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Another game of IABSM played today at Stephen's. We used the 'Canadian VC' scenario from the rulebook with me as the Veteran Cannucks against a hodge podge of Huns (but including a Tiger 1 and a Panther). Another interesting game that once you get to the tactical stuff is very straightforward to play.

Our main stumbling block to how to play the rules remain use of Blinds vis a vie increasing size of card deck. Never sure when optimum time to deploy from Blinds is as with only a single Blind card per side in a deck it can get lost once Platoon, Big Men and other cards appear in deck. We both thought that the optional use of two Teabreak Cards might makes things less problematic in principle. A lot to like in the rules especially the multi-actions per unit and the nice but easily implemented Tank Platoon Orders (which we both used today).

The Tiger and Panther proved a major thorn in Allied side today, especially when they threw a 12 to Spot a Blind containing a Sherman Troop which was attempting to move to my right flank. These two 'Big Cats' dispatched both my Fireflies in short order and then brewed a further four Shermans and damaged the other 2. I did manage to inflict damage (Engine and Gun) on the Tiger but could not knock it out, especially once I lost the 17pdr Shermans.

Sergeant Steiner

 
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Overview

This weekend we played the last scenario in the IABSM rulebook. It models an actual historical event that resulted in Major Currie of Moose Jaw Saskatchewan winning the Victoria Cross for boldly plugging up the avenue of retreat for the fleeing German army in Normandy August 1944 against very long odds. This time, there  may have been an Iron Cross or two won, but no Victoria  Cross.

The Canadians entered the north side of the map on one road with the simple but very difficult goal of dominating the crossroads on the other side of the village. Our own Major Turrell and Major Minton had two excellent platoons of infantry and two troops of Sherman's, each bolstered by a 17 pounder armed Firefly. If they encountered  some heavy armor, that striking power could be very useful. As it turned out neither of them got to fire an anti tank round  all day.  Oberleutent Finn knew he faced them with a very depleted and ragtag bunch of defenders with little command and control. But he did have two Pz IV tanks and a Panther and a Tiger.

The Canadians had no idea what they would meet so out went the infantry up to the edge of town at times screened by smoke from the 2 inch mortars attached to each platoon. At the same time, the tanks crossed the bridge in column and turned left and then wheeled right into line at the base of the slight rise. The plan was to feel the way into town with the infantry and skirt the armor around the village to the left.

up from the ranks nco

As the armor lined up to crest the rise and race for the crossroads along the relatively open east side of the village, the Canadian Infantry stumbled into a shootout with a solitary squad of infantry in a stout stone building on the edge of town. The first surprise volley into the tightly packed mass pinned almost an entire platoon and killed a couple troops. Unfortunately one of them was the platoon commander Gil Armour. In the actual battle, the real Gil single-handedly won a fist fight with the dismounted commander of a Panther and put the tank out of action with a grenade down the hatch. Not this time. Such are the fortunes of pretend war.

Eventually the Canadians drove off the German squad and the other squad of its platoon a couple of buildings over. But time and casualties were lost, including still another platoon commander shot down. The Canadian major  commanding the infantry came up  to take shock off of the battered platoon and restore order  after its commander was killed. The Germans used the delay to get all of the rest of their reinforcements in and they plugged up the road. This persuaded the Canadian Infantry to withdraw from their toe hold and skirt the eastern side of town with the tanks. Soon they were all rushing forward toward the back end of town with little resistance.

At that point, Oberleutent Finn sent his concealed Pz IVs forward to meet the threat that was brewing on their flank. The German armor used  two-thirds of their actions to move in and reserved their last action just in case. At that very moment, up popped a whole troop of Shermans over the brow of the hill on a hunt order.The defenders only got off one shot each before they were brewed up by the Canadians. They did immobilize a Firefly, but it was not a good trade off. The NCO commanding the immobilized  Firefly lept down and ran to man another Sherman and carried on the fight.

Sadly for the battered Canadian Infantry and the Canadian armor, they all tumbled into the open in the right rear of the enemy just after the Germans had arrayed all of their still concealed assets in the path of the attackers. 

The Tiger knocked out a Sherman immediately. The Panther faced two Shermans at close range appearing through the hedge. He flamed one immediately and knocked out the gun sight of the other. The wounded Sherman he was facing down was manned by the NCO who had commandeered this humble M4 Sherman after losing his Firefly. Fortunately,  he rolled a critical hit on the Panther which increased his strike dice for his attack. We were all rather excited and happy for the humble Sherman's 75mm gun but alas, the shot bounced. 

We called the game at that point, so we'll never know if that brave sergeant put his tank in reverse in time and got the heck out of there or was blown to kingdom come. In any case, it was clear the attack had failed. The Canadians were not going to plug the gap today.

Joe Patchen

 
 
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Please find below an AAR from the game that Zinnjunkie and desertfox played using the "A Canadian VC" scenario from the IABSMv3 rulebook. Zinnjunkie played the Canadians and wrote the main text of the AAR; desertfox created the brilliant cartoon versions. I have translated this using Google Translate and my own best efforts!

Ich poste hier mal unseren (Zinnjunkie und ich) Spielbericht aus dem TS-Forum: ein Szenario mit "I ain't been shot mum" von den Too Fat Lardies. Spielbericht von The Desertfox, Anmerkungen von Zinnjunkie

Es ist der 19. August 1944 und kanadische Einheiten versuchen das Örtchen St Lambert-sur-Dive einzunehmen, um somit den Kessel von Falaise schließen zu können.

Die Infanterie der Kanadier kommt von den "Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada" und die Panzerunterstützung vom "South Alberta Regiment"

Erwähnenswert sind hier besonders zwei Soldaten: Lieutenant Gil Armour, der einen Panther ausschaltete, indem er dessen Kommandanten niederschlug und danach eine Handgranate durch die geöffnete Turmluke warf, sowie Major David Currie vom South Alberta, der für seine Taten das Victoria Cross erhielt.

Den Kanadiern entgegen stehen wild zusammengewürfelte deutsche Truppen, die zuvor nicht nur schwere Verluste erlitten haben, sondern auch erschöpft sind und noch dazu mit unklaren Kommandostrukturen kämpfen.

It is August 19, 1944 and Canadian units are trying to take the village of St. Lambert-sur-Dive as part of the operation to close the Falaise pocket.

The Canadian infantry are from the "Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada", with tank support from the "South Alberta Regiment"

Two soldiers are worthy of a special mention: Lieutenant Gil Armour, who destroyed a Panther by killing its commander and then throwing a hand grenade through the open turret hatch; and Major David Currie of the South Alberta, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions.

The Canadians are up against a set of ragtag German troops who have not only suffered severe losses, but are also exhausted and struggling with a confused command structure: they do not have a company commander in the field and one of the armored platoons has no Big Man. In IABSM this means that although someone technically commands the platoon they do not have sufficient leadership skills to have any effect on the action.

Likewise, the poorer quality of the German troops does not mean that individual soldiers are inexperienced: it is much more to reflect the chaotic situation and the exhaustion of the defenders.

 

Der Spieler der Deutschen (Desertfox) beginnt das Spiel mit einem Zug Infanterie und einem Panzerzug auf dem Tisch. Alle anderen Züge müssen herein gewürfelt werden. Jeweils am Ende eines Zuges kommt eine Verstärkungseinheit auf einem W6 Wurf von 3+. 

Man beachte, dass mir als Spieler der Kanadier nicht bekannt ist, welche Truppen auf dem Feld stehen. Ich sehe eine Blind (ein 8" mal 4" großer Marker) an der Kreuzung und kann mir denken, dass sich darunter die Panzer verbergen. Da Desertfox keine weitere Blind legt, muss ich davon ausgehen, dass sich die Infanterie in einem (oder mehreren) der Häuser verbirgt. Bei IABSM gilt alles Gelände, welches Truppen sinnvoll/ logisch verbergen könnte als Blind, also Häuser, dichter Wald, Maisfelder etc. 

Möchte ich als Angreifer keine bösen Überraschungen erleben, bin ich gezwungen für jedes entsprechende Geländestück in Reichweite meiner Truppen (auf diesem Tisch kommen eigentlich nur die Häuser in Frage) jeweils mindestens eine Aktion für die Suche nach einem Hinterhalt zu opfern. Dadurch kommt es normalerweise dazu, dass Truppen langsam (weil vorsichtig) vorrücken und somit dem Verteidiger u.U. mehr Zeit zum heranziehen von Verstärkungen gegeben wird.

The Germans begin the game with one infantry and one tank platoon on the table. The arrival of the other German platoons has to be diced for. At the end of a turn, reinforcements show up on a roll of 3+ on a D6.

Note that the Canadian player does not know what troops he is initially up against. He sees a Blind (an 8 "x 4" marker) at the crossroads and does not know what is underneath it: it could even be armour. Since desertfox has deployed no other Blinds, I have to assume that the enemy infantry is hidden in one or more of the houses.

In IABSM all major terrain counts as a Blind under which troops could be hidden ie houses, dense forest, maize fields, etc. So as an attacker, if I want to avoid surprises, I am forced to sacrifice at least one action to search for an ambush for each major piece of terrain in reach of my troops (although on this table it's really only the aforementioned houses). And a slow advance means the enemy may have more time to bring up his own reinforcements.

​Die Kanadier betreten das Spielfeld unter Blinds, da den deutschen Verteidigern zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht bekannt ist, mit was sie konfrontiert werden. Anhand von Geräuschen, oder Abgaswolken können sie sicherlich erahnen, dass Panzer beteiligt sind, aber mehr ist zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht ersichtlich.

Direkt zu Beginn des Spieles unterläuft mir ein grober Fehler: Ich rücke mit meinen beiden Infanteriezügen (die beiden ersten Blinds) mit voller Bewegung auf das Dorf zu und vergesse einfach (kein Scherz), dass bereits im ersten Haus ein Maschinengewehr auf mich warten könnte.

IABSM verwendet Kartenbasierte Initiative und der Spielzug endet beim Ziehen der zweiten "Tea Break" Karte. Die Regeln sehen eigentlich nur eine Tea Break Karte vor, allerdings benutzen viele IABSM Spieler (so auch wir) zwei solcher Karten, um das Zufallsmoment etwas abzumildern. Sobald also die zweite "Tea Break" Karte gezogen wird endet der Zug. Alle bisher nicht aktivierten Einheiten dürfen auf bereits sichtbare Gegner innerhalb von 9" schießen und alle Blinds innerhalb von 9" und in offenem Gelände werden aufgedeckt.

Plötzlich taucht also ein deutsches MG42 und eine Infanteriegruppe in den Häusern direkt vor meiner Infanterie auf, ich muss meine vordere Blind aufdecken und durch die bisher darunter verborgene Infanterie ersetzen, und natürlich wird die Karte für das MG42 in der neuen Runde als erstes gezogen.

The Canadians are also entering the field under Blinds because the German defenders also don't initially know what they are facing. On the basis of noise or exhaust fumes, they can certainly imagine that tanks are involved, but more is not apparent at this time.

Right at the start of the game, I mad a big mistake: I advanced two infantry platoons (the first two Blinds) with full movement to the village and just forgot (no kidding) that a machine gun might be waiting for them in the first house.

IABSM uses card-based initiative, and the turn ends when you pull the second "Tea Break" card. The rules actually say to use only one Tea Break card, but many IABSM players (including us) use two such cards in order to reduce randomness i.e. the turn ends on the second appearance of the "Tea Break" card. At that point, all Binds within 9" of the enemy are revealed, and any previously unactivated units already on the table may shoot at any visible enemies within 9".

At the second Tea Break, therefore, a German MG42 and an infantry squad hidden in the houses directly in front of the Canadian infantry were forced to reveal themselves. Likewise the lead Canadian Blind had to reveal itself as a platoon of infantry and, of course, the first card out of the new turn was for the MG42.

Wenn Truppen unter Blinds anfangen zu schießen, werden die Blinds entfernt und durch die eigentlichen Minis ersetzt.

Meine Verstärkungen tauchen automatisch auf (ebenfalls unter Blinds), jeweils ein Zug meiner Wahl zum Ende jeder Runde.

When troops under Blinds shoot, the Blinds are removed and replaced by the actual minis.

Canadian reinforcements appear automatically on (also under Blinds) with a platoon of the player's choice appearing at the end of each round.

Im Kreuzfeuer zwischen MG42 und Panzern sah ich keine andere Möglichkeit, als direkt in den Angriff zu gehen. Ich entschied mich, mit einem wahnsinnigen Kichern, für den Panther und den Tiger. Mit angeschlagener Infanterie bei IABSM eigentlich ein Himmelfahrtskommando, aber zu unserem großen Staunen war kurz darauf der Panther kampfunfähig.

