Battle Report: English Civil War

Captain Blackadder's right-hand regiment.


A rare sight - English Civil War armies facing each other across a tree-strewn battlefield in Chester! The battle itself is a little complicated to describe due to the excessive amount of running away both sides did once again. This time round it was the (completely painted) Parliamentarian forces of Captain Blackadder (Aidan) who faced the (slightly less painted) Royalist forces (mine). We used the ‘Warhammer Ancients: English Civil War’ rules and mocked up armies roughly similar in points. The Parliamentarians outnumbered the Royalists so were rated ‘Steady’, while the kings men all became ‘Elite’.

The battle itself followed a distinct deployment and pattern. Both sides setup with blocks of pike flanked by musketeers - the Parliamentarians having the better of this with five units of muskets to the Royalists one. The cavalry of each side, gallopers all, deployed facing each other, and Captain Blackadder also employed a unit of skirmishing muskets in the buildings to his right.

Both sides began by advancing to within around 8” of the other, with the cavalry eying each other warily, before first the rebels, then the royalists unleashed volley fire into the enemy. This disposed of around 5-6 rebel musketeers, and about 7 royalist pikemen. The Royalist pike on the left then charged, and successfully drove two units of musketeers and a unit of pikemen from the field. It was also a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of day, which ended up with the Royalist pikemen all wearing armour. This, along with the elite higher toughness, was a distinct advantage.

At this point most of both sides decided to flee in panic, and it all becomes a bit hazy. The Parliamentarian horse did successfully drive the Royalist horse and Colonel-General from the field, while the clash of pike on the right ended with the royalists fleeing. All powder had been expended by both sides by the time the last royalist musketeers were caught between Blackadder’s skirmishers and the rest of the rebels pike, and the battle was over. The Parliamentarians had won, but not by a big margin, and more men had fled the field than had died.

Analysis:
Once again panic played a huge part, and the strength of the pike blocks was demonstrated. The elite Royalist pike managed to drive off a much larger enemy thanks to their extra toughness and armour, and caused massive panic in the enemy ranks in doing so. However the Royalist horse was not so impressive, and the enemy having got the charge they fled never to return. Musketeers were mostly unimpressive again, and all had fired all their shot by the end with only a few casualties! Their strength appears to be in potential, and they did make a mess of the two Royalist pike units early on.



The Parliamentarian infantry centre.

The (slightly less painted) Royalists opposing them.

Complete Parliamentarian deployment.

The two armies face each other before battle commences.

Flames Of War Battle Report - Grenadier Kompanie Vs Finnish Panssarikomppania (Tank company to everyone outside of Finland)

1/12/09

2,000pts "Free-For-All" Scenario.

With the battle for Normandy suspended it was back to mid-war mediocrity and picking a fight with another 'alle'. I was actually given the choice of whether I would like to fight the Finns infantry company or tank company. Having picked my army earlier I wasn’t going to make any changes based on the opposition, and because I had not faced them before I plumed for the tank company.

The Protagonists:
The Finns army, at first look, appeared daunting. A total of thirteen tanks, including the two KV1e’s - with armour to match a Tiger, lined up preparing for deployment, and reminded my of Red‘s 7th armoured (“haven‘t we just left this party…”). They were joined by three assault guns - the irrepressible BT-42‘s, some heavy artillery, a pioneer platoon, two units of anti-tank guns and a couple of Landsverks (armoured anti-aircraft vehicles with a nice sideline in light-tank and infantry killing). However I was given hope having looked up the enemies vital statistics, and realised that only the KV1e’s were a match for any armour I could put down, and at least seven of the tanks, and the assault guns, were vulnerable to machinegun fire!

My own force was heavily infantry-based, with a total of three grenadier platoons, machinegun and mortar assistance and a unit of two PaK40 anti-tank guns. The real killing power rested with my remaining two platoons; the StuG F/8’s at full three-assault-gun strength, and a Tiger 1E. I hoped the Tiger would even the playing field against the KV1e’s, while the StuG’s could pick off the rest of the armour and the infantry did its usual trick of hiding in buildings and trees until it was time for medals and schnaps.

The Battle:
I deployed my two objectives as far from each other as possible in the enemy deployment zone, hoping to split the Finns units, the opposition placed their two quite close together in the centre of my deployment zone.

