"Quiet everybody," Sturmbahnfuhrer Sepp Krafft glared at the excited gaggle of teenagers milling in front of him.
"We are the defenders of the Reich," he announced in what he felt were suitably portentous tones. "On your young shoulders will fall the burden of protecting," he broke off and peered at something protuding from the tunic of one of the younger recruits. "What the hell is that?"
Somewhat shamefacedly the young trooper produced a small teddy bear.
"I can't sleep without it," he admitted, blushing.
"Give it here."
"But sir,"
"I said give it here. You can have it back after the battle." Krafft turned to the rest of his "men" who were sniggering at their colleague's discomfort. "Enough of that. Have you prepared defences?"
Bursting with pride the young SS troopers displayed a rather wretched collection of badly dug foxholes and fire positions pointing in the wrong direction.
"The British won't break this line," announced one of them with what Krafft thought was unwarranted optimism. "We've named it the Krafftwerk," he added obviously expecting praise.
"Of course you have," muttered Krafft.
"They're coming," yelled one of his veteran NCOs.
"To your positions," ordered Krafft. "Remember the eyes of Germany are upon you." The statement would have carried a little more weight if he hadn't emphasised the point by flourishing the teddy bear he was still holding in one hand.
"What do you think sir?" asked the NCO as the group of half trained adolescents fumbled with their weapons and dropped hand grenades on their toes.
"If I get a Knights Cross out this it'll be a bloody miracle."
Thirsting to avenge his defeat in the desert Richard Weilly suggested we play Scenario WO37 - The Vital Hours. This is set in the early hours of Operation Market Garden and historically was the start of a series of delays which incrementally led to the failure of the operation. Sepp Krafft's trainee SS troopers did well under pressure (although he still didn't get a Knight's Cross despite dropping several hints). Now it was time to see if I could produce a similar result against Rich's British paratroopers making their way down the country road on route to the bridge at Arnhem.
The British win by accumulating 12 victory points by either exiting troops off the east edge of the board (presumably on the way to Arnhem) or capturing a number of buildings by the side of the road or some combination of the two. I win by stopping him. As befits an elite outfit like the 1st Airborne Richard has seven and a half elite squads let by a pair of officers (one a 9-2) equipped with two lmgs and a PIAT. Entering on the first turn are another four elite squads a 9-1 officer with another PIAT plus a dismantled mmg and another light. Also turning up is a 75mm artillery piece hauled by a jeep.
To keep the paras at bay I have eight and a half second line squads (SS by SSR), three officers including my own 9-1 two light machine guns, one medium, a panzerschreck and a 20mm AA gun. Plus some concealment counters to spread the love. Rolling on in support is a completely unarmoured halftrack toting another 20mm.
Below is my set up. The British set up in the area delineated by the blue lines. As you can see I've made the stream my main line of resistance. The 20mm gun is hidden in a building across the road from my 9-1 which of course is up on the first floor with the mmg. My main focus was defending the village although I do have a squad deep in the rear to protect against an exit rush. Note the British can only exit between hexes G20 and K20 so the lone squad is quite decently placed.
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| Set up |
At first though things seemed to be going well. Richard threw his onboard force directly at my defences and lost an entire squad to suspiciously well aimed small arms fire as he did so. Despite this he broke into my defences and managed to keep the attention of my forces concentrated on the threat immediately in front of them. When his reinforcements came on he moved them to the extreme right in line to flank my entire position.
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| The British have taken casualties, I even have some prisoners but the Krafftwerk has been lost |
For my part I dealt with his reinforcing flankers by ignoring them. There wasn't anything I could do about them and I had a bunch of battle hungry red berets steaming down the road in front of me. I would just have to hope that my rearguard could in fact guard my rear.
As for the frontal battle I did my best to withdraw slowly and present a solid, concealed, front with mixed success. Since Richard was bulling straight down the road for the most part I shuffled troops on my left a little closer to the incipient battle zone and hoped for the best.
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| The front may be concealed but solid is not quite the word I would use. |
My 20mm joined the fray although it achieved nothing except to display to Richard where my 20mm was. Still things weren't going too badly (we'll just overlook the three squads of flankers for the moment shall we?). I still held all the victory buildings and had tightened up my defenses around the road. Of course another way of putting that is to say my outer defences had been driven in and I was reduced to a clot of troops with little way of escape. Context is everything.
Having broken through my outer crust however Richard was now in the position of being able to amass impressive amounts of firepower against my undergunned defenders. Amass this he did.
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| Richard is amassing while I take what comfort I can from the fact that he isn't finished yet |
Then things went quite badly wrong. Although not if you're Richard. Unfortunately I wasn't. My 20mm continued its parade of uselessness by breaking and the emboldened (what a dreadful word) Richard to send troops forward against my position in the farm houses. While this was happening, his massing completed, Richard launched an attack against my main position with the 9-1. He also drove his 75mm gun straight down the road to support his troops. He had managed to get a halfsquad into the ground floor of my (remaining) main defensive building while an impressive kill stack headed by his 9-2 stood proud in the street outside.
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| Things aren't looking good for the training battalion |
The only reason why the game didn't end there is the legendary worthlessness of the 9-2. I hate 9-2 officers. They promise so much and, at least in my hands, produce so little. At least with a 10-3 or a 10-2 you know he's going to get sniped in the first turn so you don't place any reliance on him. But a 9-2 should be your go to guy. On this occasion it would be Richard who would suffer the curse of the 9-2. A simple morale check would send him yelping for the rear and buy my defenders another half turn or so of life as his troops rolled their eyes and realised they would need to do this without his assistance.
Freed of the constraints of their officer the British paras swept into the building and reduced what was left of my force to a broken rabble. I hadn't helped matters by rather stupidly reinforcing a melee taking place on my left. He had sent a squad in to CC with my gun crew who had rather improbably survived. I then reinforced that with a squad and leader so that I had parity in numbers and a negative one modifier to boot. This was apparently what Richard had been waiting for as he cheerfully slaughtered the lot next turn.
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| Oh dear |
Richard would rally his 9-2 the next turn whereupon he would promptly pin and take no further part in the game. My reinforcing half track rolled on only to discover there was precious little for him to reinforce. It was at this point that I chose to conceded. I had precisely three unbroken squads left scattered widely about the battlefield plus one unarmoured half track doing its best to look menacing as a bunch of traumatised teenagers ran in all directions around it. I could perhaps have dragged the game out for another turn or so but with Richard's force solidly placed in the village (with the 9-2 shouting encouragement from the rear) and three squads of flankers bearing down on my single rearguard unit I really didn't see a way to victory. Richard executed his plan well, driving relentlessly forward without allowing my defenders any scope for regrouping while his flankers just strolled across out of sight of my defenders until they got the opportunity to pop up in my rear and make a nuisance of themselves. Not my best performance it has to be admitted but my next one would be worse.
"Well that was a disaster," muttered the Krafft. All around him hysterical teenagers wept for their mothers and moaned about the unfairness of life. Krafft stared glumly at the ceiling his dreams of a Knight's Cross fading before his eyes.
"Bad news sir," announced his NCO.
"Now what?"
"The Reich Child Counselling Organisation wants to speak with you about todays action. Something about triggering of vulnerable youth and the lack of safe spaces on the battlefield. Oh and that kid wants his teddy bear back."
Krafft clutched the bear a little tighter to his chest.
"I will defend it to the last."
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