Battle Report: ‘A stop along the Le Bouquet road.’
In-game date: 10 June 1944
In-game location: A tiny hamlet along the road to Saint-Jean-des-Baisants.
Op Overlord Username: Peter28842
Opponent Username: Paul R
Battle Type: Cauldron, Allies attacking
Result: Allies 6, Germans 1
Allied Forces
Charlie Company, 6th Tank Battalion, ‘Siegel’s Squadron’ – Confident, Veteran. 1,500 pts
HQ: Major Logan Haven Siegel (Sherman V) with Captain Leslie Elijah Frye, 2IC (Sherman V)
7 Platoon: 2xSherman V, Firefly; Cmd Sherman has .50cal AA MG
8 Platoon: 2xSherman V, Firefly; Cmd Sherman has .50cal AA MG
9 Platoon: 2xSherman V, Firefly; Cmd Sherman has .50cal AA MG
Scout Platoon: 3 Recce Carriers, one with PIAT
Motor Rifle Platoon: Cmd MG, PIAT, Light Mortar, 3xMG Teams in 4xM5 Halftracks
SP Field Artillery Battery: 2xCmd Rifle, 1xStaff Team, 1xSherman OP, 4xSexton 25pdr; two Sextons have .50cal AA MGs.
German Forces
Panzer Company – Confident, Veteran. 1,500 pts
HQ: 2x StuG III
Tank Platoon: 3xPanzer IV
Schwere Panzer Platoon: one Tiger I
Assault Gun Platoon: 5xStuG III
Panzergrenadier Platoon: Cmd MG with Panzerfaust, 6xMG Teams with a staff car and trucks
Limited Air Support: Junkers Ju-87G ‘Stuka’
Allied Casualties
7 Platoon: one Sherman V destroyed
MotorRifle Platoon: Cmd MG Team, light mortar team, and one MG Team KIA
SP Field Artillery Battery: one Cmd Rifle Team KIA
German Casualties
HQ: 2xCommand StuG IIIs destroyed
Assault Gun Platoon: 3xStuG IIIs destroyed, two withdrew
Tank Platoon: 3xPanzer IV destroyed
Schwere Panzer Platoon: one Tiger I destroyed
Panzergrenadier Platoon: 5xMG Teams KIA
Sporadic Air Support: *Some Stukas driven off, possibly damaged or destroyed
Introduction
The 1st Caledonian Mechanised Division had accumulated an abundance of combat experience among its leaders and men by the time of the Normandy campaign, with many of its component battalions, and quite a large number of its individual soldiers, having served from the beginning of the war, from France and Norway in 1940, North Africa and the Middle East from 1941, and Sicily in 1943. The experience showed in a number of sub-units in particular, and Charlie Company, 6th Tank Battalion, was no exception. Led by the irrepressible and aggressive Major L. Haven Siegel and his offsider Les ‘Flank ‘em’ Frye, the unit had been in heavy action over the course of the Normandy campaign. Most of the unit’s men had been with the Company in Libya and Tunisia. The 6th Battalion had lost a quite a few of their number to enemy action since 6 June (together with a number of tanks) and the tankers of Charlie Company were out for vengeance. Coming upon a tiny and apparently lightly garrisoned hamlet along the way to Saint Jean des Baisants in the morning of 10 June, they would have their chance.
After Action Report
Deployment
The German Panzergrenadiers dug themselves in around and inside the main building in the hamlet, guarding the two objectives, one beside the north-south road and one on the eastern side of the main building. The StuG IIIs hid themselves in ambush positions around the smaller buildings and single low hill to the west – the direction from which the Allies would attack.
The tanks of 8 and 9 Platoons of Siegel’s Squadron lined up on the western end of the board, interspersed with the Sexton battery. They stuck close together to try to maximise the number of AA .50cals they could bring to bear in the event of a German air strike – a Stuka squadron had been operating in the area.
Caledonians rapidly gain the upper hand
As predicted, the German attack opened with a screaming Stuka attack which killed one of the artillery command teams but inflicted no other damage – the .50cal MG gunners having done their job. StuG IIIs moved out of ambush positions to fire a volley at the Shermans, but only managed to bail one, but the confident crew quickly remounted.
A casualty from Stuka attack.
The return fire from the Shermans and Sextons was devastating, destroying three of the StuG IIIs. Then 7 Platoon, 6th Tank Battalion suddenly appeared on the eastern side of the village (having conducted a rapidly executed flanking manoeuvre) and knocked out the German command StuGs with rear shots. The two remaining German armoured vehicles decided (rolling a ‘1’) to crunch the reverse gears and get out of there, leaving the German infantry to the mercy of the Allies.
