Continuing from our prior post D-Day Caen [Panzer]

We pick up the action at the end of turn 2

End Turn 2

Turn 3

Init goes to Allies and the Brits Fire first.

2x Cromwell fire @ PIVH Long shot : 30%. The Cromwell hits and penetrates, but No Damage! The next shot misses. This is horrible shooting! But admittedly low percentage. Come on lads!!

Now the Panzer IV’s adjust their aim and fire.

3 fire in unison at the Cromwells. Rolling a 24,29, and a 57. The Crummy Cromwell takes a Hull Front and Turret Front hit. She explodes in a ball of flame. The Troop is cut to pieces. 3 More German tanks fire at the Cromwell attempting to take cover in the rough terrain, and undulations. She takes two Hull front hits also, stopping dead in its tracks

.

The Germans are dividing and conquering! Especially with rolls like this:

Cromwell’s fire at the pzrIV’s. Shots clang from the hull and turret. The Pzr’s respond quickly the veterans fire with deadly accuracy.

The commander directed fire to the other Cromwells seeking cover in the rough terrain. The StugIII was the only one of the three AFV’s to hit. But it’s effect was deadly.

Turn 3 positions after movement we can see above the end turn positions. The Brits may have created a tactical problem being so spread out.

Turn 4

Germans take initiative. They fire first, shooting a short range they hit the track of their target. The 5 man crew don’t bail. 3 more tanks fire at them. Inflicting one damage result and 2 misses. The final shot penetrates but does no damage!

The remaining Crommies return fire, and the Fire Fly from the hill lends support. Hitting one Pzr IV and damaging it.

On the far side of the map the Wolverine attached to Troop one lights up one Panzer. Suppressing the entire stack!

Troop1, Wolverine reporting. Scratch one, brewing up hard. The tanks have all halted!!”

Turn 5

See orders placement below”

As round after round is exchanges, the right most Troops start to take damage, first a track hit, then she Brews Up. This blocks Line of Sight for the rest of the Brits.

“I say Jones, we are 8ft high you know..can you find a bit more cover please?” Said the commander.
” 2 Panthers firing…Incoming, and another…” . The first round sprayed debris and rock, the next struck home on the turret. 
The sound of the direct hit slowly faded. Heads cleared. Targeting is buggered Sir and she is traversing slow….”
“Bloody fire,now!!! Gunner 20deg 1800yards. Quickly lads before he finishes us off!! “.

The Firefly strikes again but fails to damage!

Panzers seek targets of opportunity.

Turn 6

Brits open up the turn firing at anything they can see. They breew up a Panzer IV.

“We gotta get out of this place….”

“Sqd Ldr, to all troops. Direct fire onto those Jerry cans trying to sneak by Troop 3 ovah”. 
“Rounds away! Hit! Bugger it’s still moving!” 

The Germans take initiave and fire first. Devasting at point blank range 2 of the 3 Cromwells. The third crew bails out.

“Correct me if I’m wrong Sarge, but if we go thru woods..wont they hear us?”..
‘..taking fire..taking fire. Bugger bail out bail out.” The rookie Lieutenant, died with those words ringing in his wet ears…
2 Cromwells KO, the men of the last tank bail out.

Turn 7:

Take the bloody hill NOW!!!

Yes Sir…

I fear this may not end well chaps.

But we have the bloody hill.

Fire and miss…. The Allies issued 9 orders, of their now reduced allotment due to losses . The rolling was horrid. 79 and 84. One inflicts a track hit.

The Panzers return fire, smashing round thru the front of the hull.

FF takes PzIVH out!

Last 2 crommies:

The Brits have had enough, the reverse back towards Caen.

END:

Conclusions:

British plan from the get go is what caused the problem, that and a disparity in penetrating firepower. Theses PzrIVH’s are a bitch. By this time in the war, a hit is a pen, is likely a kill [80% chance of damage/kill, 60% chance of a kill].

Discarding the poor dice the Germans got off nearly twice as many shots as the Brits. You miss all the ones you don’t take.

The plan to use stand off firepower was not of sufficient volume nor in the right place to be effective. A more concentrated attack or a spread then converge approach might have worked better for the Brits. By this I mean set up spread out and then converge over the course of the 20 turns. With the hope this would spread the German attack.

However, as we saw the Germans went mostly up the guts with a flank maneuver on 1 side to provide some supporting fire. This worked great….until they got to the hill. There they paused and pondered the open exposed ground. and settled for taking post shots at the Cromwell’s floundering around.

IF the Brits were in position, hull down or in a gully, they could have had 2 shots at the Panthers on the side as they drove slowly to the base of the hill. The slower movement rate of the Germans should have left them exposed to flank shots. A sure kill.
All in all a surprisingly deadly scenario and one that would bear more serious play and consideration opposed.