AAR 1944 France: Operation Epsom - the Attack on Mouen by Mark Luther

Looking north from Mouen

The main part of the village is offboard to the South. The grenadiers and the ATGs will have some nice open ground to target the PBI as they move down the slopes.

The Killing Zone

This will be the tough part. Hopefully the artillery will take out some of the opposition and the tanks will be able to shoot their infantry to the RR cut where they will have some decent cover.

The view down to the RR cut

The Brits will be moving down this slope to the northern parts of Moeun.

The Seaforths move down the slope

The initial stonks were done and the Seaforths move to their first postion. No activity seen to their front at this time

Troop of 23 Hussars

The Shermans and the Firefly of the attached troop from the 23 Hussars also starts down the hill towars Mouen.

Tanks to the front

The infantry stay behind the tanks and use the time to spot. Nothing yet The Firefly stays behind on overwatch

Pak attack

A Pak40 opens up on the the advancing Shermans. Unfortunately for the British their stonks totally crapped out and did no damage, so the Germans are waiting with all their units in position and at full strength.

One Sherman down

The Pak takes out the first Sherman in the first firing.

ATG under fire

The tankers respond by shelling the area with their 75/17pdr. This does cause a few casualties. The grenadiers are shown deployed behind the hedgerow overlooking the RR cut.

A Second Sherman hit

The Pak immobilzes the second tank.

Through the corn

The Seaforths advance down the hill, causing the grenadiers to open up with their MGs

Infantry advance starting to scatter

The formation begins to spread out and move at different speeds as it moves down the slope and some units receive fire

German center

The grenadiers and their MMG are in great cover behind the bocage and on the other side of the RR cut.

German right

Another MMG with the weapons section Big Man. Nice field of fire up the slope to the advancing Brits.

Right hand platoon

They decide to use the cover of the hedge to move up to the RR cut. They were also taking fire from snipers in the damaged house on this side of the cut.

Action on the right side

Moving down to the hedges above the RR cut, this platoon managed to get closest to the Hun first. It has taken a few hits but is now in some pretty good cover. Grenadier squad shown on the other side of the RR.

Stalling out

The British infantry is getting stalled out. A spotting round just arrived. The British FO can't seem to get its batteries up. The Firefly started down the slope and took a couple of hits from the Pak that is still in operation despite several casualties.

Firing across the cut

One of the squads from the left hand platoon made it down to the hedges above the RR but is under fire from the grenadiers on the other side.

Germans taking damage

Their leftmost squad has been forced back into the orchard. The Pak is in serious trouble and one of their MMGs has pulled back also.

Brits moving again

Despite the casualties, the Seaforths continue to move down to the RR cut. Only one of the Shermans is still moving and that one has turret damage. The other Sherman continues to fire though. German sniper visible in the shell hole next to the damaged building.

Another troop of Shermans

The second troop arrives finally on top of the hill. It sees a burning Sherman and two tanks not moving.

Mortar fire

The Germans have very little in the way of artillery at this stage, but do manage to get some medium mortars to land on the advancing Brits. Meanwhile the 2" mortars of the Brits have been busy putting an occassional shock point on the MMGs. The 25 pdrs are still silent though.

2nd troop advances

The three Shermans move up to the hedge to overlook the battle. The Firefly from the 1st troop is in front of them.

2nd PaK opens up

Seeing some tanks heading towards their side of the table, this Pak decides that its time to join the fun.

Another Firefly hit

Intrending to lead the 2nd troop down to finish off the grenadiers near the RR cut, the troop CO takes the lead only to be the first victim of the 2nd Pak.

Fire in the rear.

The 25 pdrs finally come down behind the German positions and a random event card comes up for fire started. The German line is really starting to falter now. The platoon leader is attempting to rally its retreating left squad. The left side Pak is out of operation. An MMG team is also being rallied by its BM

Tiger arrives

The much anticipated panzer reinforcement arrives. A solitary Tiger from the 101 Schwere Pnz Btn.

Shermans in the wheat

Some of the 1st troop Shermans

Pulling back

The HQ sqd and supporting 2" mortars pull back up the hill. It looks like the 2nd troop might be going in to pull out the remaining Seaforths

Pak under fire

The three Shermans of the 2nd troop send some HE at the ATG.

Stalled Tiger

After coming on board, the Tiger just sat back at the farm for the rest of the game. If it moved up I'm sure it would've chewed up the remaining Shermans, since the Fireflys had already disappeared.

Seaforths at the RR cut

The right hand platoon is down to 2/3rd strength, but has driven the grenadiers back from the hedges overlooking the cut.

Grenadiers in bad shape

The left and center of the grenadier line is broken.

Right side still fine

The right side unit is virtually untouched though.

End of the game

It was obvious that the Seaforths would not be able to get across the RR cut. They did have the remains of two platoons at the hedge line overlookng the RR though. The HQ squad was wiped out, the 1st platoon was down to one squad. The 2nd platoon was at 2/3rd strength. The 3rd platoon also at 2/3rd strength. The tankers had four of six Shermans still functioning - no Fireflies.

Meanwhile, the German grenadiers had one good platoon and the other had taken over 50% casualties. Only one MMG and one Pak were in good shape. The Tiger was in the rear. Time for some more artillery!