Bolt Action Campaign Market-Garden; The Airlanding Brigade Arrive

"Where The Hell Are We?"

     Apologies for the delay in publishing these batreps; the muse had deserted me for a while (what do you mean you didn't know she ever popped  by?)

      So where the hell are we? Back in Arnhem, that's where the hell we are and we're with the chaps from the Airlanding Brigade this time. The scenario is set around a glider landing away from the designated Landing Zone (LZ) and the platoon on board have to disembark and make their way towards friendly troops. As they attempt to do this, German security patrols are arriving and attempting to stop them.

     Forces. The British Horsa Glider carries a platoon of infantry consisting of platoon HQ; 1st Lieutenant plus one, three 8 man sections and a medic making 5 command dice in all. These all start the game on board the landed glider

     The Germans have six 5 man patrols, each armed with an SMG and four rifles; two squads start the game on the table. On turn 2, another two arrive and then the final two arrive on turn 4. They all arrive on the table at the same point, midway down one or the other of the two long table edges.

     The Objective is simple. The British must get off their designated short table edge by the end of the game. They can only afford to lose one unit whilst doing this. The Germans must stop them. If they do then the British all go into the bag, those that aren't dead.

     The game lasts 4 turns. However, if by the end of turn 4 the British have not got off the table and haven't lost more than one unit then on a dice roll of 1 or 2 the game carries on for two more turns. If not, the British are captured........you can see where this is going, can't you 

      So, with the table quickly rearranged to our mutual satisfaction we played Scenario 18: Where The Hell Are We?

      As the glider bumped and bounced to a halt, 3 Platoon, it's passengers, were thrown forward. Above the cursing and swearing, Lt Amhurst's voice bellowed out "OUT! OUT! All out!" The side door of the glider was thrust open and the platoon, in fairly good order, started disembarking. As it did so, the first enemy shots struck the glider. Bugger, thought Amhurst, as he disembarked and took cover whilst his men started returning fire. He looked around for the other gliders from the battalion and saw none, only trees and figures dashing about beneath them. To no one in particular he said "Where the hell are we?"   

3 Platoon's glider makes a nice , smooth landing....in the wrong place

     Spreading his four rifle men out either side of him, Feldwebel Muller, ordered them to open a rapid fire on the glider. The thing was to hit the enemy within the glider before they had the chance to get out. He swore at his men as the glider's door opened and the Tommies spilled out, returning fire as they did, none of their return fire coming close enough to cause concern. 

     He knelt up and fired a long burst with his MP40 before quickly getting back down into cover. "When I said rapid fire, I meant at the enemy, you idiots!!" His men's response was a fusillade of shots at the enemy soldiers.

The Germans were quickly on the scene

3 Platoon disembark and start fighting back....

...as bullets zip across the field, the platoon medic, Pte
 Pat Fermlie, draws unwarranted attention from the Germans

     Overhead, more gliders passed at height. "We must have come down short of the LZ, sergeant!" shouted Amhurst to his platoon sergeant, Sgt Tate. "We'll need to extract ourselves from this...this pickle and rejoin the battalion" Sgt Tate nodded "We best get a move on then, sir! There's more Jerries joining them lot in the woods".

     Amhurst considered for a few moments then shouted to his platoon "3 Platoon, we will withdraw to the treeline to our left; 2 Section you will give covering fire then join us when we start to fire on the enemy; understood" The section commanders replied in the affirmative then, as 2 Section increased it's rate of fire the remainder peeled off toward the treeline, bullets flying all around... 

2 Section give covering fire...

..whilst the rest of the platoon move

       As a fresh burst of shooting passed worryingly close by, Amhurst threw himself the ground. Bloody hell, that was from the treeline they were heading for. Looking towards the tree he could just make out more Germans firing whilst behind them a couple of trucks had pulled up and more German were disgorged from the backs of these trucks. Bugger, bugger and double bloody bugger! They were trapped "Cease firing, men....CEASE FIRING!!" The men around him stopped shooting, quizzical looks on their faces. A sense of anger and bitterness rose in Amhurst  as he shouted to his men "Lads, I'm sorry but we're surrounded. No point getting ourselves killed for nothing. Cease firing!!........"

     Post Script

     And that, as they say, was that. A simple scenario but difficult but not impossible to achieve for the British as you will need to a) run a lot and b) have some fiendish luck if you need those extra two turns to get your chaps off the table edge which, needless to say, I didn't have (I should have pretended to the Dice Gods that I was rolling to hit with my dice; I would have definitely rolled a 1 or 2 then) as it was my chaps were rounded up and chucked into the chokey in no uncertain terms.

