Eerde 1944

We played a Chain of Command scenario (Attack & Defend) my friend based on the fighting around Hell's Highway near Veghel (more information here).

The Germans are trying to stop reinforcements from reaching Arnhem by trying to cut the road north. The Americans (101st airborne) intend to stop the attempt with agressive counterattacks.

My Germans are defending the dunes near Eerde against my friend's paratroopers, supported by two British Shermans.

I read about the German Panthers taking out lots of Shermans during the historical battle. This led to the  assumption that I would be able to take out my friend's Shermans with my Panther. I was wrong.

A preliminary barrage prevented me from deploying anything, while the paratroopers were already moving towards my jump-off points. Fortunately the Panther did get through, but failed to hit the Sherman during the entire game!

The Sherman on the other hand, kept hitting the Panther. Not hard enough to destroy it, but enough to force the commander to spend his actions preventing the shock from reaching bail out level.

I was finally able to deploy some troops and slow the US onslaught. This included the German forward observer. My plan was to pin the paratroopers under a mortar barrage.

After the first volley, my friend used his full chain of command dice to end the mortar barrage by ending the turn. Trying to start a new barrage failed because I failed the battery available roll required after the first request for a barrage.

By this time I had my own full Chain of Command dice and used it to ambush the other Sherman with my Panzerschreck team.

But they missed (a double 1)!!!

The paratroopers and Shermans were now chewing up my Germans and things went from bad to worse for the Germans.

Luckily I was able to repeat the Panzerschreck ambush. This time with success. The Sherman which had been relentlessly shelling my troops was out of the fight.

This wasn't enough to turn the tide however. I had to withdraw the remnants of a squad behind a dune in order to prevent them breaking. The paratroopers quickly moved to the other side of the dune. With their superior numbers they threathened to close assault and wipe out the reduced German squad. So I decided to flee.

This sealed the fate of the German squad. The paratroopers marched and fired over the dune, wiping out the German squad, which couldn't get away fast enough.

The German force morale was reduced to zero. Victory for the Allies!

The Best Bridge

I've driven across the Best (the Dutch town) bridge lots of times  on my way to friends, unaware of the fighting that took place there in 1944. After watching Sidney's battlefield challenge on Youtube and discovering the scenario in Lard magazine 2019, I was keen to try it out.

Exacty 76 years after the actual events took place, Lieutenant Wierzbowski of the 101st airborne again tried to capture the Best bridge. (I only found out that it was the exact same date just before the game when I was reading the Lard magazine article again).

The paratroopers start at the left side of the table and have to destroy the 88 in the upper right corner (the actual bridge and canal  are just off table). The Germans  start in the middle.

After the patrol phase the paratroopers quickly moved towards the road and crossed it with minimal casualties.

A lucky German command dice roll (1,2,2,3,4) led to a screen of Germans being deployed to block their advance.

One German squad moved tactically towards the American deployment area.

Meanwhile the paratrooper squad that crossed the road, entered the woods and ran into a German squad.

Both sides took casualties. The German junior leader was wounded.

A double 6 on the command dice for the Germans! The German senior leader rushes towards the leaderless squad and starts removing shock in order to be ready for action in the next phase.

But, the Amercans use a full chain of command dice to interrupt and open fire on the German squad!

Bad luck for the paratroopers, as the dice roll only causes minimal damage.

Now the Germans get their turn and enjoy a much better dice roll result (10 hits out of 12), shredding the paratroopers and wounding the junior leader.

A bazooka team is also wiped out. The American force morale drops at an alarming rate.

Wierzbowski arrives on the scene.

Our flank is exposed sir!

And is almost immediately wounded.

At this moment we called it a day. The remaining American squad was pretty much closed in by 3 German squads.

Historically the Germans destroyed the Best bridge on this day. The Americans were unable to prevent this outcome in the refight.