Winter Quarters – New Barracks

I blame Bob Cordery :  On the strength of a chance remark and an endorsement on his blog, I bought thirty new Weston Boxes, twenty A5 and ten A4, and a really Useful Tower Frame to tidy up my troops. Gone are the drafty open-topped wooden barracks of old, to be replaced by 21st century transparent high rise living. They are excellent.

New Box A5 -I-Trieste

Of course, I couldn’t leave it at that, so I am re-cataloguing the box contents to keep up to date. The Box numbers have gone, to be replaced by filing by Box size, Nationality and Alphanumeric Title. That should keep me happy until spring. My apologies to anyone who has hot-linked to any of the old box pages. The Study is having its regular¹ spring clean and repaint at the same time. Suzanne approves. I have found all sorts of missing bits down the back of the desk!

My “Billy Boxes” fit onto an Ikea “Billy” bookshelf (not without bowing the shelves). Note the chalked contents panel and the massive supergun waiting to be converted for AK47 some day.

1. Once every ten years.

Model Indices – Down the Rabbit Hole

For some while now, I have been cataloguing my model collection independently of the Box Index. It is live on the side bar. Be warned that if you head down this particular rabbit hole, the minutes of your life that you spend there, you will never get back.

The index serves as a (lack of) painting log as much as anything else, and is tucked away on the sidebar so as not to get in the way of the main blog.

As a foretaste, I realised that I had three battle-hardened Sd Kfz 10/4s with  2 cm FlaK 30 scattered across various boxes. Whilst the vehicles performed rather well against the Soviets, their crews had languished in an undercoated state on a lollipop stick for more years than was sensible. Here they are, catalogued and stuck to their gun decks at last. Yay me!

 

Winter Quarters

At this time of year, armies go into winter quarters and plan campaigns for the year ahead. Wargaming has been a bit thin at the back end of 2019 year, due mainly to work, but also because the Monday Night Group meets on a Tuesday (why not!), which conflicts with out-of-hours meetings. They, whilst not compulsory, are the sort at which absences are noted and commented on. Stuff happens that we are expected to be up-to-date on¹. The Blog still managed to crank out 57 posts, so met my target of one a week. So thank you for my 65 *ahem* discerning followers out in Blog Land, and thank you to all the other blogs out there that keep me interested and amused enough to keep assuming that folk care what I think in turn. I’ve made more of an effort to comment and like others’ posts recently – a trend I plan to continue. Thank you also to bloggers who have listed my own blog on their sidebars – honourable mentions go to :

https://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/ – I’m following your African ImagiNation campaign with interest, and your ultra-simple naval rules https://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2019/12/ultra-simple-naval-games.html.

https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/ Bob Cordery is famous for his maritime and colonial knowledge, and has been instrumental in inventing portable wargames and promoting ImagiNations. He has also kept WD going for years, it must be over 40 now.

https://warfareintheageofcynicsandamateurs.blogspot.com/ Curses Duc, your 1/144 scale Cold War stuff is good enough to make me want to start a new period!

https://generalwhiskers.com/ Paul has decided to gazette WW2 with daily posts. Quite mad! Your Arnhem project is exceptional, Sir!

https://gridbasedwargaming.blogspot.com/search/label/WW2%20Rules Thanks Peter. If I stray into Not Quite Rocket Science™, I shall blame you and the Wargaming Pastor for showing that Silly Spacemen can be fun. I mostly enjoy your WWII posts though.

https://pbeyecandy.wordpress.com/ Phil sets the standard locally for modelling and paintingin 15mm, and has some inspirational stuff for WWII modellers on his blog. A new post is always an event. President-for-life (Honorary) of the Society of Ancients, and heavily involved in local art, history and museum culture.

https://twtrb.blogspot.com/ I first met Ken through AK47. Some interesting stuff there. Ken is an out-and-out revolutionary in the mould of Citizen Smith and has a taste for Sci-fi as well as historical. History has largely forgotten “Dr Evil fights the Evil Alien Tripods” at Brixcon, all those years ago.

https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/ The home of Megablitz and more recently, Funny Little Cold Wars. Tim is a prolific wargamer and is the other brain cell behind Wargames Developments. If he invites you to a game of Megablitz, go!

