Fox & The Rat: Day 5 Battle 2 - The Guns

Sgt. Klinkerhoffen had read a British poem written during the Great War which put him in mind of this mission.

The German Guns

Boom, boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom,
Boom, boom. Boom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom.

Whilst the British private who'd penned the poem was commenting on the German guns it was the British artillery which was the focus of Klinkerhoffen's mission.

Ahead through the silent desert lay the British lines and an artillery position that had been causing so much trouble to the main DAK force. The mission as laid out by Lt. Gruber was simple, destroy the guns and any ammunition reserves and then escape with their lives.

Gruber had picked a small team for this mission hoping that stealth would allow them to breach the enemy camp rather than brute force. So along with Klinkerhoffen (who also carried demo charges) Gruber had brought along Pvt. Schafer with his sniper rifle and Pvt's Geerhart and Grosse with the MG42.

The plan was simple, the privates would remain outside the camp and provide covering fire if the alarm was raised whilst Gruber and Klinkerhoffen would attempt to destroy one gun each and then look towards the ammo carrier.

Klinkerhoffen lead off whilst the Lieutenant arranged the position of the covering forces and he quickly penetrated the enemy lines near an unoccupied pill box. As a sentry wandered past oblivious of his presence he dashed forwards and killed him with his knife. Looking around no one else was in sight so he dragged the body back towards the deep shadows around the pill box. 

By this point Gruber had the other men in position and was starting his own approach to the enemy lines hoping to make use of the gap in the patron route.

Then disaster!

For some unknown reason and at some undetected signal the guards switched their patrol direction. So rather than advancing into a gap instead the enemy started to move back towards the men at the edge of the camp.

As Klinkerhoffen crept towards the first gun an enemy dog patrol moved closer and closer to the main force until Schafer was forced to fire. Normally a reliable shot under pressure this time the bullet went wide and instead of the enemy dropping dead the alarm was raised.

Suddenly the enemy camp was alive with shouting and reinforcements being awaken and dashing to the front. Despite the pandemonium Klinkerhoffen kept steady and managed to set a charge on the first gun before backing off behind some sandbags.

The rest of the squad had however gotten bogged down in an exchange of fire firstly with a patrolling Tommy and then Gruber came under heavy but inaccurate fire from a British Officer. Their cover was well and truly blown. 

With British reinforcements flooding the area and no chance of reaching the second gun Gruber called off the attack and Klinkerhoffen who had still remained undetected withdrew from deep in the enemy camp whilst the others covered him.

Overall the mission had not been a success but with no casualties or prisoners taken at least the squad lived on to fight another night.

Fox & The Rat: Day 5 Battle 1 - Kleiner Flugplatz

0200 hours 14/10/1942

Location - Western Desert; Undisclosed location west of Benghazi, Libya

Roster: Lieutenant Tonkin

Sergeant Almonds

Troopers Carstairs; Godfrey; Crabtree; Flashman; Pike; Cooper

Clear night, waxing crescent moon, light winds, broken cloud scudding quickly on a south-westerly breeze.  Unknown number and quality of DAK sentries.

Sub unit of L Detachment led by Lt. Tonkin - recently returned to duty following a ‘scratch’ from his last outing against ‘Harry Hun’ - charged with attacking an isolated airstrip and attendant aviation fuel.  The main column have been subject to unanswered Stuka attacks - heaven knows where the Desert Air Force have been - so this should at least provide some well needed respite.

Intelligence indicated there was a small airstrip servicing an unknown number of Stukas guarded by a mixture of DAK Gendarmerie and sentries plus reserves of aviation fuel.  Objective was simple - to destroy as many aircraft, fuel facilities and auxiliary vehicles as possible.

L Detachment approached from the north-west.  The demo charges were allocated to Sgt. ‘Big Jim’ Almonds and Pte. Pike.  Sgt. Almonds approached the perimeter from a westerly direction whereas Pte. Pike approached from north/north-west.  The remainder of the detachment followed a generally north-west angle.  Two Stukas were drawn up on the strip which was in the centre of the compound while a fuel truck was a short distance inside the perimeter towards the western edge.

Tonkin, Pike, Crabtree & Flashman made towards a pill box at the north-western corner of the perimeter whereas Almonds set off towards the fuel truck and Carstairs and Godfrey made towards the perimeter fencing to the right of the pill box.  Cooper with his sniper rifle held back scanning for suitable targets should the alert be raised.

Pike was caught out attempting to gain cover from the pill box.  A close sentry and the DAK officer felled him and his charges!  Crabtree & Flashman making better use of the cover despatched the DAK officer.  Meanwhile a pair of sentries were close to the pill box to the opposite side where Pike was and near to where Lt. Tonkin had taken cover - they would be heading towards Almonds’ route of attack.  Tonkin’s pistol wouldn’t account for both so he took the high risk decision to lob a grenade - this accounted for one of Fritz - luckily Carstairs & Godfrey had a clear line of sight and took out the second. The balloon was now truly up and the the cat out of the metaphorical bag!

However a sentry with a vicious hound  further along the perimeter was alerted and caught Almonds scurrying between rocks and a sandbag emplacement.  He shot wildly but missed - Cooper took steady aim and accounted for the impetuous Jerry.  Without his master Der Hund  scarpered into the night.  This allowed Almonds to breach the perimeter and make towards the fuel truck.  

The sentry who’d taken out Pike targeted Crabtree and Flashman - he missed and paid for this by becoming Cooper’s second victim who exhibited his customary sangfroid.

