Storming fortress Holland pt 3

Having failed to capture the bridge at Juinen, the Fallschirmjäger have fallen back to the wooded area between Juinen and Ter Weksel.

Inspired by their victory at the bridge, the Dutch are intent to destroy the Fallschirmjäger before they can link up with other German groups. The Dutch platoon commander, luitenant Hekking, has managed to find an armoured car through his uncle's connections.

It's a little known alternative fact that the Dutch army tested several armoured cars before deciding on the Landsverk. One of these (a Lancia) was sold to a car collector and later retrieved by luitenant Hekking to support his attack. I tried to find stats for the Lancia but couldn't find any so we used an armour value of 2 and schwarzlose machineguns as armament.

The game was played using scenario 3, Attack & Defend, from the Chain of Command rulebook. This time I didn't forget to take pictures. 

The Dutch advanced cautiously towards the forest edge, attacking along the road trying to eject the Germans from the farmhouse. Unfortunately for the Dutch, a German squad deployed right in front of them, trapping the mitrailleurgroep including luitenant Hekking in a deadly crossfire from the woods and the farmhouse. A wounded luitenant, severely wounded sergeant and broken mitrailleurgroep lowered Dutch force morale far enough to repulse the entire attack.

The Lancia was immobilised by the German AT rifle.

Rex barks at the intruders

German squad deploys: surprise!

Hekking gets pounded

The farmhouse is scratchbuilt. The roads are actually pieces of towel with a road texture printed on (via artscow.com) 

Where's the enemy? The building is a one piece christmas village building: a Dutch "Schapenboet". Because of it's usability in lots of settings one of the best pieces of terrain I ever bought.

Storming fortress Holland pt 2

After their victory in part 1, the Fallschirmjäger advanced on the village of Juinen itself, aiming to capture the bridge across the Juinen canal intact.

The scenario is scenario 6, Attack on an objective, from the Chain of Command rulebook. We decided Stuka support was not available this time, since that might damage the bridge. So I selected the "shabby Nazi trick": a group of civilians to hide behind. When the game started however, I forgot to be shabby and just had the Fallschirmjäger squad advance towards "Garage Hekking". I did remember to disperse the civilians before reaching the Dutch lines.

It was an exiting game where the Dutch opened fire with their 6-veld gun on the German HMG, scoring four kills with the first shot! One kill was converted into a wound for the German commander. Fortunately I had selected a medic in support because the Leutnant managed to get himself wounded again later in the game before seeking shelter inside Garage Hekking.

Force morale already weakened by the twice wounded Leutnant, the final blow came when the German squad inside the farmhouse broke and fled through another squad coming to their aid. This squad had some shock from repeated sprints and broke also, reducing the Fallschirmjäger force to combat ineffective.

Garage Hekking, where the Leutnant kept directing fire despite his wounds. My scratchbuilt buildings do not allow the roof to be removed. That's why the machine guns are put outside in front of the windows. 

Storming fortress Holland pt 1

In 1940, the Dutch realised that large parts of the country couldn't be defended. The plan was to fall back onto "fortress Holland", a system of defensive works and flooded areas around the western provinces. The German airborne assault, completely bypassing the defensive works, came as a total surprise. 

In our first post-lockdown game we played the Strike from above scenario from the Toofatlardies Chain of Command, Blitzkrieg 1940 book.

Fallschirmjäger landed near the fictional Dutch village of Juinen, engaging a reserve Dutch infantry platoon.

I can't remember where the German jump off points exactly were, but a squad of fallschirmjäger entered the table in a later phase right on top of 2 Dutch jump off points. This caused the collapse of an already shaken force due to a stuka bombardment before even getting on the table and relentless machine gun fire while on the table.

In hindsight it wasn't very smart to place the jump off points close together in a scenario where the enemy can suddenly appear in your rear.

Unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures. I've tried to reconstruct the map from memory. The terrain consisted of typical Dutch fields with drainage ditches, a barn and an elevated stone road with some trees and bushes.