Road to Bremen IV (I get frustrated playing myself)

This time the gloves were off Colonel Bob asked for help and got it, along with the refreshed 3 Platoon he got three Shermans, a pre-game barrage, a FOO, an extra 2" mortar and a small mine clearing team. I realised I could simply smash through the hedge and take the chance none of my tanks would bog down but knowing there were mines in the area I really could not not take the engineers.

Things started very well, the Germans as usual were playing a waiting game, however one squad had to be deployed to cover the open ground in front of the hedge, the Pak40 also turned up hoping to take at least one tank with it before the British wave washed over the German position. In the end the Pak turned out to be ineffectual and was soon rendered powerless by a smokescreen, shortly after down came the British artillery right on target, the German defenders were all neutralised, this was looking good. I gave in to impetuosity and deployed as much force as I could, almost everyone apart from the engineers with the intention of closing the gap, stopping the barrage and letting loose, in the meantime the panzerschrek turned up and tried a sneaky shot but he didn't manage to hide this time and they were soon wiped out.

The Germans were getting bucketloads of CoC dice and the barrage was halted, I tried to get it back but comms were down, Jerry took advantage and more squads turned up, my boys were caught with their pants down again. I used smoke, plenty of it but the black CoC dice soon dispersed it, casualties rose while my tank crews sat twiddling their thumbs, all three of them, there was the odd duel with the Pak when the smoke cleared but no one could land a lethal punch. Once again what looked like a good opportunity turned sour, I was actually getting frustrated by my fantastic die rolling for the Germans!

As time passed comms were again established with the artillery and give them their due when they did fire they were right on target, sadly this did not last very long as once again Jerry threw a spanner in the works ending the turn, yes we used our only die to keep things going but within the space of a couple of rolls Fritz had another CoC die.

Just made a brew Dave......

I left the game overnight and returned thinking it was all but over, no it wasn't, when will I learn. I played all morning between customers and on into the afternoon. It took ages to whittle the defenders down and my casualties mounted steadily, Colonel Bob however was not going to let 3 Platoon withdraw, it was last man and last bullet time. At one point it looked like Kampfgruppe Krosbi would pull off another win by the skin of their teeth as both sides Force Morale raced for zero, but no the PBI eventually manged to pull it out of the bag, the survivors managed at last to route enough Boche  to get a win with the tankers still observing from the safety of their steel mounts.

Pretending to be Sherman V's

At last the Jerries break.

Writing on the wall for the Pak.

Horrendous casualties.

God that was hard going, I think after playing for about three hours today I could count on two hands how many 3's I got to use the tanks and perhaps one to count their actual hits. In truth the Germans had some dire rolls as well and if not had been very close to tipping the scales in their favour. Just as the British looked like getting a walk in the park everything went south and they were caught in the open, the dire efforts getting communications with the artillery also hurt, obviously not a RN operator on the line.

I have to sort the campaign stats out for the next 'leap' forward and will do this  tomorrow as the weather is gorgeous and too hot for anything else apart from lazing around. Hopefully I shall meet Germans who want to live and not give all for the Fatherland.