StuG IIIs are eliminated
German infantry hold their position
German reinforcements.
Fortune had rapidly turned to the favour of Charlie Company. Major Siegel would not let this opportunity slip – his command closed in for the kill like a pack of wolves. 8 Platoon, with the Command and 2IC’s tanks moved forward to machine-gun range of the German infantry, 7 Platoon moved forward to fire into the main building on the eastern side, leaving a Firefly concealed behind a bocage hedgerow to watch the southerly road. 9 Platoon took up overwatch positions among the smaller buildings to turn the southerly road and open area into a crossfire about to happen. A Motor Rifle Platoon doubled along the western road into the village, using the buildings as cover, and the infantrymen prepared to dismount for an assault.
Closing in on the objective
The Tiger scores a kill, and is lining up his next victim
Moments later, a Tiger I heavy tank rolled into view on the southern road, rushing toward the hamlet to relieve the trapped infantry. Its experienced commander, spotting a Sherman V of 7 Platoon, immediately turned the vehicle into a towering column of smoke and fire with a well-aimed 88 round. 7 Platoon’s Firefly returned fire to no effect. Seeing the moment, 9 Platoon darted out of cover to race around the Tiger’s left flank. The 75mm round of one vehicle bounced harmlessly off the Tiger’s armour, but a perfectly placed 17pdr shot detonated the Tiger’s ammunition, throwing the turret clear of the hull!
The Tiger is dispatched by the ace Firefly
(With Paul’s unlucky Tiger I suffering yet another inglorious destruction only moments after its battlefield appearance, the game would have been up for the Germans (three platoons on, two destroyed, no Command), but we decided to play on).
More Panzers!
As .50 calibre M2 Brownings drove off another half-hearted Stuka attack, three Panzer IVs appeared on the south road. Their opening shots scored hits, but bounced off the (surprisingly effective) front armour of the Sherman Vs of 9 Platoon. Lining the newcomers up, the veterans of 9 Platoon poured out shots. Ace gunnery from the 9 Platoon Firefly destroyed two of the Panzer IVs and the remainder also destroyed in the crossfire of the 9 Platoon Sherman Vs and 7 Platoon vehicles.
Sherman support for the final assault
The ace Firefly, with other Shermans in support, destroy the Panzer IVs
The Sexton battery and 8 Platoon with Siegel and Frye hammered the Panzergrenadiers while the Motor Rifle infantry moved into assault positions. Terrifying close-range MG42 defensive fire killed three teams of the Motor Rifle Platoon but they succeeded in pushed the Germans off the objective in the middle of the hamlet, assaulting the former position of a German team killed by Sherman fire.
The last ditch effort
The last three surviving Panzergrenadier teams, including the Commander with a Panzerfaust, gathered together in the ruins of the main building and prepared themselves psychologically as a line of five Sherman tanks idled menacingly only metres outside. With a terrific ‘huraah!’ they launched themselves toward the Caledonian tanks. They were close enough that the tanks’ hull machine guns did not have the chance to bring down fire on them, although a Bren gunner from the Motor Rifle Platoon cut down one of the yelling MG Teams as they ran out of the doors of the main building.
Germans are pushed off the position
Despite their ardour, the Panzergrenadiers were unable to score any hits (Paul seems to have rolled mostly ‘1’s and ‘2’s the whole game). Although the Caledonian tanks and infantry were likewise unable to harm the Panzergrenadiers in the counterattack, the once-heroic Panzergrenadiers, having expended their last reservoir of motivation, threw in the towel.
The Panzergrenadiers launch an heroic final charge
Conclusion
Siegel watched from his hatch as the few surviving Germans, hands raised and eyes downcast, marched past his tank. Nothing boosts morale like a stunning victory, he thought, and to have won it with so few casualties, at least to his veteran tank crewmen, was almost providential. He couldn’t help the feeling that dumb luck had played its role, although luck without the skill to use it would not have carried him this far. A trio of Bren carriers clanked up alongside his tank. ‘Did we miss anything Sir?’ shouted the Bren carrier platoon commander, a grin across his face. Siegel did not return the grin – he was a man of stony and humourless disposition. He exhaled heavily through his teeth as he prepared some sort of reply. ‘No. Just a game, Sir, just the game’ he shouted down. ‘Oh, no worries Sir, we’ll be off then.’ The carrier commander called, still jovial and evidently oblivious to the meaning of Siegel’s statement. As the trio of carriers lurched away, Siegel turned his view toward the south where here would be harder fighting to come…
1st Caledonian Mechanised Division in Normandy 