Decision at Le Mer D-Day -1

Apologies to the reader on the delay of final part of this, wrote it a couple of weeks back but forgot to take photos at time. Was going to do it , put days and other things got in way, so will publish and if anyone wants the photos of the last bit of game I can add them on request.

The final session for this part of the battle was difficult to keep track of. Despite intensive re-shuffles of cards in deck the moves tended to be Germans activate, an American unit activates and both tea break cards appear.

The upshot of this was the German Tanks were able to move right across the table to take up position by the warehouse that had been 3rd Squads previous home. Here they took up position and began to shell and machine gun the their opposite no’s in the 4 story building that had supported U.s 1st platoons 2nd Squad attack on Sgt Muller . Sgt Muller decided to dash across the road to better direct the fire from his 3rd squad on the same target.  His  completely forgotten 2nd Squad moved to the hedge to find that both the Tanks and any Americans had gone, they felt a bit like the lone U.S para at the end of the Longest Day , who spent all of D-day moving to the shooting to find it had all gone by the time he got there.

The forgotten pak 75 on the end of the southern road, could see lots of activity around the the above building and feeling bored decided to lobb a few shells at it particularly as no on could see where they were firing from.

This concentration of fire pretty much shot the American 3rd squad to bits with them down to only 2 men, who had to be dragged to safety by their big man. Though on the odd occasion they activated they managed to kill 2 men from the German 3rd Squad.

In the meantime in the odd times they activated, the American guns had begun to move to the cross roads, leaving one in position to over the Eastern road. Lt Summers seeing that the tanks had gone, gathered his troops and leap frogged his squads to assault the coal warehouse in preparation for attacking Sgt Muller squad at the end of the town.

Sgt Muller had a a dilemma despite the fact he seemed to have taken care of the enemy troops attacking his position. Not knowing  2nd squads location, he was down to around 9 effective’s  with his command squad and the 6 remaining 3rd squad. His tanks support was down to 3 light not particularly effective tanks. One of the guns his command had been left behind to protect had been destroyed by the American paras, which although he had momentarily dealt with their threat, he had no idea of the size of their force, and according to the tanks commanders more Americans where gathering in the town and it was almost certain they would assault his position with possibly overwhelming force, using the various town buildings to cover their approach from his tank support.

Discretion being the better part of valour he gathered his remaining troops, fired a very pistol , the pre-arranged signal to withdraw to any of his men still surviving in the area , and used the cover of the tanks to withdraw in order to join up with units of the Panzer Lear he knew were moving into the area.

For more await Decision at Le Mer D-Day

Well with this session things began to heat up, firstly the armoured cars on the Western Road activated 1st and decided to charge round the corner and blast the two guns, Unfortunately they were borrowing Gerrys dice and only managed to pin them.

The 1st platoon big man  activated next , ordered  one squad to  put down suppressing fire on the 4 story building and the other attempted to launch an assault, the shooting killed one more German , and the remaining 3 decided to vacate the building but only managed to get to 2nd floor, The assault failed due to lousy dice , the squad getting stuck in the broken ground.

At this point the 1st or the two guns activated, and it appears American dice are better than German as they promptly blew up one armoured car.

The 3rd and final gun activated and moved to the rear of the glider, moving slowly to get a shot at the tanks on the eastern edge of the table.

Summer for 2nd platoon activated , most of his platoon had no targets know so reserved his shooting, and the Bazooka tried again on the med tank , this time it blew the arse of it, and its big man commander dived out to the nearest light tank

Then the 2nd gun activated and promptly blew up the 2nd armoured car, though the Germans did manage to finally kill one of the American gunners in the explosion

Sgt Muller the German infantry’s hapless commander, gave up trying to to join his chewed up squad and retired after the Panzershrek team that had shot past him the previous session.( this would have an effect later)

Tea break

In the next move the the 3rd AT activated 1st and fired a shot at the tanks, to hits were registered but only managed to put a temporary movement effect, and the other bounced off. They fired back pinning the gun but otherwise little effect, German dice being lacking in pips.