As the Canadian infantry were caught in the crossfire between the MG42 and tanks, I saw no other option than to go directly onto the attack. I decided, with a maniacal giggle, to go for the Panther and the Tiger. Using battered infantry to assault tanks in IABSM should have been a suicide mission but, to our great astonishment, the Panther was soon incapacitated.

Wenn bei IABSM eine panzerbrechende Waffe auf ein gepanzertes Ziel schießen möchte, wird zuerst ein Trefferwurf mit 2W6 und danach ein Schadenswurf durchgeführt.

Vom Firefly auf der Straße aus war der Tiger durch den Obstgarten leicht verdeckt (- 1), allerdings bewegten sich die Shermans unter einer "Hunt Order" (langsamer bewegen, dafür besser schießen), was eine +2 Erleichterung ergab. Bei der Entfernung lag der Mindestwurf bei 7, durch die Modifikatoren auf das Würfelergebnis musste allerdings nur eine 6 gewürfelt werden.
Nach dem Treffer wurden eine Anzahl W6 entsprechend der Werte für "Weapon Strike" des Firefly (12) und dem "Armour Value" des Tigers (11) geworfen. Bei einem Treffer von vorne zählt jede 5 oder 6 als Treffer, von der Seite bereits eine 4+ und von hinten sogar eine 3+. Beim Wurf des "Armour Values" zählt immer nur eine 5 oder 6 als Erfolg, die "Heavy Armour" des Tigers hätte allerdings bei einem Treffer von der Seite oder von Hinten die Anzahl der Verteidigungswürfel um 2 erhöht. Die Erfolge des Widerstandswurfes wurden danach von denen des Schadenswurfes abgezogen.

Ich schaffte mit meiner Firefly unverschämte 7 Nettoerfolge! Dies führte nicht nur zur Zerstörung des Tigers, sondern zu seiner sofortigen Explosion. Sehr unangenehm für meine in der Nähe befindliche Infanterie, da bei einem explodierenden Panzer eine Menge Kleinkram durch die Gegend fliegt. Ich hatte allerdings Glück, meine Jungs hatten nur einen Moralverlust, allerdings keine Toten zu beklagen.

If you want to shoot at a tank in IABSM, you first roll to hit on 2d6 and then roll for damage.

The Tiger in the orchard was slightly obscurred to the Firefly on the street (- 1), but the Shermans were operating under "Hunt" orders (slow moving, but shoot better), which luckily gave them a (+2). After modifiers, the Shermans would need a 6+ to hit on 2D6.

Once the target is hit, then the weapon strike value of the shooter (12 for the Firefly) and armour value for the target (11 for the Tiger) are compared. Both attacker and defender roll 1D6 for each point, with the attacker counting 5s and 6s if from the front; 4s, 5s, and 6s if from the side; and 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s if from the rear. The defender only counts 5s and 6s, although the "heavy armour' of the Tiger would give the defender an extra two dice to roll in this case. Once the dice are rolled, see if there are any net penetrations i.e. if the attacker has achieved more hits than the defender has bounced.

I managed with my Firefly an outrageous seven penetrations! This led not only to the destruction of the Tiger, but also to its immediate explosion. Very uncomfortable for all my nearby infantry, since an exploding tank leads to a lot of small, sharp stuff flying through its immediate area! However, I was lucky: my boys suffered only a loss of morale, but no deaths.

Auf den vorderen der vorrückenden P IV schießen zwei PIAT Teams und sorgen dafür, dass dieser aus Vorsicht anhält, damit die nachrückende Infanterie sich um das Problem kümmern kann. Auch wenn ein Panzer bei IABSM nicht zerstört, oder die Besatzung zum Aussteigen genötigt wird, kann ständiger Beschuss, besonders durch panzerbrechende Waffen dazu führen, dass es zu Moralverlust und damit zusammenhängenden Effekten kommt. Der vordere Panzer wurde mehrere Runden hintereinander beschossen und die Besatzung war anscheinend so verwirrt, abgelenkt, panisch, verletzt etc. dass der Vormarsch gestoppt wurde.

I positioned two PIAT teams in front of the advancing Panzer IVs, hoping to slow them down enough to protect my advancing infantry. Even if a tank is not destroyed in IABSM, its crew can be forced to abandon their vehicle by constant bombardment, especially by anti-tank weapons, due to loss of morale and related effects. The front tank was hit on consecutive turns, and its crew were apparently so confused, distracted, panicked, injured, etc. that their advance was stopped.

Genug Zeit für die Shermans jenseits des Flusses in den Kampf einzugreifen. Diese vermögen es zwar auch nicht den P IV zu zerstören (das Schussfeld der Firefly ist leider verdeckt), aber zumindest beschädigen sie ihn schwer.

Der zweite Panzer IV drängt sich zwischen seinen Kameraden und die Häuserwand und schafft es die Kanone der Firefly auszuschalten.

The above gave my Shermans enough time to intervene from across the river. They weren't able to destroy the Panzer IV (the Firefly had no clear line of sight), but at least managed to damage him severely. The second Panzer IV hid between his comrades and the house wall and managed to knock out the Firefly's gun.

Zinnjunkie & desertfox





 
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It's always nice to welcome a new player to your favourite set of rules, so I was very pleased to be invited round to new-to-IABSM Paul's house for a game. We had decided to play the fourth scenario from the I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! v3 rulebook "A Canadian VC", with a few modifications to take into account figure availability: the Canadians became US troops, with M10s substituting for Fireflies and Bazookas substituting for PIATs.

The game involves two platoons of Allied infantry supported by two troops of tanks attempting to wrest control of a vital crossroads from three small, battered platoons of German infantry supported by two platoons of tanks: two Panzer IVs in one, and a Tiger and Panther in the other. The US troops would enter the table two Blinds at a time, the Germans would start with a Blind of tanks and a Blind of infantry on-table, but then have to roll to see when their remaining forces appeared.

Paul had prepared a beautiful table to play on: the Allied forces are entering from the left, the crossroads that formed the scenario's objective is under the German Blind top right.

For the first game, Paul elected to play the Germans. Here we can see the situation as the battle begins: two Allied Blinds appear on the edge of the table, quickly followed by two more. Two of these are fairly quickly spotted by the Germans, and revealed as a troops of tanks and a platoon of infantry. The tanks appeared along the main road and began cautiously leapfrogging forward, using every piece of cover they could as the lead tank had spotted two Panzer IVs at the top of the hill in front of them. 

The leapfrog tactics involved the lead tank driving onto the hump-back bridge until it could just see over the top. A couple of long-range (and luckily ineffective) shots were exchanged with the panzers, and then the tank sprinted forward, crashing through a hedge to take cover behind the first house on the right of the road. The next tank then moved up to the same spot on the bridge, and repeated the tactic: this time taking cover behind a hedge just to the left of the road. Meanwhile the first tank performed a French version of the Stalingrad Shuffle: using an Action to drive out onto the road, firing a quick shot at one of the panzers, then reversing his movement to seek safety behind the house again. We ruled that the Sherman would successfully get back into cover as long as the second dice rolled for movement was higher than the first!

The duel between the first Allied tank troop and the Panzer IVs had so far resulted in one Panzer IV being destroyed, with one Sherman immobilised and another taking damage to its gun sights. Behind the surviving Panzer IV, however, the sinister shape of another German Blind now appeared, and was revealed as the other panzer zug: the Tiger and the Panther. These quickly got into firing position, and it looked as if the Allied tanks had bitten off more than they could chew.

Unfortunately, Paul's inexperience with WW2 gaming now showed: the observant amongst you will have noticed an Allied Blind at the bottom of  the last two of the photographs in the gallery, above. Whilst Paul had been distracted by the first troop of tanks, I had sprinted the Blind up the table to the hedge row: deploying the second troop of tanks nicely behind some sort of cover facing enemy tanks that were effectively out in the open.

This now made it eight Allied tanks (six Shermans and two M10s) verses three German tanks and, even though two of those tanks were a Panther and a Tiger, the result at this close a range was a fairly forgone conclusion. The Tiger and Panther were quickly destroyed, and at this point Paul conceded and ordered a retreat.

That game had lasted under an hour, and had really been Paul's warm-up, so we decided to play again exactly as before, with Paul again playing the Germans.

Game two began with the Allied repeating their tactic of last time. Significantly, however, their infantry Blind (in the field on the right of the road) this time remained unspotted; and the Germans brought on their Tiger and Panther first rather than the two Panzer IVs.

This time, the Allied tanks were even more cautious, especially after the lead tank took two hits on the front armour from the Tiger, surviving both but definitely being in need of a new paint job...both inside and out! The situation on the road became a bit of a stalemate, with the Allied tanks keeping under cover and only creeping forward a teeny tiny bit at a time. Moving swiftly forward, however, were the Allied infantry Blinds.

Paul had unfortunately placed his on-table infantry platoon in the house on the far side of the Tiger: sensible enough for spotting enemy tanks advancing up the road, not so good for holding the centre of the table. The chips had been a bit unkind as well, and no German reinforcements had as yet appeared. This meant that one Allied infantry Blind was able to get right up next to the German tanks without being spotted, deploying its bazooka team in a position to flank shot the Tiger which, unluckily, took the shot somewhere vital and brewed up.

At last, however, a German Blind appeared: the two Panzer IVs. The Allied platoon quickly ran for the shelter of the centre of the village: moving so fast they even left their marker behind them!

By this time, both troops of Allied tanks were engaging the Panther, their combined firepower destroying it before it could do more than disable one Sherman. With multiple armoured targets to their front, the Panzer IVs unfortunately took their eyes of their more immediate surroundings, allowing the Allied infantry to  sneak through the village and round behind them. A quick bazooka shot into the rear armour took care of one of them, and Paul again conceded as he only had one tank left and had allowed the Allied infantry to get into the village: he would never be able to shift two strong platoons in buildings even if his other two weak platoons had appeared on Blinds. The pictures below show the situation at the end of game two:

Paul was fairly frothing at the mouth to go again, determined to win, so we agreed to play again, but swapping sides. This time I would play the Jerries, with Paul playing the Allies. Game three would prove a very different kettle of fish!

I set up the German tanks as had Paul, but kept both hidden. I wanted to let him come to me a bit more than he had let me come to him: I wanted my off-table reinforcements to have time to arrive. Cunningly, I dismounted the Tiger's Big Man, using him to spot down the road rather than the whole tank! I also placed my infantry platoon in the centre of the village: you can just see the 'Gone to Ground' marker showing which house they are in.

This hanging back allowed Paul to get more of his Blinds on to the table and, wary about repeating my tactic again someone who had used it twice before, he set his first two Blinds off across rather than up the table, meaning that the first Allied tank platoon was spotted by the Tiger's Big Man considerably further back from where mine had been spotted in the previous two games.

Seeing that there was lots of movement to the left/center of the village, and trusting the Tiger to defeat the four Allied tanks on the road at what was now a long rather than as twice previously a short range duel, I moved my Panther through the village to see what was approaching. I also moved my infantry platoon into the house at the end of the row.

A quick spot revealed an Allied infantry platoon rushing forward over open ground, followed by a tank platoon moving in a rather closely-packed manner into a hedge-lined field. The infantry were too good a target to pass up, so the Panther opened fire with HE, killing one of the bazooka crew and generally battering the rest. See the two pictures below. The vertical shape with '3' on it is German Blind 3, about to reveal itself as an infantry platoon and also punish the advancing Allied infantry. You can also see my two Panzer IVs and another Blind's worth of infantry at the bottom of the picture: hanging back had worked, and my reinforcements were arriving fast!

The next few turns proved immensely painful for the poor Allied infantry platoon. They were fairly remorselessly shelled and shot at, although one Panzer IV did leave itself exposed just too long, and succumbed to the M10 on the edge of the field behind them. Meanwhile, although there is no picture to show this, the Tiger had taken out two of the Shermans on the road: one because it couldn't reach the lee of the summit of the bridge in time, and the other as it tried to dash across the road to work its way up the line of houses to try and get around the Tiger's flank...never try that against a big cat on overwatch!

The remnants of the Allied infantry tried to make for the cover of the village, heading for where the Panzer IV was burning merrily away. Unfortunately, no sooner had they scrambled up the hill when they were close assaulted by a German infantry platoon (the Blind behind the Panzer IVs) and bounced back down the hill right into the target area of the other German infantry.

They were wiped out, and the picture below shows the situation just a little later: the German infantry at the bottom of the picture were the close combat winners, soon to disappear back under cover into a house; the German infantry at the top of the picture had just been forced to move out of their building, rendered unstable by the fire from the Allied tanks top left. Note as well the Allied Blind behind them: it would soon play its part!

As you can also see in the pictures above, it was starting to get dark. As there were few lights in the conservatory in which we were playing, we were running out of time. Paul's attack, although developing, had stalled slightly: he had now lost a platoon of infantry, and that bloody Tiger was still holding half his remaining tanks at bay!

