This is an interesting scenario with objectives that may frustrate players. This scenario is by Robert Avery and is part of his 'Anzio: Wildcat to Whale' scenario booklet.

It considers the German counteroffensive on the first day and focuses on the pinch point attack made by the veterans of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment against the green troops of the United States E company, 2nd Battalion, 157th Regiment and their associated supports.

The Americans start on blinds in their hastily dug shallow trenches and scrapes, having retreated back from the area known as the Factory during the previous two days. The ground was hard and the weather cold and the troops found it very difficult to break into the earth. The resultant efforts generated only light forms of cover to add to the already almost spartan and featureless terrain of the valley area around the Via Anziante.

The Germans on the other hand are not only experienced troops but have the benefit of being supported by a full-strength platoon of panzer III tanks and a second platoon of assault guns. The Germans do not have any offboard artillery support as their barrage is assumed to have just been lifted from the American frontlines to enable their advance. Conversely, the Americans have the ability to call upon a three gun battery of 105 mm guns from the 58th Field Artillery Battalion directly behind their lines.

The Germans are allowed to enter the battlefield on Blinds using a randomised number of Blinds each turn.

We played the game with Barry Foster and Togs being the Germans; the Americans being played by Dave Wilson, Andrew Sharp, and Martyn Cartlidge (his place being taken later in the day by Dale Askew).

There were no Turn Cards required in this game pack however there were a few surprises namely a pair of Vehicle Breakdown cards to represent the frozen ground warming up and becoming the ubiquitous thick Italian mud which in real life halted much of the German advance. The action starts at around 06:30 hours.

The German advance platoons reach the railway embankment

The Germans made initial strikes using their Blinds and quickly raced to the edge of the railway embankment where they took up initial positions in cover behind the collection of linear obstacles and light hedging which denoted the irregular field boundary markers. The Americans undertook some initial observation and detected the Panzer platoon almost immediately.

A cuckoo in the nest. Just to mix things up a bit I added a false Tiger Mk 1 into the Panzer III platoon.

As is my way, I decided to add a little entertainment into the game and represented one of the Panzer III tanks with a Tiger I to represent the fear that a lot of Americans had of these vehicles and their inability to distinguish them from other less lethal vehicles at long range.

Rapidly the Germans deployed their infantry platoons, of which they had many, and quickly established a fire base with their heavy weapons platoon comprising of four medium machine guns who set up on their right flank (the western side of the table). Simultaneously they also advanced on their Eastern flank and began to take fire from the American positions deep within their half of the table.

One thing is that American platoons are blessed with is the number of heavy and medium machine guns and these started to make their mark as the Germans advanced. This would have been catastrophic under normal circumstances, however Barry was in his element once again and was making saving throws time after time with the result that the Germans were actually sustaining very few losses indeed during their advance.

As the German Blinds became uncovered the American Forward Observer began to target their advance with the off table artillery support. The results of this bombardment was that many of the Panzers in the centre were pinned by the barrage and their adjacent accompanying infantry were also temporarily halted. This was a major factor in the American defence plan and they continued to use it most effectively. The Germans were distracted by this and frequently had to redeploy their Big Men accordingly to remove Shock and Pinned markers on the affected units. This bought the Americans considerable time and helped them prolong the time that the Germans were under the sights of their numerous and effective machine guns.

The Americans continued to be successful with their observation efforts and more German platoons including that of the assault guns were unmasked. The StuG III unit drove through the centre attempting to make a dash over the railway line and along the track towards the single building on the battlefield. This terrain feature was surrounded by some lightweight hedges and vineyards but again the cover was considered minimal. It was in this area that the Americans had deployed to 57mm anti-tank guns in temporary camouflaged dugouts but these remain silent for some time. The Americans were also blessed with holding a pair of M10 tank destroyers, again in camouflaged dugouts however these two were held back as the German onslaught followed.

The battle then continued as the Germans attempted to make headway from their positions behind the railway embankment, across the road and into the fields containing the slit trenches and scrapes occupied by the Americans. They in turn continued with their unrelenting machine-gun fire; however this was successfully defended by the German players continuing to have good luck with their saving throws.

The German Panzers and their assault gun support platoon made a play and concentrated their efforts using the Blitzkrieg card to good effect; driving hard through the centre of the battlefield in a concerted manner. It was at this point that the Americans declared their hand and their phenomenal anti-tank capacity by masking three separate Bazooka teams. Under normal circumstances this would have been dire for the Germans but once again their saving throws were outlandishly effective and many a hollow charge projectile failed to damage the advancing armour. The Germans retaliated and quickly destroyed two Bazooka teams with a pair of throws of "Lucky 17".

Barry pressed home with his attacks on the American right flank and given their ‘green’ nature, many of the units under fire quickly became ineffective and started to abandon their positions. He also made good use of the Blinds card and a blinds bonus move card to quickly bring up another full Panzer Grenadier platoon along that flank with which he then attempted to get into close assault with the remaining defenders holding out in that area. It was at that point that his luck ran out somewhat and he failed to make the distance to get into contact, leaving his troops exposed in No Man’s Land and with many American machine guns trained upon them. It looked rather dire at that point.

German Panzer Grenadiers advancing on their left flank.

Meanwhile in the centre the Panzer versus American anti-tank weapons battle continued unabated with units trading shots. Quickly two more Panzers were damaged and one totally abandoned as the morale of the crew deteriorated under such pressure.

Eventually the close combat did take place on the flank but as the American defenders were neither suppressed nor pinned, they managed to drive off the Panzer Grenadier assault and their respective position was made more precarious by the massive firepower placed against them by the dug in machine guns.

German units start to suffer.
NB The red market in the corner of the hedges is the fall of shot marker for the American off table artillery

The Americans were starting to lose heavily but they still held on. The Germans managed to get one of their assault guns free from the clinging mud and back into action but as time progressed it was apparent that they had not done enough in the time available and their attack began to falter.

They had been set the objective to clear the road entirely of Americans and also prevent any units being able to be in a position to fire upon the road. This they had unfortunately not been able to achieve and after playing with approximately two dozen reshuffled decks we decided to call it a day.

Advance Panzers!

American lines. The small stone walls represent the piles of debris and earth bulked up from the construction of scrapes and shallow trenches.

The American bazooka teams start to do damage

It had been a demanding and at times frustrating game but the outcome was very similar to the real historical events that took place around the extended Anzio beachhead in February 1944.

Tim Whitworth

IABSM AAR