Breville Campaign - The defence of Breville - Surrounded

The Breville Campaign draws to conclusion...

In the last game, Paul and his Paras had attacked Breville, but the German defending force had been successful in performing a Fighting Withdrawal...

So although a 'win' for the Germans, the Paras still have the initiative, and press on with their attack, surrounding the town of Breville now. And thus the next logical battle to try is 'Surrounded' - Can the German defenders maintain a corridor to freedom and escape, or for resupply, to maintain their foothold on the town...

The scene is set...

Having read the terrain description, from the briefing, the town of Breville lies at the north end of the Bravent Ridge, located roughly NE of Caen... So I decided to run a long low ridge-like hill from one side of board to the centre, placed a crossroads there, and built the town around it.

The forces for this battle as follows...

German Defenders, Grenadierkompanie from Fortress Europe 1750pts.

I had tweaked the army list from last time... As much as I liked fielding the 5 PzIVs, which gives me a lot of mobile MG for killing infantry, they are still prone to Shermans, Fireflies and even PIATs. So I decided to drop them in favour of a pair of Tigers. It would mean less MG fire for infantry killing but hopefully more survivability, and enough firepower to deal with the enemy Shermans.
The mortars were brought back up to 4 tubes (from 2 last time), hopefully for a bit more strength, whether bombardment or direct fire for effect, or smoke. The Pak38s were trimmed back from three guns to two.


Paul, brought the same list, I believe, as he tried last time...

Airlanding Company from Turning Tide, 1750pts, I believe something like:

The forces are ready, the table beckons...

Paul puts one objective under front right building in below pic, and the other diagonally opposite, just outside the village perimeter, looking to spread my forces out as much as possible.

Deployment view from south looking north

The objectives placed, I must deploy my forces, holding back one platoon, as an 'immediate ambush', which is more like a delayed deployment in this scenario. Not knowing where Paul would mass his attack I had to defend the entire perimeter to both sides, which stretched my forces to the max.

I placed barbed wire from pioneers covering approach to the exposed objective, and pioneers behind the wire. Grenadiers covered the other objective from two sides, and the scouts covered the back of the pioneers. Guns and mortars were scattered about pointing in all directions covering, to a modest degree, all approaches. Tigers were immediate ambush, once I saw where the Shermans would approach from...

Deployment view from north looking south

Paul decided to deploy in such away it appeared his attack was coming in on both objectives from both sides... so I couldn't turn any platoon to face any strong threat as the threat was all round.

Being British Infantry on the attack, Paul again pulled night attack.

For the first two turns all went more or less quietly, as Paul approached and neither side had any fire due to cover or darkness, poor visibility at range and gone to ground troops.

Initial approaches from the north...

... and south...

However the calm was not to last...

Paul got three engineer teams up to my wire line, with a view to clearing it. Rather than let them achieve this I sent a flamethrower after two of them and shot the rest of the platoon at the third. All the engineers were killed at the wire, and this pinned the platoon down

Elsewhere, it was time to open up on the approaching Brits... I got a good round of visibility rolls, all coming up 4 or more, and let rip with everything. I had previously moved an HMG, Infantry gun and a Pak38 to better firing positions and sent the Tigers to aid the scouts, as they were staring down a para platoon and commando. I scored a load of hits, as you can imagine for all the firing, as none of my platoons were pinned and almost all the HMGs were firing at full effect, plus the scouts with their assault rifles backed up by the Tigers and pak38s, unleashed a hail of steel into the darkness...

That was fair enough, but to contrast with Pauls saving throws from the previous game, his troops started dropping like flies this time... the centre thrust along the hill  was cut down to half strength and pinned, the commando were almost destroyed, pinned but stuck around, other platoons took fire too, to lesser effect but most were pinned by the end of my shooting phase.

Although Paul passed morale for those the worst damaged, to rub salt in the wound, Paul then went on to fluff his subsequent unpinning rolls, meaning the troops would be stuck in same positions again to endure another round of fire!

Trying to mitigate some of this Paul fired a smoke barrage with his mortars. Also, those that now had wanted to advance with weight of numbers and couldn't, tried to dig in, and failed that too... it was a terrible round of dice rolling by Paul. However his troops now at least were gone to ground too, so would be a much harder target.

Since my Tigers had fired, this then opened them up to a long range shot from the Firefly with its semi indirect fire. He managed one hit which I just managed to save, Paul passed the firepower roll to bail the Tiger.

Smoke to lessen the German firing

Shermans approach the eastern side of town

In the following German turn, the Tigers, having remounted their bailed tank, now feeling the situation for the scouts was somewhat under control, did some nifty driving in the cramped confines of the town, turned and fired back at the firefly, destroying it.  They had tried to remain stationary and just turn their turrets round but encountered that classic situation from "Kelly's Heroes" ... no space to turn the turret in the town... Having seen to the firefly they passed their storm trooper move to head back over to the scouts position.