*If you are reading this and your name is not honourably mentioned, please add me to your sidebar – it makes a difference to me, if no-one else².*

Honourable Exceptions:

https://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com Prolific well-researched early WWII through to modern modeller in 20mm. Three blogs followed, one four and one five years old. Seriously needs an update João. I live in hope 🙂

http://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/2019/11/invasion-of-crete-1943.html  Graham doesn’t have a blog list, but mentions NQM and reports on it regularly in his blog. Graham is a prolific rule writer, and local historian along with YesThatPhil.

https://einealtekriegsspiel.blogspot.com/ This website, with its scratchbuilt models in a naive style, takes me back to my teens and Martyn Simpson, to the days before models were available and had to be made. People who drum to their own beat are true heroes to be celebrated! Needs more Russians though.

I did manage a few NQM games, particularly the Operation Herkules Crete Game. The evolved pin-and-die markers worked well, with players having no trouble understanding that one pin moved from green to amber to red before removing the base and replacing it with a permanent casualty. Blue-tacking the dice onto the stands eliminated the previous problem of losing dice, or just having them end up showing the wrong number, with nobody being able to remember which the correct one was. I’m still working to eliminate the need for dice on bases at all.

My attempts to keep my troops from scattering like marbles off into other boxes showed some success this year with colours and box numbers. They are still lagging behind the times of course, with troops alternating between three different orbats and two different theatres of war (The Eastern Front, and The Mediterranean).

This time a real year ago, VALUYKI Falls! January 1943 we were in the depths of winter. It is now the start of the summer campaigning season, with a big Soviet offensive imminent. YELETS is just the start.

2019 saw the big NQM² (NQM with squares) project. It was successful, as games with squares go, and players like the tidiness of it, but my own tastes run to scrappier untidy games. so I plan to push the campaign forward with more solo gaming, to which local players are invited. I will post dates on the Monday Night Facebook Group. Future projects include Not Quite Stalingrad. I ran it once in the late ’90s pre-blog, but everyone³ likes Stalingrad and Kursk, so I fancy doing it again. That will keep me quite busy enough for 2020. A pet project on slow burn is still the fall of Singapore. I retire in 6 years time so the pace should pick up after that.

I keep trying to like tactical games, but the Group format of us all playing one game with an umpire means that I usually end up with a simple objective of advancing into a firefight decided on a couple of die rolls, then I have to leave before the 3 hour game finishes at 11. Not the putter-on of the game’s fault, but I can’t put in a full day’s work having gone to bed at midnight or one the day before any more. Two hour games are my limit on a workday evening, which is why I am, working hard to like DBA, and why classic AK47 is so good.

I’m tempted to do some ImagiNationary wargaming somewhere in China or Africa, in an alternative world, where WWII never happened because Herr Schicklegrüber and his chums were laughed out of the ballot box. Europe fought out a proxy war in Asia and or Africa against a Soviet vs Japanese proxy conflict with Europe backing different sides at different times, and a neutral America selling to the highest bidders. It gives me an excuse to do some free-range as well as historical Far-Eastern wargaming.

Finally, I continue to work incrementally on units as the fancy takes me. Apologies if you follow by email and get a flurry of them at this time of year. I keep updating pages as I add to units or reorganise them.

1. “Chris! You missed a good lecture last night on last year’s rate of major and minor lower limb amputations in the Trust, and how early vascular intervention is reducing the rate.”  (A real example of one that I didn’t miss, in case any one-legged wargamers in Northamptonshire are reading this with concern).
2. Likewise, if you are showing my blog and I haven’t reciprocated, humble apologies, and please let me know so that I can rectify my error.
3. They might not be fans In the Night Garden.

YELETS Falls April 1943

LIII Korps Troops Defend YELETS

As the Rasputitsa ended, the Soviet Spring offensive on the Voronezh Front began with a drive on YELETS by 38 and 40 Armies, backed by 6 Guards Army. Facing them was LIII Korps, comprising 56, 112, 134, and 216 Infantry Divisions. The Soviet plan was to pinch out the TULA-STALINO-YELETS salient, thereby trapping 3 Panzer Armee and the bulk of 2 Armee. The opening part of the plan required creating sufficient pressure to fix the front line, and hopefully draw reserves forward. Then the arms of the pincer were to meet at OREL.

112 Infantry Division Reserve Line Attacked by 50 Corps

The well prepared infantry front at YELETS held firmly initially, before collapsing under pressure, leaving a pocket of troops from LIII Korps in YELETS itself. At this stage of the war, German defences comprised an advanced outpost line, a main line and a reserve line, each some 1-5 Km apart, making an attack a slow, set-piece affair. Using these tactics, 112 Infantry Division survived the opening bombardment and first two waves of attacks before the main line gave way. Even then, the reserve line under General Lieb held long after 56 Infantry Division, in the northern part of the line, collapsed under the weight of two armies. This Saxon division was known as the “Schwerter” division after the crossed swords on its divisional emblem.

