This week Comrade James devised
another of his stellar historical scenarios for a 2 v 2 (4000 point) Bolt Action
game: The Battle of Breville, Normandy, June 1944. The historical situation was thus:
In the wake of the D-Day landings, the Germans launched a series of
tenacious counter-attacks on 10-12th June at a gap in the Allied line between
the 1st Special Service Brigade and 3rd Parachute Brigade in the area of
Breville, east of the Orne River and 11kms NW of Caen. German attacks aimed to split the 6th Airborne
Division, who had conducted the Pegasus Bridge mission on D-Day and was now screening
the German approaches to the Invasion beachhead.
The hasty German attacks were beaten off with great loss and a British counter-attack restored the line, killing and capturing over 300 Germans. Nevertheless, the German 346th Infantry Division held onto the village of Breville, which still posing a threat, and repulsed a follow-up attack by the British 153rd Infantry Brigade with severe losses.
The Germans counter-attacked twice more with infantry and tanks on 12th June, exhausting both sides but the Allied situation was restabilised by a company attack by the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, personally led by an already wounded Brigadier Hill commanding 3rd Parachute Brigade. When the dust settled, the German advance was contained but the 858th Grenadier Regiment still held Breville. This position had to be captured to safeguard the beachhead.
All that was left of the 6th Airborne Division reserve was a weak 12 Parachute battalion, which supported by the 22nd Independent Parachute Company and another from the 12th Devons. On the night of 12 June, Under cover of darkness, they attacked the village of Breville with armour support from the 13th/18th Hussars.
Friendly shell fire straddled the start line killing the 12 PARA Commanding Officer and the Devon Company Commander and seriously wounding many others. Rallied by platoon commanders and NCOs the Paras advanced to eject the Germans from the village in bitter and bloody hand-to-hand combat. At a cost of eight officers and 133 airborne soldiers, Breville was cleared and the threat to the Invasion beaches removed.
The hasty German attacks were beaten off with great loss and a British counter-attack restored the line, killing and capturing over 300 Germans. Nevertheless, the German 346th Infantry Division held onto the village of Breville, which still posing a threat, and repulsed a follow-up attack by the British 153rd Infantry Brigade with severe losses.
The Germans counter-attacked twice more with infantry and tanks on 12th June, exhausting both sides but the Allied situation was restabilised by a company attack by the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, personally led by an already wounded Brigadier Hill commanding 3rd Parachute Brigade. When the dust settled, the German advance was contained but the 858th Grenadier Regiment still held Breville. This position had to be captured to safeguard the beachhead.
All that was left of the 6th Airborne Division reserve was a weak 12 Parachute battalion, which supported by the 22nd Independent Parachute Company and another from the 12th Devons. On the night of 12 June, Under cover of darkness, they attacked the village of Breville with armour support from the 13th/18th Hussars.
Friendly shell fire straddled the start line killing the 12 PARA Commanding Officer and the Devon Company Commander and seriously wounding many others. Rallied by platoon commanders and NCOs the Paras advanced to eject the Germans from the village in bitter and bloody hand-to-hand combat. At a cost of eight officers and 133 airborne soldiers, Breville was cleared and the threat to the Invasion beaches removed.
Summary compiled from a range
of sources, including:
Stirring stuff indeed with
great bravery and tenacity on both sides.
Surely this must make a great game!
In Bolt Action terms this would be a “Point Defence”
scenario with three objectives in the German setup area which included the
battered village of Breville. Two
players per side would each field 1000 points using the same multiplayer rules
we devised for our previous 3 v 3 game. We were keen to try the night fighting
rules too, but instead of the whole game being under cover of darkness (the
historic 12 Para attack commenced at 2200) we used the “Longest day” rule for a
random onset of darkness and then starting to use the rules for night fighting.
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| The Battlefield with the German deployment along the bottom edge |
The rather obvious approach lanes to the objectives via open
but rough terrain was going to make this a tough task. More of a job for Armoured or Mechanised
infantry but that’s exactly what the historical Para commanders had to face
too. What I needed was plenty of cold
steel and a rapid approach. The onset of
night would hinder the use of artillery and indirect fire later in the game,
and the need to advance rapidly would preclude much in the way of heavy support
weapons. As a result, I decided on the
following force:
1LT (Vet)
2 x FOO (Reg) – 1 being the free one for the British force
4 x 9 man Infantry Sections (Vet): 1 Bren, 2 SMGs, 7 Rifles
– no this is not optimised for Bolt Action but is the historical composition of
a Para rifle squad
1 x Sniper Team (Vet)
1 x PIAT team (Vet) – not much use but handy for light stuff
like halftracks, and it would distract the Germans
Churchill Mk VI (Reg) upgraded with a 75mm gun
Ze brave defenders of
ze Vaterland were from ze 346th Grenadier Regiment, and consisted
of:
Major +2
2 Leutnants und 1
Stuh 42 Assault
Howitzer
LeiG18 Light howitzer
50mm Granatwerfer (lt
Mortar)
2 x MG42 on tripod
7 squads of Regular
and Veteran Infantry
1 Veteran Squad
1 Veteran
Sturmpioniere squad mit Flammenwerfer
1 Unic U107 Halftrack
with MMG
2 sniper teams
The plan was to open with a prelim bombardment, then use the
3 FOOs to hit the Jerries with HE and smoke before night made them less
effective, and go in as quick as we could.
Accordingly, we went with the National Characteristic of “Blood Curdling
Charge”, which effectively paralyses an enemy unit being close assaulted and
precludes them from firing at the lads as they charge in. With a bit of luck this should work well…or it
would go horribly, horribly wrong with not much scope for anything in between.
Knowing zat ze
Englanders loved ze arty, ze Deustches kept half of zere force off table und
only deployed the snipers und fixed arty units, together with a few regular
squads to hold ze line…
Fellow Para Commander Paul similarly took a 1LT, 4 squads of
Infantry FOO and sniper team, and also a Cromwell medium tank and a pair of
recon jeeps which would be very handy indeed.
Over tea and tiffen we agreed that I would advance on the right flank to
take the objective in the woods, while he would attack the Manor house and move
onto the centre objective. To keep the
Germans dispersed Paul would put one of his infantry squads on a flanking
manoeuvre up the left flank, threatening to rush in and contest the final objective
in the final turns. Visibility
permitting, our tanks would support the infantry advance by pounding the enemy
until the inevitable Panzers showed up.
The Major suspected
zat ze Englanders vould move up zeir right flank (our left flank) as there vas
too much hard cover on our right flank zat provided us vith superb defensive
positions.So, ve deployed the bulk of our infantry und ze 2 MG42’s on our left
flank to shoot ze Englanders as they approached. Ve suspected zem of sneaky
flank attacks und so had 2 squads of regular Schutzen deployed in the village
on our right flank.
Ze Stuh und LeiG would
hold the centre objective to provide HE fire support to either flank.
Ze STurmpionieres und
eins Leutnant remained in ze halftrack for a counterpunch mit dem
flammenwerfer….
No doubt the Jerries would setup to make us pay during the advance,
try to pin us down prior to assaulting and keep a small combined arms force in
reserve to counterattack after we had shown our hand. With luck, night would fall quickly and let
us get stuck into the Boche out of the darkness before that could happen…
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Looking forward to the Battle report and eye candy photos of the game.
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