Last Saturday Max and me had our monthly game of Chain of Command putting Max Bersaglieri again versus my US Airborne.
The Bersaglieri had to recapture a village occupied by the Airborne, while the Airborne had to take the important ridge near Gela in Sicily in order to secure the beachheads.
This time we played our 7th game of CoC and so had suitably chosen "Scenario Seven - Attack & Counter-Attack" (from the Lards magazine "Christmas Special 2013").
Max drew a sketch map and sent it to me so I could prepare the table:
Different stages of preparing our gaming table.
The idea behind Scenario Seven is the defender immediately launches a counterattack to retake lost ground while the enemy attack is still in progress.
An ideal setting for Sicily.
Scattered elements of the US 82nd Airborne had taken a little village near Gela and a platoon of Bersaglieri have the mission to retake this village while a platoon of the Airborne needs to take the hills overlooking the village.
Map showing the initial positions
This enabled my Airborne to field not only an additional squad of rifle infantry (average) but even a Sherman!
The Bersaglieri could count on a Semovente, a PaK, Light Mortar, Flamethrower team and a Pre-Game Barrage!
End of the Patrol Phase
and the positions resulting from it.
The Bersaglieri move forward
on both flanks!
On my left I could bring a squad of Airborne into position to defend the orchard, followed (after some unsuccessful dice rolls because of this Pre-Game Barrage!) by the Rifle Squad.
After concentrated fire from the 60mm mortar, snipers and rifle squad, the Bersaglieri squad on my right flank has to retreat and is able to recover its wounded commander too.
However, this is not without consequences for their Force Moral (dropped from 8 to 6).
On my Left the Bersaglieri retreat to a position which seems to be better to defend ...
The situation at a glance.
A Sherman from the 2nd Armoured Division arrives to bring much needed support to the hard pressed Airborne troopers.
As he is advancing to the village the Sherman is hit by a round from the Italian Pak and immobilised!
The Italians made a big mistake - leaving the light mortar and the PaK unsupported!
Two of my squads used an opportuntity (2 rolled 6s meant a double round for me) and stormed the center, destroying both enemy units at once!
With this the Bersaglieri lost one of their JoP too, but my Airborne had barely time to consolidate their positions. First they got hit by the Flamethrower of the Italians accumulating casualities and shock ...
... followed by a desperate attack of the Bersaglieri squad from my right flank.
The Americans managed to throw back the Italians after some bitter Hand-to-Hand combat but were barely able to survive this.
Luckily for me Max not only lost the Junior Leader of this squad but his Senior Leader too and this finally dropped his Force Moral to 0 so his Bersaglieri finally had to quit the Battlefield and my Airborne could take these important heights.
It was a hard fought victory for the Airborne and without the mistake of the Italians of leaving the centre wide open and unsupported, my Airborne would never have been able to advance so aggressively and storm onto the heights.
The Paras had payed a heavy toll as they had lost nearly 50% of the infantrymen dead or wounded and a badly damaged Sherman; a true Pyrrhic victory.
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