Bounce the Bogen: Postscript

For thirteen of the Allied soldiers involved in THC’s 2025/26 play-by-comment Combat Mission marathon, there will be no joyful homecoming, no grey hairs or grandchildren. Thirty-four others will carry physical mementos of the Battle of Nottingheim until the day they die. Bearing in mind the German casualty figures (40 dead and 106 injured) and the considerable challenges the Anglo-American force needed to overcome in order to gain victory, Allied losses were, I feel, remarkably light.

To properly understand SunderLad and Colonel_K’s achievement, you need to play Bounce the Bogen yourself*. I took on the scenario last week, and, despite knowing exactly what was in store, managed to lose more grunts than the Comment Commanders and many of my AFVs on my way to a narrow victory.

* The download includes optional Schloss textures.

Unlike yours truly, SunderLad and Colonel_K rarely put a foot wrong. The post-battle kill sheets testify to just how skillfully and energetically they used their assets. With the exception of Hawthorn (the 3-inch mortar team) and Whitehand (the Panzerschreck team), both of whom were unlucky not to open accounts, almost every other Allied unit took at least one scalp. Indeed, the workload was spread so equitably, it’s hard to single-out a recipient for the Most Effective Unit award.

Should it go to Pyle’s Sherman in recognition of the fact that it eliminated a King Tiger, a Panzer IV, one gun and sixteen infantrymen during the course of the battle? Sergeant Johns’ Churchill (10 infantry, 1 flak gun, 1 HT) or Sergeant Fletcher’s M5A1 (11 infantry, 1 Kubelwagen) perhaps?

Among the Allied infantry squads and teams, there are numerous deserving candidates. Lincoln, the bazooka team, for instance (2 halftracks and the dug-in Panther). Sergeant Venison (12 infantry), Captain Hood (10 infantry), or Sergeant Sherwood (8 infantry) who all met and overcame seriously stiff resistance during the advance through the woods south of the Schloss, also catch the eye.

Maybe Lieutenant Tuck should get decorated for clobbering the 88 and softening-up German positions beside the bridges?

It’s a tough call, but after much deliberation I’ve decided to award the men-of-the-match award to…

…Costner’s ‘D’ squad. Split for much of the scrap (the two halves were led by Sergeant Alvarez and Corporal Carlson) this particular band of brothers saw off a sizeable party of mechanised fusiliers in the northern plantation, before persuading a group of SS men to surrender in the woods near the 88.

Although Alvarez’s team didn’t survive the latter encounter, Carlson’s lads went on to lead the advance into the village. By the time the fat lady warbled, this ferocious unit had accounted for seventeen enemy foot soldiers in total.

Much easier to assign is the Patsy Prize. Between them the Panzer IV, Panther, Jagdpanzer IV, flamethrower HT, and King Tiger racked-up precisely zero kills – quite an achievement. As the Allies had no advance warning of the KT and it possessed more than enough armour and firepower to cause them serious harm, it’s lack-lustre performance warrants special commemoration.

Compared to the ineffective Panzers, the ‘green’ foot units that, for a turn or two, had Hood, Venison, Merry etc on the ropes near the Castle entrance, fought like demons. It seems fitting that the remnant of one of these, a five-man Sicherung team that accounted for five members of Arrow Force, was on the verge of escaping over the eastern map edge when the curtain fell.

I can’t sign-off without thanking the indefatigable Comment Commanders again for their persistence, thoughtfulness, and good humour over the past eight (!) months. These not-as-singular-as-they-used-to-be experiments in co-op wargaming would fall flat without conscientious COs like SunderLad and Colonel_K.

Without the regular Bounce the Bogen turn reports, THC could feel pretty dead for the second half of my six-month sabbatical. To prevent this, from next week until normal service is resumed in July, I plan to post something newsy every Monday morning.