The attack on the railway station at Carrocetta, near Anzio, Italy during late January 1944.
The British were played by Martin and Togs The Germans were played by Barry with a little help from me and then, when he arrived, Mac settling on the British side.
A difficult nut to crack this scenario by Robert Avery.
The Outskirts of Campoleone
The British comprised a full strength company of the Grenadier Guards with a recce carrier section and a Sherman troop from 46 RTR in support.
They were to advance from the southern edge of the table and attempt to capture both the village of Carracetto and the local fascist party headquarters, some way off on the other side of the table.
Whilst there was very little cover about and the Germans occupied the high ground to the north and western edges of the table the guards benefited from conducting their advance in the cover of a 9 feet high disused Railway embankment that ran across the SW corner of the table.
The arrival of 46RTR
They were allowed a pre-assault stonk which they used to target the southern edge of the village. It did minimal damage and was almost as poor as the smoke screen that followed it.
The British attempted to smoke out the defenders and blanket their advance towards the village but quick turns in succession of the tea break card was enough to see that advantage removed from them further quickly. They were on their own with no further artillery support and any smoke they required would have to come from their 2 inch mortars.
The railway station. The piece of wood represents the platform.
It was getting more and more difficult by the moment but as the lead platoons made a dash to the village and stormed two buildings they were greeted by small arms fire from the buildings and MMG fire from the high ground. Choosing to close assault the buildings the Guards met strong resistance from within. Although they cleared the premises the action lost them two of the already scarce Big Men.
The Guards slowly picked their way from building to building, receiving accurate fire from further infantry sections in the railway station and from Heavy support weapons teams, all of whom were fully dug into the fortified houses.
Eventually the Sherman support was brought up to deal with the increasing long ranged but deadly machine gun barrage. They were surprised by an infantry gun team dug into the ground floor of a house adjacent to the bridge. Would they survive the close range challenge?
The Germans luck, if indeed they ever possessed any, abandoned them and despite all of their shots hitting the lead tank they failed to damage it.
As their on table mortar fire continued to rain down on the Guards, the Germans were mindful that the British were gaining a strong foothold in Carracetto as their own casualties mounted. Oh dear.
With the British managing to advance a spare platoon around the western flank they managed to drive off a German machine gun through the clever use of smoke and fire and movement. It became obvious that the German position was helpless and after 12 tea break cards had been exhausted it was decided that the British had got the upper hand. With the village almost entirely captured it was only a matter of time before the advance would see them take the second objective and win the game out right.
Yet another wonderful scenario from the pen of Mr Avery and again almost executed all the lines of the actual historical event.
Mac was an instant convert to the rules. So much so that we expect to see him after Covid restrictions back in the War Office for another game.
Tim Whitworth
