Hürtgen Forest, early morning hours of a cold day in September 1944. Two enemy scouting parties bump into one another in the deep woods, and a short, sharp fight ensues.
The battlefield: extremely close quarters!
The German forces move onto the table first – the patrol leader places his two riflemen in covering positions along either flank, while he and another of his submachinegun wielding compatriots push into the center of the table, hoping close the distance on the enemy patrol.
The American forces arrived second, pushing their riflemen into the center of the table while sending their lone BAR gunner around the flank.
The two forces spot each other, and rifle shots ring out in the early morning darkness. An American rifleman flinches, and one of the German submachineguns pushes up the center. The American BAR gunner senses his movement and lets loose a long, spraying burst, sending the German scrambling back. The American’s use this brief opening to move further around the flank, placing a rifleman behind the protection of a large rock formation.
The BAR gunner, however, has left himself exposed, and on
the next German activation he his hit by rifle fire. The other German rifleman
uses a “scurry” die to push up the right flank without fear of reaction fire.
The German rifleman draws fire during the American turn, but manages to weather
it and return fire himself, causing his adversary immediately in front of him
to bail and run for cover further away.
The German submachinegun decides to use this opportunity to
push further forward up the center, but pays for his boldness: he is quickly
cut down by rifle and carbine fire.
The next several turns see a few exchanges of inaccurate rifle and submachinegun fire combined with small positional shifts, each force trying to squeak out a slight advantage over the other.
The American position begins to slowly become enveloped, and
in desperation the American squad leader rushes straight up the middle and into
hand to hand combat with the German squad leader! Even though the American has
a slight advantage, the dice fall in the German’s favor, and the American is
bested.
This causes the remaining American’s morale to break, and they flee the field. A hard and viciously fought battle ends in German victory.
This game was played using the Five Men in Normandy rules from Nordic Weasel Games. Hope you enjoyed reading!