Crete 1941 - week 1, attack on Hill A

The campaign proper began with the Germans launching an assault on Hill B, which guarded the western approaches to the airstrip of Rethymnon. The battlefield featured a large hill on the British side, with a farm house in the centre of the position. The Germans would attack through fields and small wooded areas.

View from the Brits left

View from the German centre of Brits right, the focus of their attack

The Germans first move was to deploy a large force of the veteran Fallschrimjager on the right of the British defences whilst the Gebirgsjager occupied a more central position.

FSJ into cover early

Brits well dug-in

GBJ move through a vineyard

The Brits responded by occupying the farm in the centre of their deployment zone and lining the hill top. Several units deployed on the right to oppose the expected FSJ attacks there.

The farm strongpoint

 We then saw a series of ebbing and flowing attacks by the Germans. The first attack by the FSJ pushed the Brits out of the woods guarding their right but was itself halted by accurate fire.

Germans 1st attack

Germans 2nd attack

Looking good but the FSJ soon fell back under heavy fire

Determined counter attacks restored the British line but were themselves threatened by further FSJ and GBJ assaults. Clever use of Over watch orders allowed the Brits to pin three separate attacks as soon as the Germans broke cover and looked to be leading to a German loss.

Attack #3 pinned down

Attack #4 also pinned

Attack #5 pinned - a pattern here!

In the end the Germans got some luck though as run of bad shooting enabled them to eventually get into contact with their 6th and 7th attacks, pushing the Brits back and routing 2 sections. This gave them a 2-1 lead on objectives captured

Finally attack #6 works and the emplacement falls

FSJ reluctant to attack the Brits on overwatch

With their final attack the FSJ managed to dispute, but not capture, a third objective whilst a charge by the British HQ section recaptured the ridgeline.

A desperate dash and bad shooting gives the FSJ a win

 As darkness fell the score was 2-1 to the Germans on objectives captured, so they were awarded a marginal victory. We've not shown the British sole victory but essentially a Matilda II plodded across the table with shots bouncing off and lumbered over a German objective to claim it.

British HQ clears the hill of Germans

A fun game played out over two weeks due to the size and intensity of the battle. After a cautious initial phase we saw plenty of action with the FSJ fighting ability to the fore, but the Brits doing well to hold them off until they ran out of units to oppose the focused German attacks.