A couple of turns ago, the Allied bid to take the castle gates looked to be in real trouble. The unexpected appearance of enemy reinforcements had left Hood’s vanguard bloodied and backpedaling. In Turn 27, bolstered by halftrack-delivered replacements, and fire support from within the castle, the determined Brits regain the upper hand.
The four-man German platoon HQ that vigorously counterattacks in the first half of the sixty, clearly doesn’t realise the Tommies to the south of the castle have grown in number, and recovered from their alarming Turn 25 wobble. Advancing through a jumble of lichen-furred boulders, the HQ soon finds itself under pressure from multiple directions. Expertly hurled Mills bombs prove the final straw.
By T+37 the counterattack is over.
Having dealt with one progress preventer, Hood’s force proceed to tackle another – the German infantry unit firing from the woods on the far side of the approach road. Aided by flanking fire from Captain Dale (who, together with Corporal Whitehand, dashes across the castle courtyard this turn) the Brits eventually persuade their target to cease fire and take cover. There’s still the little matter of a nearby Sonderkraftfahrzeug to deal with, but the omens seem propitious, especially with the staircase-ascending Whitehand possibly on the verge of establishing LoS to said AFV.
Turn 27’s other riveting duel involved a nervy Panzer and a cream-crackered PIAT team.
By the time tired Oaks sets eyes on the Pz IVJ, it is heading south, possibly spooked by glimpses or sounds of the approaching American threats to its right. Oaks has time to project one HEAT round before the tank disappears from view. The bomb misses its mark, exploding harmlessly against a tree trunk.
The situation at the start of Turn 28:
The Panzer IV has halted just out of view of Oaks and is in the process of turning clockwise. Pyle’s Sherman has a narrow LoS window at eleven o’clock, but the window doesn’t extend to the Ausf J’s position.
An unidentified enemy infantry unit appears to be moving northwestward circa 30,1,4. With the exception of Corporal Lincoln, all of Costner’s lads are now stationary.
The Churchill VIII remains bogged. Maybe a short reversing manoeuvre is worth a try? As Fletcher’s HT proved incapable of multitasking, I was forced to abandon its move order to ensure its passengers disembarked. There are around seven green Sicherung troops cowering near the out-of-LoS German halftrack.
The reversing Archer is about 120 metres from its destination (29,1,5).
