening to Moncher's advice about having the tanks lead the advance to contact, even though the tank platoon's leader had backed Moncher's advice. No, his men would lead and show the Hun; he had actually used that word, who were the better soldiers. The platoon that Moncher and his men were attached to would advance along the three streets leading out of the town with the tanks in support, clearing the Hun out of Carenvan for once and for all.
And despite the CO offering to carry Moncher and his men in their carriers, Moncher declined, having too much respect for the German's panzerfausts effects against armour. So he and his men advanced on foot, making their way carefully through the rubble, tensed to fever pitch for the first burst of Spandau fire that was bound to come soon out of the lingering darkness.
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| Darkness cloaking their advance (it would stay "dark" for four turns as one of my dice failings was the inability to roll high enough to reach the all important figure of 8 at which point it would be light enough to see and engage targets normally) |
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Shrugging off the effects of the bombardment, the Fallschirmjager's support,
a Nebelwerfer stands by for their first fire mission call |
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| Peering into the darkness, Schmelling's men watch for a sign of the Americans |
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Lt Dick Moncher's Paras move forward warily
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| ...as do the now dismounted US Infantry |
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| The American force split along the three different streets |
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| To Schmelling's relief, their panzer support arrives |
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| waiting...(for three turns there was very little shooting with most of the German units being on Ambush (Overwatch would be a better term) so there was little they could do beyond wait for the Amis to stumble into range and sight |
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| The tension increases as some speculative shooting takes place to little effect |
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| The Fallschirmjager's 2nd Squad moves into an ambush position |
Stumbling over the rubble in the garden of the ruined house, Sgt Chuck Stones muttered a curse under his breath. Rubbing his bruised shin he risked a quick look around the wall of the ruin.Up ahead the street was in darkness, no movement. Beside him the huge silhouette of a Sherman rumbled along on the cobbles, the racket from it's engines almost mind numbing.
Peering into the blackness Stones noticed something moving at the far end of the street. Tank, he thought. As if in response to his thoughts, the blinding flash of a heavy calibre gun blinded him. He pulled back into cover, aware as he did of the sound of an anti tank round ricocheting off the Sherman's turret.
"Reverse! Reverse! Quick!" Gears grinding, engine revving, the huge tank reversed back into the town square and into cover behind a still intact building. In the dark, cramped interior of the Sherman, his hands trembling, Sgt Paddy O'Nions, lifted the crucifix hanging around his neck to his lips and kissed it briefly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord" he muttered under his breath. "Shit!" Did anyone see where that shot came from?" he shouted into his mike. Brannigan, the crew's machine gunner chimed in "Far end o' the street, Paddy; on the right hand side I think".
"Right, let's get the bastard" O'Nions growled "Nobody shoots at Sgt Paddy O'Nions and gets away with it, the bastards!". "Mick" this to the driver "take her forward beside that house. I just want the nose poking out; Mac, get ready on that gun; AP loaded? Mac, the gunner, grunted a reply "Yeah, sarge" "Right, O'Toole, advance!". "Sgt O'Nions, do you think it's a good idea to be heading back up that street? Thon wee German fellla might have better luck next time" said Pfc O'Toole, a first generation Irish American.
"Never you mind about that Kraut and his luck; his luck has run out I tell you, when he decided to mess with Paddy O'Nions! Now get this tank moving, O'Toole or so help me God..." The threat was left hanging in the air and, cursing his luck, O'Toole, the driver, put the tank into gear and started moving his track levers as the tank ground forward behind the looming building...