Desperate measures were called for. His remaining infantry platoon - the Blind mentioned just above - launched a charge at the Tiger! The bazooka team would shoot it, and any infantry that could would close assault it with grenades etc. This would have been a magnificent tactic but, unfortunately, my other Panzer IV was positioned perfectly to cover the Tiger's flank: you can just see its nose bottom left in the first picture below. As Paul was rushing, he couldn't afford to wait for the right moment, and his infantry charged forward when my Panzer IV had reserved its dice i.e. was on overwatch. The Allied infantry were spotted as they charged out of the wood, then hit with high explosive shells that pinned them to the ground! Although I generously let the bazooka have a shot at the Tiger, that bounced, and now the Tiger and the one remaining German infantry platoon moved forward to finish the job!

With both his infantry platoons now hors de combat, and with only six tanks versus three (including the Tiger and Panther), and with night falling, Paul conceded once again. Although he had come fairly close, and the Germans were really under pressure, he could not now realistically take the crossroads that was his objective.

Three great games of IABSM3, all played in the best of spirits. An exhausting day's gaming with the three battles being played in six hours, including some setting up. It was also very interesting to play the same battle (on exactly the same terrain) again and again and again.

Finally, my thanks to Paul for his hospitality: it is, after all, the players that make the game...even with a rules set as good as IABSM3!

Robert Avery

 
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Just over two months after the Allied D-Day landings, the Normandy campaign marched toward a conclusion at the Battle of the Falaise Pocket in mid-August 1944. With orders not to withdraw, a last ditch German defense was cobbled together from surviving Panzer divisions in an area about 20 miles south of Caen. Over a nine day period desperate fighting, the German defenders were eventually encircled by overwhelming British, Canadian and US forces. Aside from tens-of-thousands of surrendering troops, Germany had suffered enormous losses in its dwindling tank forces. Elements of the German 7th Army managed to elude capture and slipped back to the German border, although they too took heavy losses in men and and equipment.

Saint Lambert-Sur-Dives, 1944.

Major David Currie, winner of the Victoria Cross for his actions at Saint Lambert-Sur-Dives in August 1944

On August 18, 1944, Canadians from the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and armored South Alberta Regiment made way for Saint Lambert-Sur-Dives. The objective was to take and hold the town, thus preventing more Germans from slipping out of the Allied encirclement. Over three days of infantry fighting and tank duels in and around the town, heavy losses piled up on both sides. With dozens of vehicles and tanks destroyed, the surviving Germans surrendered to Major David Currie. Currie’s actions at Saint Lambert-Sur-Dives earned him the Victoria Cross, the only one earned by a Canadian during the Normandy campaign.

The rulebook for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! from Too Fat Lardies includes a scenario for the battle at Saint Lambert-Sur-Dives which we recently ran at Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY. Using 15mm terrain, we set up the table with a series of roads intersecting at the town sitting at the edge of a hill surrounded by fields, orchards and hedgerows.

My first Canadian platoons arrived under blinds along the road to the north heading straight for the town where the Germans waited. With several turns of movement under blinds, the plan for each side was quickly exposed in two main areas of the field. My two platoons of M4 Sherman and Firefly tanks made straight down the main road toward the crossroads objective. To stave off the Canadian armor, the Germans quickly set up their Panther A and Tiger tanks behind a hedge southeast of town. The other German armor, two Panzer IVs operating without a commander present, set up in the orchard south of town and covering the other main road to the objective.

Two platoons of Canadian rifle infantry crossed the river. One made way to the orchard just north of town at the middle. Meeting them was a single, smaller German rifle platoon. The veteran Canadians quickly destroyed half of one fire team from the tired, German regulars. The surviving Germans pulled back to take up position in the buildings in town as the Canadians pursued.

The second Canadian rifle platoon made way through the buildings nearby their fellow Canadian tank platoons. Once close enough, the Canadian rifles exposed a German platoon armed with a frightful MG42 camped out in a farmhouse on the eastern edge of town. Thus all the infantry settled into a series of firing positions at the center of town with the Canadians taking fire from German rifles and machine guns on two sides.

At the farm to the east, a game-long tank duel erupted with the Canadian Shermans and Firefly tanks firing from positions behind the French farm’s buildings. The German Panther and Tiger fired from light cover of a hedgerow over the fields beyond. In two turns of fire, the Panther sat in flames and the Sherman platoons were able to focus on the Tiger which unsuccessfully returned fire over repeated tries. One Panzer IV shot harrassingly at the Sherman platoon closer to town which was forced to turn its guns away from the Tiger to return fire.

Back at the town’s center, the Canadian infantry took heavy casualties from German rifles shooting from building windows and the Panzer IVs firing from the orchard. The breakthrough for the Canadians came as the Tiger was destroyed and the Shermans were able to fire up their engines and make way across the fields. Turning the Sherman and Firefly guns to the orchard, the Panzer IVs were quickly destroyed. One more fresh German rifle platoon finally moved to occupy buildings in the town, but by then the path was wide open for the Canadian armor to roll unmolested to the crossroads objective and victory.

This was our first IABSM game using a lot of armor, and the unbalanced number of Canadian tanks firing and moving without a single loss clinched the game for the Allies. The veteran Canadian rifles had also served their purpose of locking down the town in a pitched battle with their numbers and quality allowing them to hold out against their German foes.

Seventy years ago at Saint Lambert-Sur-Dives the German surrender was captured by a a film crew, and bits of the film survive today (see below). The exploits of the Canadians in the Falaise Pocket led by Major David Currie helped seal victory for the Allies after months of fighting in Normandy, and his miniature tank crews won the battle again on our tabletop historical repeat of this important victory at one more crossroads in the French countryside.

Brooklyn Wargaming

 
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A Xmas/New Year game is becoming an annual fixture together with the resolution to do more gaming. I opted to host ‘North of Caen’ from the IABSM3 rulebook and have finally written up an AAR to tell our story of A Company, 6th Yorkshire Fusiliers’ attack on Le Moulin held by 3rd Kompanie, 4041st Grenadiers.

Le Moulin from the South showing the Germans’ ‘concealed’ positions, covering the track to the north but avoiding the forward orchard. They opted to remain in depth and covering the open ground on the flanks of the village.

The German deployment proved sound for the 3 ‘stonks’ from 567th Field Regt RA targeted the forward edge of the village and the southerly buildings. 3rd Kompanie came through the bombardment relatively unscathed, only the squad on the ground floor of the central building suffering 2 dead and 4 shock.

A Company’s attack with 2 platoons up under Blinds, with the track as company axis, was very cautious with more emphasis on spotting rather than moving. Some would say too cautious, for 3rd Kompanie was able to recover all shock and due to some bad dice the British didn’t spot anything for over five turns. They were still struggling through the wheat when the forward German squad quickly spotted 8 Platoon west of the track, voluntarily deployed and opened fire from their dug-in position.

The Germans were throwing better dice and Lt Scott’s left section took casualties and was pinned. The right section kept advancing.

Whilst Lt Scott kept urging his men on, 7 Platoon on the other side of the track, walked slowly forward intent on spotting the enemy in the forward orchard. Despite repeated reports of, “You spot nothing” they failed to realise that there was nobody there! (Perhaps in frustration) A Company widened its frontage and brought 9 Platoon from reserve up on the left.

Back west of the track 8 Platoon’s 2-inch mortar came into action to lay smoke but didn’t effectively screen the enemy fire and the lads in the left section kept being pinned. Lt Scott pushed the right and reserve sections up on the right.

The 2-inch mortar team wasn’t quite getting it right! Lt Scott re-aligned his foremost sections ready for an assault. On the other side of the track 7 Platoon finally realised the forward orchard was empty and pushed on through, still on a Blind themselves.

Meanwhile on A Company’s left, Sgt McAlpine had pushed his 9 Platoon up to the edge of the wheat field, but realised he’d been spotted taking some ineffective enemy fire from his front.

Back on the right, 8 Platoon’s assaulting section got mangled in close combat and the survivors lost their bottle and ran back to join the remnants of the left section in the wheat field. (We allowed them to join forces, but under a heavy dose of shock from which they just managed to stay put). Lt Scott himself dashed forward to join his only remaining effective section at the hedgerow, where they had only just failed to spot another enemy position. 7 Platoon in the orchard realised they must be in close proximity to an enemy position in the central orchard to their immediate front.

The Germans in front of 8 Platoon opened fire and Lt Scott directed the return fire of his men.

On the left, Sgt McAlpine tried to win the firefight between his 9 Platoon and the dug-in German squad to his front.

7 Platoon under Lt Watson was spotted in the front orchard, after which they cautiously kept trying to spot the enemy in front of them. This German squad lay ‘doggo’ keeping the British guessing. The foremost German squad that had engaged 8 Platoon so effectively decided that 7 Platoon threatened their flank and took advantage of some more British smoke to leg it back into the village. Seeing this movement, Lt Scott directed his section to side step left along the hedgerow and occupied the vacant position. In doing so they took casualties and were pinned by fire from the German squad beyond the vegetables.

At this stage all three British platoons had come into action and A Company had secured a line on the forward edge of the village. Sensing his attack was being stalled by futile spotting attempts, Maj Jones decided to instil some urgency into his men. Joining 7 Platoon in the orchard with his radio op he shouted “Push on, the Yorkshire Fusiliers!!”

The Germans must have understood for they opened fire cutting a 7 Platoon section down by half. Further back in the central orchard Leutnant Klemp sensed this was the critical moment for his defence and ordered out his reserve squad that had fully recovered from the bombardment, from the central building to reinforce their comrades in the orchard. Just in time, for 7 Platoon after a burst of fire which virtually destroyed one squad, launched two sections through their hedgerow to initiate close combat. Maj Jones’ leadership had also rallied the combined section from 8 Platoon left back in the wheat field and he urged these men forward to support this assault on the right. 9 Platoon weren’t idle either, engaging the enemy to their front and Sgt McAlpine pushing a section up on his right to try and bag the Company’s first building.

After two brutal rounds of close combat, 7 Platoon secured the position with a sole German survivor running for the rear. To their credit the Germans had repulsed two sections and only lost to the third section after being reduced in strength.

Maj Jones in the forward orchard knew his company had broken into the village but had lost nearly a third of his men. Having not lost any buildings yet, 3rd Kompanie seemed to still have the upper hand. 7Platoon was shouting that there was a MMG post further back in the central orchard.

If A Company’s attack was to continue, Maj Jones needed to rally and reorganise his men.

Unfortunately, that’s where we had to stop after over six hours of play and twenty-two turns. It was the largest scenario we’ve attempted so far and it was a great one to learn from. Everyone thought there was still scope to continue the story with victory in the balance, so everything will stay in place and Part 2 will follow when we can get back together.

Martin

 
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Having recently fought through Scenario 1 from the IABSM rulebook (a game by Too Fat Lardies), I thought I’d give it another bash and see if I could do any better with the British. Having had a disastrous attack in the previous game, I suppose I couldn’t really do much worse.

I am going to do this in more abridged fashion, mostly because I want to replay the battle to see what happens and to make sure I have grasped the rules firmly.

So, here are the forces again:  the British have a full infantry company of three platoons; the Germans have two infantry platoons supported by a couple of MG-42s.

German Deployment

Given the success of mounting a forward defence in the last game, I set up the German blinds in cover, ready to move around the map. I'm also going to use just four blinds (rather than six) to make things easier and to stick with what's laid down in the rule book.

After that I position the British pre-game stonks and roll for effect.

The results were as follows:

  • Blind 1

    • Infantry:  3 dead, 6 shock

    • Crewed Weapon: 12 shock

  • Blind 2

    • Infantry:  2 dead, 4 shock

    • Crewed weapon: unaffected by stonk

  • Blind 3

    • Infantry:  3 shock

    • Crewed weapon:  unaffected by stink

  • Blind 4

    • Infantry:  2 dead, 6 shock

    • Crewed Weapon:  9 shock

That has some pretty heavy duty effects. Now I need to make sure I take advantage of it as much as possible. Remember, I have rolled for both infantry and crew weapon effects on each blind as I don’t know which blind contains the MMGs. When the German blind is revealed, I will apply the appropriate effect.

Turn 1

The British Blinds are placed (Blind 4 is the British dummy blind) on the table but don’t move as their card does not come up. Axis blinds all recover one shock.

So now, the Germans are as follows:

  • Blind 1

    • Infantry:  3 dead, 5 shock

    • Crewed Weapon: 11 shock

  • Blind 2

    • Infantry:  2 dead, 3 shock

    • Crewed weapon: unaffected by stonk

  • Blind 3

    • Infantry:  2 shock

    • Crewed weapon:  unaffected by stink

  • Blind 4

    • Infantry:  2 dead, 5 shock

    • Crewed Weapon:  8 shock

Turn 2

Allied blinds approaching

This time the Allied Blinds move as quick as they can towards the German lines, burning all actions in movement. The Axis Blinds do not activate before the Tea Break is drawn.