1st platoons big man operated again, so the mortar started to put smoke in an effort to allow 2nd platoons squads to extricate from the farmhouse to escape further fire from tanks, and with no targets left for the suppressing squad, the assault squad charged in . Taking one look at the screaming Americans the 3 remaining Germans decided they had an appointment in Paris and fled the table. So the squad charged into the building to find no one there and only an empty bottle of Cognac, (Lt. Shultz last finally got some revenge). The other squad moved up to support behind the building.

In the meantime the 3rd German squad having run out of gunners to shoot, decided to cross the road and take up position in the building across the road from Sgt Muller. plus the mg 42 team sitting in the hamlet at the northern end of the road, move position to another building as suddenly realised they had an american gun they could see.

Tea Break.

The 3 German tanks decided discretion was the better part of valour and moved out of the line of site of the gun, realising their peashooters where having little effect.

Having sent his Sgt back to fetch the rest of the platoon , 1st platoons big man decided to launch his unused 2nd squad at the 2nd of the 4 story building on the road.The 3rd squad in the building just captured , put down suppressing fire and killed one of the Panzershrek crew. 2nd squad successfully caught the forgotten pak 40 crew on the ground floor napping and wiped them out, but then  was thrown out of the building by Sgt Muller who charged down with his two lads and the remaining Panzershrek Crewman, who managed to kill 4 Americans for the loss of the latter.

In the meantime the newly positioned German 3rd squad opened up on 1st Platoons squad who had been putting down suppressing fire and killed one of them.

The forgotten mg42 team having spotted the AT gun opened up on it, killing one gunner, this gun promptly move around the other side of the glider out of sight.

Then it was zebedee time again

A slow session move wise this week, we were slowed down by the fact our usual rules guru( every club has one OTT has a Justin) Kevin was not feeling well, so there was more than a little delay as rules were checked more than normal.

There was upside for the Paras in this in that we realised we had only been giving them 3 actions and dice, when in fact they get 4 for elite for squads of 8 men, which we only found out when we were looking at the the effect on squads when losing men.

The 2nd thing was that the 2nd tea break card on the 1st move did not come out till the end, so everything activated.

what t we got was a Game of two halves last night, though we only got two moves.

The 1st card drawn on move 1 was the German infantry platoon. 2nd squad in the woods, continued its careful move through. the wood toward the tanks. !st squad opened fire on the Americans at the bottom of the farmhouse killing one. 3rd squad had the most luck, reducing the 57mm gun crew to one man.

A couple of American Antitank cards came out, we decided we needed to put the ones covering the armoured cars on overwatch less we got a gamey charge by them before they could fire. ( perhaps one of the few faults of the rules is that all overwatchs come off at end of move , may be a local rule change for future games amend to stay on overwatch till next activation).

Then the tanks card came out, the one already in position , open fire on the farmhouse , but only managed to pin the troops in the top floor, in theory we could have given it an addition for packed  target but decided the floor would break it up (for the small gun anyway, 25pdrs and 105s we may have allowed it).

The 12nd american para platoon came next, and both squads opened up on the Germans across the road who had shot at them, forcing 2 casualties on them.( this is when we spotted they should have had an extra dice as the ground floor squad had 2 dead reducing its dice to 3). The 1st squad with Summers moved down the hedgefow to stalk the tanks and the Mortar crew scrambled into the safety of the hedgerow, not knowing that the tanks had moved off the road. The Bazzoka tea

Various other cards came out such as German guns, the one at Southern  end of the table not spotting anything and the one at the north spotted nothing. the 3rd american gun the same, and the German Armoured cars successfully spotted the guns watching the road they were going to enter on.

When the 1st  American platoon came out there was a little bit of a discussion.

One was sit and do nothing, in case they got caught in open,  which I thought was a great idea with two units of armour either side of them which could catch them in a pincer. The most it was going to do was delay the inevitable.Staying where they were meant that the 2nd hedgerow across the road prevented them from firing at the Germans in the 4th story building, moving to it would leave them into being chopped up by the armoured cars if they broke through at the end of the road.

So the Bazooka team was moved to cover the road , and two squads crossed the hedgerow and dived into the bank on the road side of the 2nd.

Then the Big man for the U. Anti tank guns came up, so he helped man the the remaining gun and shot at German 3rd squad, they know have 2 annoyed pigeons and a smoking  kestral(good thing its not Bens Burrows and Badgers).

