Oosterbeek, west of Arnhem.

Game of WW2 British Paratroops vs German Panzer Grenadiers in Oosterbeek. 

Using Chain of Command 2 in 20mm.

Using terrain and models by Chris Caves.

Organized and Umpired by Jeremy Dowd and Chris Caves.

AAR by David Maltman.

Players

British : Jeremy Nixon, David Brown and Ian Anderson.

German  : David Smylie, Stephen and David Maltman.

Field of Battle :

View from the German lines towards the British, the gliders can just be seen. Some German field police are hoofing it back towards the German lines, having thought to issue some parking fines and thinking better of it.

British to the left of the photo, you can see the gliders that they have decamped from. Germans to the right, the red line indicates where the Germans have placed their defensive line, "None shall pass", well that was the idea.

The rest of the German controlled area. All of the fighting took place in this half of the table.

The British objectives are to get their units off the German end of the table towards the bridge and/or capture the German deployment points. 

The Germans have to prevent these from occurring. 

How it played out.

As with all Chain of command games it started with the scouting phase and positioning of the jump of points.

View from the back of the British lines showing most of the jump off points, there was another over at the ruined church.

German jump off points , left flank. The jump off point near the ruined church ( top left ). Left as a tempting morsel to attract the unwary but under the watchful gaze of one of the German platoons, with the intention being to move it back if it looked like it was going to be  captured.

Right flank.

The Germans took up their positions in the houses behind the road they had chosen for their defensive line. There were meant to be 6 sections each with 2 MG 42 sections. But due to a logistics problem only 3 sections turned up, the rest having an R&R break just outside Lisburn. You would have thought in 1944 that someone would have noticed all these Panzergrenadiers lounging around. As a substitute the Germans got a second Jagdpanzer IV to come on a few moves later.

The British split into two groups. On the left flank ( from the German viewpoint ) was their smaller attack of one platoon of 2 sections an a 6pdr anti-tank gun. On the right flank 2 platoons and their engineer support units.

On the left flank the British occupied the ruined church and put their bren gun section up in the be tower to fire on the

German platoon in the red brick building on the far side of the wood from them. The Germans retaliate with their 2 MG 42s. Due to Jeremy getting good saving rolls this went on for a couple of moves.

On the right flank the British laid down smoke and started their advance under its cover. The First German Jagdpanzer IV come up to support the units holding the 2 houses on the right flank.

Meanwhile on the left flank the second Jagdpanzer IV arrives on the road and it and the 6pdr exchange shots, with no effect.

The bren gun in the church tower is silenced. The paras move a section from the church down towards to wood to put more fire onto the Germans and manage to kill an LMG section.

The left flank Jagdpanzer IV moves off to the right to help stem the british attack, followed by a newly arrived SdKfz 10/4 flack unit.

The Paras get a good advance on the right flank as Ian threw 4 double 6s in a row. Taking out the right SdKfz 10/4 in the process. Some British engineers are blowing a hole in the white house to attack the Panzergrenadiers on the upper floor.

With a hole in the wall of the white house paras move in to the ground floor and throw grenades up to the top floor. This causes enough disturbance to allow one of the para sections to move of the German end of the table.

The Jagdpanzer IV and the SdKfz 10/4 from the left flak sent HE int the lower floor of the white house. A calculated risk as there was a chance it would collapse the upper floor losing the LMG sections in there. However, the sturdy Dutch house survives and the British are either killed or fail a morae test and scarper.

Back on the left flank the paras move up into the woods.

As they are getting near to the jump of point I played 6 chain of command points to move it 18", back behind the brown house.

The paras continue to move up to the house under smoke cover. They do some firing but to no effect.

Back on the right flank the Germans use their mortar barrage to no effect ( Mr Smylie rolling the dice ). One of the British sections is hit by LMG fire and is forced to fall back.

On the left flank the Germans in the brown house go through a significant amount of reorder, fortunately there was a senior leader and free CoC points to do this. The 2 sections shuffled left so they could both get a firing position on the British at the hedge in front of them. So they opened up and the 3rd command of the leader gets the Panzerfausts firing as well. Lots of hits and the platoon is pinned. As icing on the cake the Jagdpanzer IV was able to move over from the centre to get a shot at them causing suppression.

That was time up. The British get a minor victory for getting 1 unit off the German end of the table towards the bridge.

Germans get a morale victory for hogging in to the end on their reduced resources.

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Photos curtesy of the Editor.