I was thrown off balance early on with the enemies deployment and initial attack. Six light tanks (T-26’s) set off down my far right, while the bulk of the enemy armour and their pioneers attacked down the left. Cunning deployment of one of their anti-tank gun platoons (also PaK40’s as it turned out) instantly restricted the Tiger’s movement in the centre, and it was unable to go to the aid of my first grenadier platoon which was overwhelmed and destroyed in short order by the enemy pioneers in buildings on my far left while the Finns tanks kept watch. The StuG’s were also unable to help due to the persistence of the light tanks - with only one grenadier platoon and the PaK40’s on my right/centre I had to maintain a presence to prevent the T-26’s sneaking in to grab an objective.

For a time it did not look good; the StuG’s and PaK40’s struggled to kill off the T-26’s swiftly (although they finally got there by turn five), while the only thing my Tiger truly feared - pioneers - were advancing, seemingly unstoppably, towards the centre supported by a mostly untouched tank spearhead of ten AFV‘s. Then luck and the fear factor took a hand in proceedings.

My own pioneers, guarding a wood, and the only unit between the enemy attack and the objective held by the Tiger, struck very lucky and pinned the enemy pioneers with defensive fire, and then beat off an attack by the T-28’s in the tank column. They would only last one more turn in their foxholes, but by the time they had all succumbed the enemy pioneers were reduced to a single team which soon fled. This punch-up did cost me my company CO as well, but bought time to bring the StuG‘s back towards the centre. Meanwhile fear of having to go toe-to-toe with the Tiger - an enemy now only the KV1e’s could damage, and then they could only hope to bail it out - had struck the Finns armour, and it stayed hidden from the Tiger behind the much-contested wood, trading shots with the StuG’s in an ineffective fire fight.

With the T-26’s on the right destroyed my final grenadier platoon finally went on the offensive, moving through a series of ruined buildings and a wood to a position where it could launch an assault upon the enemy heavy artillery. With no Finnish infantry or armoured presence on that side the heavy guns were quickly silenced in turn eight, and any attempt to rescue the situation with the PaK40’s was finished off by three fortunate (and very long-ranged) shots from the Tiger who was starved of other targets.

With nothing else left to contest the objective, and no way of forcing a company moral check the Finns gracefully conceded.

Post-Battle Analysis:
I was concerned about the Finns giving an Italian-esk performance with their light tanks, but compared with the Eyties their tanks are far too slow and unreliable for this sort of tactics, and the slow methodical approach works much better. The pioneers could hold the key to the Finns tank company success - with my infantry confined to their woods and buildings in fear of getting hit by the massed tank machineguns in the open, and my supporting Tiger and StuG’s distracted, the Finns pioneers were able to pick their targets without interruption.

In the end I am left giving thanks to my own pioneers for stopping them, because I don’t think the Tiger would have, and nothing else was able to assist. Credit also goes to Nathan for his aggressive placement of his two PaK40 AT guns, who were stood in the open covering the whole of the battlefield while my two had already taken to the trees with virtually no affect on the battle. The Finns armour may have been paralysed by the Tiger late on, but the Tiger didn’t move more than six inches onto the battlefield for fear of the PaK40’s! I just hope the Brits weren’t watching…..

Caen - Day 3

Day three of the battle for Caen, and the British had decided on a more subtle encirclement rather than the direct armoured assault. The famed ‘Desert Rats’ headed off on a flanking manoeuvre that took them through the North African desert and encountered the Finnish there. Against all expectations, and against a wave of Crusaders, the Finns held out in a ‘Fighting Withdrawal’, and achieved victory on turn 8. Such heroics should be told by the participants themselves, and with the British CO probably hiding in shame in the Sahara I suspect we are still awaiting the Finns overenthusiastic views on a battle which looked lost.

Meanwhile the road into Caen, where the British had been defeated by the 102nd SS Tigers last week, was the scene of more fighting when the 17th SS Panzergrenadiers launched an assault on British units ‘Holding the Line’. Sadly it was not a contest, the small battlefield size and high number of British ambushing units combined to block the Germans out with ease, leaving the German CO (yes that’s me) to walk await significantly embittered and muttering about level playing fields, machineguns and universal carriers.

Finally it must be noted that the war will not be over by Christmas due to the organiser suffering from other committments. Hopefully it will pick up where it left off in the new year, and for now we must go back to minor scraps over yards of France awaiting the big breakthrough.

Caen - Day 2 Pictures

The Brits advance towards the German infantry in their trenches.

British artillery covering the Commando's advance through the cornfields.

British attack struggles in the centre under fire from the Tigers.
The Brits armoured casualties mount in front of the trenches.

Armoured infantry follows up the initial attack.

The Brits left flank overruns the trenches and turns inwards to flank the outnumbered pioneers.

The British armour on the right trades fire with the Panzer IV's.

