Played with Alan Sawyer on Skype. I chose this battle for two reasons. The first being that it DID look interesting and the two plays before by Jay Townsend and Joe Oppenheimer had a Allied win and a Draw as the results. So the appeal of trying to get an Axis win was there to redress the scenario. Secondly, Alan had previously chosen two battles before this one which was from the same campaign on previous days with the British taking on the Hohenstaufen Division. I believed this one would make it a nice trio if added to our previous two scrimmages. So there we were BACK in the ubiquitous wheatfields of Normandy

After the Warwickshires secured Presles on the 3rd, they and several tank squadrons of 11th Armoured Division were ordered to relieve the defending Rifle Brigade at Le Bas Perrier. They would soon be surprised to find that they would find it extremely difficult going to mount an attack against an aggressive enemy. Both sides had roughly equal men and morale, but the Germans, although outnumbered more than 2:1 in AFV’s, of course had the better quality tanks by far. To balance this up in a favourable way to the allies, the German attack would be coming over quite open ground, with just wheat-fields for hiding in as cover and the attendant slowness they bring, and then, if all this was succesfully negotiated, they would have to battle into and capture towns. It was going to be an interesting conundrum for both sides.

The Warwickshire troops approached from the east and soon nestled into nearby hamlets as they were told that there were strong possibilities that their relief effort may be the subject of German attacks. In the event, at 1330 hours, some SS Engineer troops and a company of SS Hohenstaufen grenadiers covered the front of the Warks positions. These Germans were also supported by four tank platoons. Meanwhile, the main section of the SS Engineers attack would concentrate on the north and the positions of the Rifle Brigade. Here they threw their main strength consisting of five companies of troops, their mortar and rocket support and a host of half-tracks and pressed northwards up the battlefield.

The ordnance drove ahead and into the wheat-fields and dug themselves in in preparation of their bombardment onslaught they were planning to unleash. Meanwhile, the mixture of SS and Wehrmacht engineers were pushed forward by their officers at good speed. For their part, the Rifle Brigade, as well as covering each street of Le Bas Perrier with their numbers, they had also dug-in and lined the ridge of the higher ground in front of the town. After ashort while, the foot of these slopes were reached by the Germans, and this was thought by the German commander to be the toughest and riskiest part of the assault. This was because his troops would be in the open, attacking uphill against a dug-in enemy. To assist this, all battlefield and rear line artillery was used to soften up the enemy locations and the Panther platoons to the east held at bay numerous more enemy AFV’s from taking part in the fray.

Once the assault started, it surprisingly only lasted about 30 minutes as the German attackers went through the enemy line very quickly and also took out any M4’s that popped their turrets up. Also, the German ordnance just pounded and pounded any ‘loose ends’ the British would show and therefore cut off any further assistance the defenders on the hill would have had coming. Now, for the Germans, it was onto the town itself.

Meanwhile, to the east, the small holding force there kept the British troops interested enough so as to divert their attentions from the main part of the battle. However, after about an hour, British armour here decided they would have to go to the relief of Le Bas Perrier and they started to weave their way, a long way, round the edge of the battlefield, keeping out of Panther range. Seeing this occur, the German holding force launched a small attack to see if pressure could bring back that armour. Their attack though was seen off easily, albeit with low casualties and so the Germans had to hold their positions and be content with pinning down British infantry and some tanks. These British troops had to stay put so as not to give up the town areas they were holding, though they might have attempted a more vigorous attack themselves to rid the area here of German activity and release their own number as reinforcements to Perrier ?

Back to the north, and with the hills scaled, the Germans began to push into the towns. British casualties in both men and AFV’s seemed very high indeed. Le Bas Perrier was slowly being ground down by the German attackers, though local allied counter-attacks, and stubborn resistance meant that the melee itself went to and fro on many occasions. The German engineers also received some Panther support, and these proved effective in seeing off British armour support just by their closeness to the battle. Taking around two hours, Le Bas was finally tipping to the Axis troops. British efforts, to reinforce the ailing defence fell short as these were soon grounded down too. By 1700 hours, the British decided that the town could be held no longer and gave up any further aspirations of defending it. The concentration of German effort had paid dividends and pulled off a useful victory.

Losses were unsurprisingly high. German losses were 18 step equivalents against a British loss of 52 step equivalents. This high British equivalent loss was boosted upwards with the 13 AFV step losses soaked up against just 2 German AFV steps lost. The Germans also captured all the 20m high parts of the town of Le Bas Perrier, though no assault was ever launched at the 40m sections nor on the towns to the east. Germans accepted a minor victory after 15 of the 22 turns completed.

Enjoyed the battle immensely and it complemented our previous two beautifully. We'll have to play some of the smaller offering scattered about these pitched battle that the other scenarios offer. I give this a 4. It is obviously challenging as so far, all results have been achieved by the various players.