Almonds now had a clear run to the fuel truck and he laid the charges - now onto one of the Stukas.  Jerry reinforcements were now streaming in from the south so he targeted the one furthest from these additional troops.  What he hadn’t realised was it was guarded by another blasted Hund and it’s master.  The cowardly dog handler sent Fido out to intercept him and the vicious beast brought him down and incapacitated poor Almonds before he had a chance to draw his dagger out and despatch him.  Time was running out for Tonkins’ mob.

Meanwhile Crabtree and Flashman picked up the charges left by Pike and were making slow progress towards the rear of the same Stuka which had beguiled Almonds.  Tonkins now rushed forward to where Almonds was now lying and picked up his charges determined to vanquish Fido and his handler and blow up the damned Stuka.  Fido launched himself at Tonkins but this time he was ready dagger drawn.  It was a tremendous tussle, Tonkins managing to injure the animal which whimpered it’s way back to it’s master but Tonkins too took some gouges and bites to his arms and legs.  Tonkins finally got rid of the dog and sentry with a grenade; Cooper had climbed atop one of the pill boxes and took out another Fritz advancing on Tonkins’ position from the aircraft hanger.  Carstairs and Godfrefy moved up in support of Tonkins but the Jerry reinforcements were now too much and Tonkins was out on a complete limb - too far out of reach for Crabtree and Flashman with the other charges to attempt to destroy the Stuka.  It was time to cut and run, the men were confident Jerry would at least not kill Tonkins and Almonds.  Cooper provided covering fire from his elevated position and they were able to drag Pike from where he’d gone down.

Score:  Tonkins and Almonds in the bag; Pike - light wound; 

Jerry - one fuel truck destroyed

Not a great result although superb bravery exhibited by L Detachment, in particular Tonkins and Almonds, and Cooper’s ‘Dead Eye’ wreaking havoc in the DAK ranks.

Sengoku Japanese Progress

I've not eased up on the Japanese painting since Christmas with several units being added to the painted armies. The most recent of these are some of the last of the planned foot Samurai with Yumi and Teppo armed units joining the hosts. I've got one more unit of Yumi Samurai being painted and then it's time to get stuck into the Ashigaru.

The Mori host so far.

I've not got as far with the Shimazu.

 

Nightstalker DZ Ravager

Test model complete for the NS DZ/Firefight Butchers and Ravagers. There'll be some minor variations on the subsequent models but the overall colour scheme will be the same. Now just a few more to paint and importantly - base!

Hush, don't have nightmares....

Sengoku Japanese: Shimazu Yari Ashigaru

And finally for what has been a busy week of painting and gaming we have the first of many melee Ashigaru. Mostly armed with yari but with the odd naginata thrown in as well.

In total there will be three of these units painted up for each side, all paired with a unit of yumi Ashigaru. So there's a fair few of these left to paint but I have already painted up two of the yumi units so at least I've got a start on those!

Fox & The Rat: Day 4 Every Object Counts

With the 8th Army assault stalled on the coast Capt. Rohrstock was determined to press home the advantage of the lightning victory the day before and fully breakthrough the enemy lines. 

Looking through his binoculars he could see the ground he needed to capture and in the distance the colonial defenders rushing forwards to try and stop him. Once more the Stukas had been called up to wreak havoc in the enemy lines but he had not expected the enemy to be able to muster an artillery bombardment in return. Whilst this mostly went astray he was aghast to see the truck pulling their precious anti-tank gun do up in flames with the crew mostly bailing out alive.

With the preliminary bombardments over, both sides picked themselves up and advanced towards the enemy. This was mostly made up of cautious advances by the infantry on foot until Rohrstock unleashed the 3rd section in their Sdkfz 251. Guns blazing it rushed the central objective under the very noses of the enemy and disgorged it's passengers. The initial target was a Sikh mortar section which had unwisely crested a nearby sand-dune and it was quickly reduced to a single crewman. The men of the 3rd section also unleashed heavy fire into the advancing Sikh infantry, cutting a number of them down.

This boldness brought about an immediate reaction from the enemy as a Humber armoured car rushed down the road and opened fire on the 251, fortunately the shot was wide of the mark. This in turn signalled the time for the Panzer II attached to the attack to venture forth. The first shot from it's auto-cannon was wild and off target but the second struck home with deadly effect, causing the Humber to burst into flames.

During this armoured battle the infantry fight had continued in the centre with the Sikh's coming off the worst under accurate fire from the DAK 3rd section. The Sikh's had also made an effort to bring their own anti-tank gun forwards and into action. It also shot at the 251, and again the shot was wide.

Not wishing to give the 6pdr another shot at him the 251 sped forwards whilst it was reloading and opened fire on the crew to cut some of them down. Their was a brief assault by some Sikh infantry on the 251 but this was driven off with no damage done.

By this time the Sikh attack had largely bogged down but they did launch on last ditch assault on the central objective but whilst this caused a couple of casualties on one team the Indians had no support so had to withdraw. This allowed a different DAK team to retake the objective whilst the LMG team of 3rd section shot the Sikh's down.

With night falling and no chance of rescuing a victory the Sikh's decided to withdraw from the field of combat leaving it to Capt. Rohrstock and his men to celebrate another decisive victory.

Sengoku Japanese: Yumi Monks

Here we are with the last of the Sohei warrior monks (for the moment) from Fireforge games. I have two boxes of the monks each of which will be turned into a unit of melee, archers and skirmishing gun users.

Having spent the week painting up nothing but Sohei I've gotten into the flow of their scheme so these chaps came out relatively quickly. 

Here we have the entire box in one shot (with an extra banner bearer from Perry) and that means I only need to paint up some melee Ashigaru to complete all the different box sets I got from Fireforge. Those are up next and have already made their way onto the painting table.