I was away at the weekend at Old Manor House hotel at
Lundin Links in Fife for a large scale 28mm WWII Bolt Action game. Over the 2 days 10 gamers attended from our
AB1 group, largely members of the SESWC. The games for the weekend were set during the Operation Husky the allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943.
Scout car calling up artillery support |
On the first day we played 3 of 4 scenarios – a river
crossing, supply dump, Gela airfield and a night mountain attack. John Glass and Ian Carter devised all the
scenarios. Each of us put in the field a reinforced Bolt Action platoon of 750 points
- mine was a Canadian force of an infantry platoon supported by a Sherman and a
Humber armoured car.
My barge falls short - a bad moment |
In my first game against Jack Glanville’s Germans things
were going well until my artillery barrage fell short and hit 5 of my 8 units. In my second game Angus Konstam and I managed
to defeat Ian Carter’s Germans who had the thankless task of holding defences
around Gela airfield. My third game
against Dave Imrie proved to be a hard fought draw.
Germans defending the impressive bunker |
On the Sunday we played a single large game based on a
German force retreating towards Messina with US, British and Canadian troops attempting
to cut off their retreat. As well as our
original force from the day which was now motorised and we could field extra heavy equipment as reserves.
Vital bridge on road to Messina hit by allied airstrike |
Shermans withdrawing from German fire |
Things at first went well with the allied attack on my
flank but my leading Sherman suffered pins and retired for 3 moves. An Italian airstrike then further pinned my forces
and only after much reorganisation did the advance get underway again. In the end the overall weekend was judged an
Axis victory as they had destroyed more of our units and we had deployed more of
our reserves.
Shermans regrouping in cover |
All my photos with descriptions at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157637058529345/