51 Corps Advances in a Second Wave Towards YELETS

Soviet tactics were evolving to crack the problem of strong defences in depth, with artillery well forward in an advance and widespread scouting to discover any weakly defended approaches. Successive waves would be thrown at the weakest part of the line until a breakthrough occurred or increasingly, until the defences could be bypassed.

51 Corps Reaches the Eastern Outskirts of YELETS

38 Army Adds its Weight to the Attack (top left)

38 Army bypasses the Northern Outskirts of YELETS

Despite its name, 3 Panzer Armee to the north had no armour worth speaking of, and retreated stubbornly under heavy pressure westwards to STALINO.

56 Division Collapses as the North and East of YELETS Fall

South of YELETS, 2 SS Panzer and 47 Panzer Grenadier Division, the remains of XIV Panzer Korps were falling back under pressure to KURSK, where the great bulk of German armour had concentrated in anticipation of just such an offensive against the very obvious German salient. At this point, the front hardened as it became apparent that the southern arm of the pincer had insufficient weight to press forward.

A Counterattack by Elements of 18 Panzer Division Fails to Halt the Attack

Stavka became aware of the possibility of isolating a substantial pocket of troops around TULA and STALINO against the bend of the River OKA, and to that end, directed 2 Tank Army to drive a wedge between LIII Korps at YELETS and XX Korps to their north. The pocket around STALINO began to tighten.

For anyone who is following this, here is a very blurred map (it will expand). This game started as a solo wargame, as I thought that such an uneven scenario in favour of the Soviets would hold no interest to players. I was proved wrong when Richard Lindley joined me for the YELETS part of the scenario, which I gamed out on the tabletop. Although I don’t like the rectilinear nature of squares, it does make resolving combats simple. We finished four rounds of combat at a leisurely pace, fortified by tea and Christmas cake, before the Germans finally collapsed.

Battle Map of the YELETS-TULA Salient April 1943

 

2 and 3 Tank Armies Drive on OREL April 1943

Fractal Orders of Battle

Having worked up detailed Orders of Battle for Regimental, Corps and Front scale orders of battle, it is impossible to ignore the similarities between them. This Fractal nature is reflected in Pocket Orbats, where a Unit consists of:

Commander and integral or separate HQ unit. The higher the command level, the more likely it is that the commander is going to be sitting in a camp chair under an awning than in a tank turret or dugout.

FSO OKH Army HQ

Recce. The fancier the armoured car, the more likely it is to be strategic recce.

The Divisional Recce Regiment

2-3 Sub-unit commanders or HQs with some sort of support unit integral or attached – regiments get stubby little barrels, army artillery gets stuff that travels with its barrel and carriage on separate trailers.

NQM FSO Soviet Army HQ with Artillery AA Armour and Engineers under Command

6-9 Sub-units, these could be infantry, cavalry, motorised or armoured.

Cavalry Division 1942

1-3 Artillery units, and anti-tank – the bigger the barrel, the more likely it is to be at army level.

The LENINGRAD Front Artillery Masses

Anti-air – same again, unless you are German and short of proper anti-tank guns.

3.7″ AA and Matador FAT

Engineers – bridges start appearing at divisional and corps level.

German Engineer Battalion

Logistics– six wheel all-wheel drive stuff tends to be tactical. Trailers tend to be further to the rear, trains even more so.

Logistic Units Scramble for Safety

Medical – frontline medics like armoured ambulances if they can get them, motorised if they can’t.

 

Generally units become heavier , the higher up the scale that you go, so with a few variations in support weapons, a unit can pretend to be anything from a company to a brigade.

 

Book Review – Tiger I

Tiger I,

German Army Heavy Tank, Eastern Front, summer 1943

Dennis Oliver

In common with his other books in this series, Dennis Oliver sets out the many iterations and variations of the Tiger tank in forensic detail, with carefully chosen illustrations of primary sources.

Chapters outline the context, in which the Tiger was used operationally, and the units it was deployed in. A useful series of pictograms and strength tables are found here.

A chapter is devoted to the camouflage and markings of the tank, with the usual masterclass examples from modellers. Most of the eye-candy resides in this section. Sometimes it is easier to deduce details from looking at a model, than from a primary source picture.

A chapter is devoted to Waffen SS units, as a large proportion of output went to these units for the battle of Kursk, and a further chapter outlines the many technical details and modifications that the Tiger underwent. Wargamers will find this section useful.