Turn 3

Nothing happens this turn – the Tea Break card is drawn first.

Turn 4

Like Turn 3, nothing happens as the Tea Break card is drawn.

Turn 5

The British are spotted

The British Blinds activate first and move up, albeit slowly because of poor dice rolls. German Blind 3 then spots British Blind 3, causing the British 3rd Platoon to deploy. I place the British platoon two up and one back, with the veteran Sergeant McAlpine attached to 3rd Section.

German Blind 1 spots British Blind 1 and it is revealed as a dummy blind and removed. German Blind 2 also spots British Blind 2, and I deploy 2nd Platoon on the table, with Lieutenant Scott attached to 1st Section. German Blind 2 fails to spot British Blind 1, which is just as well as the Germans were having enough lucky rolls.

Turn 6

German Blinds is the first card out. German Blind 3 resolves as the Company HQ, including the MMGs. They immediately open fire on British Platoon 3, doubling shock as this counts as an ambush. When the dust clears, four British are dead, 1st Section has 4 shock and 3rd section has 6 shock. Both British sections are suppressed. However, one of those British casualties is Sergeant McAlpine himself!

We need to take out those guns!

German Blind 4 resolves as the German 1st Platoon. The troops immediately take up firing positions and lay in to the British 3rd Section of 2nd Platoon. The Section suffers one dead and 2 shock – surprisingly light casualties.

German Blind 1 attempts to outflank the British 3rd Platoon, but has a miserable roll on movement dice. Jerry seems to be reluctant to engage. German Blind 1 spots British Blind 1 and I deploy British 1st Platoon on the table.

Based on what is happening so far I make a new plan. The blue arrows show my intended plan to outflank and destroy the Germans. Only, I know there is still another platoon hiding in there!

British Platoon 3 activates next. The mortar and 2nd Section open fire. They manage to cause one kill and a point of shock.

British Platoon 2 come next. They fire at one of the German sections, hoping to keep heads down while they advance. 2nd Section does a leap frog, allowing its mates to fire, then advances forward and lays down its own fire. That takes the heat off of 3rd Section. The Germans suffer one casualty and 4 points of shock.

I just realised I completely forgot all about the pre-game stonks! What an idiot I am. Right then, I’ll apply the stuff now and keep the German firing results.

Well that changes things. Both the German MMGs lost their bottle and the British firing made them retreat. Otherwise there is a little shock spread around. I can’t believe that in the excitement of the game I forgot something so fundamental!

Oh well, it happens I guess.

Revised state of play after my screw up!

Well that changes things up a bit. I can probably push through those MMGs now and get them out of the way. And my two platoons should break through the single German platoon. It feels like a fair fight now.

The Tea Break Card then ends the turn.

Turn 7

The new, new British plan. Will it work?

Leutnant Kemp is the first card out of the deck. He rallies two points of shock on MMG 1 and has it fire on the British 3rd Section of 3rd Platoon. As 1st Section is close, they get pulled in to the fire. The result is a kill on 3rd Section and a point of shock on 1st Section.

British 1st Platoon acts next and they lay down fire in to the German 1st Section, 1st Platoon, causing two kills and a point of shock.

A German MG Bonus card sees German MMG 1 lay down more fire, killing another British soldier. Gefreiter Bayer is next and rallies a point of shock on MMG 2.

Then the Tea Break Card ends the turn.

The new, new British plan. Will it work?

Turn 8

The Axis Machinegun Bonus card sees MMG 1 open fire on the British 3rd Platoon, but fail to cause any damage or shock.

British Platoon 1 acts next and keeps up its leapfrogging advance, firing in to German Platoon 1 and causing two kills and one point of shock on the 1st Section.

British Platoon 2 acts next and opens fire on 3rd Section of German 1st Platoon, causing 2 kills and a point of shock. The German section loses its bottle and retreats 4″. They also advance a section to get closer to the hedge line.

[Eagle-eyed readers might notice I have changed up some of the components. I have created micro-dice to use for shock and casualties, and have changed the pinned/suppressed/lost bottle markers too.]

German Platoon 1 is drawn next. 1st Section fires with no effect as they are down to half strength and loaded with shock. 3rd Section is smothered in shock and can also do nothing. 2nd Section in the house opens fire on 1st Section of British 2nd Platoon, causing a single kill and pinning the British troops.

[Yes, I have now switched Big Men bases to a different colour – blue for British and red for German. It makes it much easier to see where commanders are.]

The Tea Break then ends the turn. Pinned statuses are removed. And all units within 9″ of the enemy can fire. That allows MMG 1 to fire and cause a single point of shock on the British 1st Section of 3rd Platoon, resulting in that section retreating due to excessive shock. However, the British fire simultaneously and also cause a point of shock on the German MMG team, causing it to likewise retreat.

The passage is now open.

Turn 9

Leutnant Klemp is first to act. He rallies a point of shock on MMG Team 1, activates them, but they only move 1″. He also activates MMG 2, but they fail to move because of their excessive shock.

The German Blind card is next. At this point I need to know which Blind is a dummy. So I roll for Blind 1 and discover it is the dummy. That means the German defence is faltering. I deploy the last German Blind as Platoon 2 and send a section scurrying off to harass the British while the rest hole up on overwatch to catch and advancing Tommies.

Captain Jones is next and he scurries across the table, removing two shock from Section 3 of 2nd Platoon.

Lieutenant Watson is next. He activates 1st and 2nd Section, getting them to fire at the German section cowering in the hedge. The men open fire, causing a kill and three shock that sends the Germans scurrying backwards.

The Tea Break Card ends the turn.

Turn 10

Gefreiter Bayer reduces shock on MMG 2 by 1 point. Captain Jones is next and he runs towards the beleaguered 3rd Platoon, activating a couple of 2nd Platoon units along the way.

Feldwebel Adler activates both sections in the large manor and puts them on overwatch. British 1st Platoon advances, and Adler’s men open fire but fail to score any hits. The British fire at the retreating German Section, causing another casualty and making that Section useless.

The Tea Break Card falls again.

You can now see the British outflanking the German position. It will be hard for them to dislodge the troops inside buildings as the cover makes them hard to hit. However, the British now are beginning to have their weight of numbers tell and it won’t be long before they roll up the German troops. However, the pre-game stonks have caused damage to the fresh troops (I forgot to note them again and have adjusted – there were 2 casualties on each section). So the Germans won’t last long.

The last image below also notes my plan to break through the German lines. It should work…

Turn 11

Lieutenant Watson is first out the deck and he activates the British 1st Platoon (with the exception of the mortar that is out of his command radius). Two sections fire at the German 3rd Section, causing it to break and run, while the remaining British section advances and takes cover.

German 1st Platoon (or what is left of it) is next. The sole unbroken squad fires at 3rd Section of 1st Platoon, scoring two hits. They then roll a double six, causing two kills. Sigh…

Lieutenant Scott is next. He activates two sections using his command initiatives and they both let the last squad of German 1st Platoon have it. The Germans suffer two dead. Tit for tat I suppose.

British 3rd Platoon is next and I move up the undamaged section, while the other two take cover and go on overwatch. Gefreiter Bayer removes a point of shock on the MMG team he is with. They are getting close to recovering. That would be disastrous for the British. Leutnenat Klemp is next and he rallies some shock from MMG 1, while activating it and moving it to cover. The British better do something soon.

Captain Jones activates next. He uses a command initiative to get 2nd Platoon’s mortar to fire, and then moves towards 3rd Platoon.

Feldwebel Adler activates next and has his men fire at the advancing British, but his men have no effect. The British 2nd Platoon then open fire, causing 2 kills and a point of shock on the Germans in the house. That leaves that section with just 4 men, and 1 action – meaning they are barely combat capable.

The German Company HQ activate next and MMG 1 moves backwards, intending to reposition in one of the houses, while MMG 2 holds its position (its shock levels mean it is unlikely to move).

The Tea Break then ends the turn.

Turn 12

The Germans still fight on

Beyer reduces a point of shock from MMG Team 2. British Platoon 2 acts next and again pours fire in to the house, this time killing OberGefreiter Mitter and another German. The squad is finished as a combat unit.

The Axis Compnay HQ act next and MMG 1 sprints along towards the German line of resistance building in the centre of the village. Captain Jones is next. He reaches 3rd Platoon and starts removing shock. Leutnant Klemp does the same with MMG 1. Lieutenant Watson gets 1st Platoon moving, closing the gap with the German defenders.

Platoon 3 start to move, with men taking the first house and the mortar shelling the German troops that are rushing to form a new line of defence. German Platoon 1 cannot act on its card as it has been destroyed. The MG Bonus card allows the German MMG 2 to fire at close range on the British team in the house, but only causes a point of shock.

And the Tea Break ends the turn.

Turn 13

The British wear the Germans down

Lieutenant Watson’s boys open fire, causing a couple of kills, then using their remaining actions to take cover. The MG bonus card sees MMG 2 open fire again, but fail to cause any damage. And Captain Jones continues reducing shock on Platoon 3.

Allied Platoon 2 moves up, getting a section to flank the German MMG in the orchard, while 1st Platoon pours fire in to the Germans in the house, causing another casualty.

German MMG 1 fires at the British squad in front of it, causing a casualty., while MMG 2 relocates to a house. Then Feldwebel Adler activates what’s left of his platoon to fire at the British, but the shots have no effect.

British Platoon 3 starts pulling itself together and kills 2 of the MMG team, while the German CO removes any remaining shock from MMG Team 1.

The Tea Break Card ends the turn.

End Of The Game

It is at this point that I decide to call the game.

The Germans have lost 29 men from their starting 58 – so they have suffered 50% casualties. They have an entire platoon that is no longer combat capable (all sections have been reduced to 0 actions, and the platoon leader is dead). The second platoon has all of its sections reduced to either two or one actions, and the MMGs have both suffered lost crew.

The British have lost 10 men from their starting 78 – so about 13% casualties. 3rd Platoon has taken the most casualties, while 1st and 2nd Platoon are still relatively intact.

Given the German’s state I decided that they will now withdraw from the field, leaving the village in the hands of the British.

In IABSM there is no force morale. You decide when your men will pull back, although as a section’s actions are reduced from casualties your force’s ability to fight is greatly reduced. Eventually, you just end up with pockets on men hugging the dirt.

So what did I learn form this battle?

Take your time. That’s a theme that comes up often. Don’t be in a hurry to rush across the table and die in a hail of bullets. Wear down the enemy with superior firepower and advance slowly. Make sure you have two friendly squads shooting at one enemy squad.

Also, use cover and take cover. Bumping up your men’s cover by using an action is the difference between a butchered squad and suffering only a point of shock. Firefights are generally deadly within 9″, so close the range before letting your opponent have it. Shooting when you are beyond 18″ is rarely effective (unless you have an MMG or HMG).

Right then, I reckon I’m ready for some tanks now…

The Wargaming Addict

 
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This weekend, Neil and I played "Nee Soon": scenario 20 from the Fall of the Lion Gate supplement. Baluchs backed up by AT and Artillery elements defending a vital road junction on Singapore against a Japanese armour and infantry attack.

Fantastic game! For the first three quarters of the battle, neither side's infantry actually fired at each other at distance: all the action was close combat, with the Japanese sneaking through the jungle and then Banzai! charging British positions! About three platoon's worth of infantry were killed with not a single wound on the table!

The key points of the game were:

1)  The Japanese winning a 47 dice attack against a 45 dice defence by 11 dice right at the start, destroying an entire platoon of Baluchs and capturing the right hand end of the British position.

2)  The Japanese tank attack (eight tanks slamming right up the centre of the table) stopped in its track by two 2lb AT guns firing straight at them and two 25lbers firing over open sights at their flank.

3)  A Japanese platoon getting caught in the open by a single dug-in British MMG at 7" range and losing three quarters of two squads before getting a chance to charge the gunners.

4)  Just as the Japanese were preparing to smash forward and destroy the rest of the British, the 25lbers finally getting their range and landing a horrendously damaging barrage right on top of house where the Japanese MMG's were sheltering. Suddenly unpinned, the Baluchs could then resist the final Japanese charge. Well, they weren't all killed, I mean!

We eventually had to declare the game a draw, as there was just nothing left alive on the table. Every single Japanese tank had been destroyed or permanently immobilised: the British 25lbers proving their worth as good AT weapons.

The Japanese had lost all eight of their Big Men in close combat. The Baluchs were down to two effective sections of infantry and an MMG from the Norfolks, desperately defending one side of a box of trenches against the remains of two Japanese platoons on the other side, only about 4 inches apart.

Did it follow history? Well, not quite. Historically, the Baluchs threw back the Japanese attack...but we decided that without the incredibly successful Japanese charge right at the start of the game, they probably would have done again. We fought across a 6' by 4' table over about 3½ hours. A great game!

