Tuesday 5 November 2013

France 1940: Return to Tagnon (WWII Battlefront Scenario) 4

The Infantry Battle for Neiflize starts in earnest: 

A stand (representing two vehicles) of German 222 armoured cars audaciously try to rush the bridge and break open the French defences in a Hollywood style "coup de main" (see below):


However the French anti-tank gunners earn their pay and the armoured cars are now a road block on the bridge, something that the German commanders starts cursing himself for and he has given himself a unforseen movement penalty (see below):


The German motorcycle infantry deploy along the length of the marshy wood (thanks to the French damming of the river downstream) and steady themselves for the impending assault under the comforting protection of a friendly smokescreen (see below): 


A 'mysterious column' of black, German, armoured Hanomag APC vehicles park themselves 'close enough to see but far enough away to not be directly involved' in the assault. They seem to be biding there time for a 'distinct purpose' of which your guess is as good as mine (see below): 


Meanwhile the French FOO has decided to turn the comforting smoke into something much more deadly altogether and directs his fire mission onto what he correctly assumes to be a German forming up area (see below): 


However one of the 'calculated risks' taken by the FOO (or rather blindly accepted by 'yours truly') was the chance of the artillery barrage falling short was minimal, only a 1 in 10 chance in this case ... pregnant pause and as you reconsider where some of the artillery shells are landing in the above picture.

Note to self: Never tease 'lady luck'!

So yes as well as hitting the 'general area' where the Germans are supposed to be forming up, the French commander (me) looks on in horror as I manage to shell my own troops. Not an auspicious start to the proceedings, I put it down to the insufficient time we had to properly 'register the guns' on known targets: "C'est le Guerre" or should that have been "Merde!"

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