Gaming: BATTLE REPORT - Seize the village! (Operation Goodwood) - 20th July 1944 - The Second Battle of Valmeray

“With Bauman's Panzers in disarray and the Romanian divisions licking their wounds on the far side of the Valmeray river (or safely tucked up in their boxes in Manchester) the German High commander had little to throw at the British. Lieutenant Herman Smitt of the 3rd Fallschirmjager division had fallen back towards Valmeray with a handful of men under. Having arrived late on the 19th July they were not involved in the previous days fighting but seeing that they were reasonably fresh the axis command in Valmeray seconded them into its defence and sort that they should take and form a defensive perimeter in the suburbs of Valmeray. It was not Herman's ideal choice given their long march to relative safety, but seeing the devastation and despair in the troops in the stricken village he was aware of the that his men could buy time for the defenders to reorganise and potentially stop the British thrust (which incidentally was itself running out of steam)”

This was the third battle in the Operation Goodwood series and represented the 3^rd day of the operation. Set around the suburbs of Valmeray the board was similar in layout to the previous game. The British had managed to pull together an attacking force mixing regular British infantry, with a small para assault squad in a universal carrier, a few small teams and a Cromwell with a howitzer. Also, having previously seen the Germans partially successful use of  transports for attacking objectives the British had included a truck (they had acquired from an old French farmer as a relic from the first war!).

Picture: 750 points a side!

The German were mainly veterans of the battlefields of northern France with three relatively small infantry squads, medic, kubelwagon, a sniper, flame thrower, Panzerschreck and a Stumel (with 7.5cm light howitzer with transport capacity!) – the last 4 units listed were relatively new to me so I was interested to see how they fared.

There were 3 objectives in this battle – quite a lot for two relatively small forces – being the ruined house on the German left, the stone kraal in the center and the bunker on the German right. All forces were held off the board for the first wave (excluding snipers) and there were no troops in reserve.

The battle weary British and Germans spent the first turn advancing onto the board the truck loaded with infantry sped towards the bunker, while the Cromwell maintained a more central position and the universal carrier sped towards the third objective on the German left. The majority of Germans infantry advanced down their left with the kubelwagon and Stumel (loaded with an assault squad and flamethrower) advanced more centrally with a view to attacking either of the other two objectives. The snipers traded shots, but neither secured a kill! The Cromwell took a pot shot at some of the Germans that had advanced to the cover of hedgerows, but the gunner over shot the mark.

Like bolt-action chess the first turns were about tactical maneuvering. The British truck got within spitting distance of the bunker, ready to unload the squad inside, while the Cromwell moved up in support. The Stummel and the Kubel wagon decided moved behind a nearby building to avoid its guns. Elsewhere the Brits moved up to the other objectives as did their counter parts. In the turn a scattering of shots were made and while no causalities a few pins were lad down. At this point the Stummel I believe was hit either by a Boys AT or small arms fire (Note: we reread the rules and small arms fire can pin open topped vehicles!) – while it didn’t penetrate it (and the units inside received a pin!).

The British paras had made it into the ruined building objective, and the Cromwell moved to within 6 inches of the kraal. The British had 3 objectives in their possession. The Panzerschreck, who had moved up the previous turn, took the opportunity to move into the open for a clear view of the Cromwell’s rear, taking aim and squeezing the trigger carefully the shot fired wide. On the left the Germans managed to inflict some casualties on the British, while British fire took out a few Germans in reply! The battle was now in a key phase with the Cromwell vulnerable in the center the Germans looked to advance towards striking distance of the armoured beast! The first order test was passed, and it advanced towards the kraal in the center. The flame thrower would leap out and blast the tank! Great plan, but no one told the team who promptly refused to move with a roll of double 6! Not to worry there was a 6-man assault squad loaded with Panzerfausts! They would destroy it! Just needed to do the order test – these were veterans so shouldn’t be a problem! Nope – they also refused to move – and that my friends is the benefit of pinning! This was the end of turn 3. We had started later in the evening than planned and had to be up at 3am to go to Exeter so like our battle-weary troops we called it a day and both sides withdrew tired and exhausted and with nothing really achieved. At that point it was a technically a British victory – the Germans had advanced in turn 3 to effectively contest two of the 3 British held objectives, but the British held one which wasn’t contested so effectively made them the winner!

The dice gods had decided that they weren’t going to play ball, which lead to a rather quiet affair!

Picture: What should have happened