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| The Puma acted as an effective deterrent to the US armour. The Nebelwerfer team, under threat from the advancing US force, redeploy to the middle of the German deployment zone in an effort to find more targets |
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| The M3 foolishly advances along the street and into the Panzer IVs line of fire and pays the price for such foolish optimism. The passengers, a Bazooka team escaped into the cover of the ruins nearby. |
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| Despite their armour being pushed back, the US Paras and infantry push on down the left flank. The US infantry were assaulted by a squad of Fallschirmjager who must have been on the Calvados brandy before they assaulted the Infantry as they only inflicted two kills and received four casualties in return. This left the left flank only being covered by the Puma |
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| On the right flank, the US forces had made the most of the darkness and worked their way forward, closing with the Germans before they had fully recovered from the barrage. The Germans (Me) had a difficult time a)spotting the enemy and b) inflicting any damage on the Americans when they did manage to see them. My dice rolling was quite incredibly underwhelming in this game. For instance, with a target rich environment for the Nebelwerfer, of six targets within it's range, I managed to roll one 6 on the bazooka team. I then rolled a 1 for the damage when I only needed a 2+ |
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| Some speculative shooting by Lt Schmelling and his runner, sent the M8 Greyhound scurrying back. Result! However this allowed the second Sherman to advance down the street. By this point, one squad of Fallschirmjager had been wiped out and the second was down to two men with one panzerfaust. These two, with the chance of grabbing some glory for the Fatherland, promptly failed their morale check and where rounded up by the US Para squad nearest to them. |
The Amis were swarming forward in droves now. Schmelling watched in dismay as yet another of his squads was overrun. Their position was now becoming untenable and the survivors of his platoon were in danger of being outflanked. His orders were to slow the Amis down but that was now proving impossible. He had to extract what was left of his command. He glanced to his right he spotted the welcoming sight of the Panzer IV sitting at the corner of the street. It's gun barked out a shot and it's machine guns rattled at unseen enemy. Here was a chance of covering his men's withdrawal.
Nudging the paratrooper beside him, Schmelling shouted in his ear "Let's go, Brandt" and, crouching low, he ran towards the panzer....
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| The pretty ineffective sniper team, darkness robbing them of targets they must've nodded off as they missed with their one chance of getting a shot off....surprise surprise... |
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| A target rich environment that the Nebelwerfer failed to make the most of |
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| The Americans are well in their stride now. For the Germans it's all about saving face now... |
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| The last of the German forces in Carenvan; the Panzer IV fires at and destroys the Sherman but it's too little too late |
The firing was dying away now. In it's place were the shouted orders, the cries and calls of the wounded and the sound of muted explosions as the ammunition in the burning vehicles cooked off.
By a ruined building, Pfc Bannon proffered a cigarette packet to Lt Moncher. Thanking him, Moncher picked one out and lit it, drawing the smoke deep into his lungs. Behind him, a group of Paras was escorting their German counterparts towards the rear area. Spotting the lieutenant, a paratrooper detached himself from the group and ran towards him. "Sir, Sgt Stones told me to let you know they have secured the far end of the town. There's his squad and one of these infantry squads over there with a tank full of mad Irish men who are wanting to keep going after the Krauts covering the road" . Flicking the butt of the cigarette away,
Moncher nodded. "Thanks Corporal Kimsky,; any casualties?" Cpl Kimsky shook his head "None of ours though I think the infantry guys lost a few". He paused "There weren't many Krauts down there; those guys over there" here he indicated the POWs. "Them and an armoured car, which scooted of pretty damn quick"
Visibly relieved, Moncher nodded "Okay, Cpl Kimsky, hand over those prisoners as soon as possible and get back to Sgt Stones" The young corporal nodded "Yessir!" he said then ran off after the group of POWs and their escorts.
So the Americans have taken Carenvan. That was a great game, very tough on the Germans but them's the breaks. The fact that the Americans were able to make the most of the darkness to get right up close to the Germans before there was any real chance of firing at each other was a real plus for them.
Initially I was hoping to be able to make their advance across the town square a difficult passage but realised that this wasn't going to work out well so I tried plugging the streets with my guys on the defensive. Closing with the Americans and taking a bit more of an aggressive stance would probably have been a better idea as it might have made it that much more difficult to get into my deployment zone and gain a victory.
Rich played his usual aggressive game, making the most of the darkness, and reaped the rewards with a hard won but well deserved victory. The Allies had expanded their bridgehead and the Germans are probably preparing a counter attack even as I type.
Any counter attacks will not happen for a while though as we are looking at playing the Market Garden campaign from the British perspective, both airborne and ground forces, which will be blogged...and expensive....how many recce jeeps?
Also, we'll be looking to the past and to the East to play a few mini campaigns around Case Blue and the German advance on Stalingrad as my chum, Danny, has been beavering away at putting together a Stalingrad themed table and we also have plenty of Russian style village dwellings too for battles on the steppe.
But that's it from Carenvan, we've had a great time fighting over this piece of real estate especially as it forced us to put together and paint lots of nice, new buildings and has also given us lots and lots of ideas for further campaigns.
Well, I'm off to the bar for a quick pre-dinner snifter,
pip pip!
The General
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