Camp Cromwell Bulletin 21/07/05

Friday: Juniors night:

James' German Grenadiers (with 2 Tigers & limited air)
v.
Dillon's US Armoured Infantry (with 4 Shermans & 4 Honeys)
in a 1500pts FFA.

Supported by infantry James' Tigers inexoribly advanced on an objective mowing down all in their path (including the Shermans). Trouble was that the %$#@&*^ Honeys overan the other objective first (again). Dillan has his Dad's luck. The Luftwaffe only came once & then only managed 2 bails on the Honeys (which promptly unbailed) and the Pak 38 that didn't get 105'd missed completely in defensive fire when assaulted by the Honeys.

While that was going on with Jim & Glen supervising, Peter & Mark set up an historical scenario for next Thursday.

Fort Floriet on Tuesday:

Jim’s US Armoured Inf (Nick’s troops on loan)
v.
Chris’s DAK Pioneers (mitt Tiger & Henschels)
Breakthrough scenario on 6x4 table with lots of terrain. The Yanks chose to defend.

The Yanks deployed a cordon of Bazooka & mg toting GI’s across the table with Shermans & recon in reserve (immediately moving to cover the objectives). The Honeys had to be off table at the start.

The Germans attacked on their right with the Tiger supported by infantry, Pak38s & 88s - see pic. Two Pioneer plats were deployed to make a flank attack, but their attack was uncoordinated and was promptly destroyed by the Shermans. The Tiger disposed of the US front line defence then camped behind a wood just within 40cm of an objective while the Germans waited for the Heinies to do their stuff. This they did – wiping out the Shermans before they could organise an attack on the Tiger. The US responded in the usual fashion – a Honey attack. The Honeys dashed past the Tiger and ran amok in the German rear while the Tiger resumed it’s advance on the objectives, now defended only by GIs with a few Bazookas (the right flank inf platoon had been pulled back to defend them). The Tiger got on the objective, but the GIs held on around it until the Honeys did their stuff, finishing off the HQ, Pak38 & 88 platoons to cause German army morale failure before the Tiger could win the game.

It was a hard fought & bloody affair - at the end the Germans had just 1 infantry team and the Tiger left, while the US had lost 3 platoons of 6. The artillery v. air contrast was interesting. The 105's spend a lot of time failing to range in & didn't hit much, but their pinning of the Tiger's infantry support & picking off a Pak38 & an 88 were important contributions in the end. The Henies came often, usually doing little, but the odd attack was devastating (like destroying 3 Shermans in a turn). They attacked their own side once, but were waved off.

Camp Cromwell on Thursday:

Er Regima: An early desert war battle where Australians newly arrived in the desert are holding a ridge against a DAK attack.

Australians: Peter & Jim
DAK: Steve MkI & Barrie
The DAK have made some progress but the OZ line is still holding.
Battle adjourned to be continued next week.

FFA on small table:

Mark MkII's Australians
v.
Steve MkII's Russians

Steve attacked on his left with T34s & inf. The Oz inf and 6pdrs stopped the T34s then cleaned up the infantry. Mark attacked with Valentines & Crusaders on his left. They were stopped by SU76s and infantry. Now the two defensive flanks went over to the attack. The Russian SMG platoon died before they got to their objective. A below half strength Oz inf plat got to their objective and then survived two air attacks & an artillery bombardment to hold it, though the Russians failed army morale anyway.