D Day - beach assault practice

 

For the second of our "play as the enemy" games  we did the D Day landings themselves, with two beaches - one modelled on Sword and one on Utah. We simplified the games by reducing the force sizes slightly and not doing some of the pre-game moves. 

Sword Beach

The British forces relied on a decent number of "Funnies" and other armoured vehicles to help them cross the beach and assault the defenders. This was backed by commandos and beach assault troops.  

 

The Brits suffered an early mishap as their flail tank was lost exiting the landing craft and some of the troops drift further left than planned. This worked for them though so they had troops facing the thinnest part of the German defences.   

The Casino

The British were able to exit the beach and make some progress in land, by-passing several of the German bunkers. 

The game ended with the British infantry still around the beach area but tanks threatening one of the beach exits.

Utah Beach

The US forces were infantry heavy but did feature 7 DD tanks to help breakdown the defences. Things started poorly though with 5 of the 7 DD tanks failing it make it to shore and one brewing-up rapidly.     

Central strongpoint

The ill-fated DD's

The US infantry became hung-up on the beach wall and taking heavy fire. They managed to cause damage to the central strong point but themselves lost much of the first and second wave.    

Rangers hit the beach

We ended with things undecided but the US probably lacking the time and forces to capture the beach exits.  

   

D Day - airborne landing practice

 

Before we begin our D Day campaign we decided it would be interesting to let the German players take the Allied side for some of the iconic games - the airborne landings and beach assaults. So this week the airborne landings with Merville Battery, the Orne River bridges and a factious US airborne attack on guns St Martin De Verreville. This later action could have happened, but the Germans evacuated rather than fight.

Mereville Battery

In this game 9th Parachute battalion attacked at night against defenders dug-in around the battery, with  reinforcements in a nearby village. 

Mereville Battery

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The Para's bum-rushed the German position and despite the Germans reinforcements arriving  very rapidly they were able to overrun the defenders and take the battery after some hard hand-to-hand fighting.

St Martin De Verreville

101st airborne attacked dug-in Germans dug-in around the village of St Martin.  They adopted a cautious approach looking to setup firing positions and blast the enemy.  

St Martin Battery

This steady approach limited their loses but allowed the German reinforcements time to get into the defences. The game ended with the  Screaming Eagles unable to capture the battery before day light.

Orne River Bridges

Perhaps the most famous action of the night with the Oxs & Buck light infantry launching a glider-borne Coup-de-Main whilst 7th Parachute battalion try to reach them before the German reinforcements.  

Pegasus Bridge

The troops initially stalled as they tried to fire at the canal defenders before finally attacking with flamethrower support. This proved devastating and the Germans fled, leaving the bridges in allowed hands.   

  

Russo - Japanese War in 20mm

Roy has been working through some more 20mm - this time its from the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, more famous perhaps for the Battle of Port Arthur than the land actions.

Roy reports there are lots of them still needing painting before we can stage a full game.

The buildings are from Korea or China, its a sort of glossy foam sandwich art board. Sounds like the ideal wipe-clean for these COVID times.