Wittmann assists the StuG's in breaking the moral of the 7th Armoured and driving them from the field.

The 102nd SS swarms forward to reclaim the objective from the Commando's.

A tribute to British naval firepower - one of four burning Tigers (the others attributed to artillery and Sherman Firefly fire).

The Panzer IV's retake the trenches for the Germans as the Brits are forced from the field.

Caen Campaign - Day 2

See the below link for the British view of how the campaign progresses:

http://wargamingmayhem.blogspot.com/2009/11/evercy-caen-road-hill-112-second.html

And now the real news from Berlin:

“The clash between 102nd SS and 617th Infantrie Division and the British on the approaches to Caen continued yesterday, and ended with a firm victory for the Wehrmacht which was never in doubt! The British advanced once more with their inferior tanks, and were driven off once more by Herr Wittmann and his invincible Tiger company! The order of ‘No Retreat’ now changes, the new mantra is; ’To the sea!’”

Back into reality and a less bias view of how the battle unfolded. Ian (the Commando’s) has already done an excellent blow-by-blow account in the link above so this will be more of a ‘flow of the battle’ piece of writing from the German point of view. The British had obviously taken the lessons learnt from their bogged down assault on Tuesday and put them to good use with alterations to their company selections, deployment and tactics. The Germans went with the same line-up.

Army Choice and Deployment:

The British - 7th Armoured (British Tank Company, 2.500pts, Red) & the Commando’s (with Canadian support, 2,500pts, Ian).
Additions to the British included the acquisition of support from the guns of the Royal Navy, and further 17pdr guns, mounted on M10 destroyers, brought in to challenge the German heavy armour. The deployment was very different from Tuesday. Gone was the all armour left hook and the infantry moving ahead of the tanks. Instead the British infantry deployed en-masse in the centre, and the armour was split evenly between the two flanks.

The Germans - 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion & Grenadier Kompanie (2,500pts each, Rick).
The German view on deployment was if it wasn’t broke, don’t fix it, and the two pioneer platoons deployed once more in their trenches, overlooked by the 88mm guns installed in a ruined building behind, and the heavy artillery further back on the right. A platoon of Tigers deployed hull-down behind the hills on the right, and a second platoon tried the same trick on the left, along with the SS 2ic in his Tiger. The only change was this deployment of a second Tiger platoon, replacing the Panzer IV’s who went into Ambush positions.

Ebbs and Flows - The Battle:

The British, clearly having learnt from Tuesdays sluggish attack, began with an aggressive infantry centre and two wings of armour. The infantry (Commando troops with some mechanised 7th Armoured support) advanced across the cornfields far swifter than their previous efforts, while the armour also moved with more purpose. The British left carrying on over the hills facing them to try and flank the Tigers there, and the right mainly curling inwards to assist in the attack on the German infantry.

Heavy artillery fire, assisted by excellent use of recon units to reveal the German positions, claimed the 88mm guns, and inflicted several casualties on the defenders, the most notably being the lost of a Tiger on the right. While a Sherman platoon split off to the far right and was engaged by the Panzer IV’s, the main infantry attack went in on the pioneers, and drove away the right-hand German unit, which retreated into the urban areas. The left-hand unit lasted slightly longer, with 7th Armour losing a number of tanks to panzerfaust and panzerschrek fire. The British tanks also came under heavy fire from newly arrived Tigers from the 102nd SS battalion, and lost a number of tanks causing a large Cromwell platoon to withdraw from the battle.

Clashes of armour featured heavily on both flanks as the British commando’s tried to consolidate their position in front of the objective. On the British right the Sherman’s had managed to destroy the SS Tiger 2ic and a Panzer IV, and a bombardment from the Royal Navy claimed another Tiger. However, return fire from the remaining four Panzers and several Tigers eventually bailed out enough to cause them to retreat. On the British left a spectacular fight broke out when a Cromwell platoon advanced far enough to destroy several of the German artillery guns before being destroyed by Obersturnfuhrer Wittmann and a StuG G platoon. The German armour then systematically took the wave of 7th Armoured tanks to pieces with 88mm and 75mm fire, reducing it to three platoons from its original eight and driving it from the field.

The Commando’s gamely fought on after defeat, but without armoured support their lead platoons were annihilated by the wave of Tiger tanks advancing from the urban areas, and, despite destroying one with a well-placed PIAT shot, they had little answer to them and also retreated leaving the battlefield to the Germans.