We finally got the 2nd tea break card, and was not sure we would get a full move in before Zebedee said time for bed again and the pub was discussed, but Keith had forgot pennies so we pressed on.

Again German infantry card and the German tank went 1st and with reduced no’s and lousy dice only managed to put some suppression on the squad in top of farmhouse( 1st w’d had, it had been remarked unusually for this game, casualties had been caused but no supressions).

1st American platoon (above ) went next, obssessed with shooting Pete wanted to fire at the chewed German squad, but that could have left the open to being shot at by the armoured cars if the cards went wrong, After some discussion it was decided to run a squad to the broken ground between hedges  under the cover of smoke from their mortar and the German Postion ( for and assault next move)and the other squad fire on them( fire and movement old as the hills but seems to have passed everyone by) and they managed to cause another casualtie(becomes important later).

The German gun crew tried to spot the troops on the road but failed ( It took Keith about 5 mins to convince Pete they had a line of sight)

The Guns and armoured card continued to pin each other down( I think the armoured cars were doing a grand job, the guns could not turn to face the tanks)

Summer activated and got 1st platoon to shoot at the chewed German Squad , for one more casualtie which dropped it to one activation and one dice, and the Bazooka crew tried a shot at the retreating German tank ( the somua had lousy movement dice) as it was in partial cover as it was moving through the gap in the hedgerow ( I can see the back was cried, -but can you see 3 corners (pinched from Tanks) but missed (just).

The last tea break was pulled and Zebedee shouted bed time.

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.

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!

The 1st half of the evening was spent sorting out the activation cards for the two sides, The Americans being elite got an allied rapid deployment card which gives them an extra 4 dice of activation for moving. Two tea break cards were added , do initially the pack would consist of just 5 cards , a blinds activation for each side, and the above two cards.

The initial part of the game is set at night so all spotting distances were halved.

For those not familiar IABSM uses blinds for units not yet spotted with at least one extra blind to add the fog of war  its meant to represent a couple of scouts who are assumed to melt away if spotted.

The possible German units available were given a playing card identifier, and an identical card was place in reinforcement pack. To this 1/3rd no of cards were added of a different suits as non units,  this pack was shuffled and and then the no of cards were drawn out equivalent to the non unit cards  this way we had have no real idea what German forces were in the village, if a non unit card was drawn the representative blind would be removed on being spotted as per the blind rules

Rather than putting down the German blinds initially   too add to the Fog of war we just put down 4 zones of Deployment , and when it seemed appropriate,  we would randomly deploy German blind a random direction and distance d6+4 inches from Deployment zone market, ensuring that blind would be moved as close to available cover.

We then played out the 1st nights moves.

Nothing particularly exciting happened in these moves as units moved on blinds,  though there was a very cinematic feeling to the various units blundering around with no idea where the opposition was.

The AT gun blinds split, one headed for the hedgerows by the one road.

1. The other which was sitting a bit exposed , pulled their guns into the broken ground to the north of them, hopefully to get a firing position on the road coming from that direction.

The infantry platoon on the right (west) moved towards the road  but sent a scout blind to check out the group of buildings to the North of their position.

The platoon to East (Summers platoon) moved very slowly (bad dice roles) down the Hedgerows each side of the road until it reached the crossroads, directing one squad into to ruined farmhouse

The Germans sent out blinds to the 3 buildings being investigated by the American scouts, two into the 4 story building on North of town and others to building around the northern most crossroads. Others were deployed to the other 4 story building,  and 2 were headed for the ruin that Summers was heading for.

The blinds that were left were deployed either side of road from the German Deployment zone placed on the Southern entrance to table

Lots of failed spotting roles were made as evening went on, and only as we were about to call it a night was anything spotted,  unfortunately for Lt Shultz he was spotted directing troops.

3rd genedier squad was spotted lurking a base of building by eagle eyed American gunners.

My group tend to prefer to play narative style games with all the players playing one side, with the opposition played by a artificial intelligence system. I have for weeks since the D-Day bootcamp been building an American force and adding to my existing Germans see my related project

The Road to Falaise Bobs on going 15mm WW2 Adventure

I Ain’t been shot Mom, the original Two Fat Lardies WW2 company based game with its random activations and blinds and spotting seemed ideal for the scenario I had in mind. Nothing wrong with FOW rules, but they are more designed for those epic WW2 massed armour games, and well when you read the scenario you may understand.

