Fox-Blue - with Battlegroup D-Day - D-Day to Berlin series game 1

Last year we played a series of Battlegroup games on the Eastern Front, from Barbarossa to Berlin, one battle from each of the Battlegroup supplements for '41 to '45. Then we repeated it in three desert battles from '41-'43. So, that just left the ETO. Getting back to some WWII action, we have decided to play a series of games using all the Battlegroup books that cover the ETO, '44-'45, from D-Day to Berlin. The plan being to vary the scenarios and the army lists used, and get 5-6 different game (often with the same models). So, to start with, D-Day then. I have the stuff and tabletop for an Omaha-ish type game. Time to dig-out the LCVPs.

This was an 800 point Attack/Defence game using the Beachhead scenario from Battlegroup:D-Day,  US Amphibious Assault force vs a Resistance Nest. 

Approaching Fox-Blue in low swell.

The forces, in brief were, roughly:

US: assault boat team in LCVP, DD Sherman tank platoon, Engineer Gap team and Sherman bulldozer in LCM, support weapons boat team in LCVP, M7 Priest, shore fire control party and HQ in LCM, with a PRTP and off-table 5” gun fire. BR 51.

Germans: Ost infantry platoon and auxiliary conscript labourer/kriegsmarine platoon, 152mm coastal gun bunker, 150mm infantry gun bunker, 75mm AT gun bunker (under farm outhouse), reinforced trenches for all infantry, lots of barbed wire (40”), a mined beach with beach obstacles, OP bunker and off-table 120mm mortar battery, plus a few timed strikes, a HQ and comms truck, 50mm mortar team. BR was 31 +6 for their ‘Deserters will be shot’ bonus, the max.

Time to hit the beaches "Let's Go!".

The US approached in three waves, with the gap team and DD Shermans leading, followed by the infantry and M7 Priest and change, at the back. The first turns were quick, as the US landing craft and DD’s all ploughed through low-swell towards the shore and the 5” guns plunged fire onto its PRTP, amidst the defences on the hill on the left. I had decided it would be a mistake to just go up the centre, and take fire from all sides, so chose a flank, here left, as the objective was on the high ground there. The PRTP was then placed to soften up the hill here… but the concrete proved strong enough to resist just about it all, except a lucky direct hit on a MG team that wiped them out… first losses of the game.

The Germans had very few orders, and so fired a few shots out to sea, causing some pinning on landing craft (but as per the special rules, then can still move if pinned at sea), and this was rallied off anyway. By turn 3, the first engineers hit the beach, ramps down and rushed to blow gaps in the obstacles for those DD tanks. It went OK, 1 gap formed, but two gap teams stepped on mines and became pinned. First losses on the beach. The German mortars rained in to add a bit more pinning, the engineers suddenly were fully pinned down. Only one DD tank could get through as the others fired HE up from the waterline, all smashing off concrete to little effect. The M7 Priest was firing en route in as well, but again, the coastal gun bunker was a monstrous bit of reinforced concrete, and the 105mm HE wasn’t denting it.

As the first LCVP arrived, the infantry assault team piled out, rushing up the beach for the single (soft cover we decided). The team HQ stepped on a mine and was KO’d, the LT was the platoons first loss. Soon added to that was rifle fire from the high ground and 50mm mortar bombs, but teams made it to the single and got their bangalore torpedoes out to breach the barbed wire, before assaulting up the slope. The flame thrower team drew fire and were quickly wiped out. Meanwhile, the Sherman gun fire had pinned down the 150mm infantry gun and more 5” shells had smashed the hill top, but the German observer team inside their little bunker called in 120mm mortar fire, and did some damage to the parked landing craft. The Germans suddenly realising their were vulnerable, targeted then and a 152mm shell hit and sunk the empty LCVP… the LCM began backing out to sea.

The US would continue to press, and cleared another gap for the next DD Sherman, which moved up the beach, taking HE hits and shrugging them all off… the Germans lacked for AP, as the PAK bunker was far back and if it could get a line of site, needed 6s to hit. The DD, and bulldozed Sherman which had now cleared a mine-free route up the beach for engineers to follow, could well be the key (no panzerfausts for the infantry here). They continued to HE and MG left and right, but had to be careful, with no resupply for the HE ammo.

The US assault up the hill began, but the first rifle team failed to assault and instead got pinned on the bluff, then wiped out by rifle fire. The Sherman bulldozer through got up the slope and through the lines, behind the infantry gun bunker, which it again pummelled with HE. The Sherman need infantry aid, and engineer teams (demo charges used) pushed up, only to again be cut down by rifle fire (even the German 2 man OP team was shooting with rifles from their bunker now). BR counters were really mounting. Back on the beach, under mortar fire, 80mm and 50mm, the last engineers just couldn’t get the gaps blown and the last LCM, with the M7 Priests to unload, was repeatedly pinned. The last LCVP was raking the trenches with .50 cal fire, as the support infantry weapons team disembarked, humping MGs and their mortar. They again reached the single in force, and found a gap in the wire to assault the trenches and wiped out an MG team and then an Ost infantry squad, they were in the trenches, but pined down, until a unseen Goliath appeared, rolled up, exploded, and wiped them out in a big bang. The German position was cracking… and their counters jumped up too. The US also pulled an Air Attack counter and rolled a 5… USAAF P-47 incoming.

It was close, US losses far higher, but we had the BR to absorb the losses, but was it enough? Well, after the P-47 roared over and rocket attacked the farm, destroying the comms truck parked in the yard, it seemed it would be. The last US infantry were clambering up the bluffs, as Sherman HE continued to try and pin those bunkers. The 150mm sIG had run out of ammo (mercy), but the 152mm coastal gun final hit and penetrated a DD Sherman, leaving it a smoking wreck (first tank loss). 120mm mortars also sank the reversing LCM… and a US MG .30 cal team on the shingle firing into the trenches, as spotted and return fire wiped them out. After rallying, 4 counters left the US on 52 BR total… broken.

The Germans had raced to 27, well short of their 37 (but close to their 31, before the additional bonus). They had held out. ‘Fox Blue is not open’. We’d just have to hunker down and wait for aid.

So, game 1, and its 1-0 to the Germans in the series. Next, into the bocage with Beyond the Beaches.

The tabletop, so nice to get my beach boards out... they don't see much use.

German right and centre, in the gap (draw). This was the auxiliary troops, but they got off lightly.

Coastal gun bunker and infantry trenches beyond.

US disembark, engineer gap teams work on the obstacles just before the armour arrives, just as planned.

Sherman DD lends fire from the waterline as the support weapons boat team arrive.

Assault the high ground, only the engineer's Sherman made it up. The infantry trenches proved too tough for the GIs, even after 5" guns had pounded them. We needed the flamethrower team to clear them out.