Decision at Le Mer D-Day -1

And know for part 3 of this epic that has kept least 2 readers enthralled.

For this weeks instalment we have the return of Keith with walking stick recovering from his op.

We drew or daylight and finally the faint glimmer of early morning light began to dawn which we decided would drop spotting roles but only -2 as opposed to -3 and drop the multiplier for spotting

We left it with the one of the anti tank guns having just disabled the lead Skdz 222 on the road which came into Le Mer on the Western road. With the commander of the 2^nd armoured car , standing on top of his car, peering over the top to see what the hell had shot the lead car. As it happened one of the 1^st unit cards drawn was for one of Anti tanks guns, Pete wanted to immediately fire at the disabled armoured car, but it has a stunned crew for at least another move, and had he fired it, it would have been a sitting duck for the other two armoured card who could then safely scream round the corner and let them have it. So its card was reserved, effectively putting it on over watch.

warehouse building by the Northern road they had come on, Squad 3 moved forward along the hedge. The 1^st U.S para platoon move along the hedge on the western road crossed the hedge and took up postions on western corner of the cross roads.

All the other units continued to try and spot what was going on with the only success was Sgt Hawkeye in 2^nd platoon , the platoons other Big man who thought he saw movement in the rough ground in front of their bombed out farmhouse and spotted the MG42 position. 1^st platoon’s card had come out but 3^rd squad had held back its action and opened fire on the hapless gun and despite very lousy chances took out both its loader and commander.

The 2^nd tea break card came out and the rules allow un-activated units to fire if they have a target, so the reserved at gun did, putting 3 shots int the hapless armoured car, but only blowing it up on the 3^rd shot, the 1^st two just put more holes in the engine.

The end results was a spectacular explosion which pretty much buggered everyone in the immediate areas  night vision

On the next move the only thing that happened was the lone gunner left on the mg42  returned fire taking out one of the paras (we were having a good set of die roles, he was on a reduced chance as a lone gunner) and the 2^nd AT gun on the western road deployed with the other gun to watch the armoured cars. It also got a bit brighter.

With the new move the 1^st card out was for 2^nd u.S platoon who’s 3^rd squad promptly let the lone mg 41 gunner have it. This drew the 1^st germans squads attention who moved from one side of the building they were in to the other to see what the hell had been shooting.

As it happened on of the Panzerhrek gunners in the floor below was able to tell them where it came from.

Likewise the 2^nd squad on hearing gun fire to their front, moved off road to the shadowy building on hill to their right.

Everyone then had tea again

As dawn was about to come down with the crash Summers platoon could hear the sound of tanks and could see coming down the east road what looked  like a column of tanks ( I had got another German reinforcement role ( I needed a 6 , and 4 commandeered French tanks in German service arrived, a Somua and 3 Renault R35’s)

To say both units sides were surprised was an understatement, Summers 2^nd Platoon’s 1^st squad dived into the hedgerow, the bazooka team took up position on the crossroads, and the mortar crew stood amazed and told Summers ‘Tanks’ , this was perhaps not their wisest decision. The tanks came to a screaming halt with their commander spotting the hapless mortar crew and diving in the turret and shutting the lid(there had been a discussion about Unbuttoned or buttoned,( you could see the glint in Petes eyes about shooting the commanders or even his famous mortar through hatch, but I had been reading about British tanks moving at night, and if the Germans took the same practice only the lead tank would be unbuttoned ,the rest would would just follow the light in front, a practice even more likely with all the gunfire). Then we got two more tea break cards again and next move

As it happened the next move was pretty much the German response move, The Tanks card came out 1^st, the lead tank opened fire and killed one of the mortar gunners and pinning the rest , Two of the other took up postion either side of the road and machine gunned the the hapless mortar crew, putting more suppresion on them. The mortar crew in desperation fired a smoke round to obscure their position. The 4^th tank moved cautiously through the gap in the hedge row to get a flanking position on the farmhouse.

The 3^rd German squad had by now spotted the U.S Anti tank guns covering the southern road opened fire on them killing one of the crew, who returned fire and managed to annoy one of the local pigeon population.

2^nd German Squad opened fire on the farmhouse, putting on suppression on their opposite no in Summers 2^nd platoon

1st German Squad opened fire on the farmhouse, putting on suppression on their opposite no in Summers 2^nd platoon and 2^nd squad who found there was no windows on the northern side of the barn they were in decided to join the tanks on the eastern road.

Summers decides to send his Bazooka team to move up the inside of the hedge to ambush the tanks, not knowing about the German 2nd squads move to joing them.

It was the home time for the players. Just to explain the slow progress of game , generally the other player don’t arrive till about 8 ish, and leave at 10 so by the time of a quick natter we probably on get about an hour and half’s play each week, which for most groups would be a problem but with the table being safely undisturbed in the games room is not a problem for ours.

So we leave it with the Americans currently holding the cross roads, their guns are holding back the armoured cars on the western approach , but likewise are cannot move due to their threat. The 2nd pair of guns are in a precarious position under fire from German infantry and unable to move in case they are caught in the open.

Summers has the problem that he is facing 4 enemy tanks ( he doesn’t know they are crap French ones) and currently has only 2 x bazookas with the addition of the one from 1st platoon to deal with them as all the guns are effectively pinned in position.