"The Lost Battalion"
WW1 chain of command scenario
Today Kati and I busted out the WW1 figures to play some Chain of Command. We decided to do a modified version of a scenario called "Lost in France" out of Too Fat Lardies: Through the Mud and the Blood, scenario book "Stout Hearts and Iron Troopers."
A brief historic background: On October 2nd 1918, a joint French/American attack was launched into the Argonne forest. The French and most of the American units blogged down pretty quickly. But a part of the American 77th composed of elements of the 307th infantry the 308th infantry regiments broke through and penetrated deep into the German line. They quickly found themselves surrounded by the German 254th and 76th regiments. What ensued was 6 days of constant attacks on the battalion-sized American regiment. 500 American soldiers went in and less than 200 returned.
Long story short it's an epic and amazing event in American history, anyone interested can do a quick google search for a variety of books on the event not to mention a movie called "The Lost Battalion" which is a really nice movie made in the 90s which you can watch in full on Youtube.
Alright to the game:
The board was a simple cratered forest (and yes we are taking advantage of Kati's new trees again). The scenario is set in the final day of the siege so the American troops are confident but worn down.
As is her custom Kati controlled the Germans. We gave them a Storm Platoon consisting of 2 bomber squads and 2 mg/rifle squads. For support she had a sniper and flamer thrower as I have heard a few were used(I honestly can not remember where I read that).
To represent the Americans being on their last leg we gave them a very simple and understrength platoon. 3 squads of 8 men plus an NCO, and 1 MMG team with the rule that it had 2 burst of ammo left, then the team became a rifle team.
A few close ups of the Americans:
We gave first turn to the Germans:
Kati immediately rolled 2 6s and took two phases which she started by deploying an MG section at the corner DM .
She then deployed the second MG section on the northern side of the board and opened up on my center squad.
The first MG section moved up.
A sniper deployed in a crater while a bomber section deployed west of the American line.
A flamethrower enters.
A good shot of the whole board.
The MG section ducks into the woods and a bomber section advances on heading straight at my line.
They make quick work of my center squad and it breaks and heads back.
On the other side of the battle my line fares a lot better. Whittling down the Germans as they advance. After the MMG runs out of ammo the team grabs up some rifles and continue to hold their crater.
My northern flank falls back in good order from the fallen tree barricade they had constructed.
The German right stumbles just yards from the American line, with the bombers getting pinned down.
The Germans getting officially pinned down.
I used the opportunity to fall back and consolidate my position.
The Germans also slow down in the north. It looks like the attack might just fall apart.
I am able to get my sarge over to the squad that ran and rally them during the slowdown in the action.
The Germans are still shooting at my men during the pause and it starts to affect my northern squad.
Kati works her flamethrower up and my overwatch fire seems to go right over their heads.
The Germans renewed their advance in the north
And their advance in the west,,,,
I lose my northern flank and sarge to a set of well placed grenade volleys.
The the battle came to an end when the western front became a melee that my boys lost in a bad way.
The final shot of the table.
We enjoyed playing this game even though it was a pretty simple game and we both concluded that the Americans were out-matched. It did seem fitting though, as the men that actually pulled this off did it against all odds. We may try this again once I get a few more Germans and make it a bigger battle.
So ends another report from the front!
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