Turn Five: Battle for La Fière
A heavy attack is mounted across the causeway as the Germans strike their objective. Intense fighting occurs as the American paratroopers put up a relentless defense.
Map
The La Fière manoir has the main house and a variety of out-buildings: a small timber woodshed, a two-level half-timber shed (facing the bridge), two stone cottages and a stone stable with a thatched roof. The Airborne have their local Command Post in this stable.
Across the road from the manoir, to the north, is a large open field bordered by chest-high hedges.
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| (Stug III to show scale only) |
There is a medieval stone arch bridge over the Merderet River. The river is impassable terrain.
The most notable feature of this area is the inundated fields surrounding the elevated causeway. This water counts as Really Heavy Going. Troops caught in this terrain count as being in the open, with no ability to go Tactical nor move At the Double. No vehicles may enter the inundated fields.
Support Choices
German Support: Renault R35 x 2 (8), 1 Infantry Gruppe (4), Adjutant (1)
US Support: Bazooka Team (2), Sniper (3), 1 entrenchment (1), and 57mm M1 anti-tank gun (via a Wild Card).
Platoon Leaders
Lt. “Hat-Trick” Patrick commands the US Airborne. However, he never joins the fray - he apparently had to deal with a crisis elsewhere. It’s left to his doughty sergeants.
The German platoon commander is Unterfeldwebel Konstantin Hermann - a young and callow NCO and former Hitler Youth leader.
Hermann’s platoon suffered seven casualties in its last combat. He re-arranges his squads to bring two up to full strength, and the third is reduced to just a 4-man LMG team – to provide covering fire. Troops from another unit “volunteer” to make up numbers for the attack (infantry gruppe support choice).
Special Scenario rules (abridged)
The Americans have prepared several anti-tank defenses to hold the bridge, one of these being an ambush position underneath the bridge. The position can fit two Teams or one Squad. The US player begins the game with two full Chain of Command Dice.
Combat
The Germans, having been delayed by the paratroopers, are behind schedule and this is their one shot to take the vital bridge at La Fiere. If they fail then their operational objective will be lost !
US morale began on 12 and German morale began on 11. German morale remained relatively good despite heavy casualties but it would transpire Hermann was unable to keep full control of the situation and coordinate the assault across the bridge (I was not getting useful command dice rolls!).
The German plan was to get their infantry across the bridge with smoke and covering fire, then flank around the manor house. The objective JOP was in the thatched-roof stone stable.
It was a slow start. After some eerie quiet (phases where nothing happened), a lone Renault appeared and was soon joined by the German 1st and 2nd Squads which moved cautiously up either side of the road.
The US Airborne had deployed Sergeants Hobbs’s 1st Squad behind the corner of the stone wall with a clear view of the bridge. An Airborne sniper hiding on the upper floor of the half-timber shed fired on the approaching Germans. This sniper ended up inflicting several casualties including killing half of the independent LMG team and lightly wounding Obergefreiter Fassbender (leader of German 1st Squad).
US Platoon Sergeant Joe Lott deployed behind the thatched-roof stable, near the platoon's 60mm mortar. The mortar crew continued to bomb the causeway and bridge during the engagement.
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| Platoon Sergeant Lott giving orders |
The German independent LMG team took up position on the causeway and gave covering fire – mostly by firing at the half-timber shed. (The RAW seemed to us to allow covering fire on a sniper’s position even if the sniper hadn’t been spotted yet. Covering fire is aimed at a terrain feature. This also seemed plausible from a real-life perspective).
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| German 1st and 2nd Squads, a Renault and independent LMG team (now two men down) moving cautiously up the road toward the bridge |
A bazooka team hidden underneath the bridge jumped out – fired at the Renault – and then scooted away. The bazooka rocket was clearly a dud because (despite hitting side armour) it only frightened the crew and caused no physical damage to the little tank.
The Airborne had created a formidable roadblock – an M1 57mm gun entrenched with sandbags in the middle of the road and with a perfect field of fire on the bridge. The M1 fired at the Renault. The tank is small and obscured by the curve of the bridge. The AP shell missed.
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| Panzers going to Sainte-Mère-Église will need another route... |
The Germans inched toward the bridge – with a fire and advance tactic, exchanging fire with US 1st Squad. The US 2nd Squad deployed on the other side of the road – in the field opposite the manor – and bolted into position at the corner of the hedge. The bridge was now well covered by both Airborne squads’ field of fire – a textbook crossfire defence on a choke point.
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| US 2nd Squad deploys and bolts toward corner of hedge. Sgt. Ross has captured Schmeisser in hand |
Feldwebel Hermann arrived on the scene to personally lead the assault across the bridge. He ordered smoke grenades to be thrown. He then followed 1st Squad in a dash across the bridge and toward a stone wall on the opposite side of the river. The lightly wounded Obergefreiter Fassbender tried to keep up – his wound hastily bandaged up. Luckily the sniper shot had only grazed him.
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| "Angrif!" |
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| "We can't see 'em, Sarge!" |
German 1st Squad started taking casualties and became pinned by intense fire from US 1st Squad before it could reach the safety of the stone wall. And the smoke dissipated in the wind ! (Cam ended the turn with a COCD).
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| "Pour it on 'em!" |
With the smoke cleared, US 2nd Squad was able to add even more direct fire onto the exposed grenadiers of German 1st Squad.
The German 2nd Squad remained on the bridge, receiving decent cover from its stone parapets, although still taking some casualties, including the squad leader Obergefreiter Kehrer.
The Renault accelerated across the bridge. And a second Renault appeared on the causeway.
Broken under withering cross-fire, the survivors of German 1st Squad (including Hermann) ran back to the causeway.
The German 3rd Squad – the scratch force of “volunteers” – had arrived and sprinted up the causeway to the bridge.
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| (Note Hermann and the remnants of 1st Squad in background) |
The lead Renault survived two more near-miss shots from the US 57mm. Truly the luckiest tank crew in the entire Reich!
Feldwebel Hermann ordered his men into another assault. The German 2nd Squad fired from the bridge on to the US 2nd Squad behind the hedge. Then came the order “Handgranaten!”, and the German 3rd Squad lobbed four potato-mashers at US 2nd Squad before charging forward.
The grenades’ blast effect stunned the Airborne a bit (some shock) and the fire from the bridge in support had some effect too (some more shock). The Airborne managed to fire on the charging Germans (Cam played an COCD Interrupt) - although the dazed Airborne, with their ears ringing, fired wild and hit no-one. A bloody hand-to-hand engagement followed. With the thick hedge as a defensive barrier for the Airborne, the Germans were at disadvantage in close-quarters. The Airborne killed 7 Germans in hand-to-hand fighting, while losing 4 of their own men. The three surviving Germans retreated in disarray.
With their infantry support cut to pieces, the German tanks began to reverse out of the combat area. The German attack had failed.
The campaign initiative passed to Cam and he of course declared he was counter-attacking. Thus the campaign ended with a US Airborne victory as it was impossible for me to reach map 4 by the end of campaign turn 7 !
As a laugh, even though I’d conceded, Cam played his last COCD to ambush my Renault with a bazooka team. He fired at close range into the rear armour of the tank. The tank survived.
Results
Germans suffered 18 casualties: 12 KIA, 3 wounded, 3 wounded but able to immediately return to duty.
Airborne suffered 7 casualties: 4 KIA, 3 wounded but able to immediately return to duty.
