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Off to Dave’s for a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum versus a couple of novice players, Peter and Si.

It’s May 1940 and I would play the French defending against a strong German advance.

German Brief

The Germans enter ther table from the far end. The french must defend the two bridges.

It’s 14th May 1940 and the German surprise attack has stunned the French and British High Commands. The lead elements have crossed the Meuse and the British have started falling back whilst the French are attempting to regroup for a counterattack. It is vital to use this time to our benefit and every man must push on as fast as possible before the enemy can recover.

You are Major Reinhard Beckenbauer, commanding a battlegroup of 101st Panzer Division. Your mission is to take and hold the bridge ahead of you over the Ardennes canal, which will be vital if our support troops are to follow up the success of the panzerwaffe.

South of you our forces are already over the Meuse near Sedan, and an aenemy counterattack is expected at any time. Naturally Guderian does not intend to stand still and await such an attack but is pushing to expand the bridgehead and keep the French off balance. If you can ensure the Antoing bridge is safe, our forces can cross over it tomorrow and hit any French force threatening Guderian in the flank.

If the French wake up to the danger, you can expect to meet with opposition, but the latest recce photos this morning showed no sign of defence works.

HQ Zug

  • Major Beckenbaum (Big Man IV)

  • Leutnant Weber (Big Man III)

  • 1 x 8-man squad

  • 1 x LMG team

  • 2 x MMG team

  • 1 x FOO

Zug One

  • Hauptman Breitner (Big Man III)

  • 3 x 8-man squad

  • 1 x LMG team

  • 1 x Anti-Tank Rifle team

Zug Two

  • Leutnant Mueller (Big Man III)

  • 2 x 8-man squads

  • 1 x LMG team

  • 1 x Anti-Tank Rifle team

Zug 3

  • delayed arrival due to fuel shortage

Panzer Zug 4

  • Leutnant Mattheas (Biug Man II)

  • 1 x Panzer I

  • 3 x Panzer II

Panzer Zug 5

  • Feldwebel Heldt (Big Man II)

  • 4 x Panzer III

Panzer Zug 6

  • Feldwebel Haller (Big Man II)

  • 3 x Panzer IV

Panzer Zug 7

  • Feldwebel Seeler (Big Man I)

  • 2 x PaK35 Anti-Tank Guns

  • 2 x 75mm Infantry Guns

Off-Table Support

  • Air Support

  • 2 x 81mm Mortar teams

French Briefing

It’s 14th May 1940 and the German surprise attack has stunned the French and British High Commands. The lead elements have crossed the Meuse and the British have started falling back whilst the French are attempting to regroup for a counterattack. It is vital to gain time for this and every river/canal crossing is to be contested to the last man. Ils ne passeront pas!

You are Captaine Didier Deschamps of the 101st Regiment and you are ordered to take and hold the bridge over the Ardennes canal at Antoing, a small village in the middle of nowhere just west of Sedan. A major attack on the enemy is planned for tomorrow just to the south, and it is vital that any attempt by the Boche to ouitflank our force by crossing the canal is defeated.

If you can hold the bridge, the plan is to push a strong force of tanks across the canal and cut off those elements of the Panzer force who have already crossed the Meuse but who are unsupported as yet.

HQ Platoon

  • Capitaine Deschamps (Big Man III)

  • 1 x 10-man squad

  • 1 x 60mm Mortar team

  • 1 x Anti-Tank Rifle team

  • 1 x Radio Car

Platoon One

  • Lieutenant Platini (Big Man II)

  • 3 x 10-man squad

  • 1 x 60mm Mortar team

  • 1 x Anti-Tank Rifle team

Platoon Two

  • delayed arrival due to fuel shortage

Support Platoon

  • Sergeant Zidane (Big Man I)

  • 2 x MMG team

Anti-Tank Platoon

  • Sergeant Grisman (Big Man I)

  • 1 x 25mm Hotchkiss Anti-Tank Gun

Armour One

  • Sergeant Viera (Big Man II)

  • 2 x Hotchkiss H-39

Expected Re-Inforcements

Armour Two

  • Sergeant Petite (Big Man II)

  • 3 x Renault R-35

The Game

My plan as the defending French was simple: move my troops onto the ridge at my end of the table and shoot the Germans as soon as I could. I was likely to be outnumbered, but my potentially strong position should counter that.

Unfortunately, the game began with three rapid appearances of the German Blinds card, meaning that before my troops even arrived, the leading Bosche units were almost on top of me.

This wasn’t necessarily a problem, as I managed to get my troops into position in time, and then spot and open fire on his lead elements, three Panzer IIs and a Panzer I. These proved fairly easy to take out, and I even scored a few hits on his Infantry HQ zug as they bravely advanced across the open ground near the garage. They soon learnt to rush forward and then throw themselves prone rather than the gentle amble forwards that they had started with!

So the first wave of Germans were dealt with but more followed fast: a zug of Panzer IIIs accompanied by infantry. Then disaster struck: German Air Support arrived, with a Stuka dive bombing one of my Hotchkiss tanks, scoring a direct hit to blow the vehicle into its component parts. Good dice had also meant that the German infantry guns not only deployed, but got the range of my defensive ridge almost immediately, putting my infantry under fire. Things were not going well!

Then a bit of a tactical error from the Germans gave me a bit of hope. A zug of three Panzer IVs decloaked and rushed across the railway bridge to the right of my position. A problem, as they were now on my side of the river, but an opportunity as the narrow crossing had forced them to bunch up tightly, and bunch up in view of my anti-tank gun team.

The brave little anti-tank gun team opened fire and slammed a round straight into the middle tank, which promptly exploded! As the other two tanks in the zug were so close, literally bumper to bumper, they suffered a couple of points of Shock each and were therefore half way to being taken out.

This was too good an opportunity to miss, particularly as three derelict tanks would nicely block the exit to the railway bridge and effectively secure my left flank against any further armour coming in (as if there wasn’t enough already!).

I already had an anti-tank rifle team (presumably using weapons previously captured from the Germans) in the woods, who opened fire and hit one of the shocked German tanks in the flanks. A bit of luck with the dice mean, however, that the German tank remained unscathed. Next I charged in a squad of infantry, who swarmed the tanks with grenades. Again the Germans’ luck held and no damage was done. Finally my Heroic Commander card came up, so in went Lieutenant Platini with the regimental tin opened. More lucky dice from the Germans and, again, no damage was done. That was a total of ten penetration dice rolled against side or rear armour and not a single hit!

And that was really it!

The next turn the German tanks’ card came up before my infantry, so the two surviving Panzer IV’s accelerated away from my infantry to comparative safety. More German tanks were coming forward and there was no sign of my reinforcements. My briefing had said that the bridges had to be held to the last man, but realistically it was time to sauve qui peut!

A great game with some spectacular dice rolling from Si, playing the German tankers!

Robert Avery