More fire was spat out at the now gone to ground Brits with predictably lesser effects...

Paul now sensed he had to press on with the attack. This time he unpinned and went after the scouts leading with the remains of the commando and the supporting para platoon. Advancing with 2 flamethrower teams to kill and pin the defending scouts, Paul rolled a 1+2 for one team and a 2+2 for the second team. All missed! Neither of us could believe it!

Paul tried the assault anyway as he had little choice now, being committed, and was predictably thrown back by defensive fire...

At this point I probably would have called it, had I been Paul, but Paul has a strength of character when it comes to playing FoW, that he just keeps battling away, and certainly lives by the saying, "it aint over till the fat lady sings"...

The firefly burns...

Paul battled on, continuing to advance the Shermans, though I now had my panzerschrek team scampering towards them... elsewhere infantry tried dig in, unpin, and his 6pdrs and mortars tried to fire enough to get a pin somewhere on the German positions, but he just couldn't manage it, invariably getting 4 hits when he needed 5 for the pin...

Shermans continue to pressure the eastern objective.

Engineers and mortars approach the wire

The remaining para platoon facing the scouts, the commando are gone

Tanks get closer

Tanks continue their advance, but the grenadiers are now tucked up in the building and a panzerschrek and cmd panzerfaust team are just tucked behind the large doored barn, and an infantry gun has turned to face them too. Its not great but could get lucky with a side shot if the tanks assault.

Paul continues, he has little to gain now by sitting still, as he'll either lose the game by time out default or get shot up. So his assault still tries to get in but are again thrown back...

However he does find a way into the town centre. The engineers and pioneers have been going at each other, and the engineers had some help from the mortars. Although the pioneers eventually broke and fled, the tigers had turned once again, covering the approach to the now exposed objective, so the engineers went through the town hoping to swing down on to the eastern objective to aid the Shermans.

Remaining engineers approach the town centre

The engineers make it to the town centre, but at this point are effectively surrounded themselves, its too little too late. One of the Shermans is bailed by the panzerschrek and refuses to remount...

Finally after a regulation 2.5hrs play, and the situation Paul finds himself in, he calls it. I quite honestly applauded his tenacity.

But in the end the German defenders prevail, and maintain their escape route / resupply line...

I had lost the pioneers only, though came close to losing the small unattached  HMG platoon, and my mortars who all passed morale tests. Since I started with 9 platoons, I score a 6-1 win.

Paul had only actually lost one platoon, the commando, though nearly all his remaining infantry were at or below half strength.

I think in this game it seemed like Paul was playing against me, and the dice...

We have decided to call the campaign at this point. We have proved over the campaign, that infantry can for the most part hold up against other infantry in a defensive situation, with a decent deployment and a little luck.

At this point, I am sure 'Monty' will call in another 'special' and carpet bomb the defenders here, much as he did against Caen ...

I am not sure what the final campaign VPs are, I did miserably in the early campaign games, but clawed some back in the last two games, and Paul spent 5pts at the mid point to tweak his force, so I am not sure where that puts us now...

Paul said we should just call the campaign a draw... I'd be happy to do this, though feel he still probably has more points than I do.

So whats next, well, we need some practice for the Panzerschrek doubles tournie coming up, in Palmy, and and after that its Call to Arms in Wello... so some practice no doubt needed for that too.

Plus we'd also like to try our hands at the Firestorm campaign...

I hope you have enjoyed reading of our exploits during the Breville Axis of Attack campaign.

Breville Campaign - The defence of Breville - Fighting Withdrawal

Since starting the Breville Axis of Attack campaign, the British paras, under Paul's skilled hand, have done all expected of them, landing in a glider borne assault to capture the Orne bridges, resisted repeated attempts by the Germans to break through their lines, and then gone on the offense, beating the Germans back out of Bois du Mont, their fighting withdrawal there becoming a rout.

The Paras push on to capture their last objective, the town of Breville itself, and close out the campaign...

The Germans have one last chance to salvage a small amount of pride, before the end... And this time their Commanding Officer has been given a rapid schooling in the art of holding ground with Infantry...

 Having won the last battle and the dice off for the next game to choose the mission, Paul has pushed me back to Breville, and has decided on a Fighting Withdrawal to try and seal the fate of the Germans. Paul set the board up and I came along with 1750pts of Grenadiers, against Paul's British paras...

The German Force

Pauls forces, IIRC...

British Airborne
HQ: CO + 2iC + 2x PIAT
Full Paras platoon
Full Paras platoon
Full Paras platoon
Para Engineers platoon
Commando Section
2 x 6pdrs
3 x DD Shermans + 1x Firefly (Confident Trained)
4 x Mortars

With insufficient buildings to create the right look, Paul instead took a different approach to setting up the town, and went for a full ruined town edge look, using the 'Stalingrad' building set he made!

Paul managed to bring these two sides of the boards into alignment raising one section on a slightly raised platform. Very clever I thought!

