Situation
Report: The Bottleneck. The road to Chehery, South of Sedan, France, 14 May
1940
Part of a
self-sacrificial counterattack to stem the German advance past Sedan was
launched by Allied air strike and the 7e BCC supported by the 55e Infantry
Division during the morning of the 14th. One prong of the attack was
direct through a valley with the Bar River on the left and a woody hill on the
right leading through a bottleneck. After an advance of several hundred metres,
the leading tank elements were ambushed, frustrating the quick attempt to get
through the town of Cehery and a better chance to hold off the German advance.
The
scenario calls for the French to knock out the forces blocking the road to the
town and take all five objectives. Both forces receive reinforcements in turn
2, the Germans gaining a powerful 10fp radio. Once again Dan took the Germans
and gave me the French. In doing so he also handed me 4 FCM 36 tanks. The
Germans set up machine gun positions in the wooded area where the road forks
and set wire across the roads. Reinforcements would arrive but until they did
the three squads had to keep the French back. The French infantry set up hidden
in the woods along the right flank. The armour was split into two groups, the
first (group un henceforth) would advance along the road and the second (group
deux) would move up the left flank and attempt to distract the German fire and destroy
the machine guns.
Group deux
made the first move, advancing around the side of Sgt Ganz’s guns. Although a
ravine would prevent them from advancing all the way behind the German position,
they still had line of sight and weapons of a great enough range to limit
reinforcement entry to certain areas. An attempt was made at the machine gun
position bringing the first time advance of the game with the fp roll. The
Germans saved successfully but the fp roll from the tanks MG immediately brought
another time advance triggering both side’s reinforcements.
The French
entered behind the woods and scrub at objective 3 and quickly moved to take the
points. The position was not an ideal one for 3 chasseur squads but it was
better than open ground. The Germans, the other hand, didn’t take such
precautions entering the reinforcements next to the ravine opposite armour
group deux in open ground. Taken aback by this unexpected gift, group deux almost
apologetically opened fire on the hapless Germans. Those that were not
eliminated in the first brutal salvo scrambled for cover but were then almost
entirely routed off the map. Within a few moments of entering the action the
entire German reinforcement group was destroyed whilst the French had not
registered a single loss.
The tanks
turned their guns back towards Ganz’s men and continued their attempt at
dislodging the German force but two more consecutive time advances changed the game.
What could have been a careful and unhurried removal of the German position
suddenly became a race against the clock. If time advances continued to appear
at the rate had been would the French have enough time to take the objectives
they required?
At this
stage the Germans called in their first artillery strike of the day, pounding
Sgt Delvoie’s men who had moved to the edge of the forest to take objective.
The artillery was accurate. The German’s had a chance if they could run the
clock down and take out a couple of squads in the meantime. Armour groups un et
deux fell silent as the French deck inevitably dried up, only occasionally
managing to fire but finding it difficult to make the sustained assault needed
to overcome the Germans. Matters were made more desperate for the French as yet
another time advances quickly appeared.
Ganz
called in more artillery, this time hitting the reinforcing squads hard,
breaking Fache and the chasseurs and further supressing them with machine gun
fire. By now Delvoie and his 4 squads were making their way through the forest
in order to encircle the Germans, the reinforcing units lead by Sgt Fache were
desperately attempting to avoid being shelled again whilst the armour was
patiently waiting the opportunity to hit Ganz’s MGs. The vp track was on 0 with
the allies holding the initiative and the Germans were one elimination away
from surrender. A very welcome élan event for the Germans provided a glimmer as
the surrender marker was moved one space higher, temporarily holding off the
threat of immediate surrender before another time advance, this one a sudden
death roll that resulted in another turn, shifted the vp track to 1 in favour
of the Axis. True to form, before France had an opportunity to make any further
attempts at either objectives or eliminations, another time advance came out,
this one triggering the end of the game and a narrow points victory for the
Axis.
This was
by far the quickest game we have had yet, and also the strangest. The rate at
which time advances appeared was as unlikely as it was frustrating. This coupled
with a French deck that never really got moving meant that despite an error of
judgement that led to massive losses during reinforcement entry and facing
overwhelming numbers of infantry and tanks, the Germans could still take the
win. It was a tricky game to write because, aside from the reinforcement
incident and a couple of artillery hits, nothing really happened. The time
advances came that quick. On two
consecutive turns early on, the two fp rolls for one of the tanks each saw a
time advance. The rate at which they came out after that was hardly slow.
The Axis
take an overall lead of 4-3 and Dan extends his lead to 5-2. We were both left
scratching our heads a little after this one; it never really got going before
ending. Time reverts back to a steadier and more predictable rhythm next time
as a Moroccan force defends tooth and nail against an aggressive German assault
on a strategically important road.
Thanks for
reading.
James
& Dan
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