Now, I really must get round to finishing off a PSC Tiger Tank

My review copy was provided by Pen & Sword Publications

Crete – D+2 22nd May 1941

Relief Column sets out for HERAKLION from RETHYMNON Airfield 22MAY1941 0800h General Süssman is somewhere under the explosion

As light dawned on the 22nd of May 1941 General Freyberg had sent his mobile reserve from CANEA down the coast road to HERAKLION. En-route, they had fought a brisk action at the RETHYMNON bridges with a battalion of Fallschirmjäger that had dropped fortuitously off course, but close to the bridges, and had been rallied by General Süssman.

Sussman’s Last Stand at RETHYMNON 22MAY1941 0500h

The last troops of Kampfgruppe Mars on the RETHYMNON airfield were rounded up overnight. Süssman was last seen rallying his command staff on the perimeter of the field, trying to find a boat to escape back to GREECE, or it might have been in a bar in RETHYMNON – accounts differ!

The morning of the 22nd saw the relief column fight its way eastward down the coast road,  despite continual harassment from the air, to arrive at about the same time as heavy weapons were landing on the airstrip at HERAKLION.  Ju 52s were landing, accepting damage and casualties, to reinforce the hard-pressed spearhead on the ground.

HERAKLION Airfield 22MAY1941 0800h

The Greeks, who had conducted such a determined defence, had reached their limit by midday, and too few of the relieving column had survived to dislodge the Germans from the airstrip. Accepting the inevitable, Freyberg ordered a fighting withdrawal to the ports of SUDA and the south of the island.

HERAKLION Airfield 22may1941 1200h

The game had lasted from 10:00 to 16:00 with an hour off for a relaxed lunch at Chateau Trebian. Each move had taken about an hour, with the land, sea and air phases each taking about 20 minutes.

A Famous Victory Completed – The Cast from L-R comprised Chris Kemp (Umpire), Will Whyler (Brig Chappel), Tim Merry (Brig Kippenberger), Graham Evans (Gen Freyberg), Steven Churchus (Oberst Bauer), Phil Steele (Gen Meindl) and, rescued from a watery grave, Richard Lindley (Gen Süssman)¹, all sans Chapeax this time.

Historically, two Panzer IIs made it ashore. By sheer perseverance , Gen Meindl achieved the same result in the game.

5 Panzer finally makes it ashore on 22MAY1941 1200h

Thanks to Graham Evans for hosting the event at Shedquarters, and to the participants, who were all kind enough to profess to enjoying the game.

1. Due to my awesome Photoshopping skills, it is hard to tell who took the photo and was added afterwards. Thanks Richard!

Crete – D+1 21st May 1941

Central Foothills South of RETHYMNON 21MAY1941 0100h

Confused minor actions continued through the night as dispersed groups of Fallschirmjäger attempted to form up, Cretan local forces pounced on isolated groups, and allied battalions looked to their perimeters or mopped up local incursions.

Kriegsmarine 21MAY1941 0500h

The Royal Navy was still patrolling aggressively overnight, and suffering as daylight revealed skies full of the Luftwaffe.  Cunningham might have been horrified at the losses his ships were taking, but his nerve remained steady. Historically, the Gebirgsjäger only managed one attempt at the crossing, but Meindl (Phil S) wanted to keep trying. With each attempt, Kriegsmarine losses mounted.

 

Wave 3 HERAKLION Airfield 21MAY1941 0800h

On the morning of the 21st, the third wave dropped over HERAKLION.  Oberst Bauer (Steven C) took an aggressive line with his battalions that resulted in one being dropped into the sea, but the remaining three bracketing the airfield. Allied AA fire continued to be sub par but Brig Chappel’s (Will W) troops steeled themselves for the inevitable onslaught, and the air assault was not unscathed.

Downed Ju 52 off HERAKLION

By now the allied air strength had suffered severe attrition in fierce air battles over the airfields and in protecting the task forces. Historically, the air squadrons stationed on CRETE had flown out on the 19th, but for the game, the RAF was available for use against the German air or sea assets, and was  fought off on the 20th and 21st in sudden-death die rolls that inflicted similar levels of damage on the Luftwaffe. Once cleared, the marauding Stukas had free rein over their targets of choice.

Previously, Drop Music for MALEME had been lost in the general merriment of watching paper gliders misbehave, so I substituted this as a more appropriate representation. For the  third wave though, things were getting tense at landing zones further west, and the transport strength of the Ju-52 fleet had been severely whittled down by anti-aircraft fire. There was only one track that would do, and it was the totally cheesy Deathstars’ Last Ammunition!¹

SUDA Bombed as the Transports fly in to reinforce MALEME

Meindl (aka YesthatPhil) had been instrumental in switching Kamfgruppe Komet from its original target of MALEME to HERAKLION, with the larger Kamfgruppe Orion landing earlier at MALEME (I thought that this was both feasible and a valid decision).

