Saturday, May 18, 2013

Horton's House - Battlegroup: Overlord AAR

Aerial observation has spotted a 12th SS kampfgruppe forming for an assault and Lieutenant Timothy Horton and his men of the Regina Rifles find themselves at the tip of the Canadian spear. A runner from company HQ brings the message: Hold the line, Lieutenant. Reinforcements are on the way!

Lieutenant Horton set up his platoon HQ in the courtyard of a small house. They dug themselves in and knocked out loopholes in the sturdy walls to await the German assault. An attached forward observer occupied the upper story, affording him an excellent view of the approaching enemy.
A six-pounder anti-tank gun was sited at an intersection to cover the road to Lt. Horton's front.
Leading elements of the Hitlerjugend arrived and dismounted to give battle!
A quick dash brought them to the tall hedge but no further. Wary of the antitank gun covering the road, the Germans stayed put and began to trade fire with the Reginas at the house.
More of the enemy arrived to join the others at the hedge and add their fire to the fight. All the while, they suffered at the hands of the Canadian FO who made judicious use of the supporting 3" mortar and 25lb gun batteries.

The Canadians could not be shaken loose of their hold on the house. With the bayonet, they saw off an assaulting squad of SS and shot to pieces a German halftrack that inexplicably charged them on its own.
Eventually, a Panther arrived on the scene to try to help and break the deadlock. It, too, moved to the hedge from where it fired several HE rounds at the Reginas in the house but they had dug deep and the shells had little effect. Inevitably, it became a target of the Canadian supporting fires and in the end fell victim to the 6-pounder across the road.
The fighting went on for some time and weight of fire began to take its toll on the Reginas. The six-pounder was finally knocked out of action by German mortar fire and the way was clear for an all-out effort by the Hitlerjugend to overwhelm the Canadians. It appeared that time had run out for Lt. Horton and his band of brave men. But then...the sound of truck engines!
The remainder of Lt. Horton's platoon raced up to join their brothers-in-arms and with them came a Cromwell that got down to business immediately upon arriving.


It was all too much for the Hitlerjugend and they fell back to their starting lines. Lieutenant Tim Horton could breathe a sigh of relief and congratulate the survivors on a job well done.

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This was a fun night and all could agree Battlegroup: Overlord gives a great game. We played at 500 points a side which was perfect for an evening's worth of good times.