Decision at Le Mer D-Day -1

Firstly an apology for the delay in this update, we didn’t meet last week as it was Kevins Mum birthday so he had to do family meal and Pete had an early start. Keith (the mad Viking) is recovering from surgery after his yearly dig in Orkneys(they are not related he just had to cut the later short).

Secondly Have decided that rather than try and run a rolling game, we would play the whole battle for Le Mer as a series of linked campaign battles , assuming the Paras manage to take and hold the town. We will then run the following battles by randomly rolling for German units counterattacking during the next day and the eventual arrival of U.S. beach forces from Utah beach again randomly rolling for when they arrive, and with how much.

3rdly this update will appear in stages during the day as writing it up in stages during day on works computer then adding photos from phone , so it will change as day goes on .

As at the end of the 1st weeks play Lt Shultz had been spotted standing in the middle of the road directing his troops around the village, most had made it into positions ( we think) apart from 4th. Squad that had been moving to wards the 4 story building nearest to him.

Lt Summers had sent his third squad into the bombed out farmhouse, but they they had spent the whole move getting to the 1st floor(2nd to U.S readers). We had originally just decided to take that squad of blinds but in the break realised the whole platoon on the blind had to be revealed .

(likewise we realised that all of Lt Shultz’s platoon needed to be taken of blinds so we rolled for where they were finding one 2nd squad at the far end of the Southern road by the bombed out Mansion, 3rd squad had been one of cards pulled out in initially  set up , so would have to randomly arrive as reinforcements on start of subsequent moves).

This decision turned out to be a wise one as the now revealed 1st squad lurking behind the hedges directed them to Lt Shultz and with a very easy spotting role (its still night) they opened fire on what was an easy target.

Lt Shultz must have had good hearing, and heard wpns being cocked , as he dived to the ground as his two aides were turned into pink mist by the volley of shots by 4th squad.

It didn’t help him much as two troopers from 1st squad promptly krept round the edge of the hedge and let him have it. Despite trying to use the bodies round him for cover he developed two new body cavities and decided to retire from the game.

The whole of the German blinds tried to spot where the firing came from and the whole the German Squad finding themselves standing in the road when a whole pile of gunfire started dived into the ground floor of the nearest building (for game purposes they were stuck on the roof)

German 2nd squad at far end of table hearing the same shooting , dropped into the hedge line and started to make their way down to the crossroads.

Then for what seemed to be a theme for the night the 2nd tea break card came out ending the move before the American blind card came out leaving the un-spotted at gunners and the 1st U.S para platoon un-moved.

Move 2 (well for the evening)

At the start of the 2^nd move it was decided to pull all the german units on table off blinds, to ease play but it having to pull out the German infantry Zug we had inadvertantly realised what german units had been drawn out of random selectio, and in removing 3 cards we had managed to pull out 3^rd squad, the Armoured car unit of the Panzer Lear, and a unit of old French Tanks that were being used by the local German forces , (A Somua and 3 x Hotckiss H35’s or Ranualt R35’s forgotten which).

So working from the most likely blinds on the table to the most unlikely we drew cards to reveal if a blank or real unit :

This revealed that the two Panzershrek teams were in the lower floor of the building shown above.

One of the Pak 40’s was in the lowest floor of the other 4th floor building .

1x med mg 42 team was in the rough ground right in front on para 4^th squad covering the road to the east.

The other med mg 42 team was in the one of the outlying hovels at the north west side of the table photo to be added forgot to get one last night

And finally the last pak 40 was stuck by the ruined mansion at the the most southerly end of the table. Strangely enough its deployment and that of the German 2^nd squad fitted the original narrative in that was close to the road where is TOW vehicle had broken down and the squad had been deployed near it to protect it.

Despite all above being put on table the next series of spotting roles led to a lot of confused troops as after the first flurry of gun fire any unit and the subsequent scrambles for safety everyone had lost sight of each other.

The 6th para squad had moved to cross hedge and enter ruined farmhouse but had got stuck in the hedgerow and only just managed to get into the gap between the hedge and the farmhouse.

And before the U.S blinds card came out we had a 2^nd tea break !

Despite their no show for last two moves the Para anti-tank guns and the 1^st platoon of paras were left on blinds.

We decided to role to see if dawn was breaking but night was firmly entrenched.

We also rolled for reinforcements and the 3^rd German squad appeared on the northern edge of the table gingerly making their way back after having stopped off at a local tavern

Summers platoon sorted itself out with 6^th squad finally managing to move into ground (1^st) floor of ruins.

It was obviously a dark night because nobody  could spot the mg42 team in the broken ground, and they must have still been looking down the road as they spotted nothing either

The German Panzershrek teams moved to either end of the building they were in and the the totally forgotten Sgt Mueller who was their  commander ( and now to his horror platoon commander )was located where he was hiding with the 1^st Pak 40 in the 4 storey building ( he can be seen at top of building in photo above)

And of course the U.S blinds didn’t come out before the 2^nd tea break card came out

Move 4

Despite above we still left the unrevealed american units on blinds ( they get an extra dice on blinds if you ever get to use it)

We rolled for the night still not broke

And Germans got more reinforcement , the Panzer Lear Armoured cars,  3 x Skdz 222’s who randomly appeared on the western road leading into Le Mer right behind the blind with the 2^nd half of the U.S anti tank guns, this could get interesting!

A lot would depend on drawing of cards who would be drawn 1^st.

The German 2^nd squad was still slowly moving down the hedgerow and this continued:

5^th and 6 squads failed to spot the mg and vise versa

The the U.S. Blinds were drawn hurrah!

This quickly prompted a’ discussion’ , Pete wanted to take the guns fire twice and rolled for it, hitting the armoured car…….but I thought about this, the guns had still been effectively moving forward and had not been unlimbered for action, so we used one activation dice for them to spot, one to unlimber and only allowed one for the shot. According to the rules its should be aimed, but we argued against that, despite which it hit and disabled the armoured car, knocking out the engine and stunning the crew (2x shock)  for two activations

1^st platoon dived into the hedgerow and moved up towards the crossroads on hearing the commotion behind them

Sgy Mueller dived over to the other side of the building and saw nothing.

The forgotten mg team in the hamlet saw nothing .

The panzershrek teams heard a bang but saw nothing!

Know had Pete had his way ( which would have  only achieved another shock due to a lousy rolls to hit) the gun would have been much easier to spot and may have been over run by the 2^nd armoured car , but as it was they decided to carefully move up behind their suddenly stopped lead vehicle and the commander propped himself on top of the hull to pear over the hedgerow to see if he could spot anything .He didnt!

At this point it was 10 o’clock and Zeberdee called time for bed.

Wait for next weeks exciting instalment!