The Cowering at Carentan.

 Place-Carentan(Garvald Film Studios)

 Date June 1944(Thursday 12th June in the real world)

Bill’s figs before the off.

    

     Another afternoon kick off,this time with a return to the battlefields of the Second World War and a visit to the fighting around Carentan with the American paras trying to hold off a counterattack by Ss and German para units.I don’t normally play SS so they were going to be used as sacrificial Gernelen.In attendance today were Comrade Gilchriski fresh from last Saturday’s Seven Years War exploit and he was given charge of the Americans whilst I attempted to change history with a successful counterattack.

Dug in but leaving a gap.

My gallant paras advancing.

In a straight line.

      The Yanks were dug in along the bocage so it looked as though they were going to have to be weeded out so my plan was to make my way around the flanks and do away with the Yankee paras. The SS were to be the spearhead and take the hits.The German paras lined up hoping to get an opportunity to cross the killing zone which I’m sure was covered by enemy infantry and support.

One of my cannon fodder squads.

The Target.

Two easy looking objectives.

         I ran one of my squads up the road covered by the anti tank gun but that still didn’t stop the appearance of a Sherman tank and a squad of infantry in front of the squad.This made my squad dive for cover and start taking hits.Comrade Bill had his tank appear in such a way that my gun couldn’t fire on him and so he cowered behind some rocks and machine gunned my poor squad.Ach well they were only SS but they didn’t waver even although they were taking casualties 

Being hit on the flank.

Waiting for the Sherman to poke his nose out.

Scared to move.

      Meanwhile on the other flank my other SS squad were working their way around the other flank and getting themselves behind the American line and although once again taking casualties managed to do away with  a mortar squad and a machine gun squad so I was halfway to my objective.   My squad was whittled down to just one man but he still refused to go down. This left my second squad of paras to charge in to the next squad who were paras.The American squad were done away with so that meant three quarters of the objective had been achieved.

More Yankee reinforcements 

       These three victories aroused the American ire and therefore saw the arrival of more reinforcements,this time in the form of another Sherman tank.Now both of the tanks had been committed I could now bring on my armour which came in the form of a Stug and now I could go Sherman hunting!This I did and with its first shot done away with this Yankee interloper.

My sniper team looking for targets.

      Another American infantry squad appeared behind the wreck of the Sherman and eventually done away with my para squad squad but still the lone SS officer kept taking potshots at the newly arrived Yankee squad doing away with a couple of them in the process.He eventually died valiantly but I’m sure he had oak leafs added to his Iron Cross (posthumously).

My held back Stug enters the fray.

         On the other side of the pitch the other squad were diminishing rapidly but with the support of a machine gun managed to make the reinforcing infantry squad dive for cover behind a wall giving the diminished squad the chance to attack an American para squad who were ensconced behind some bocage.This hopefully would be the last part of my objective but alas it was to be a squad to far as they retreated towards the safety of the central bocage.

“Booyah!”in German.

            This just meant the rest of the game was going to be a grinding assault on the bocage with little hope of completing my objectives as the American paras had taken themselves out of the front line protected by American infantry who were not counted as an objective.Bill finally committed his other Sherman giving my gun a chance to take it out but alas the only shot resulted in the Sherman losing a coat of paint.This Sherman immediately fired at my Stug causing it to go on fire but my steadfast crew stood their ground,extinguished the fire and got on with their day job.

My last two cannon fodder squads hang on despite the amount of action dice and pin markers.

       Time and nighttime were catching up on us and so the game came to an end with what I would call a stalemate but I’m sure the Yanks would be clamouring for a victory.A nice game played as usual in the best

Bill’s survivors cowering.

way with differences of opinion all roun  My thanks to El Presidente for putting on a nice straightforward game.All figs,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente who also provided a nice repast before kick off.

          See You All When I See You.

     This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.