Robert Avery

 
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Umpire's Report

The Japanese moved unmolested from their start positions to occupy the hill before the Commonwealth got a chance to move or deploy. Once the Japs deployed it was an uphill struggle for the Commonwealth to assault the seven sections plus MMG. The Brits used what little cover there was to close before one section mistakenly rushed the hilltop and closed with the Japs. The Brits lost the combat and retreated back down the hill. 

The Aussies sent two sections on a flank march to try and get behind the MMGs while the other two sections got into a fire fight with the 1st Japanese platoon after retreating from a charge up the hill. A Japanese Banzai charge rushed into the weakened Aussie's and after multiple rounds of combat one Banzai charge had just a Jap Big Man and a lone rifleman left. The fire fights were taking a toll on both sides as sections from both sides dissolved. One last desperate Aussie charge against the MMG on the flank took casualties and retreated back into the light cover to regroup. At this point the Commonwealth realized that they didn't have the strength to keep the Japanese from controlling the hill and decided to fall back to Singapore. It was great fun, both the gaming and meeting a few fellow Lardies. I think we're planning to get together again to play a 6MM Game of "Ruddy Picnic"at Nils club in October. We had a few looker's on who'd heard of the rules and a few who stayed to watch for a bit. For our first time out it was a great success. 

Tim

Commonwealth Player's Report

The first British section up the hill & was due to my own underestimating the distance & rolling too high on 2d6, which brought the Brits into contact with the Japanese. After getting pretty chewed up, the rest of the Brit sections hung back in the limited terrain & concentrated fire on the lead Japanese elements. This was to allow two Aussie sections to flank & get up the hill before the Japanese MMGs could deploy.

The Brits did get revenge when a Japanese section ran across open ground to patch of cover that could have allowed them to flank the Brits. The Japanese got stuck in the open & due to my uncharacteristically good die rolling, the fresh section of ten men had three standing when the Brits were done with them: seven kills from one roll of the dice!

One of the Commonwealth's other bits of glory was when the Banzai card was turned & the Japanese came down the hill at one of the flanking Aussie sections. Even with about half the number of dice as the Japanese, the Aussies still beat them by two deaths, sending them back up to the top of the hill.

The other flanking Aussie section tried to rush the MMGs, up the hill, but between the wounds caused by the MMGs (the MMG's card had been turned & they had reserved their dice), reduction for dice used for Aussie movement etc, they had no dice to roll for close combat once they got in contact with the MMG crew. And that was even with a d6 Big Man attached.

Overall, it would have been a very tough game for the Brits to win, but the Japanese getting a few unopposed moves at the beginning made it even tougher. But, it was a still a pretty close game.

Black Cavalier

Gallery One:  The Story of the Battle in Photos

Gallery Two:  Other Photos

 
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Taking advantage of the half-term holiday and the good natures of our respective spouses (!) Richard Clarke and I managed to get a game of IABSM in. As we had access to Lardy HQ, with its unlimited supply of tables (the only thing missing was the usual gospel choir: Richard even provided the pizza and the wind for that authentic Lardy Games Day experience) we decided to play one of the long games from the Fall of the Liongate scenario supplement: #18 Bukit Timah. This isn't a full report: more pictures with long captions!

The British defended three roadblocks, which the Japanese attacked in turn. Below, Roadblock One was assaulted by two platoons of Japanese Chi Ha medium tanks:

Although the brave Plymouth Argyll's stopped or turned back four tanks, once the Japanese infantry arrived, the result was a foregone conclusion. One British platoon sacrificed itself to give the other a proper chance to get away.

The Japs then advanced to a railway embankment to see if they could see the second roadblock. In the background you can just see a second Japanese platoon advancing towards the second British platoon that had taken refuge in the thick undergrowth.

The British Lanchester armoured cars withdrew towards the roadblock in reverse:

The Japanese prepare to assault the second roadblock. That's two platoons of Ha Go light tanks heading towards it, with a third platoon of infantry somewhat unwisely charging straight at it over open ground. The British Blind in the wood, along with the men actually behind the block, are about to do them horrendous damage. Unfortunately, the Japanese Blind on the right will then hit the end of the firing line established by the Brits coming off their Blind and roll it up remorselessly. Meanwhile, the Japs in the jungle on the left will advance up the table threatening to outflank the block, which will finally fall to a Banzai charge from the battered Japanese third platoon.

Robert Avery

 
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Just played the seventeenth scenario from the Fall of the Lion gate supplement: the Kranji Penninsular. Two platoons of Australians, with the support of one MMG and the promise of off-table artillery, are holding a narrow neck of land against three Japanese infantry platoons plus a large engineer platoon. Neil took the part of the Japs, I played the Aussies. The fighting took place at night: so long range fire was pretty much useless, and spotting not very easy at all.

The Australians were in two lines. The first line consisted of one platoon in a line of trenches and scrapes; and half of the other platoon occupying a now-deserted industrial building. The second line consisted of the other half of the second platoon, also occupying an industrial building; and the Company HQ of one MMG and the FOO. The Aussie's only had three Big Men: one on the Company HQ, and the other two in each of the forward platoons.

The Japanese opened the game by advancing two platoons rapidly on to the table. The Aussie's spotted with half their force, and opened up with a couple of sections: doing little if any damage to the advancing Japs. More Japanese Blinds followed, and it was obvious that a strong force was heading towards the right of the Australian line.

The Aussie FOO called in artillery, and after a couple of abortive attempts to place ranging shots in the right place, finally managed to call in a full fire mission on one Japanese platoon. This platoon had had a chance to avoid the incoming artillery, but the dice had not been kind when moving, and three of its four sections took fire when out in the open from 25pdrs firing from off-table. Carnage: one Japanese platoon effectively neutralised.

Unfortunately, the artillery couldn't be everywhere, and the 50-man strong Japanese engineer platoon, taking full advantage of the night, managed to charge one end of the Australian line, wiping out the section there for little return damage. The rest of the Australians poured what fire they could into the Japs, but it was night time and they couldn't prevent the engineers from starting to roll up the Australian line: pushing back another section with ease.

The Japanese engineers pushed forward again, but, incredibly, one and a half sections of Australian infantry managed to not only hold them but actually to push them back. Trouble was, the effort cost them more casualties than they could afford to take, and the Japs would soon rally and storm forward once more.

Desperate measures were called for: the Australian FOO called fire directly down onto the Japanese engineers now occupying half the Aussie 2nd Platoon trenches. As the other half of the trenches were occupied by the surviving half of the platoon, pinpoint accuracy would be needed. Almost unbelievably, everything worked perfectly: the chips fell just as needed, and the deviation dice didn't deviate. The engineers, rallying into their squads for another assault, took the full fire of the 25pdrs and were effectively scratched from the game. That was, however, the end of the Aussie's supporting fire: the guns were needed elsewhere! Fortunately, some regimental 3" mortars were still available, so the FOO switched channels and desperately started to try and raise them.

Now, however, the Japanese had a bit of luck. The game allows for a small chance of Japanese reinforcements arriving…and they did! Another full platoon appeared in landing craft right by where half of 1st Platoon were occupying the building in the rear Australian line. This was getting serious for the Aussie's (1½ platoons now facing three strong Japanese platoons) and they raised their game accordingly! Next chip up was for 1st Platoon, and the first two enemy landing craft made like the opening of Saving Private Ryan: losing most of their men and the Big Man with them.

Meanwhile, a third Japanese platoon had crept forward in the confusion, and charged the remains Australian 2nd Platoon whilst still under a Blind. The Aussie's were wiped out, but their sacrifice had not been in vain: the chips came out of the bag in the right order, and the Japs that had killed them took two turns of fire from the Company HQ's MMG and the two sections of 1st Platoon occupying the forward Australian line. Yes, it was night time, but the Japs were right in the heart of the Australian position and therefore at point blank range. Scratch a third Japanese platoon.

Meanwhile, the other two Japanese sections that had arrived by landing craft had rushed forward to the building occupied by the Australians. Before they could charge in, however, the Australians opened fire, doing a significant amount of damage. It was going to be very hard to shift them indeed!

As the Japanese commander was absorbing this, the Aussie FOO, who was having a really good day, found the range of the only as yet uncommitted Japanese platoon. Down came fire from 3" mortars and, at this point, the Japanese withdrew.

This was a really close game. The Australians were vastly outnumbered by hordes and hordes of Japanese. At one point we were not only recycling my Japanese infantry figures, but forced to deploy my bicycle-mounted infantry bases to represent five foot soldiers each. The close combat calculations were going: "right, that's seven figures plus two bicycles, making seventeen men in all"! It was only the almost perfect shooting of the Australian FOO and a really good run of chips that gave the Aussie's their victory.

Casualties were horrendous on both sides: the Australians lost half their defending force, the Japanese about two thirds of their attacking force: not nice at all! Historically, the Australians did hold their positions on the Kranji Penninsular, and were only forced to withdraw when…well, you'll have to read what happened in Fall of the Lion gate, won't you!

Robert Avery

 
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Phil Gray of the Maltby & District Wargamers has sent me the following pictures from a game featuring the Airstrip Road scenario from the Fall of the Lion Gate Malaya/Singapore supplement.

All figures are from Battle Honours - originally put together for Rapid Fire, which is why the "Aussie" force is such a mix of figure types.

Phil writes: "As I told Richard when I got back from the game (I umpired) it was incredibly good fun: the Aussies were so sure they were going to be steamrollered that they just gave up any attempt to drive through the Japanese and spent the day annihilating what was in front of them instead."

Click on the picture shown to see more:

Phil Gray

 
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The Battle of Nibeiwa December 1940. British and Commonwealth troops attack an Italian held line with support from the 7th RTR. The Italian trenches held initially, but were slowly overrun and the tanks proved themselves in the breakout. Another excellent game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum from Dean, with support from Dex.

Alex Sotheran

 
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Scenario #10, Slim River, is one of my favourite battles from the Fall of the Liongate scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum. Taking place on 7th January 1942 (i.e. a month after Pearl Harbour), the Japanese have been hammering down the centre of Malaya, smashing most British Indian troops aside, and slowed only by the efforts of some Gurkha regiments and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. To continue their advance, they launch a sudden thrust down the single road that leads to the village of Trolak, their objective being the bridge there over the otherwise impassable Slim River.

The Forces Involved

The road (which runs through dense rubber plantation that is passable only by light tracks and men on foot) is protected by a small company of Punjabi troops: two platoons of reasonable quality infantry, each platoon being two sections strong. In support, they have two Italian anti-tank guns (captured in the Western Desert during Operation Compass and shipped out to Malaya), two Indian Pattern carriers, and a couple of anti-tank rifles. The Punjabis have laid an anti-tank minefield across the road, and placed concrete cylinders as further blocks to tank movement.

In the village, the remains of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders are enjoying a much deserved rest: the truck with their breakfast having just arrived from further south. The Argylls are also a two platoon company, with two sections and an anti-tank rifle per platoon, but are very good quality troops with the additional benefit of being classed as Stubborn in defence and having the magic “Skirl o’the Pipes” card in the pack as well. The Scots have a couple of Universal Carriers parked up amongst the huts, and roaming around off-table are a couple of Lanchester armoured cars which will arrive on the third appearance of the “Turn Card” after the shooting starts.

The Japanese are attacking in force. Their column is lead by six medium Chi-Ha tanks which, although limited to travelling down the road, are heavier than anything the British have at their disposal. Behind them is a company of infantry: an HQ squad, and three platoons each comprising four squads of ten men. Their infantry are good quality and also Aggressive in close combat. In support, they have two MMGs and two medium mortars. On top of this, they have managed to sneak four light Ha Go tanks down trails through the rubber, not marked on British maps, which will appear on the road behind the Punjabi positions: a nasty surprise for the Brits!

Bevan and John played the Japanese; Dave played the British, with me umpiring and helping out with the Argylls.

Objectives and Victory Conditions

Key to success for both sides is the bridge.

The Japanese need to get at least four tanks over the bridge and off-table to the south to achieve victory.

The British, on the other hand, win by holding the bridge intact, but can achieve a draw if they have to blow the bridge…provided there are none of their men on the wrong side of the river. Well, the scenario rules actually say “no reasonably effective friendly units”: something that would cause some debate towards the end of the game!

Opening Moves

The Punjabis had placed a platoon of infantry on either side of the road, dug-in to the edge of the rubber. Their anti-tank guns were placed on the left (west) side of the road, also dug-in, and just near where a small trail not marked on their maps led off into the jungle! Their two carriers were on the right-hand (eastern) verge of the road in between the main infantry position and the anti-tank guns.

At about 0500hrs, all hell broke loose! The six Japanese Chi-Ha tanks appeared at the end of the road and roared towards where the Punjabis had laid the minefield. This proved a nasty surprise for the Japanese tankers, with one tank being blown to bits and another two being immobilised as mines took out their tracks. The other three, however, managed to squeeze past/through unscathed.

