Battle of Garston.

Battle of Garston

The past few weeks Ma Subs and I have been involved in a project, completely unrelated to wargaming but necessary, and that was fixing the conservatory. This involved taking off all the roofing pieces of wriggly plastic bits –broken and otherwise- and replacing them with nice new see-through sheets, painting all of the supporting woodwork etc., etc. even with my mate and his missus helping it still took several days to get the lid back on so as all the little fiddly jobs could then get done. Luckily the weather held. So, while Ma Subs went back to Brum on a family visit, I was able to have a solo game set up in Narnia. It was still on-going when the roof was being done so I managed a couple of moves every so often.

This time, I thought I would play a 6mm WW II using my new scenery and try out the old WRG Armour and Infantry 1925-1950 Rules from June 1973 that we used to use. Now I have fond memories of these rules from playing with Airfix models and figures in a mate’s front room so there was quite a high nostalgia factor here.

So, onto the game. The wind was blowing from the south-east, so that's why all the smoke is angled across the board. Advanced apologies for the slight blurriness of some of the pictures but I don't have the space for a full tripod set up.

The Wargame Map

 Garston Aerodrome on the bottom left of the table. (The tower building is based on the one at West Malling in Kent and the two hangers are 'J' Type from all over the place).

 The town of Garston. (Buildings based loosely on some in Maidstone)

A uniquely British institution

Orbats

German

            Aufklarungs Bataillon, Major Kroos

     Gruppe Kroos

1 x SdKfz 234 A/C (Puma) (d), 1 x SdKfz 222 A/C (d), 1 x SdKfz 251 Command ½ track, 3 x lorry borne infantry

                 Gruppe Muhler

1 x SdKfz 234 A/C (Puma) (d), 2 x SdKfz 222 A/C (both d), 1 x SdKfz 251, 3 x of armoured infantry

Panzer Bataillon, Major Mertesacker

               HQ Kompanie, Major Mertesacker

3 x PzKpfw IV (1), 1 x Ostwind AA

1. Kompanie, Hauptmann Schweinstiger

                       6 x PzKpfw IV (5)

                        2. Kompanie, Hauptmann Lamm

                                             6 x PzKpfw IV (3)

3. Kompanie, Hauptmann Zeigler

                        4 x PzKpfw IV (1)

British

Officer Commanding, Lieutenant-Colonel Moore

            A/T Battalion, Major Noble

                        6 x 6pdr A/T guns (3), 2 x 17pdr A/T guns

            Armoured Battalion, Major Hurst

                        ‘A’ Company, Captain Peters

                                    3 x M4 Shermans (1), 1 x Firefly

‘B’ Company, Captain Bond

            3 x M4 Shermans, 1 x Firefly

Infantry Battalion, Major McAvenney

HQ Company, major McAvenney

            1 x command, 1 x mg, 1 x 81mm mortar

            ‘A’ Company, Captain Cresswell

                        3 x infantry (1)

            ‘B’ Company, Captain Jarvis

                        3 x infantry (1)

‘C’ Company, Captain Brooking

            3 x infantry (1)

The German Right flank

The Centre

The German left flank

On the first move Kroos -on the right- and Muhler -on the left- advanced onto the board by the SE and SW roads respectively. Kroos immediately came under fire from a 6pdr AT next to the Queens Head pub which took out his lead 222. His advance halted, his infantry dismounted and began a stealthy advance along the tall roadside hedges towards the pub. The Puma used the destroyed 222 as cover while it's gun sought out the enemy.

On the other flank, Muhler also came under fire, a 6pdr AT hidden amongst the buildings of Theakstons Farm knocked out his lead 222  and his infantry in the lorries came under small arms fire from the nearest group of rocks. The infantry immediately dismounted and dove for cover along the hedge line.  

This went on for several moves. While Kroos managed to make some headway, Muhler was not so fortunate; eventually losing all his AFV's for very little gain. His only real success was to force the infantry out of the rocks and make them fall back the Pine Tree Wood. This happened just in time for the British as on Moves 7 and 8, Mertesacker's panzers began to advance towards the British positions. 

By Move 10 the panzers of Hauptmann Schweinstiger's Nr. 1. Kompanie had crossed the hill but immediately came under fire from 'A' Company's tanks concealed by the high hedges just outside Garston. Eventually Schweinstiger lost all but one of his Mk IV's and had to make an ignominious retreat.

In the centre, Hauptmann Lamm and his company of Mk IV's initially made some ground but the Shermans and Firefly of 'B' Company knocked out half his command.

Major Mertesacker with the HQ Kompanie and Zeigler's Nr. 3. Kompanie fared little better in the face of the 6 pdr AT guns hidden in the rocks and a 17pdr AT gun even further back on the bend of the road by the wood.

Eventually Mertesacker, with almost half his battalion lost, had no option but to order a retreat and request an artillery barrage before the next assault.

On the Orbat, losses are the numbers or the letter 'd' in brackets after each formation.