Max and me had another great game of Chain of Command last Saturday.
After the defeat at San Leo the depleted US units were replaced by fresh troops and the advance resumed in order to finally break out of the beachhead at Gela.
In order to look for another route into mainland Sicily, a platoon of Parachute Infantry was tasked to conducting armes reconnaissance.
This platoon encountered advancing Bersaglieri at Cotomina, who had order to reconnoitre American troop movements detected by the Axis and a skirmish battle developed (Scenario 1 "The Probe").
All quiet in and around Cotomino ... at least for now.
But then the vanguards meet and a bloody combat with heavy losses for both sides ensues.
A squad of Parachute Infantry advances through an orchard of apple trees ...
... and takes up position behind a dry-stone wall.
The second squad covers the left flank and tries to hold down the enemy in the village.
The forward squad suffers heavy casualities even if behind hard cover ...
... as more and more Bersaglieri try to dislodge them with all the fire power they can muster.
But somehow the manage to survive and hold this isolated position and thus enable the other squad to push forward.
The Bersaglieri suffered badly too especially losing leaders and with leaders wounded or even killed their Force Morals drops at an alarming rate.
With a last assault at the village the US Airborne finally managed to dislodge the Bersaglieri and they had to retreat.
This was a very close fight after all:The Parachute Infantry had suffered so many losses that their Force Moral was down to 3 when the Bersaglieri had to quit the field - one more Roll for losses and it would have been a draw as you need a Force Moral of 3+ to win.
I made several mistakes, which fortunately were not penalised:
Firstly, the foremost position, heavy cover to or fro, was far too isolated.
If Max hadn't attacked sporadically, but had utilised the numerical superiority of his Bersaglieri, this position would have become untenable and the squad would have been worn down much earlier in the game and not only when it was already too late, because my other squad had advanced into the village in the meantime.
Secondly, I committed way too early in the game and deployed my second squad - part of the downside of having a platoon of only 2 squads and not enough support points to deploy another squad.
Max knew early on what I was planning and it was too far away to support the other platoon.
Another game that could tip one way or the other in terms of victory right up to the final minute.
