Germans Eventually Breakthrough At Hannut

This was Wayne and I's first FoF scenario and the boards and the scenario conditions looked interesting. Bags of town hexes on the boards and for both sides, points per casualties inflicted and towns taken were the crux. But what made this a real poser was could the very tough and well armoured French tanks, when stretched out along a line, beat off the quite flimsy but numerous tanks of the German attacker?

‘The Witch’s Cauldron ’

Scenario played 25th October 2010

Attacking from the east, the Germans needed to pile through the numerous town and village areas that bordered the main road, The first main built up area of around 2km long was only some 1.5km ahead of the German attack forces. The French had defended this with most of their infantry, but had also had to defend further north where another and more rural road ran from east-west. The heavy French Somua 35’s and the not exactly weak Hotchkiss 39’s had to spread across the front. Some seventeen platoons in all, around 70 tanks would face the mostly weak German PzI’s and II’s, (about 50 of them) supported by 20 Pz III’s and 8 Pz IVD’s. The Germans though would concentrate their forces in one area, and for this they chose the route through the heavy town area where their infantrymen could support them well AND be aggressive against any enemy armour there.

The Germans launched their attack at 1300 hours, with a battalion of infantry in support of the tanks and a lot of OBA assigned to the sector. Despite this, in the first half hour, it was the Germans that lost the most troops as around 50 casualties (2 steps) were sustained going forward. But after this initial set-back a troubled German commander was finally able to get some co-ordination into the assault and this resulted in three enemy AT batteries and a couple of Hotchkiss tanks (1 step) being knocked out over the following hour. Not that the French were inactive either. They too eliminated two Panzer III tanks (1 step)and some more infantrymen. The battle was certainly tight with both commanders experiencing difficulties in their battle-plans. For the French Commander, he was simply stretched across a front and despite his obvious superiority in tank models, was finding it difficult to block all avenues to the Germans. The German was given the headache of trying to make his tank force effective. The French tanks, given the chance would blow holes through his Panzers and he therefore had to advance cautiously and avoid the French tankers getting a jump on his own machines. So for the first two hours, progress was very slow and frustrating for the attackers as they experienced a 6 to 2 tank loss and even a 100 casualties amongst the men.

But it was the infantry that were to provide the key to opening the French defence for the Germans. As they entered the area where the villages began, they were able to slowly, but usefully press along the built up streets and get in close to the French tanks located there. The French were short on infantry and were now being forced to try and stem this steady advance with just armour in some areas. As they did this, elements of the PzI’s and PzII’s meandered through some of the undefended parts of the towns and were able to breakthrough to ‘The Green Fields Beyond’ and begin speeding headlong to claim the undefended French towns and villages that were far to the rear. It resembled the very slow bending and then cracking of a dam as first just droplets of the enemy filtered through, followed by a steady trickle with an impending gush looming.The effect meant that the French were now experiencing not only being stretched to their front, but seeing complete chaos to the rear leaving German Panzers and some motorcycle platoons to roam free and set up controlling these roads in the rear areas.

Now the worse began to happen for the French defenders. The German infantry began engaging the French tanks close up, and often in the tight streets of the villages and towns. Not only did this cause horrible French casualties and a loss of cohesion, but it also meant the German tanks could navigate around their foe and fire flanking and rear shots into them. The carnage proved absolute! From 1500 hours to 1645 hours, no less than 38 French AFV’s were taken out as well as around 100 infantry casualties. Also, the aforementioned motorcycle recon units had manage to start directing OBA at the French 75mm batteries positioned well to the rear.

The game was now up for the Frenchmen ! Nothing else could be done to hold this sector despite the best and frustrating efforts early on. At 1700 hours, the French commander conceded the field to the enemy and was forced to pull back en masse. End casualties were German step-losses of 4 INF, 1 MTC, 1 88mm, 8 AFV steps. The French losses came to 5 INF, 4 AT batteries a staggering 20 tank steps. Manyfold town hexes of the 45 on board had been lost !

I rated this a 3. Good game, but given a 30 turn length, we only made 16 hard fought turns before the French through in the towel, albeit after some really tough fighting. I like a rating of 4 to go closer to the end than that. All that said, it is a 'good' 3, because it really did give me a paracetamol needing head-ache in the first session where I found it just so tough to get at the Frenchie tanks and was forced to think of ways to do so and avoid the puny Pz I's and II's being turned into scrap!. The points totals were hard to finally compute. In losses it was a 49pt to 22pt German advantage. Most of the towns had fallen and there are 90 pts of them on board. So perhaps with 30 town hexes taken, the score would have been around 109pts German to 52pts French ? Wayne even stated that had the battle continued for the remaining 14 turns, unless he exited the board, he would have expected total annihalation!

To sum up. It appears the key to any forward defence, as this one was set-up to be by the defenders is all about how that line holds. How the German disposes of his tanks upon entry and the crucial tank battles between the opposing forces. As this is the first play of this one, it will be interesting to see how others follow?