     That aside, it was a good game; a bit different and very thematic. Next up is a patrol mission 

Fighting Patrol 

     Scenario 24 is entitled Fighting Patrols and pitches two basic platoons of equal points value against one another. The squads within the platoon can be broken down into Fire Teams, the British section having a Gun Group consisting of an LMG, loader and three other soldiers, the remainder making the other group. The Germans can have two LMGs per squad and, similarly their squads can be split into two, one LMG per fire team. So, each "standard" platoon has seven dice; one for the platoon command group and six for the three subdivided sections/squads. And that's it No armour, no supports, nuffink!!

     The scenario specifies no specific terrain set up as these patrols can be carried out anywhere. It does recommend that the terrain is placed in such a way that there is no part of the table with an area with more that 18" of visibility.

      Normal victory conditions apply however any unit that loses over half it's figures must go Down immediately and may not move for the rest of the game. However they can still be given Fire, Rally or Ambush orders so they can still lend their weight to the battle. 

     With some time to spare before Richie's parental duties kicked in we decided to give it a bash. We each sent out a patrol to seize  the ruined hamlet that straddled one of the local roads near the LZ. 

      Not for the first time Private Knobby Clarke cursed the cumbersome Bren he was carrying. It wasn't that he hated the gun, it just happened to be bloody heavy to carry in the ready position. At least he was getting a rest at the moment. Lying in the undergrowth that bordered a dirt track, he and his gun group were covering the rest of the platoon as they made their stealthy way towards the ruins along the track. Although it wasn't particularly warm, perspiration dripped down Knobby's face and his Dennison smock stuck to his back and waist from the effort of patrolling silently, his pockets and web pouches bulged with ammo and equipment, adding to the effort.

    A drop of sweat fell from his helmet liner onto the rear sight of the Bren and as he reached up to wipe it off, a machine gun tore into life up ahead "That wasn't a Bren" muttered Knobby to the LMG group commander, Lance Corporal Alexander "Sandy" Beech next to him. Down the track by the ruins, the remainder of the patrol had taken cover. Knobby heard some orders shouted and some of the troops began returning fire. 

     "Let's get forward, lads, we can't do anything here" said Sandy "Keep to the left of the track; follow me" so saying he got up and, crouching low, he lumbered forward followed closely by the rest of his men.....

British airborne troops advance warily towards the ruined
hamlet

...as do the Germans, though with a bit less caution

The Germans spot the British troops and open fire..

     Untersturmfuhrer Scharfe was tempted to swing a kick at the LMG gunner. The gunner poured another burst toward the enemy troops at the far end of the ruins, all surprise gone. "Scharfuhrer Lebandowitz, take your team and work your way round the left of the buildings. Get yourself in a position where you can cut them off on that side!"  "Jawohl, Untersturmfuhrer" replied the tall, lanky SS NCO who laid by a nearby tree, a piece of grass protruding from between his teeth. The NCO gathered his men and their equipment together and they disappeared into the bushes beneath the trees only to reappear moments later angling away from Scharfe's position towards the ruined house, laden with ammo boxes and weapons. Good man, thought Scharfe and turned back to the firefight that had now erupted around him

..whilst others attempt to outflank the British patrol

The British make use of the cover of the ruins to mask their
advance

Veteran SS troops move forward

The British push out a fire team to the flank

...as they dominate the right flank

....whilst others take up defensive positions in the ruins

More outflanking from the canny Hun

     Firing a short burst at the doorway in the ruined terrace, Lt Ottway hoped he had hit the German who had poked his head through the empty door frame. Shots cracked overhead from the ruin and Ottway ducked involuntarily. This is getting serious he thought, time to clear the Hun out of there. Shouting at the paratroopers in the nearby half of the ruin, Ottway caught their attention. "Sgt Neilson!! There are Huns the other side of the wall from you! We'll cover you as you go in!" In the ruins a figure in a maroon beret looked at him for a long moment, muttered something to the men beside him and gave Ottway the thumbs up. 

      Ottway shouted at the men next to him "Men, we'll pour fire into the doorway there then on my order we switch fire right to the window; understood!?" The men responded and as they did so, Pte Freeman, Ottway's radio operator, gave a cry and pitched forward. "Rapid Fire!!" cried Ottway. Bullets tore into the ruins as the four British troops in the ruin, edged their way along the wall towards the doorway where the bullets were impacting on the brickwork....... 

The ruined terrace becomes hotly contested ground

The British move in for the kill

    And then we ran out of time!! Dang and blast it. That was an excellent little battle. Not many casualties to that point; honours being about even. But just as the British where getting into position for what would have been a decisive assault either way Rich had to collect his nippers from school. Oh well, at least we had made a start on the campaign.

     The scenario itself is really good and is easily transferable to other battlefields and I'm sure we'll be revisiting this scenario again.

     It was really refreshing to not have armour and all the other supports that normally accompany a Bolt Action platoon onto the battlefield and, instead, rely on your troops and their small arms. We did ponder how we could introduce grenades into this battle as it cried out for them. I think we might employ the rules for hand grenades that are found in Chain Of Command....though that might be opening a can of worms I think the rules cry out for them, as they were a regular feature of modern warfare at this level.