By now, it was clear to me that I had over-egged the pudding for the local Greek Forces’ durability and under cooked the Commonwealth forces. The effect was broadly neutral though , so it didn’t need any in-game balancing.

A vicious battle was being fought between the Fallschirmjäger on the airfield at HERAKLION and the Black Watch. For the last drop of the day, the Luftwaffe had begun to drop ammunition to the sorely pressed RETHYMNON bridgehead.

MALEME Foothill Battle 21may1941 0900h

Almost unnoticed, Kippenberger (Tim M), had succeeded in eliminating the last enemy at MALEME.

The Last Outlying Fallschirmjäger Battalion is overwhelmed at MALEME

RETHYMNON Airfield 21MAY1941 0800h

The battle for RETHYMNON reached a peak during the afternoon and evening of the 21st. Waves of Fallschirmjäger hurled themselves at the defences on the airfield.

RETHYMNON Airfield 20MAY1941 1400h

Freyberg was having none of this and took a personal hand in the defence of the airfield. As the battle raged, the Luftwaffe was dropping ammunition to their beleaguered comrades on the ground, who were resorting to picking up captured weapons and ammunition from positions they had overrun.

Trebian Takes Control

It was not enough, and by late evening, the allies were mopping up on the airfield and pushing reserves west to HERAKLION to aid Brig Chappel (Will W), who was being pressed hard by the desperate attackers.

1. A bit of a personal favourite after a beer or two.

Crete – D Day for Unternehmen Merkur 20 May 1941

 

RETHYMNON Airfield 20MAY1941 0700h

Admiral Cunningham had put his five task forces on High alert for a seaborne invasion. In the early hours of the 20th/21st of May, Taskforce APPLE under Rear Admiral Rawlings intercepted the Kriegsmarine invasion fleet making the 70 mile crossing from the island of Milos in the Peloponnese and dispersed it, taking heavy casualties from air attack in the process.

The players had a number of crucial early decisions to make regarding dispositions, and where to allocate air assets. For the British, it was simpler, as their units were in historical positions, and they just had to work out where they were. Admiral Cunningham’s main decision was to follow the historical policy of aggressively attacking the seaborne invasion, and to take the knocks from air attacks as a consequence when they caught the British ships steaming back to Alexandria.

Wave 1 20MAY1941 Predawn Seaborne Action

The first wave of Fallschirmjäger under General Süssman (Richard) landed around the airfield of RETHYMNON early on the morning of the 20th, taking lighter than expected casualties from the Allies on the way down. Determining where they landed was by the time-honoured wargames method of making tiny paper aeroplanes out of Post-it notes. This produced all the expected hilarity and groans from the audience and drop zone commander. The pictures at the bottom of the page bear witness! Smartphone Apps produced Ride of the Valkyries ….

Wave 1 20MAY1941 0700h to RETHYMNON

A number of player-umpire conversations thrashed out the likely outcomes from various plans of action, based on what happened historically. The Germans, reasonably, wanted to concentrate on one airfield only. It was umpire-vetoed as I felt that concentrating everything on one strip would reduce the already slim chances of the drops going well. The game ruling was that for a successful landing, the paper gliders had to land on clear ground. In the event, a number of crash landings were diced for as troops landed on top of obstacles or in the water:

• • 1-2 Crash landing, occupants killed.
  • 3-4 Crash landing, occupants survive.
  • 5-6 Successful landing.

The Fallschirmjägers then had to survive an uncontested round of being shot at by any allied unit that they were in contact with, representing the drops without weapons. Fortunately for them, Allied shooting was woeful.

Task Force Apple takes Hits

On the evening of the 20th of May, the second wave landed at MALEME. Again casualties were heavy on both sides. The drops were more cautious, with some landing a considerable distance inland in the foothills.

Wave 1 Heavy Losses over SUDA 20MAY1941 0800h

Parachute Drops around CANEA 20MAY1941 0800h

 

SUDA Port Facilities are Bombed Heavily

 

 

 

CRETE – D Minus 1 Erste Welle fertig zu abfliegen!

The southern airstrips in the Peloponnese were full to bursting with troops and transport aircraft as D-Day approached. A reminder for tomorrow’s air rules can be found here.

GREECE – Eastern Operational Kampfgruppe “Orion” under Oberst Bräuer

GREECE – Central Operational Kampfgruppe “Mars” under Gen Süssman

GREECE – Western Operational Kampfgruppe “Comet” under Gen Meindl

All pigs are  lined up and ready for takeoff.

Porco Rosso -used without permission