At the same time, the four Ha Go light tanks burst onto the road from the trail through the rubber: literally right on top of the two Punjabi-manned, Italian anti-tank guns. Somehow one of the Punjabi crews managed to slew their gun around and fire a round into the flank of the leading Ha Go, brewing it up, but the second tank rammed into the gun, causing its crew to scatter as it was knocked across the road. The tank’s machine guns took care of the other gun’s crew before they could fire, and the third tank mowed the initial gun’s crew down before they could right their weapon and carry on the battle.

In minutes, the Japanese had taken out both anti-tank guns and gotten across the Punjabi minefield!

At the same time as the above, Japanese Blinds concealing infantry platoons had arrived at the end of the road, with one heading towards the Punjabis to the left of the road, one heading through the rubber towards the village, and one (with the machine guns) heading towards the Punjabis to the right of the road.

Punjabis Under Attack

The Japanese platoon on the left (west) of the road attempted to charge the Punjabis in front of them. Unfortunately, they had miscalculated how dense the rubber was in front of them, and they ended up just outside close combat distance.

This left them packed into a dense column of march (i.e. just deployed from a Blind) under fire from the two Punjabi infantry sections, who took full advantage of the situation. Their opening volley killed four Japanese soldiers and Pinned the rest, preventing them from either resuming their charge of moving out of their column and into a firing line where their superior numbers (40 vs 16) could start to tell.

For almost the whole of the rest of the game, the brave Punjabis, intermittently under fire from the Chi-ha’s as well, would hold their position and keep the Japanese in front of them pinned down. It was only right at the end of the battle that they were finally whittled down to the extent where they just couldn’t do enough damage to stop the Japanese in front of them charging home: an event that wiped the remaining Punjabis out. About half the Japanese platoon had been killed, and some of the three remaining Chi-ha’s damaged as well.

The Japanese Advance Through the Rubber

Despite all the noise and gunfire, back at the village the Argylls were still sleeping peacefully! In game turns, this was because the British Blinds card had not yet turned up, and not just because the deck was stacked with Japanese cards: for some reason, the card had decided not to come out and play yet. This was particularly disturbing as one of the Japanese Blinds concealing an infantry platoon was heading full speed towards the village and the vital bridge.

Fortunately for the Brits, the Japanese platoon got a bit too enthusiastic in its advance, and rather than halting at the edge of the rubber to spot into the village and see what was what, they shot straight out of the plantation’s cover and ended up spotted, in march column, half way across the open ground paddy fields that bordered the hut-space itself.

One section of Argylls, the nearest to the Japs, had been auto-spotted onto the table and, from within their hut, opened fire, causing carnage to the front ranks of the enemy platoon: a 4D6 Great Shot at Close Range.

For a second, it looked as if this section could hold the Japanese back on their own, but the Japanese mortars, now set up on the edge of the table and unable to fire at the Punjabis because of minimum range problems, let loose: with rounds immediately falling directly onto the Argylls’ hut. Fortunately the men inside suffered nothing more than a bit of Shock, but the hut collapsed, forcing an interruption to the British fire whilst they sorted themselves out from the wreckage and took cover amongst the pile of wood and leaves that was all that remained.

The Japanese platoon gathered itself to charge forward, but at that moment the British Blinds card finally appeared, the rest of the Argylls woke up, and the enemy platoon was hammered back into the treeline with heavy casualties. Phew!

The Other Punjabis

Meanwhile the other Punjabis were heavily engaged with the third Japanese platoon supported by machine guns and intermittent fire from the remaining Chi-ha’s.

They fought bravely, inflicting more casualties than they were taking, but enemy numbers and quality were just too much for them. They were finally finished off by the remains of the Japanese platoon that had taken out the other Punjabi position: three squads of which had charged across the road and hit them in the flank.

behind you! here come the punjabi carriers!

Armoured Clash on the Road

japanese chi-has can't get through!

If you remember from above, three Japanese light tanks had survived their encounter with the British Indian anti-tank guns. For some inexplicable reason (something to do with believing their orders to try and take the bridge superseded all other considerations perhaps?) they ignored the Punjabi Indian Pattern Carriers right under their noses and headed down the road towards the village.

They had just reached the edge of the plantation when roaring up behind them, in reverse gear, came the two Punjabi carriers. Opening fire at point blank range with their machine guns at the rear of the Ha Go’s, they managed to riddle one of them so full of lead that it brewed up. Using the fact that they had a Big Man on board (Colonel Deakin of the Punjabis) they then did the same to a second and permanently immobilised a third! The Japanese certainly paid the price for leaving an active enemy behind them.

Unfortunately for the Punjabi carriers, the remaining three Chi-Ha’s then arrived on the scene, almost immediately blowing one carrier to pieces. The second, Colonel Deakin’s, had it’s machine gun taken out and its wheels damaged, and could do no more than limp back over the bridge and eventually head off table to the south.

The Japanese commanders were very happy at this point: surely the three Chi-Ha’s could now sweep down into the village and attack the Argylls.

Unfortunately, however, their three burning light tanks had been positioned just in the gap on the road where the plantation ended (they had paused to spot into the village) so that there was no way that the Chi-Ha’s could get past them without going off-road and into the plantation itself…and the plantation itself wasn’t passable for medium tanks. Cue some not very happy Japanese commanders!

The three Chi-Ha’s spent the rest of the game trying to ram or push their destroyed light tanks off the road.

The Climax

With the Punjabis now annihilated, the Argylls reluctantly decided that their only option was to retreat across the bridge and then blow it up. Colonel Deakin jumped down from his wounded carrier as it went past, and assumed position at the dynamite-plunger. The other Argylls on the wrong side of the river (two sections of infantry and two carriers) headed for the bridge at top speed, with one section and one carrier quickly making the other side.

The other section took a bit longer to get there and, worse, the other carrier had track damage, so could only limp towards safety.

japs on the bridge

Meanwhile the Japanese had realised what was going on, reorganised their infantry into attack columns and, throwing caution to the wind, hurled themselves forward towards the bridge. Although they took heavy casualties, two squads of Japanese infantry actually got onto the bridge before the wounded carrier!

Tea Break!

How would the cards fall now?

First out was the carrier’s card and, within a mighty (and probably final) roar of its engine, it shot forward and barged its way across the bridge through the somewhat surprised Japanese soldiers heading towards Colonel Deakin with murder in their hearts.

Next out was British Big Man One i.e. Captain Timothy Turner, the commander of the Argylls, in his Lanchester armoured car in position next to the bridge.

Captain Turner lent out of the Lanchester’s turret and screamed at Colonel Deakin to blow the bridge…which he did…and with a very satisfying “bang” the bridge and the Japanese soldiers on it went up in a cloud of fire and smoke!

Phew, again!

BOOM!

Conclusion

A cracking game that literally came down to the final card drawn/dice rolled.

The Japanese understood how they had come to lose the game: they had spent too much time and effort trying to wipe out the Punjabis rather than just pinning them in place with a small force and then launching a strong and co-ordinated attack on the Argylls in Trolak. A couple of tactical decisions had been wrong as well e.g. the light tanks not pausing for a turn to dispatch the Punjabi carriers.

As for the Brits, the Punjabis had put up resistance well above and beyond what could be expected of them, compensating for the long sleep of the Argylls for the first half of the battle. There was some thought that they should have tried to hold the bridge from the right bank, but it wouldn’t have been that long before the Chi-Ha’s pushed their way into the village and, more to the point, there were several squads of Japanese infantry already on the damn bridge anyway!

Historically, the Japanese blew through the Punjabis with ease, although losing several tanks to the minefield. They then managed to get infantry and the light tanks (bursting out of the jungle in surprise) into the village and over the bridge despite fierce opposition from the Argylls. The bridge was captured intact because, according to the Japanese account, a staff officer jumped down from a tank and cut the demolition cord with his sword or, according to the Argylls’ account, rain had got into the charges. Whatever actually happened, the Scots had to melt away into the jungle as the Japs marauded down the road towards Slim itself, only halting when their lead tank was blown away by the last round available from a 4.5” howitzer from…but that’s another story!

Another great game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!

Robert Avery

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December 11th 1941. The Japanese have smashed through the initial resistance on the border with Siam, and are now driving south into Malaya.

the road just around the first bend

The Japanese column, commanded by John, was led by a platoon of four Chi-Ha medium tanks followed by two Ha-Go light tanks. Behind them was a staff car containing three Big Men. Behind them was a long column of trucks (mostly ex-British!) carrying three large platoons of infantry (four squads of ten men each) with their support: two MMGs and two 70mm infantry guns. Their orders were to drive down the road as fast as possible, smashing through any resistance to try and take the bridge at Jitra by coup de main or whatever the Japanese equivalent is.

the road just around the second bend

The road in front of them wound through thick jungle. Once over one river (their start point), they would have to traverse three distinct sections of road before emerging from the undergrowth some 100 yards in front of a second bridge, their objective.

Dave commanded the British. Unlike our previous encounters, his troops were actually quite good…very good, in fact, as he had at his disposal a company from 2/1 Gurkha Rifles. These were backed up with a couple of Punjabi Vickers teams, two 2lb anti-tank guns and a single 3” mortar. Their start point, on the opposite side of the table to that of the Japanese, was a line of trenches guarding the bridge that the Japs were after.

Unbeknownst to both players, there were three pockets of British troops on the road through the jungle. These were left-overs from the retreat from The Ledge to Jitra.

Just past the first bend was a platoon of Punjabis that were so green that they had never seen a tank before. That was soon to change! Just past the second bend were four 25lb field guns…but without crews. These were sheltering from the rain some 80 yards further down the road. Just around the third bend were three Indian Pattern carriers.

As mentioned above, the board was mainly thick jungle, almost impassable (-3” per dice rolled) except along the road.

The Game

The game began with the Japanese column smashing onto the table under Blinds and hurtling around the first bend in the road at maximum speed.

There they ran into the first squad of Punjabis, and could see two more further down that section of road. John decided to ignore the British Indian troops, and ordered his medium tanks, now off their Blind, just to drive straight through the enemy infantry. This they did, with the Punjabis scattering into the jungle on either side of the road.

The Punjabis quickly pulled themselves together, however, and despite the fact that they had never seen a tank before, attacked these monstrous metal machines with grenades, rocks and whatever else they could find. The two Punjabi sections furthest down the road forced the Ch-Has to stop and engage them, and quickly found out that tanks have machine guns that are devastatingly effective at close range: bye bye two of the Punjabi squads!

The third Punjabi squad, however, the one closest to the initial bend in the road, had been bypassed by the Chi-Ha’s and, after forcing the Ha-Go’s to de-cloak from their Blind, had nothing to shoot at except what was under the third Blind in the Japanese column: the staff car containing three Big Men!

This was much more like it: and the unfortunate Taii (Captain) Oshima died in a hail of lead through the windscreen. John was learning why you never leave any effective enemy forces behind you!

The Punjabis were then wiped out by the first Japanese infantry platoon, rapidly de-bussing from their trucks, but the damage was already done.

The Gurkhas Take The Fight Forward

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese were bogged down dealing with the Punjabis, Dave had advanced two of his Gurkha platoons out from their trenches and towards the second bend in the road. Each platoon dragged a 2lb anti-tank gun, with his plan being to block the corner with burning tanks!

The Japanese medium tanks, having dealt with the Punjabis, accelerated away again, and drove around the second bend in the road…slap bang into the middle of four 25-pounder guns, two on either side of the road. John almost had a heart attack, and was only revived on hearing that the guns were un-manned, with their crews 100 yards or so further down the road.

Ignoring the guns, the Chi-Ha’s moved forward again, with the lead tank ending up in the middle of the road with a British Blind on either side!

Out came the Tea Break card, and the British Blinds were forcibly de-cloaked revealing the platoon and ATG under each.

This was John’s second coronary of the game: as his infantry were still back near the first bend in the road, leaving his tanks unsupported.

The British ATGs quickly demonstrated why this was not a good idea: dispatching two Chi-Ha’s in as many shots. Almost as bad, from a Japanese point of view, was that two British artillery crews were now sprinting down the road towards their guns.

One crew managed to reach its gun, but was cut down by turret machine guns before it had a chance to fire. A Chi-Ha then ran over both the guns on that side of the road, rendering them hors de combat, but its crew was then forced to bail out as the British 2lb-ers shot it full of holes. The last Chi-Ha, meanwhile, also ran over one unmanned 25 lb-er.

The other artillery crew, however, now reached the last remaining gun, and fired at the remaining Chi-Ha just as its machine guns opened up in return. The Chi-Ha was blown to bits (a 25lb-er will do that to a tin can like a Chi-Ha!) but the gun crew was cut down to one man in reply. Fortunately, there were more gun crew available, and some six brave gunners began manhandling the 25lb-er into a position where they could start firing at the Japanese infantry.

