Bounce the Bogen: Turn 30

In WEGO Combat Mission sometimes you need to watch a turn replay several times in order to catch every incident and nuance. Turn 30 was one of those turns. Unexpected encounters, narrow escapes, KOed vehicles, ricochets, near misses, routs, casualties… the following report has a bit of everything.

The turn’s myriad moments of moment in chronological order…

T+3. Supporting fire from the top floor of the castle fells one of the two Sicherung squaddies vying with ammo-short Venison.

T+6. Reluctant to disengage, Pyle’s Sherman is walloped by another mystery round. Meanwhile, in the woods near the castle Hood, Greenwood, and Forester reduce that troublesome enemy HQ to three individuals.

T+11. His ears ringing, Pyle’s gunner has a go at the advancing German halftrack and misses.

T+14. As the Sherman begins reversing, a German ‘sound contact’ briefly manifests in the midst of Nottingheim village.

T+28. Forced to dog-leg by a lineside embankment, Spencer’s M3A1 is struck and holed by what sounds like a light flak gun firing from the vicinity of the station.

T+31. A second or two after the flak gun’s (?) probable position – a tree-screened pit – appears on the map, the gun looses another volley, eliminating the US halftrack. Happily, all three crewmen manage to bail out.

T+33. Near the castle entrance and facing incoming from front and rear, the surviving Sicherung soldier goes prone and stops firing.

T+34. At least one Allied unit spots the enemy asset that has been bothering the Sherman. It’s a gun of some kind located close to the Black Squirrel Inn.

T+36. Carlson runs into the retreating SS squad again, causing the latter to take to their heels.

T+39. Rounding the corner of the castle at speed, the British HT gives the Black Squirrel gun a generous helping of piping hot .50 BMG.

T+45. A few seconds after sighting the tell-tale rectangle of a gun shield near the station, the advancing Churchill is plinked by the weapon behind that gun shield. Johns decides the time has come to button up.

T+47. The Black Squirrel gun retaliates, almost hitting Fletcher’s HT as it darts for dead ground behind a stand of pines.

T+48. The Churchill hoses the station gun.

T+49. Pyle’s gunner gives the Black Squirrel gun crew something to think about, and up at the castle the Sicherung survivor decides to scarper.

T+50. A German infantry unit horribly exposed in the field east of the castle succumbs to pressure from Marian’s men and Fletcher’s HT.

T+50. Busy spraying nearby Brits, including Oaks the PIATman, the SPW 250 /1 almost certainly doesn’t notice the imminent threat to its left.

T+53. The station gun somehow manages to miss the hulking Churchill. A second later, the Churchill returns the compliment.

T+54. Braving MG 34 fire, Oaks braces himself and squeezes the outsized trigger of his Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank. Result – one kaput Sonderkraftfahrzeug!

T+55. Once again the Black Squirrel gun gets showered in dirt.

T+56. The remarkably resilient/feisty German platoon HQ suffers another casualty meaning Hood and Co (seven men in total) will outnumber ther opponents more than two to one at the start of Turn 31.

T+60. The Churchill’s turret front gains some fetching silver spangles.

The situation at the start of Turn 31:

Tuck’s bombardment is roughly a minute away. The lack of mutual targeting lines suggests the Black Squirrel gun may be suppressed, or in the process of bailing out.

The station gun doesn’t seem to be targeting the Churchill at the moment – another encouraging sign.