The Fight for Faire Bissone (Part 2)

I don’t envy the polygonal Canucks endeavouring to secure Faire Bissone’s bridge in this novel Combat Mission experiment. Commanded, during monthly wargaming sessions at Calgary Military Museums, by volunteers, some of whom have no previous CM experience, their promised Sherman has yet to arrive, and their surroundings teem with potential enemy positions.

Eight turns/minutes of tense WeGo action have unfolded since GM TV-PressPass provided his last battle report. As you’ll discover if you read the following AAR, during turns 9 through 16, the advancing Canadians get their first taste of CQB and suffer their first vehicular loss.

(Session #2)

“On the western edge of town, Lt Brewster is nearing exhaustion from crawling through the thick vegetation of the French forest floor. But he is delighted to see the familiar shape of a MkIII helmet dotted with camouflage material emerge from the bushes ahead. Cpl Norris pulls out a folded sketch spattered with ink and mud to give the scout team’s report of the bridge to Lt Brewster, pointing out slit trenches and likely german locations. Despite some barbed wire and dug in positions on either side of the bridge, there’s no sign of demolition charges or serious fortifications.

Lt Brewster’s radio message comes through clearly with the echo of gunfire audible behind it, relaying up through the chain of command and down into every squawking box inside the M4 Sherman tanks that make up the armoured column.

“Confirm the Faire Bissone bridge is intact.”

A few kilometers up the road, Cpl Merchant in the lead tank taps the toe of his boot into his driver’s shoulder. “We’re going to take a right up here! Follow Cpl Calder’s car!” The condition of the bridge is now verified and known to the battalion, and with that: the first key objective of the scenario is met!

In the centre square of Faire Bissone, two whistling rocket charges sail narrowly past the Staghound on its approach, but it’s at 43 seconds into turn 10 that a Panzerfaust finally finds its mark. The crew inside are uninjured, but the vehicle and its weaponry are destroyed. Leaping from the smoking hatch, Cpl Lafountain and his men find themselves caught in a storm of crossfire from nearby buildings. Revolvers clutched tightly, they sprint for the Bureaux de Devereux et Associés office building.

Upon securing the door behind them, they realize that only three of the five have made it to this relative safety. Cpl Lafountain lies in the street alongside his armoured car.

Crouched against a thick hedge, Pvt Abbot of Third Section realizes that the rifle grenade that killed Cpl Hubbard has also put him in command of the section. He withdraws his Lee Enfield rifle from the tangled cover of the bocage he’d been firing through. As the Bren Carrier on the road fires on German-occupied buildings he rallies his men for a sprint across the field and into the farmhouse ahead. They can see tracer fire slashing across the farther field, but the path to the house is clear and they pile inside without drawing any fire.

Meanwhile, the engineers prepare explosives to breach the dense hedgerow and hurry into the fight behind Pvt Abbot.

Feeling somewhat late to the party, Cpl DeGaulle (no relation) leads the 2nd section from the follow-on platoon into the northern forest. He does pause a moment to wish they’d taken a satchel charge of their own to open up a path from the main road. But it’s too late to go back and loop around now, they can hear the mortars firing nearby. Instead, the section finds themselves moving cautiously west through the treeline perpendicular to the main assault, trying to peer past farm houses and tree trunks into the northern edge of town.

Here’s where we stand at the start of minute 12, with the addition of recent sources of incoming fire:

Session #3:

(For our February session we focused on the concept of fire & maneuver that was a key part of WWII infantry tactics, and started using The Military Museum’s Education Centre)

As the firefight intensifies around the western edge of town, Company Commander Maj Green roleplayed by real world Cpl Blanco calls for a dissemination of forces. “Don’t get sucked in. Swing south, and wrap around to the north. We need to envelop the bridge-head and cut them off.”

Lt Brewster takes two sections and Cpl Norris’s scouts south, planning to attempt a crossing at the southernmost ford where they’ll be well out of sight of the bridge.

After handily dodging machine gun fire emanating from the farmhouse at grid H-8, Cpl DeGaulle halt to consider their options. Progressing further might expose them to fire from the east side of town, while pushing in from the north side might bring them into contact too early, eliminating room for maneuver.

The deliberations are interrupted by a whistling rifle grenade that detonates in the trees above, raining shrapnel and splinters into an unlucky Pvt Summers. Leaving an element to suppress the grenadier in the park, Cpl DeGaulle leads the mad-dash towards the relative safety of the farm house at D-6.

The outgoing bursts of machine gun fire prompts a withering response from 3rd section. As the pioneers breach the bocage behind him, Pvt Abbot realizes they can approach the blind-side of the H-8 farmhouse without exposing themselves to the now-suppressed machine gun. Alongside the pioneers, he and two riflemen plaster themselves against the wall of the occupied building and lob a frag grenade through a high window. It is suspiciously quiet inside, and Pvt Abbot shakes his head when the plucky pioneer opens the pack of satchel charges questioningly.

“I think a breach at this point is probably overkill.”

Fateful words, and the 11 seconds that follow as the infantry kick in the back door of the house are eye opening. A storm of gunfire erupts inside the farmhouse, joined by the chatter of a schmeisser from across the street and the rattle of the pioneer’s bren gun. Groans from the comment commanders and a half-dozen wounded or killed Canadians prompt our first (and perhaps only?) reset. We skip back 11 seconds without any additional review, and the breaching charges are firmly placed against the outer wall of the farm-house.

Not a single Canadian falls in the shower of plaster and masonry that follows, and the pioneers capture a stunned German prisoner as they clear the house handily. Pvt Abbot and his crew gamely dash across the street in hunt of the schmeisser wielder, but find themselves in an empty barn peering through trees towards the bridge.

While the big 3” mortars are still dialling in, our field deployed 2” mortars land some direct hits on the three-story farmhouse at I-7, using up the last of the carried high-explosives for our initial mortar. That team will only be able to fire smoke missions in the future.

The crew of the armoured car are still collecting themselves as Lt Brewster storms in the door and starts up the spiral staircase for the fourth floor and the south facing view of the bridge. Soon after Marksman Cpl Curling arrives alongside, puffing with exertion but swiftly steadying his scoped Lee Enfield on the mahogany surface of Monsieur Devereux’s now vacant desk.

Obersoldat Pinneberg, the final surviving member of the Germans in the park, checks his rapidly dwindling stockpile of Gewehr-Panzergranates and mutters a brief prayer. He’s directly responsible for at least two Canadian casualties at this point, and despite mortar, sniper, and machine gun fire over the last 16 minutes, still gunning for a fight.

Carefully, 2nd section tails the Bren Carrier into the northern courtyard of the office building. Both the Bren gunners on foot and in the armoured box of the carrier send streams of .303 rounds into the park, while Obersoldat Pinneberg returns hastily aimed rifle grenades that detonate short of their targets.

This battle administrator wonders whether the plucky German is perhaps hiding in the recently punched mortar holes that dot the park, popping up only to engage. Because at the end of turn 16, despite withering amounts of fire: he is still standing.

The situation however, seems to have shifted in the Canadians’ favour. With the farmhouse strongpoint neutralized, and the Bureaux de Devereux office building in Allied hands, it looks like C-company has avoided becoming “stuck in” and are expanding their control of Faire Bissone’s northern half. Join us on March 6th to see what happens next!”

The tactical situation at the end of turn 16: