On Sunday 5th November
Myself and two friends Tony and Graham played a game of Battlegroup
at the Wyre Forest Gamers Club in Kidderminster. The scenario which
was arranged by Graham was based on the action at Stavalot, which
took place on 17 - 18 December 1944 during the battle of the bulge,
between elements of the US 526th Armored Infantry Battalion and
Joachim Peiper' SS Panzers. A first hand account written by Capt
Charles A. Mitchell can be found here.
All the German 8 man squads had 2
MG42's mounted on bi-pods and allowed to fire both with one order,
this immense rate of fire would prove useful eventually but still
took a lot of orders to clear the woods. There were four objectives:
1, a warehouse 2, a bridge (which was set to explode) on the west end
of the river and 3 and 4, two houses within the town North of the
river.
The US forces commanded by Graham were
occupying the town North of the Ambleve river and had forces
including Anti tank guns occupying a wood to the South East and a
Warehouse on the South West of the board. Me and Tony played as the
Germans and were to enter along a road on the South East corner. Tony
immediately entered a building and attempted to suppress the US MG
squads in the woods, the US return fire under AMBUSH orders. More
infantry sections moved to and around the House on the South East
corner, and a fierce exchange of fire was exchanged while Panthers
moved along the road to the South.
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| Action at Stavalot |
One section of grenadiers took
casualties but elected to fall back supported by a second section and
finally a 3rd who managed to pin one of the US 30 cal.
positions. The US troops stood firm in the woods and this was proving
a stubborn obstacle as our Panthers were unable to cross the field
unopposed with 2 AT positions covering the route as our flanks would
be exposed, a further position on the South Bank of the river opened
up with a QUAD cannon.
I was able to pin the AT position on
the South West corner with one of the Panthers and a second was put
on reserve move. The US AT gun in the woods was finally silenced and
a 30 Cal. team killed forcing Graham to take counters (one of which
resulted in an immobilisation token being pulled out the bag and
placed on one of our lead Panthers). Never mind we still had its gun
to use to support the others, some of which were on reserve move by
now.
Turn 4! things were starting to look up
and we decided to let the cats loose. I destroyed the AT position on
the South West corner of the board with H.E. From a Panther allowing
my second Cat to move to a fire position on the corner of the road
ready to suppress further Infantry in the Warehouse. At this point
the rest of the Panthers and a King Tiger were able to move out
across the field with infantry in support. Graham decided to err on
the side of caution and retreat from the woods (with Tony hot on his
heals). It was now that Graham had forgot to mention a very small but
crucial element to the scenario, we needed to hold an objective by
turn 8 or suffer a penalty of taking a battle counter at the end of
every turn. (No time for chess then).
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| AT position destroyed |
 | |
| Retreat from the woods |
Turn 5. The Quad had been silenced by
now and this now allowed us to spread out. Tony would concentrate his
forces on the right flank and I had the task of taking the warehouse.
Our second Infantry platoon took up position to support the panthers
on the South West corner and our engineers moved along the road ready
to deploy for the bridge.
 |
| Wolverine takes a hit |
Turn 6. US reserves move on from the
North and are accompanied by two Wolverines. We decide to call in our
off board 105mm artillery and target the buildings north of the
bridge and manage to pin a squad of infantry and a second troop being
carried in a soft skin truck. We also began hammering the infantry in
the warehouse with HE from the armour but they survived again and
again and again!
Turn 7. My Panthers are fired on from
the Wolverines (PING!), the favour is returned and scratch one
Wolverine.
Turn 8. The US forces occupying the warehouse finally started to take casualties and retreated to the other side of the river. My engineers who were earlier put on a reserve move now moved at top speed in their half-track to the outskirts of the warehouse during Graham's turn, and deployed in their own turn moving straight into the warehouse. As they deployed within its footprint they automatically entered under cover from MG squads and tanks on AMBUSH fire.
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| US troops holding the warehouse |
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| New tennants mpve into the warehouse |
Turn 9. The Panthers and MG's now begin
to pepper the buildings and US forces are pinned.
It was half past six and the decisicon
was taken to end the game, it was obvious that Graham would not be
able to have stopped us from crossing the bridge with our engineers
dis-arming the explosives under heavy covering fire. Any armour or
anti tank capability he had, had already been taken care of, already
used up or constantly pinned.
During the many games that are played over the afternoon at the club we were visited by the local Tiger, it would be rude not to give it a mention or have taken the photo.
