Cadzand 1944

This was the next game at Colins and to save him from having to do any work changing the gaming table due to his gammy leg we decided to just use the same layout as the Plucky Belgian game only this time it would be the Germans commanded by Ray doing the defending and the Allies in the form of Free French commanded by me doing the attacking. Gammy legged Colin did the umpiring again.

German ambush positions

Elements of German 15^th army are defending the Scheldt and stopping shipping getting up the river to unload vital supplies at Antwerp. The Allies have planned an amphibious operation to take the Walcheren islands and to aid the landings there elements of the Free French 1^st Armoured Division have been ordered to take the coastal artillery position at Cadzand. As usual the figures are 28mm, the terrain and Germans are all from Colin’s collection and the majority of the French are from my collection and we used Bolt Action rules for the game.

Germans
HQ Captain, 3 men + medic, veteran
3 x 10 regular infantry inc; smg and lmg
1 x regular Medium mortar
1 x regular Mmg
2 x regular AT teams - Pzschreck
1 x regular AT gun PAK 40
1 x Panther tank, Super heavy AT
1 x Jagdpanther, Super heavy AT
1 x Marder III, Heavy AT
1 x Sdkfz 7 Flak, 4xLight Auto cannon

 

Free French
HQ Captain, 3 men + medic, in M20 command car, veteran
1 x FOO in Utility van, can call in artillery strike
1 x 10 Veteran Moroccan Tiraileurs, inc; smg and lmg, in M3 half track
2 x 10 regular Moroccan Tiraileurs, inc; smg and lmg, in M3 half track
1 x regular Mmg
1 x regular Mortar, both in M3 half track
A troop 4^th Cuirassiers (inexperienced)
3 x Shermans, Medium AT
1 x M10 tank destroyer, Heavy AT
B troop 4^th Cuirassiers (inexperienced)
3 x Shermans, Medium AT
1 x M10 tank destroyer, Heavy AT

The battle started well for the French which advanced in mixed combat groups with infantry supporting the armour and quickly uncovered the first two German ambush units marked at 1 and 2  and the infantry took out the two Pzschreck units without any loss to themselves, but that was as good as it got. 

The Marder soon opened up and took out one of the M10's but was in turn taken out by a Sherman and as the advancing combat groups advanced through the woods to their front the other German units in ambush opened up and on after another Sherman ended up as blazing hulks and the supporting infantry were also taking a bit of a pasting.

For once the supporting artillery actually landed where it was intended but unfortunately didn’t cause many casualties and only a few pins but it did give the remaining French another chance to advance but every shot from my Shermans failed to hit a single German tank which wasn’t surprising since I was needing double 6’s to hit the dug in armour, my luck from the previous two games had obviously run out. The German ambush points 3, 4, 5 and 6 were eventually overrun but this was the high tide of the French attack and with only 1 Sherman, an M10 and very few infantry left they were forced to fall back.

French armoured grave yard