This was played on skype against a by-now old adversary, Alan Sawyer. The allies need to exit some units, take a hill at the far end of the board and try to sustain less than 15 steps but only inflict 8 steps. For this mission they are well-endowed with twice as many infantry as the Germans, a mass of officers and slightly better overall morale. British aggression would be the key whilst the Germans would need to simply hold the enemy back as best they could and eat up time (18 turns)

The area where the two battalions from the Shropshire and the Warwickshire regiments were to attack was a large rise heavily covered in cropland. To the centre was a crossroads that would give access to the four roads around the area. Further south was a hill that would need to be cleared if the British were to press on past the defending force from the 9th SS Hohenstaufen Division. For their part, the Germans covered their flanks and set up in a manner to try to encourage the British troops to be corralled into the voluminous wheatfields ahead of the German positions. Though this would provide the British troops cover, it would cut their speed immensely as underfoot became far more arduous and command control would not be such an easy thing amongst the farmlands.

With the above in mind, the Germans positioned themselves aggressively far forward in an attempt to ‘steer’ the British infantry into the crop-fields. As hoped for, when the British advance opened at 0930 hours, they did indeed make their way through the farmland. This left the British moving at a very slow-pace although, with the cover they suffered just 2 steps casualties over the first seventy-five minutes. But progress was painfully slow as platoons had to slog by foot in the rough ploughed fields and NCO’s struggled to keep within command distance their very own squads. The casualties mentioned were incurred only as German artillery came down intermittently. Bad luck was to strike the British advance when one of their early casualties turned out to be the commanding Lt.Col. He died in one artillery attack that had proved so accurate. Time had then been lost whilst a new commander had to take the reins. By 1045 hours, some British had finally made the outskirts of the fields, but were then cruelly cut down by MG fire at some range from the awaiting German 'burp-gun' teams as well as the shells from a couple of tank-destroyer platoons. To be more accurate, these spiky MG and StG units (Kittens) had been so placed along the east-west road and helped to maintain this as an open thoroughfare for speedy movement by the defenders whilst the attacking Brits lumbered clumsily forward. It was working !

This last salvo must have convinced the British command to switch the direction of their attack. From 1100 hours to 1215 hours, the weight of the British advance now veered west in an effort to perhaps reach the more open tracts of land. This would be conducive to a faster rate of advance. Meanwhile, a much smaller force was left on the east flank to keep SS forces there interested. The Germans knew that time was essential for the enemy, and slowly and with control, they gave up small amounts of ground each time the enemy infantry advanced. Occasionally, when chance appeared, they would enter firefights, but always made sure to keep ground between themselves and the British. This led to the British suffering debilitating losses and disruption to the cohesion of their attack. SS casualties had been just 5 steps over the 3 hours fought, whereas the British counted 10 steps.

It was clearly evident that by 1230 hours the British were running out of time to either get past the enemy, take any hills and avoid casualties. All these things were against them and yet they were required to become even more reckless if they wanted to achieve anything in time. For the final hour, the west flank received the full attention of the British effort. Pressurising the German line, they forced the SS commander to fire-brigade in reinforcements to defend in depth and bung-up any potential gaps. Despite the British effort piling on the strain on that west flank, it did in the end prove a forlorn effort.

The wasted time in the fields had most definitely cost the Allies the chance of victory in this clash, and perhaps a braver and more vigorous effort on the flanks may have produced more dividends albeit with a risk of higher casualties. In the event, the method used did not allow the British to take advantage of their 2:1 numerical advantage in foot troops. It had been a desultory effort overall for the Allies as they made just one of their four cited Victory Conditions. Not only did they not exit any troops or even get a shot at the target hill, but in the end they never even reached the half-way line of thier desired destination. Final casualty count was: British 14 steps, German 8 steps.

This was a plesing result for me. My forward defence corralled his troops into the slow progress farmland which was a stated mission before the start. Then, when he finally got near my defending troops, a disciplined retirement kept his troops at bay and only allowed them a minimum advance thereafter. Holding the centre east-west road was key to moving troops to threatened areas speedily. Overall, the plan and resultant win was hard-fought for and just one lapse may have let the floodgates open had the British shot through. A good head to head game and very enjoyable for a 4 pointer !