We've all read stories on how a few German tanks if located in the right spot could hold off numerous Allied forces. To see if this was possible in a wargaming event we decided to throw as much armour as we could at a small yet powerful German force. The Allies attacked with about 36 tanks. A combination of Sherman M4A1's, Firefly's, and Churchill Mk VII's. The Germans had 2 Stug III's, a Tiger I, 2 Panthers, A Jagpanzer IV, and 2 Mk IV's. A 4 to 1 attack ratio. The terrain this time would have no rivers or creeks with choke points at crossings. It would be a simple western Europe landscape with a few hills, lots of woods and roads.
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| View from the German side. |
The German's kept their heavies back on the right but moved their Panthers and Jagpanzer IV up to a stone wall which acted like being in a defilade position. The Allied forces on the other hand had to move through some choke points in the terrain. The Germans had them zero'd in.
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| Initial deployment on the German left. |
The 2 Panthers on the left soon moved away from the stone wall. One went further left to protect that area from flank attacks while the other maneuvered to the crossroads to the right or center of the table on the other side of the shelled out house.
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| Allied forces advance under deadly fire. |
As the Allied forces advance a few Shermans are picked off. It was decided to rush up as much armour as possible with the objective of overwhelming the German defense.
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| A Panther and Pak 40 await the Allied rush. |
On the Allied right it was decided that the Shermans would hit over the around the left side of the hill while a group of 6 Churchill Mk VII's would attack to the right of the hill.
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| The Panther attacks. |
The Pak 40 at the tree line was overwhelmed with gunfire but the Churchill's were outclassed by the more lethal Panther and it's high velocity 75mm gun. Soon all 6 Churchill's were knocked out. Even a Sherman comes over to lend some help to the struggling Churchill's and ends up getting knocked out by a Panzershreck.
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| Panther gets nailed. |
Some limited Allied success happened in the middle of the table with the Panther stationed there getting knocked out from a very tight flank shot.
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| Allied problems on their left |
Maneuvering room was a premium for the Allies. The limited space they had was getting choked up with knocked out Shermans. The Allies lost 12 tanks while the Germans had lost only 1 (Panther) with 2 others (Stug III's) having their main guns knocked out. One managed to back out of the battle while the other became immobile and would eventually be abandoned.We discovered that with limited maneuvering room the Allies vast numbers couldn't be brought to bare in an effective way. We were thinking of running this game with the direction of advance being from the width of the table rather than the length. This would widen the table and allow for more maneuvering room for the Allies.
The scale of the game was 1 to 1 both for vehicles and figures. The rules are homegrown. The game lasted about 4 1/2 hours.
