Young Criminals

On D Day +1, the Canadian 3rd Division, aided with 2 platoons of Shermans from 27th Armoured Brigade, probed their way inland towards Caen. Just south of a little town named Buron, they ran into an attack of the 12th SS “Hitler Jugend” Panzer Division that was reinforced with a lone platoon of tanks from the 21st Panzer Division.

Those Germans have their work cut out. First, they have to secure the roads towards the coastline, then they have to take control of all towns and hamlets up to Cambes-en-Plaine, and thirdly, they have to bypass Buron with as much troops as possible. Daunting tasks indeed, so bold action was needed.

Frantic to finally see some action, the fanatical youths speed their HMG platoons on SPWs along the road to a small hamlet named Authie, just south of Buron. The rest of the SS takes the scenic route up north, while the Canadians organise the defense of Buron. To their own amazement, the HMGs reach Authie unscathed, immediately taking a strategic position away from the allies. The Canucks however know they would not have the resources to hold onto Authie as well as Buron and they send in the Shermans and a Bren carrier platoon to pound the SPWs into submission with AT fire. One blast takes care of the pesky armoured transports, so they turn their next salvo on the infantry, smashing a complete platoon of HMGs to smithereens and killing a most promising Obersturmführer (10-1-2) in the process. Suddenly, the SS HMGs are stuck leaderless in a very precarious position, crying for their mothers.

This first blood sets in motion a long string of violent actions that would last for the next 3 hours. First, the German Nebelwerfer gets revenge by destroying a dug in battery of 6 pounders. Then a Canuck 3” mortar unit gets the same treatment from the German OBA. An eye for an eye. Half an hour later, the rest of the Jugend, advancing through the bocage in a line abreast formation as if on parade, reach Authie and when finally the HMGs are able to reorganize, they promptly kill a Bren carrier unit and demoralize a Sherman platoon! Quickly, the second Sherman platoon skedaddles out of dodge towards a small wood at the southern outskirts of Buron. The grenadiers, together with the out for blood HMGs assault the shocked Shermans. Those tanks survive the initial combat, have to flee, again survive the free shots, and although reduced, get away. Fifteen clicks or so later, their comrades in the wood are all put out of action, when assaulted by the same troops that drove off the first platoon of Shermans. Authie is now firmly in SS hands and the Canadian AT capability vastly diminished.

The Canadians retaliate by putting down a MTC unit that tried to probe the northern part of Buron, but it gives no solace, losing the Shermans is a big blow. At 17.30, the German infantry assaults the western part of Buron and are met with fierce resistance. At the same time, a murderous barrage peppers the tank killers, taking a platoon of grenadiers out of action, but also doing some friendly fire damage on the Canucks right next door. Moments later, the unstoppable HMGs lay down a spray of combined fire that takes out 3 allied steps in one fell swoop! Major catastrophy for the Canadians , who now have to commit all their reserves to plug the line. But the unfazed Canadian commander, a splendid 9-1-2 major has no trouble in keeping morale up. At this point, the Obersturmbahnführer decides that assaulting Buron is not as efficiënt as suppressing it with direct fire, and orders a retreat of the stuck assaulting troops in the west. All those troops get out in good order, sacrificing a unit of supporting SPWs to cover the retreat.

At 18.00, the remnants of the Shermans is finally silenced by the still chasing PzIVs. Moments later, BANG, another devastating combined fire attack kills another 3 steps of Canuck rifles. This time, the Canadian CO can’t cope, and demoralized he must retreat with only a handful of survivors out of the town. A last gasp attempt to break through the German lines towards Caen is stopped cold by the German mortars that covered this route out of town.

At 19.15, the Canadians have only 2 leaderless units still in Buron and HQ orders all allied troops to regroup at Cambes-en-Plaine and Mathieu and liaison with the British. Buron would stay in SS hands for another month until Operation Charnwood would finally liberate the ruins.

In the end, an unhoped for major victory for the Germans! Sure, it turned out a bit onesided, but what a battle! It was action packed from the get go. Both our dice were red hot, resulting in fierce, quick bursts of violent action, turn after turn, as if we were in a rollercoasting Hollywood blockbuster. The only written AAR of this scenario calls it a filler type scenario, not even worth 30 words of text. We would dare to call it a blast. As the German player, I still think that, was it not for the 2 times “3X” results, Buron would never have fallen. At that moment, I was already contemplating on bypassing the town, settling for a possible minor win. It would have been a mortifying balancing act, trying to figure out which troops would be needed to contain the Canadians. Hey, they would only have to break through with one unit to win the game themselves. Those are hard decisions to make playing face to face, a part of this beautiful game you can’t really replicate playing solo.

Not much to report with this scenario, the Germans got lucky and took out the two Sherman platoons the rest was downhill for the Germans. Filler type of a scenario.