20mm Rapid Fire: A Bridge Too Far

This weekend I went to the RAF Leuchars Wargames club for their big holiday season game which was a 2 day 6 table 20mm refight of Operation Market Garden using Rapid Fire. We had 24 players and 2 umpires at the height of it all, and I'm sure that most of them enjoyed their weekend as much as I did.

I commanded a Regiment of the 101^st Airborne which was engaged on the Uden, Veghel, St Oedenrode table. I took both the towns and held of the limited German counterattacks until 30^th Corps arrived.


1st Airborne landing ground

Thanks to Jed and Steve from Leuchars who took on all the umpiring.  Here is the end of game situation report by the chief organiser Jed Harbridge-Rose after of 2 days play amounting to 4 campaign game days….



30 Corps armour engage a counterattack

More photos and descriptions at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157632389012934/

After Action Report
Wednesday 20th September 1944 ......

Arnhem and The Island
A few units of British Airborne Division finished the game in buildings next to the north ramp of Arnhem bridge.
Although several German units were also the same distance away, on the other side!
After landing around Driel and Elst, at least one unit of Polish paras held the southern ramp, with several more advancing north over the bridge.
General Sosabowski was the only survivor of the Polish Para Brigade HQ when ambushed on arrival.
Two batteries of British airborne artillery were lost when the Driel ferry sank under their combined weight.
The DZs and LZs remained firmly in Allied hands, with the Polish heavy support units landing safely north of Oosterbeek.
More German arrivals are expected.

Nijmegen and Grave
In the hands of 82nd All American, with Groesbeek also quiet (at the moment).
A Tiger 1 which sat on the north ramp of Nijmegen bridge was destroyed by the USAAF.
A Stuart tank of the Welsh Guards Armoured Recce has been spotted on the northern ramp of Grave bridge!
More German arrivals are expected.

Uden, Veghel, St Oedenrode
Germans still in evidence, but the pesky JagdPanther finally lost the unequal duel with the XXX Corps spearhead after 15 hours parked slap in front of them.
More German arrivals are expected.



Best bridge exploding - forcing allies to rebuild bridge at Son.

Son, Best, Eindhoven
XXX Corps stretches from Grave back to Joe's Bridge, and still the last part of Guards Armoured Division (Grenadiers) has not crossed over the border from Belgium.
The other XXX Corps divisions have not even started their engines yet.
There is a new bridge at Son, courtesy of Elliot Gould and the Royal Engineers.
More German arrivals are NOT expected, as we shut down the first two tables due to a shortage of players on the second day.