The Japanese Infantry Finally Arrive

At this point, the first of the Japanese infantry began to arrive. One platoon poured around the bend in the road, the other splashed along the small stream directly towards the Gurkha position.

The platoon pouring around the bend in the road were slightly hindered by the burning tanks and mangled artillery in their path. Nevertheless, they made contact with the last 25lb-er and double-crew, and effectively annihilated them.

Unfortunately, this left them under the guns of the Gurkhas to the right of the road, a full platoon, who opened fire and, within two turns, had blunted the Japanese assault, with the few survivors retreating back around the bend.

The other combat proved more interesting. In our previous games, John had easily overwhelmed British Indian troops through close assault. With this firmly in mind, he now launched a full-strength Japanese platoon (40 figures) into a series of Banzai charges against the other Gurkha platoon (24 figures strong).

This proved, as you might expect, and as was historically accurate, to be a bad mistake.

The distance the Japanese had to move, and the fact that the Gurkhas were effectively defending cover, more than compensated for the difference in numbers, and the Japanese were bounced back badly damaged. The Gurkhas lost one section of infantry, but the remainder began pouring rifle fire into the shaken Japanese survivors.

That was two Japanese platoons taken care of. The final platoon came across the corner in the road, led by Colonel Tsuji himself. Again, however, the Gurkhas proved more than adequate to the task and the Japanese infantry were bounced back, leaving the body of their commander behind them.

Let me assure you, the above descriptions barely do justice to what actually happened. On the tabletop, vast numbers of Japanese infantry smashed again and again into ever-shrinking lines of Gurkhas. Both Gurkha Big Men were killed, and the platoon to the left of the road were halved in numbers…but the Gurkhas held…and the Japanese literally ran out of men.

With a pause in the Japanese attacks, the surviving Gurkhas began an orderly retreat to their trenches, where they had a third, smaller, platoon waiting for them.

We ended the game at this point, but all agreed that just one more Japanese charge would have won them the position:  it was just that they had no more Big Men, and no cohesive bodies of men to make that charge.

Aftermath

A terrific game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! that was probably decided the moment the Japanese decided to ignore the Punjabis. This meant that a platoon that could have been easily dealt with was left to cause trouble…and therefore to take longer to deal with and to have the opportunity to kill a Big Man…and therefore delay the advance and give the Gurkhas time to leave their trenches and get forward far enough to defend an obvious choke point.

Full marks to Dave for being bold enough to take the opportunity and, it must be said, to John, for his relentless attacking. In the end, however, the brave Gurkhas held their ground, as they did historically, and would have had to be literally wiped out before the Japs could continue their advance.

Robert Avery

 
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The Christmas break gave the boys from Benson and I a chance for a whole day’s gaming. We’re currently working our way through my Fall of the Liongate scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!, covering the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore in 1941/2. Today’s game would feature the battle known as “The Ledge”: when a Japanese column from the 42nd Infantry Regiment ran into Krohcol, a British Indian column consisting of troops from 28th Indian Brigade and their parent Corps reserve, on a narrow stretch of the Kroh-Patani road carved out of the side of a mountain just over the border with Thailand.

Two factors make this game particularly interesting. The first is the terrain: although the road runs north-south along a fairly flat piece of cleared land about 24” wide, the rest of the table is covered in thick jungle (-3 pips off EACH dice rolled for movement), with the slope to the east running up and the slope to the west running down. The road really is on a ledge!

The second is that this is an encounter battle. Both sides will start with only one squad of men on the table, with the arrival of the rest of their forces determined by the appearance of the Turn Card and a roll of the dice. On paper the forces looked fairly evenly balanced: each building to a company of infantry plus a few supports. In reality, the Japanese were much stronger: their platoons were forty-strong compared to the Indian troops’ twenty-four strong, and the final two lots of Japanese reinforcements were a platoon of three medium tanks followed by a platoon of three light tanks, with the British having only two anti-tank rifles and a 3.7” howitzer to stop them!

The First Game

For the first game, John and Bevan took the part of the Japanese, with Dave playing the British Indian commander. I refereed.

Both sides began with a single Blind covering their single squad at opposite ends of the table. Each side quickly spotted the other, with the Japanese squad heading straight down the middle of the road, and the Punjabi squad heading into the undergrowth at the side of the road in search of cover.

More British troops arrived in quick succession: the other two squads of 1st platoon and the whole of 2nd platoon, and it looked as if the Japanese would be overwhelmed before they’d had a chance to even get started. A second Japanese platoon then arrived, and then a third, and suddenly things weren’t looking quite so good for the Brits. Casualties were still very light at this stage, as both sides had chosen to take cover in the undergrowth or go into deep jungle and creep towards each other in a very slow but steady manner.

With any further reinforcements on either side seemingly lost en route, the Japanese now had a numerical advantage: 120 infantry verses 48. Worse for the Brits, one Japanese platoon was still under Blinds and had begun to outflank the British firing line by moving rapidly through the jungle to the west (Blinds in the jungle lose only one dice of the four they have available for movement).

The Japanese platoon under the Blind charged forward and hit the 1st British platoon in the flank. The two squads up forward were annihilated almost immediately, but the one squad held back did stirring work: pouring fire into the previously rampaging Japs, causing them heavy casualties.

Unfortunately for the Brits, now down to one platoon and one section of infantry (about 32 men), their reinforcements still showed no signs of arriving, and the other two enemy platoons (80 men) were now starting to get within effective fire and, worse, charge range. Dave decided that discretion was the better part of valour and, as his orders permitted, retreated his remaining troops off the table in good order. Much as happened historically, he had lost the battle, but given the Japs a bit of a bloody nose (only a little one!) and kept enough of his force together to block their advance at Kroh itself.

The Second Game

As Dave had to go, for the second game John played the Japanese again, but I took the British with Bevan refereeing.

The game began as before, with both sides rapidly getting their infantry onto the table, but this time instead of skulking in the undergrowth, I formed two of my platoons into prone (i.e. under cover as much as possible) firing lines across the road as soon as possible. As John’s Japs advanced forward as they had done before, I was therefore able to pour two platoons worth of fire into the rustling bushes at the side of the road, causing either casualties or, perhaps more importantly, enough shock to slow him down significantly. As his troops were necessarily in column, he just couldn’t return enough fire to worry my men, especially as my light mortars were also raining fire upon his closely packed men.

The lead Japanese squad did manage to make contact with one British blind, only to find it concealed two sections of Sikhs, who managed to hold off their charge, and then largely destroy them with fire.

British reinforcements were not so scarce in this game, and soon I had three Indian-pattern carriers up on the road, also pouring fire into the Japanese columns. If things continued as they were, there was no way they were going to break through.

It couldn’t last, unfortunately. More Japanese reinforcements arrived, and two Japanese MMGs set up high on the ridge line and forced one British platoon to take cover. Yes, they were blocking any advance on that flank, but they couldn’t contribute to the fire needed to keep the huge numbers of Japanese back.

Worse, the Japanese tanks then arrived: both the medium Chi-Has and the light Ha-Gos in quick succession. They headed straight down the road and rapidly dealt with the British carriers: two being abandoned by their crew, the other heading for home with bits hanging off it!

By this stage, however, I had my howitzer on the table. Firing over open sights, it blew one Japanese tank to bits (a 3.7” HE shell will do that to a tank with little armour!) but lost a crew member to return fire.

At that point, unfortunately, we had to end the game. The Japanese had easily lost one platoon of infantry, probably more like 1½. They had also lost one tank, and were about to lose another. The Brits were in a good position, but had also lost about a platoon of infantry, and both carriers. The referee declared the game to be a draw, but a draw in the British favour.

A Great Day’s Gaming

In all, it was a great day’s gaming. What really stood out was the need to really be pro-active against the Japanese. No, I’m not suggesting you charge forward at them as they want to do to you, but you do need to quickly establish proper firing lines, supported by Big Men to direct the fire, and to hold your nerve as those large platoon columns get closer. We’re already looking forward to the next encounter!

Robert Avery

 
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Today, Neil, my regular opponent, and I played the third scenario, The Ledge, from the Fall of the Lion Gate scenario pack using the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum rules for company level WW2 gaming.

The scenario is set in December 1941: as the Japanese invade Malaya from the north via Thailand, the British send a column of Indian troops, Krohcol, to stop them. The game involves a long, straight road bordered by jungle, with both sides beginning the game with just one infantry squad on the table, with the rest of their forces fed in randomly as the game goes on. I played the British.

The British began the game well. Almost immediately the first, second and third elements of their reinforcements arrived, and I decided that my tactics would be to slam forward up the table, set up a fire base reasonably close to where I could expect the enemy to appear, and then shoot him up piecemeal as he did so.

The single Japanese section on the table disappeared into the jungle, so I deployed one platoon to sweep through the heavy terrain towards it, and another to cover the road as they did so. A Japanese Blind arrived at the other end of the table, which I spotted as an infantry platoon, so as more of my reinforcements, this time support weapons, arrived, I deployed them as well. I now had three deployed platoons forward, with a firebase of three MMG carriers and a howitzer behind.

The Japanese then received some reinforcements that also disappeared into the jungle and began heading forward and around both my flanks. I wasn’t too worried, however: I had deployed platoons that could block them.

How wrong I was!

I had forgotten how fleet of foot the Japanese are at moving through jungle under Blinds. As my deployed men struggled to keep to a neat line formation as they moved through the heavy terrain, the Japanese infantrymen under Blinds jogged around them: not worried about maintaining neat lines as they stayed far enough away to be out of both shooting and spotting range (“it’s heavy jungle: you can see some trees…and some bushes…and more trees…but nothing that looks Japanese!”) but constantly moving towards my base line.

What happened next was just ghastly!

My support weapons (MMG carriers and a howitzer) had just begun opening up on the Japanese platoon deployed at their end of the table when a full platoon of Japanese infantry erupted out of the jungle on both sides of the road! The terms “horns of the buffalo” or “nutcracker” just don’t do justice to the carnage that followed! A combination of the right cards (Big Men, Platoons, Banzai, Rapid Deployment and Heroic Commander) meant that my support weapons were charged and neutralised within a couple of turns.

As my infantry platoons struggled back through the undergrowth to help them, the Japanese sent one platoon further on to block my exit from the table, and sent the other, under the CinC, into one infantry platoon as it arrived piecemeal itself. More carnage followed!

Those who have read the scenario background will be pleased to hear that six-foot tall Staff Officer Yutaka Asaeda, commanding the Japanese, survived the game despite leading from the front and taking part in three banzai charges.

At this stage, I had one infantry platoon deployed in the middle of the table exchanging fire with a Japanese platoon at their table edge, and one infantry platoon in the jungle wondering what to do next as the enemy had me surrounded on three sides. Then the Japanese tanks arrived and I called the end of the battle: desperately hoping that at least some of Krohcol would make it back to safety through the jungle, even if finished as a fighting force, as the main Japanese force thundered down the now open road into Malaya.

This was a stuffing of awesome proportions: all the more galling as I wrote the Fall of the Lion Gate booklet and therefore this scenario! My mistake was to deploy my troops onto the table too early, taking away my deployment flexibility against an enemy who could move quickly through the jungle. All credit to Neil for spotting the error, and taking full advantage!

My only consolation is that I now know what it must have felt like to be a British commander at the start of the war in the Far East…not pleasant being an accurate, if understated, summation!

The gallery below has some more pictures. Click on the first one shown to see the rest...

Robert Avery

 
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With regulars Dave and John now properly blooded on early war France and a complete run through of the Vyazma or Bust! Barbarossa scenario pack, it was time to turn our attentions further east and work our way through the Fall of the Lion Gate supplement (FOTLG) covering the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore starting in December 1941.

It was only whilst writing this game up that I noticed that this was the first time I had had my Japs on the tabletop since 2010: far too long. The question was whether all that time in their carrying cases would have reduced their effectiveness!

Ban Sadao is the second scenario in the FOTLG supplement. Here's a quick summary of the background:  part of the British plan for the defense of Malaya consisted of an advance across the border into Thailand, known to be sympathetic towards Japan, in order to deny the Japanese unopposed landings and access to the many airfields there. Operation Matador, as the plan was known, would involve elements of 11th Division advancing along two axes: towards the port of Singora and towards a defensive position on the Kroh-Patani road. The force heading towards Singora crossed the Thai border at about 1500hrs and had reached the village of Ban Sadao before stopping for the night.

The Ban Sadao force, known as ‘Laycol’ and commanded by Brigadier W.O. Lay, DSO, consisted of two companies and the carriers of 1/8 Punjab Regiment, with some Breda anti-tank guns (captured from the Italians in Italian east Africa) and engineers attached. On the tabletop, FOTLG translates this into a three-platoon company of Punjabis, two AT guns, two Indian Pattern carriers and a single Marmon Herrington armoured car. There's also a section of Engineers tasked with being ready to blow a backstop in case of retreat. All the Punjabi troops were Green: meaning they had a maximum two Actions when activated and were absolutely rubbish in Close Combat.

