France 1940

I finally got Patrick and his 1940 French army over for a game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum last night. Scott put in an appearance to help run the French defences while I ran the Germans. Patrick had a company of infantry supported by a MG platoon and a couple of 47mm anti-tank guns and 4 Char B tanks. They were defending a couple of hills dominating the road to the cafe where Divisional HQ wanted to have lunch. I had a Light Panzer Company of 2 Light Platoons with Panzer Is and IIs, a Medium platoon of 3 Panzer IIIs and a Support Platoon of 3 Panzer IVs. I also had a Panzer Grenadier company with two platoons in halftracks and one platoon in trucks. Supports were a MG platoon, an 80mm mortar platoon and a pair of 75mm guns from the Support Company.

Scott took a few pictures with his Blackberry at the height of the action.



My left hook comes undone.



Swarming the brokendown Char B.

Right hook under fire.

 View from the German end of the table. Supports have deployed in the lower right corner. A light panzer platoon and a panzer grenadier platoon are pushing up on the left while the rest push up through the fields on the right of the main road.

The best way to deal with a Char B.

View from the French side. A platoon of infantry are in the woods at the top of the hill on the left while beside the road a lone Char B holds up the German advance.

Patrick and Scott dug in the infantry along the hills while the tanks took up position along the hedges at the bottom. This forced me to deploy early and my Panzer Is and IIs were pretty ineffective against the lumbering monsters. Two brokedown though and one got caught by a Stuka while it fell back across the field to it's next position. The fourth was eventually damaged by the Panzer IVs. But my casualties were fairly heavy; 2 PzIs and a halftrack knocked out and 10 KIAs among the Panzer Grenadiers. 2 PzIIs, 2 PzIIIs and another halftrack were heavily damaged.

So not exactly a win to brag about but I think a pretty balanced and challenging scenario.