The Situation
France, late June 1944. Early in the morning, Lieutenant Anderson personally leads a four-man American scout team, seeking possible safe passage through the dense hedgerow country the Americans have been fighting in for weeks. Only one of the scouts returns, badly wounded. A second team is dispatched to retrieve the fallen and potentially save any who may still be alive. Lt. Anderson is well liked and losing him would be a serious blow to the men’s morale. The Germans, meanwhile, continue to lie in wait…
The Team
The task of retrieving Lt. Anderson and the wounded scouts has fallen to Sgt. Buck, who has been friends with Anderson since Sicily. He chooses four men to accompany him on the rescue: Privates Roman, Cline, and Roth, all riflemen, and Corporal Branson, a bear of a man who can handle the BAR like it was a child’s toy.
The Mission
As the Americans approach the ambush site, Buck divides his team in two. Riflemen Cline and Roth go with the BAR on the left flank, approaching the suspected machine gun nest from the cover of a hedge row. Buck takes Pvt. Roman and advances along the field, staying close to the protection of a low stone wall.
Danger lurking just beyond the hedgerow.
The German machine gun team spots the approaching Americans and opens fire, causing
Buck and Roman to dive for cover behind the wall. Crouching low, they are out
of sight for now.
The German squad leader takes this opportunity to dash across the road into a flanking position where he will have
a clear line of sight to the enemy.
Roman sees the silhouette of the German squad leader’s helmet peeking over the stone wall, draws a quick bead, and fires. He rolls double ones, and the squad leader goes down!
The German machine gun nest retaliates by firing another long burst into the field, causing Roman to flinch and dive back into cover. The German squad leader, meanwhile, miraculously recovers: Roman’s round had only grazed the top of his helmet, briefly knocking him down.
The German squad leader once again peeks over the low wall to fire on the Americans, but Sgt. Buck has his grease gun trained on the position. A steady -thump-thump-thump- emanates from the gun, and heavy .45 caliber slugs smash all around the German squad leader. The German panics, and gives up his position!
Thinking twice about that grease gun.
The Americans roll a “scurry” for their next turn, which
allows them to reposition without fear of reaction fire. Buck and Roman move within
arms reach of the first downed scout, but cannot yet leave cover for fear of MG42 fire.
So close. Hang on brother!
The BAR team, meanwhile, has managed to clear the hedge and
enter a small grove of trees, looking for a position to provide a good base of
fire.
The following German turn does not see much action, but the German squad leader manages to regain his nerves and prepares to get back into the fight.
Buck throws a smoke grenade over the wall in an attempt to
provide some concealment against the German machine gun. The grenade bounces
slightly and pops. The resulting smoke screen just manages to obscure the LOS
from the machine gun to the first downed scout.
Roman moves forward under its
cover and checks his downed comrade – walking wounded. Under the protection of
smoke, the wounded scout begins making his way to safety.
The
smoke clears the next turn however, once again leaving Roman exposed to
machinegun fire. MG42 rounds rip through the air, and Roman panics, hunkering
down next to the low wall.
On
the American turn, the BAR team finally moves into position to provide support
by fire. The MG42, being otherwise engaged, does not notice the impending
threat. The loader has keener eyes and takes a pot shot at Pvt. Cline as he
emerges from the brush, causing him to flinch. Branson opens up with
the BAR and looses a long burst into the machinegun nest – the MG42 goes down,
and the loader flinches!
The
following German turn, the machinegun team manages to recover and return fire
against the Americans. Pvt. Roth has a rapid change of heart and flees
backward toward the hedgerow, while Branson and the BAR dive for cover
Attacking MG42s is not for the faint of heart.
With the BAR team hunkered down, the action returns to Buck and Roman in the field, still crouching behind the low wall and desperately trying to reach their downed comrades. Buck is in position to see where Lt. Anderson lies fallen – the furthest from cover, Anderson must have been leading from the front, as usual. Buck throws his last smoke grenade in front of Lt. Anderson, but the wind picks up and the smoke dissipates to quickly to be of any use. The German squad leader has since managed to regain he bearings and rejoin the fight. He hurls a grenade at Buck – the grenade bounces harmlessly away, but lands right next to Roman! The grenade explodes, instantly killing him. The Americans have suffered their first casualty. Buck returns fire, but only causes the German squad leader to duck back behind cover.
Branson,
meanwhile, has managed to get his BAR back into position, and begins to once
again lay down fire on the German machinegun nest. The volume of fire is to
much for the MG42 gunner, who panics and flees off table!
Without covering fire from
the MG42, the German squad leader is now dangerously exposed on his right
flank.
Sensing the desperation of the moment, he decides to charge forward and
engages Buck in hand-to-hand combat. This catches Buck by surprise, and it
costs him his life. Two American lives have now been lost in an attempt to save
three.
The BAR team, seeing their beloved sergeant go down, respond
with a bayonet charge of their own. Screaming and hurling grenades, they charge
the lone German occupant of the machine gun nest.
One grenade lands true, and
the German rifleman is downed in the resulting blast.
The German squad leader has lost all of his support, and
decides that discretion is the better part of battle. He flees off table,
living to fight another day.
The surviving GIs gather around their beloved Lieutenant and check his condition: the dice have fallen, and so has Lt. Anderson. The battle may be won, but to the men, it feels like a hollow victory.
One more day in Normandy.
Thank you for reading this battle report, I hope you enjoyed it. The game was played using "FiveCore" by Nordic Weasel Games, a fun little set of skirmish rules that generates strong narratives such as this one. FiveCore may be found at Wargame Vault. NWG may be found at their blog.