Our club as part of international Lard Day this year pulled the 82nd Airborne's defence of Fauville. The US objective was to hold the crossroads at Fauville (which they pretty march started on top of) to prevent re-enforcement of German counter attacks on the Allied beaches.
The Americans started with two platoons of infantry with some lighter support weapons: bazookas, mortars and an AT gun. The Germans had six platoons of much lower quality troops with better support: self propelled guns, R35s and mortars.
The Paras decided to take a less direct approach and advance east of the town while deploying their anti tank gun west of the town and let the Germans waste their spotting on dummies in the town. The Germans on the other hand decided to flank with their vehicles and deal with the expected anti tank weapons in the town with their infantry.
Some lucky spotting rolls and German blinds cards allowed the Germans three moves before the Airborne got anywhere. As a result the Germans were deployed as per their plans when they met the Airborne, who had not managed to set up in their desired positions
East of Fauville, with self propelled guns in support and some very accurate mortar fire the Germans pinned down first platoon killing both of their Big Men forcing them into a static battle of attrition where German numbers took their toll.
West of Fauville, the R35s deployed in order to support the flank of the infantry attack. They immediately faced the Airborne's anti-tank gun but it was silenced by their supporting infantry.
Things were getting desperate in Fauville when Item Company of the 82nd arrived. They chose to deploy right away rather than remain on Blinds to maximize the movement their Big Men could provide. Advance towards the R35s was rapid.
The Germans seeing that this was their chance launched an attack into Fauville which was repulsed by the higher quality Airborne troops. However the battle resulted in heavy casualties, so the Airborne soldiers were compelled to retire to the second building due to heavy wounds.
As the retreat happened a German self propelled gun moved forward and rendered the second house untenable. The Airborne were compelled to retreat into the hedgerows.
Item company advanced to the outskirts of the town but the deployment of the German reserve forced them to being engaging the enemy rather than advancing.
Fauville was in German hands shortly thereafter.
Item company continued to deal with the re-enforcing Germans in front of them.
Finally the weight of German fire rendered first platoon in effective, and the Germans swept up creating a defensive line west of Fauville. The road to the beach was open
All in all a good game of IABSM with two good plans: one that went off as planned, and the other stalled by the early loss of commanders forcing the Airborne to defend a position other than their choosing and not being able to hold on for their reinforcements.
Blinds were a significant part of this game rather than a preamble, as one side (the Germans) took an orthodox route with little deception (they only had one dummy blind) and the Airborne attempted a deception that ultimately failed due to being spotted early. A tough game to try and turn around for the Americans after some initial bad luck but their quality kept them in the line almost but not quite long enough to be reinforced.
Tod