A message dropped from a reconnaissance aircraft had however alerted the Japanese in Singora to the British Indian advance, and they wasted no time in responding. Acting under his own initiative, Colonel Masanobu Tsuji, Staff Officer in Charge of Operations, collected together some medium tanks and a field gun, and headed south. There he met up with the forward detachment of 5th Division, who had been ordered to protect the disembarkation of the main force. Their commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Shizuo Saeki, immediately volunteered to advance to meet the British column and, with no further delay, set off along the only road leading towards Malaya and the enemy.

FOTLG translates the Japanese force into a four-platoon infantry company (with the fourth platoon consisting of two large MMG teams) supported by two Chi Ha medium tanks, two Ha Go light tanks, and a single Type 92 70mm infantry gun. The Japanese infantry were well trained (three actions maximum) but were also Fanatical, which would mean they were pretty hard to stop and very nasty in Close Combat.

As, historically, the Japanese reached Ban Sadao at about 2100hrs, all the action would take place at night, with much reduced spotting and shooting effectiveness at anything other than close range (9") unless the target was illuminated in some way.

Following his success with the Germans in Vyazma, John volunteered to play the Japanese, with Dave very happy to take on the role of the British. Victory conditions were fairly simple: the Japs had to take the village, the British had to hold the village. The Brits could, however, achieve some sort of a draw if they were forced to retreat but managed to blow the backstop...provided they didn't leave any of their men on the wrong side of the obstruction. The game would begin with the Japanese off table, and the British in the positions that they occupied historically: two platoons and the AT guns forward dug in on either side of the road, the rest of their men in the village in reserve.

First moves were therefore down to the Japanese. Following historical precedent, they disdained any subtlety and headed straight down the road towards Ban Sadao. The British watched their headlights getting closer and closer, finally spotting that the lead elements on the road were the tanks, and that there was an infantry platoon threading its way rapidly through the rubber on the left hand side.

Once the lead elements of the Japanese force had been spotted, the British opened fire with everything they had. The AT guns, which historically had almost immediately disabled two Japanese tanks, were having a bad night, and managed only to knock out one medium tank's main gun. The Punjabi platoon on the left of the road, with three sections up, one back, managed to kill a couple of enemy infantrymen, but were in no way close to stopping the Japanese advance.

One thing the British did notice was how fast the Japanese moved through the terrain. They had been told that the jungle was impenetrable, and the rubber plantation pretty damn bad too. The Japs, under Blinds, and who hadn't been told anything of the sort, were losing only one die of movement per turn, and shot towards the Punjabi positions really, really quickly.

So quickly, in fact, that the Brits had time for only one round of shooting before the Japs were upon them. More enemy Blinds were revealed as another infantry platoon on the other side of the road, and both then charged forward and assaulted the Punjabi line.

On the British left, the AT gun crew were wiped out and two sections of Punjabis smashed backwards. Although Japanese casualties were also quite high, it didn't stop them charging again with their third platoon, and this time the left-hand Punjabi platoon was effectively obliterated. One thing that did happen was that the Japanese Big Man leading their first platoon was killed leading the charge, which would have consequences later on in the game.

On the British right, it was even worse. The Japanese knew what they were doing this time, and the Punjabis were bounced back 18": effectively fleeing into the village chock full of Shock. They would play no further part in the game.

As the pictures below show, this first phase of the battle was all Japanese success.  

After

Now the importance of having a reserve came into play. The Indian carriers and armoured car pushed their way through the fleeing second Punjabi platoon and poured fire into the Japanese infantry milling around on the road after their successful charges. This was carnage, with one Japanese infantry squad being utterly wiped out.

Where were the Japanese tanks, I hear you cry? Well they had managed to get themselves into a right tangle in the rubber and jungle and on the road. Punjabi anti-tank rifle teams had caused them Shock, and this combined with the bad terrain, the darkness etc, meant that they just couldn't get  forward to support their infantry.

Another round of carrier-fire did more damage to the Japanese infantry before they managed to sort themselves out and charge the (open top) British vehicles with grenades and the like. The Marmon Herrington was destroyed, either by the infantry or a lucky shot from a Ch Ha, and the two carriers driven back into the village itself, where they took up positions in support of the third and final Punjabi platoon and single remaining AT gun.

The Japanese were still trying to sort themselves out: the lack of Big Men (by now half had been killed in charges), the terrain and the darkness not helping at all. The only units seemingly able to move towards the village were the Company HQ and the fourth, machine gun, platoon.

This latter snuck round (i.e. still on a Blind) one of the hills near the entrance to the village, got themselves all set up, and absolutely mullered a section of Punjabi infantry from third platoon (killed them all!) and managed to destroy the truck that the AT gun crew were using as a tow.

By now the British had decided to play for the draw, taking advantage of the now tortoise-like advance of the Japanese to rush their men out of the village and past the engineers waiting to blow the backstop.

With a huge "boom" the backstop was blown, and the game ended: a win for the Japanese, but a draw for the British!

A cracking game, and a very suitable introduction to wargaming the early war Far Eastern theatre.

The British just could not believe how quickly the Japanese were able to advance through the jungle. They had thought they might get a couple of rounds of fire in before sedately retreating to the village. As it happened, they got off half a volley before finding themselves in hand-to-hand combat and either being killed on the spot or routing backwards as fast as they could go.

Likewise, the Japanese were surprised at how effective their troops were, meaning that they suffered badly at the hands of the British carriers, and despite going through the British advanced position like a tanto through butter seemingly had no second-stage plan for assaulting the village. Their tanks got utterly bogged down, especially when they started taking Shock, and really did almost nothing for the entire game.

Next game, we'll see if any lessons have been learnt!

Robert Avery

 
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The Soviets hurry to take up positions in the village before the Germans arrive.

Tonight's game of IABSM: the Zhena scenario from Bashnya or Bust.

The objective for both sides was the crossroads at the center of the village. Knowing that Tigers would be showing up, I decided my best chance to survive the encounter would be rushing up to take positions on each side of the village and flank the Tiger II's as they came forward. This tactic worked great on several Panzer IV's that came up which were quickly dispatched by my SU-85's.

Unfortunately, a pair of King Tigers had managed to sneak up between houses while on blinds and appeared point blank in front of my platoon of T-34/85's. I still managed to flank the Tiger's but it was then that I made my worst rolls of the game and ended up only annoying them.

On the infantry side of things, the Germans stubbornly held on to the church at the center of town. I sent an entire platoon to kick them out and they threw my men back with enough shock to get them all the way to Kamchatka.

I had a chance to place an artillery barrage on the church but my Big Man didn't like the idea of blowing up an orthodox church. But after a second platoon couldn't convince the Germans to vacate the church, I started taking shots at it with my T-34/76's, who were happy to do that rather than locking horns with the Tigers.

*knock knock* on the count of three we're coming in

In the end, the Tigers held the crossroads without a worry, and I knew I didn't stand a chance after my flanking maneuver failed to achieve results.

John Paul Hancock

 
 
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Martin's Introduction: We played scenario number 1 in the excellent Lion Gate campaign yesterday. I have uploaded the photos.

What a monster scenario. We played it on a 10' by 6' board modelled to scale from the map. We used 1 figure to depict 2 men as I'm a few figures short of the amount required. To be honest - even if I'd had the figures - I don't think there would have been the space in 20mm. It was bloody crowded as it was. You will also note that I had to use hooches instead of pillboxes - fresh out of pillboxes! I also used hedges instead of barbed wire. I don't think the overall effect looked too bad.

We only had time for the first three waves. There were enough left over for a fourth wave but we all agreed the result was a British victory. The Japanese simply didn't have the materiel left to do the job.

Subedar Nawin Chandra grimly took up his binoculars and surveyed the scene before him. He had just got off the telephone from the comedian in headquarters who phoned to tell him that there might be an attack on. He allowed himself a small wry grin at the irony of the call before grimacing as another shell burst somewhere far too close. A flotilla of Japanese ships lined the bay and from that flotilla came an ever growing mass of smaller craft teeming with Japanese soldiers. "This is it" he said to himself, it's death or glory time.

The Japanese could not have asked for better conditions, with a clear night, a calm sea and bright moonlight reflecting off the sea in front of the Dogras' positions. Chandra's biggest problem, however, was manpower or rather the lack of it. A force of double their size would have trouble defending this stretch of beach. However, they had made the best fist of it they could, sowing minefields and laying barbed wire to hopefully turn the beaches into a rather hot place for an invasion force to be.

The first wave was nearly upon them, and despite coming under murderous small arms fire and shots from mortars and the saluting gun that was "appropriated" from the Sultan of Kelan Tan, the first wave hit Badang beach relatively intact. Dozens and dozens of Japanese soldiers interspersed by engineers poured forth onto the narrow stretch of land. The sound of gunfire was absolutely deafening as a huge number of rounds cut into the invaders. This sound was punctuated by the muffled explosions of newly discovered landmines together with the clarion calls of artillery shots from the mountains behind them.

Several Japanese squads made it up to the barbed wire surrounding the two pillboxes and it appeared that some of the engineers had cleared and marked a path through the minefields perilously close to Havildar Ik's gun position. Suddenly the invaders broke through the barbed wire and were fighting at close quarters with the Dogras manning the 2nd Pillbox. The fighting was brutal, and Chandra had to finish one of the Japs off with his service revolver before the concussion of a grenade stunned them all. Suddenly the pillbox reverberated as an artillery salvo came down far too close. When the smoke had cleared, the Japs appeared to have melted away. A ragged cheer went up, and Chandra pointed out that there were plenty more where they came from.

He looked around at the scene inside the pillbox. They had been hit hard and although the Japanese invading force seemed to be dwindling – it was clear to him that they could not take on another wave. He risked another look through his binoculars past the carnage outside his position and confirmed his worst fears – there was another wave heading for the same beach. He quickly gave the order to get the reserve up to reinforce the decimated position. He grimly hoped they would make it before the next wave arrived.

Just as the first attack wave faltered, the next wave approached the beach. Subedar Chandra knew it was all down to whether this wave could capitalise on what the engineers had cleared in the wave before. What was left of the first wave was no longer a worry, however, he dreaded to think what would have happened if they had brought the second wave in a little quicker.

This time, good fortune smiled on the Dogras as the waves picked up a little and a couple of the landing craft foundered, spilling their men out into water that was too deep to wade through. In addition, a lucky shot from Havildar Ik blew one of the landing craft out of the water, sending the hapless occupants to a watery grave. Any jubilation was short lived however, as an errant shot from the flotilla of Japanese ships landed close to Havildar Ik's gun position, bringing a tree down on the 18-pounder gun, rendering it useless.

Although the Japanese had suffered large losses, this wave seemed somehow more determined than the first and punched through the barbed wire yet again. This time they completely overwhelmed Jemadar Singh's pillbox and put all to the sword, and the pillbox fell into imperial hands.

The fighting degenerated into a much more staccato affair with ragged volleys of shots between the two pillboxes. One of the soldiers in the pillbox still in British hands risked a look out to sea. It was with some relief he noted that the third wave appeared to be heading for the island beach to the East of their position.

Lance Havildar Do had made the same observation and realised that they were heading for the spit of land on which his pillbox was rather precariously perched. He started to scream down the field telephone to the forward observers, demanding that they shift the focus of the mountain batteries to his beach. Lieutenant Tombs calmly explained that it was a bit risky – some could fall on British positions. "I don't bloody care!" shouted Lance Havildar Do. "There won't be any damn British positions if you don't do something, Sahib!"

Despite the small arms and mortar fire welcoming them, the third wave arrived with only superficial casualties and launched themselves up the spit of land surrounding the pillbox. The fighting was intense and casualties heavy on all sides, but it was clear that the position was not going to last very long. The artillery was once more dead on target and the entire 3rd wave were caught in the devastation. When the smoke cleared all that could be seen were the dead and wounded that littered the beach and the pillbox was no more than a smoking ruin.

As dawn approached, Subedar Chandra surveyed the battlefield. He was as pleased as punch with the pinpoint accuracy of the artillery barrages that Singh and Tombs had brought down on the invaders. Although he could see the signs of a fourth wave forming up, he very much doubted they would risk another in broad daylight. The Dogras had performed well, and he had no doubt that this boded well for the campaign in the far East against the Japanese!

Kevin's Postscript: I have to admit (playing the British) to having some very jammy rolls, for once my artillery was spot on with almost every salvo (only one deviated by 3"), and secondly I rolled more than my fair share of "no damage" for my troops when hit. It was a long game, and we didn't quite finish the 3rd wave (50+% dead), let alone get to the 4th wave, but the outcome was in no doubt by then. Thanks to "Spoons" for setting up and umpiring the game (not to mention writing the initial battle report).

Martin Grimes & Kevin Tait

 
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