It is the night of the 5th of June at what had been a fairly insignificant crossroads at the Village of Le Mer some 5 miles North West of Carentan.

Two Gliders of the 101st airborne, carrying a battery of 57mm tank Destroyers ( towed 6pdrs to non American readers) two planes have overshot the drop zone, and being fired upon by AA, have been forced to drop their Gliders blindly, as it happens on our sleepy little village, luckily for them two platoon worth of 101st have been dropped in same area and have started to converge on the sleepy little hamlet.

A platoon of 1058th Grenadier Regiment has been billeted in the village to protect a battery of Anti tank gun , who Prime movers have broken down on the way to coast, left behind when the rest of the company moved on to Carentan.

Neither side knows the other is there……..!

Lieutnant Shutlz stared angrily at the small glass of Cognac sitting on the makeshift table in warehouse he had made his temporary headquarters in this shitty little hamlet of Le Mer, more aptly it should be called Le Merde he thought. Famous or infamous for the factory that produced the awful looking bicycles everyone in the area rode.

The Cognac didn’t help his mood, he had risen from the ranks fighting in Russia and had never developed the taste for the stuff that his fellow officers had , it was only marginally better than the swill they called wine here. He was from Bavaria, now a good Bavarian Dunkel beer and you were talking.The Cognacs only saving grace was it was Alcholic and you could get pissed quickly on it!

Why did he need to get pissed ?

His bloody Company Commander had left his platoon here to guard two shitty guns and there crews who’s tow trucks had broken down. They’d all carried on to Carentan to deploy for the damn Allied Invasion!

Personally he didn’t what the fuss was about, they could have France, bloody hole  they could keep Russia too, why any self respecting German ever wanted to leave Bavaria never mind Germany eluded him!!!

To cap matters Private Dingler, or Private’s Dingler ,as he was always running off to take a leak, had run in from one of his 20 minute forays outside, (for a fag he’d said but the platoon knew better) had panickly shouted that he had a loud crash in the field to the wet of the Village,  ‘Loud Crash’ he thought how anyone could hear anything over the noise of passing Allied Bombers , and the booms from their falling bombs!

To make matters worse he’d tried to contact Company HQ earlier in the night and found the Radio was on the Fritz ……again!!!!!

Probably a waste of time but he’d better deploy the platoon just in case, which was sure to increase his popularity with Sgt Muller!

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHITTY SHIT! was the 1st words that came to the mind of Sgt  Dingler  101st Airborne. The only bright spot was the fact the two gliders bringing in his battery of 57mm guns had landed fairly safely, despite being released and abandoned by the bloody air Corp  when they’d had a few flak guns shoot at them! Fairly being the term as the Lieut had been the only casualtie,  knocked unconscious on the ‘landing’.

So he was in command!!!!

He’d got the guns out of the Gliders and one of his gunners head off to reconitre the village he’d seen by a few window lights to the east of where they had landed, he guessed someone may have spotted or heard them crash!!!!

The only redeeming thing so far was another of his gunners had made contact with a couple of Riflemen from the 501st, who were part of a mixed platoon of guys coming in from the east of their position. 

 Lt. William ‘Willy’ Summers nervously crouched at the gap in the huge hedge, that led from the field he had crossed, on his way to the the village he had spotted on his way down, before he became entangled with the tree. There had only been one on the edge of another field , and no matter how he tried to manoeuvre somehow he had landed at the top. 20 minutes of quiet cursing   frantic cutting, and not a few cuts and bruises had got him to the bottom,  where he found 10 of his men from his stick, standing and crouching amusingly watching his predicament. 

Finding as much dignity as he could muster he had them through various more fields picking up various troopers from just about every company of the 501st and even a couple of 82nd Airborne,  he wouldn’t be totally surprised if there were not some Limey Paratroopers in the mix, though he had collected a mortar crew.

One of his scouts had found an opening on to a dirt track road, which he now intended to  use to take the village ahead. He signed his makeshift squad leaders to spread their squads on each side of the track, and hugging the hedgerow  they would advance towards what looked like a bombed out building on the edge of the village.