Analysis:

I was please with the way the battle went on Tuesday, and given the time I thought the Germans would be victorious. Peter had kindly lent me his Tigers for the battle so I went for the same army list (only just resisting the urge to tinker and field the Tiger Company alongside a Panther Company!), and virtually the same deployment, and expected the battle to run as before. I was slightly wrong in that aspect though - where the British had been ponderous, stalled, uncoordinated, and seemly afraid of the Tigers they were now aggressive and driven. There was a definite deployment and attack plan, and little of the crossed-wires of the Tuesday before!

With my re-enforcements slow to arrive (I had three platoons still in reserve at the end - although they were the more ineffective grenadier ones) I feared the worst when the wave of infantry advanced and the enemy massed a big concentration of 17pdrs (Fireflies and M10 destroyers) on each flank. Thankfully the grenadiers held and stalled the tanks, which in turn stalled the infantry, and the British right pincer closed, in my opinion, too soon and ended up arriving on the objective in front of the SS companies guns, and just ahead of any Commando support, rather than what would have been a more ambitious project (and more risky of course) of encircling my Germans and hitting them from front and back.

In the end I had the Tigers to thank, with their sticking power making them extremely difficult for the enemy to shift them from their central position. I managed to remember that I could pick on certain types of tank, and that any of the Fireflies made it past turn three is truly remarkable. It is also worth noting that the fragile nature of the 7th Armoured helped me once I had worked out how many and which tanks I needed to kill to cause a company motivation test - one that would probably be failed. And before the Commando’s and the SS get big heads about their own abilities, it was the StuG’s of the grenadiers which broke the 7th armoured, and the Commando’s were then driven off very easily by a group of four Tigers to which they had no answer.

A good battle, and the biggest fought so far, pictures to follow in the next couple of days.

Caen Campaign - Day 1 pictures.

Participants:
British 7th Armoured (Tank Company - Red)
British Commando's & Canadian armour (Infantry Company - Ian)
German 716th Infantrie Division (Grenadier Kompanie - Rick)
SS 102nd Heavy Panzer Company (Tank Company - Peter B)

The SS 102nd's 2ic.















Wittmanns counter attack devistates the British spearhead.














The British start lines.

The SS 102nd arrive en-masse.

The German start lines.

Brutal tank warfare as the evening closes in.

The British infantry prepare for the off.

A slice of Normandy - June 1944.

The 716th Division's 88mm guns.

The British attack finally goes in.

Caen - FOW Late War Campaign, day 1

"And now the real story from the Berlin 'Signal' Army Newspaper:

With a diversionary attack underway on the Normandy coast (everyone knows the real invasion will come at the Pas de Calais) the 716 Infantrie Division was tasked with holding the outskirts of Caen while awaiting the arrival of the SS 102nd Heavy Panzer Battalion to re-enforce their position. Heavily outnumbered their pioneers dug trench lines and watched from the hills as the British 7th Armoured and infantry formed up for the attack.

The British, fearing our 88mm guns and gallant infantry in the centre choose to send their armour in a sweeping manouver to our right aimed to encircling our troops. However, the advance guard of the 102nd had arrived (two Tiger 1E's and five Panzer IV's), and despite the enemies use of Sherman Fireflies (five counted in one sector) stalled the enemy armour as it tried to clear the cornfields. This action was not without loss, and six of our own tanks were lost to the enemies fire. The British infantry, fearful of our troops, dug in to the cornfields scarcely meters from their startlines and left it to their tanks to trade shots with ours.

On our left flank a recon tank force, reported to be Stuart light tanks, were easily turned aside by more re-enforcements from the 102nd, and the remains smashed by the 88mm guns of the 716th. The enemy tried a flanking manouver upon one of our Grenadier platoons manning the trenchlines, and I am sad to report were successful with our platoon fleeing - the officer responsible has been sent to the Eastern Front for help with his motivation skills.

The British, buoyed by this unexpected success finally advanced and were within meters of their objective when one of Germanys national heroes stepped to the fore - Obersturmfuhrer Michael Wittmann lead his entire company of Tiger 1E's into the attack, and the enemy crumbled and fled! The 716th Division's pioneers added to the rout, beating off a contemptable assault by the Tommie infantry and destroying several enemy tanks to add to the numerous ones claimed by Wittmann and his aces. As darkness fell even the vaunted British artillery could not shift the Tigers and the British withdrew.

The Luftwaffe added to the woes of the Englanders during the day, shooting down several enemy fighters, and carrying out two successful sorties upon the enemy armour and artillery. Both the 102nd and the 716 have covered themselves in glory and proved the Fuhrer's order: 'No Retreat' is the best tactic for dealing with our enemies at this critical time."