Bocage Headquarters
Played 31/07/2004
Date:
17 June 1944, 1500 hours
Location:Near Le Mesnil-Rouxelin, two miles northof
St. Lo
Normandy.
History:
On the afternoon of 17 June the US 1st
Battalion, 175th
Infantry (29th Infantry Division) renewed its
attack
toward St. Lo. Around 1500, near the village of Le
Mesnil-Rouxelin, the battalion attacked the headquarters of the
beleaguered German 352nd Infantry Division. The
divisional
commander, General Kraiss, was forced to assemble a rag-tag group to
delay the US advance and prevent the capture of the divisional
headquarters.
German Orders: Prevent US victory
conditions.
US Orders: Capture the Manor by the start of turn
eight
and
control it for the rest of the game.
Game Length: 10-12 Turns.
Three American squads with command, two jeeps, and one attached Sherman, were to race down the road to capture the German HQ. With foot on the peddle they didn't have the time to catch the Germans.
The American tactics were
to advance squads in a broad front through the North and South field
systems. The Sherman and MMG team were to provide support to the West
thrust along the northerly field systems. The road was ignored as being
too dangerous.
The German tactics were highy constraind by their initial deployment options. Essentially General Kraiss and his staff had to remain in the Headquaters until game turn 6, busying themselves in destroying documents and preparing their escape. Other than some dummy LMG positions, mines, and a HMG position guarding the HQ, the Germans had to largely hope that the three sets of wire strewn across the road would slow down the Americans enough. It did.
Victory Points
Technically the game was a decisive victory to the Germans. In practice I am going to call it a draw. The Americans racing down the road couldn't get to the HQ house in time to properly assault it.
That's despite some
desperate
ferrying of forces up and down the road in Jeeps. The Germans
sat
tight and then just ran away at the right time.
The Germans had three lots
of
barbed wire tightly strung at points along the road and this required
the tank to go first to clear it.
This one didn't work out for us, and I'll need to check to see if I have missed anything. On later reflection I realised that there were aspects of Arc of Fire that simply didn't gel with me.
German VPs = 0