The outskirts of Breville

Having learned how not to defend with infantry in the last game, I took Paul's advice, and this time set up a high perimeter line on the edge of my deployment zone. The three objectives were spread across my zone with typically, the defenders one in the centre and the attackers two to the two flanks.

The pioneers covered my exposed right side of the board, behind their barbed wire, and backed up by 2 infantry guns and 2 HMGs. In the centre a grenadier platoon with attached HMG and P'schrek team, and backed up by my scouts with assault rifles. On my left another Grenadier platoon with attached HMG, backed up by 3 Pak38s. My 2 mortars were centre back holding centre objective . The 5 PzIVs were in ambush...

Pioneers defend the German right flank

Paul decided to mass his main attack on his right, not wanting to have to deal with my wire... which was more or less as I expected. So I added my 2ic and CO to the end flank building.

Paras, commandos and Shermans backed by mortars ready their assault under cover of darkness

Looking down the German line from their left flank

Paul pulled night attack and with it the British spearhead move. My high line of defence did impede this move, slightly. Undaunted Paul pressed on with his attack getting into it quickly with Commandos and Paras, looking to make some holes with flamethrowers...

The panzers reveal their ambush from behind the left flank end buildings and drive up ready to hose the attacking infantry...

Initial attack, 2 flamethrowers are expended for the loss of a single German team

The bold move by the commandos flamethrower is rewarded by a hail of return fire which guts the commandos and they break and flee. Still undaunted Paul readies his assault with careful precision and manages to breach my line...

Paul gets excited with the casualty markers... there weren't quite that many deaths here , yet...

Its all on like donkey kong! I have lost the end grenadiers, 2iC and a panzer to Paul's assaults, but my Co has fallen back out of harms way. All this time my scouts have been rushing across from the centre, as have the 2 HMGs from the opposite flank, trying to help reinforce my faltering left... But Paul still has the pak38s and panzers to deal with...

Its all on big time!

A surge by Brits, and everything fires trying to knock out the pak38s and panzers to little effect! But the assault still goes in capturing the end flank building and forcing me to pull back the guns and tanks slightly....

Paras capture the end building, but objective is still strongly contested.

Pak38s and panzers return fire at the Shermans killing two and bailing the other 2 but they pass morale!

Now comes the craziness, with nothing to lose, a real do or die, Paul emerges from the building, and with a combination of fire, destroys a Pak38, bails a panzer with a Piat, and assaults the remaining panzers, staring down 12 dice of def fire on 4s. I push him back just... 3 dice are 4s, 2 are cocked, I roll these again, one 4 the other cocked again... I can't bare the tension! I roll the last dice again, a 4! And he is pushed back!

Paul then throws caution to the wind and has the 2iC join the 2 remaining Piats from a gutted para platoon and assaults with these! 12 def fire dice again... I pick my dice back up counting as I do and suddenly realise I had thrown 13 dice previously! What to to do? Paul resets his main para platoon again , "thrown em again Scott!" Eek! I do but get 5+ definite hits pinning back the main thrust. So Paul still tries with the 2 Piats. 12 dice again and again they are thrown back. But Paul's is rolling saves like a god again and few if any of the paras fall to the def fire.

Day light had also broken at start of turn 3...

In my turn I think, right, hose the lot of them down and that will be the end of it. I fire everything that I can. But Paul keeps rolling so many saves. Only the engineers are finally stopped , reduced to three teams and the Pltn Cmd dead, they cannot advance. But the main paras still pressuring my panzers refused to die.

To make matters worse the Shermans remount and let my Panzers have it! Paul lines up everything shooting all he can to get pins and or destroy teams in the crucial area. He's done all he can and assaults once more.

Defensive fire from the remaining Pak, Scouts, CO and lone observer spit out just enough fire to throw back Pauls assault.

Paul gets ready for his crazy assaults!

Its now almost midnight, we've played for over 4 hours and although contesting the flank objective, I am now in a position after some 5 turns to be able to pull this flank objective out from under Paul. Even if he does get it next turn, it will then vaporise and he will be in no position really to push for the other objectives in any sensible time frame, and I have enough platoons remaining such that he is unlikely to break me, and I still have my CO alive, for a change!

So Pauls calls it. The Germans have held on for their first win of the campaign, and as they started with 9 platoons and only lost two (Grenadiers and Panzers), claim a 5-2 win.

Final positions

To say this was a nail biter is not the word! This mission is always a real sod, especially for the defender as you always feel you are hanging on for grim death. So I am thrilled to have come away with a win, especially over Pauls Paras after the gutting I got last week against them. And I have to say most of that comes from Paul giving me some idea of how to set up and run a defence with infantry.

He may be wishing he hadn't told me now???

So I claw back some VPs for the campaign and post game dice rolls show Paul still has the initiative to try and attack again. He chooses to try Surrounded for the next game...