(17th April 2013 update: "Other points" added at the bottom)

Figuring that this scenario was similar to Episode 2 of the "Band of Brothers" mini-series, and that it wasn’t likely to go as well as First Lt Winters and his paras managed to do, I tried to set the German forces up to give the attack on the 105mm unit a better chance of success. By putting it in 0706, the PARAs could advance using the cover of the wood 0708 into the pre-assault hex 0707.

The HMG, GREN and LT were dug in at 0704 to provide OP FIRE along the road to the west; and the 51mm, wagon and CAPT were dug in at 0703 with LOS along that road. My aim was to hold these units back to defend the Victory Condition villages in 0604 and 0803, accept that the 105mm was going to be lost, and try to get at least 3 American step losses for a draw if not a victory (4 or more American step losses).

On with the game: the PARAs advanced from the marsh through the wood and got knocked about by OP FIRE when getting into 0707, where they also took incoming mortar rounds. One of the Captains hung back in 0708 and helped with morale checks. The first PARA assault went in on GT5, and the 105mm was eventually knocked out on GT9; the by then reduced GREN became demoralized and fled along with their LT.

I reckon that’s a fair bit slower than in the BoB programme, but Winters’ men achieved complete surprise. In this game scenario the Germans not only had OP FIRE and mortar opportunities, but also got first fire when the PARA assault went in across the hedgerow at the edge of the wood. Having said that, I am sure that German reinforcements would have piled into the assault hex rather than sit it out by the villages waiting for the next phase of the battle (the priority would have been to stop the troops on the beaches – so defend the guns that were capable of firing on them).

As an aside, because the initial assault was delayed whilst the PARAs and their leaders got themselves sorted out, the Germans got their wagon unit into the 105mm’s hex and loaded up, but the horses became spooked before they could drag the guns away and they had to unload.

The Germans split their surviving units between the 2 villages, and awaited the onslaught. By the time that the PARAs had formed up to the south of the village in 0803, the INF and M4 reinforcements were ready to take on the village in 0604. Without bothering to soften up the defendants (time was tight), both groups stormed adjacent to the villages. Sheer weight of numbers meant that sufficient manpower survived OP FIRE from the defenders to smash their way in on the assaults. It was all over in 0803 at the end of GT17; but the Germans clung on in 0604, with a disrupted 51mm and demoralized LT still there at the end of GT18.

Game result: draw.

Even if the dice gods had been kinder to the Americans and they had evicted the 51mm, the PARAs had lost a third step so it would still have been a draw. The Germans came close to winning, only needing to inflict one more American step loss. The scenario turned out a lot closer than I had expected.

Other points:

The PARAs lost 2 steps dealing with the Germans in the first assault hex.

The 105mm fired BF at the PARAs in the pre-assault hex 0707 at point blank range (adjacent hex) – surely it should have been some sort of DF; and if the guns had been in revetted positions pointing north towards the beaches, would they have had an arc of fire towards the west where the PARAs launched their assault from?

I am still not sure about wagons being able to cross hedgerows.