The Tigers Roar, Black SS #6, is an intriguing scenario that pits a British battalion with Armored support, attacking an SS company defending a town, though the SS have two platoons of Tigers, making this a tough nut to crack. This scenario was played in a single session against Wayne Baumber and the task I had ahead of me was a difficult one.

SETUP

The SS began with setting up two groups of a leader, GREN and SPW unit in the two satellite towns, northeast and northwest of the large town supported by Tigers on each flank. I setup the British infantry to move down the road between the fields with the M3 APCs and the 3 inch mortar platoon, moving through the fields east of the north-south road. A Sherman and the Firefly was to move up on the east side of the hill with the other Sherman flanking the infantry on the west. We could possibly expect a company of Shermans to reinforce our attack within the first 15 - 45 minutes after our advance. Our plan was to attempt to wrest the two-hex town and possibly engage one of the tigers in assault so that the Shermans and Firefly could be brought in for cross-fire attacks before the other Tiger could get into the fray from the other side of the battlefield. After neutralizing one tiger, the infantry would then sweep into the town and hope to gain a foothold in order to require the Tiger to get into a city battle, a situation favorable to the British advance.

BATTLE

The British movement started off well, with the infantry moving in formation down the road and the APCs and tanks moving according to plan. However, the timetable was cut extremely short as the first two turns ended after the first Fog of War roll. As the British emerged from the fields along the road, German 81mm mortars disrupted and demoralized several platoons, delaying the advance for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the Shermans and firefly got into position to potentially allow for cross-fire attacks, which they did, but could not seal the deal. Rolls of 11 and 10 on the first shots with the Sherman which needed a 12 to step-loss the Tiger and rolls of 4 and 5 where an 11 was needed by the Firefly attempting the cross-fire shot nullified the attack. After this, the tiger dispatched half the Sherman and Firefly platoons and then proceeded to move back to defend the larger town to the south. After recovering the platoons, the British split into two smaller task forces to attempt to move in from both sides while the tanks kept moving around trying to find a way to approach the town without coming into view of the deadly Tigers.

Despite sporadic bombardments and maneuvering, The British felt that time was slipping away as they could not inflict any casualties; They had been able to secure the satellite towns but at a cost of several Shermans and M3s. Finally with about an hour and fifteen minutes left on their timetable, The British rushed to the hill just west of the large town with the Germans laying down heavy opportunity fire. In the east, the British infantry and M3s with Shermans crested the small hill southwest of town and ready for a final assault. Despite overwhelming firepower coming from the combined efforts of the GRENs, HMGs and SPWs located in the town, the British were able to break into town but ultimately were not able to gain a definite foothold on either side of town. Turn 12 came and went with 2 hexes of the town being contested with 5 firmly in German hands.

AFTERMATH

The British effort was doomed from the start as mentioned before, the first two turns ended after 7 activations. With time severely cut short, attempting to plan a methodical advance with maneuver would be out of the question as time would not permit it. In discussion with Wayne during and after the game, we did say that although not impossible, the British player would be hard-pressed to defeat the SS, with very little onboard or off board artillery support. It was an interesting scenario and fun to play as it was a challenge to find a way to break through the Tiger Perimeter and make the assaults to get the points necessary for victory.

Final tally: German 28 VP, British 11 VP.

Town hexes: British: 3, German: 5, In contention: 2

Step losses: British: 7 Sherman, 1 Firefly, 1 M3, 1 RIF, German: 1 GREN, 1 SPW