Holding Action at Crooked Brook

For our regular Monday game Phil and I decided on a return to the Operation Zeelowe games which we set in PGWodehouse's imaginary world of Blandings Castle;Clarence, Lord Emsworth and the Empress of Blandings herself. As Jon had effected the rescue of Lord E from the clutches of the vile nazi, Von Brecher, in the game's last outing it seemed like a good idea to play a follow up game with the Krauts on the offensive having been stung by loosing their prize captive and his extensive porcine knowledge! The retiring British force have decided to fight a holding action along the course of Crooked Brook. While the brook is a minor obstacle to movement it is crossed by both a road and a rail bridge. These need to be denied to the advancing German force. But, the German commander has received vital intelligence from a noted 5th Columnist in the area, leading to a decision to mount. Glider borne landing to take the bridges before the British can fully deploy. To represent the chaos of a retiring force the positions of the defenders are marked by hidden number counters, the numbers corresponding to a list of British forces. As each dice is drawn in Turn 1 for the British the counters are turned from right to left across the table and the numbered unit accordingly deployed! It didn't go too well for the British I have to say. We limited the game to 12 Turns as usual, with only the Falscrimjaegers on the table until Turn 7 when Wehrmacht reinforcements could arrive. So, to the game ~

Just a few scenes to give a flavour of the action during the game. The German glider was made by Matt when he was a young boy and so, along with the British glider, is very dear to me so bear with me in using it. The Germans won in Turn 11 when the British tanks had no choice but to retire, lacking infantry support and having been assaulted successfully already. A notable incident was the duel between the surviving RN Rating, Anderson G, who held off the elite paras for three turns before expiring in a hail of enemy fire! A VC for sure we felt, though sadly posthumous...

As some of you will know, Photobucket is trying to loose customers. Until I can sort out what is happening Blog entries are liable to be brief. Sorry!