Solo After Action Report - OHW Flank Attack (2) - Germans vs BEF

Here are some photos of a solo battle I played through this afternoon. I chose the One Hour Wargames Scenario 7: Flank Attack (2) to see how the WW2 rules play out and see if they needed any modifications.

The setting is Northern France, summer 1940. The Red forces holding the objective, the main hill, would be the plucky lads of the BEF. The attacking Blue forces in the scenario were my early war Germans. The Wermacht would attack from front and flank in an attempt to capture the hill and strike a blow to the British rearguard. The Brits had to hold the hill at all costs.

The German forces consisted of three infantry units, a Pak 36 anti-tank gun, and two tanks, a Panzer IV and a Czech 38t.

The British had four infantry units, a 2-Pounder anti-tank gun and a 25lb-er gun howitzer.

To summarise the action, the main German thrust was on the British left flank, whilst the German anti tank and one infantry unit demonstrated against the BEF centre. The BEF lads soon noticed the typical shabby Nazi trick and redeployed to counter it. The German infantry attack stuttered a little at first, leaving their tanks to drive deep behind the hill. However, despite the Panzers' speed and firepower they could not consolidate their gains without their accompanying infantry. When the German foot soldiers did advance, the British artillery piece was ready for them and the 25lb shells carved bloody holes in their ranks. The British 2-pounder anti-tank fire from the hill had mixed success, but with assistance from heroic neighbouring infantry, the German panzers were defeated.

Towards the end of the battle, with only a anti-tank gun for support the German infantry pushed hard up the hill, but with poor dice rolls and artillery hammering them, they were ultimately defeated. In the One Hour Wargames rules, anti-tank guns are rather redundant if the enemy has no armour on the table, so the Germans had one sixth of their force at an immediate disadvantage. In contrast, the British artillery piece did sterling work and survived the battle with only one point of health remaining. Unsurprisingly my Zvezda British medic team had lots to do! The last remaining British infantry unit, comparatively untouched on 9 points of health out of 15, had managed to stay out of trouble during the early stages and thereby formed a good "meatshield" protecting the howitzer.

Overall a tense battle, again showing that anything outside of cover and within line of sight doesn't last very long on a Second World War battlefield! It's also a good idea to attack with all of your units simultaneously, and if you lack artillery support, throw your men forward as soon as possible!

The only thing I would improve for next time is to include a bit more battlefield clutter and light cover for this wargaming period, as artillery vs infantry engagements are absolutely brutal!

The last couple of photos show the British commander raising his hand in appreciation to his men, and the knocked out Panzers behind the hill.

Team Yankee / Cold War OHW - before and after photos

Here are some before and after photos of my US and British tanks. The new paint schemes have really brought them to life after a few years of gathering dust in my 'modern forces' cardboard box. Back in Kent I have a BMD-2 infantry fighting vehicle and a spare Sheridan (both from S-model) still to assemble but as aforementioned the Plastic Soldier Company T-55s are inbound. I really need to sort out a prototype set of One Hour Wargames rules to go with them all!

Team Yankee British Challenger 1 and Warrior IFV finished

So my British repaints have now been completed. I'm really happy with the camouflage on the hulls and weathering on the tracks. The fire extinguishers in a subtle red add a little colour to the Warrior but I'm happy with the drab appearance of the Challenger.

As the Plastic Soldier Company released their 1/72 T-55s yesterday I'm expecting to receive my two boxes sometime next week, so there will soon be some armoured adversaries for my US and British vehicles. After finishing my science fiction / Weird World War 2 project (more on this soon), I'm going to begin a squad of Italeri 90s US infantry so the tanks aren't unsupported by the footsloggers!

WIP Team Yankee British Challenger 1 and Warrior IFV

Here's some photos of my British repaints for Team Yankee so far. I've managed to get the camouflage colours how I want them through liberal inking and I'm happy with my drybrush highlighting of the vehicle surfaces.

My Challenger 1 is pretty much there, just need to apply some Games Workshop Karak Stone around the tracks and track guards to give it that finishing touch of dust and grime.

The Warrior needs some brown inking on the two fire extinguishers (these are probably not red in reality, but I wanted to break up the drab camouflage with a feature or two). Then the obligatory dusting of the tracks and underbelly.
I haven't decided on a role for my Warrior model - it could be a reconnaissance vehicle or a transport for some infantry. With the sadly snapped-off main gun (the Rarden cannon should be longer) another option is a representation of an AA unit.

I'm looking forward to getting these finished and arranged with my American tanks in a 'before and after' comparison photo.

1940 BEF British infantry - second batch

Here is my second batch of 1940 BEF infantry. With the exception of the Zvezda officers beckoning their men forward, these models are Revell WW2 Australian infantry. Though they are intended for use in the desert, the figures with hard hats looked good enough to employ in my BEF, and although they are slightly smaller than the other two Zvezda infantry squads, they are uniformly painted so should blend in well enough on the gaming table. 

M3A1 Halftrack with 75mm gun

This is my first of two M3A1 Halftrack models from Italeri. These are stopgap fire support Halftracks armed with the versatile 75MM, employed before the Sherman tank became widely available in the desert theatre. In my desert forces I want to be able to use them as either British or American, so I have omitted decals. Using the One Hour Wargames rules I have the option of using it as an anti tank gun. I tried battle damage on the sides of the vehicle with my clippers and with a fair bit of weathering, I thought it looks ok. The crew are one Revell Australian Bren gunner sans gun, and a Revell 8th Army NCO figure with a Thompson SMG; I figured the crew would carry some smaller weapons for close encounters with enemy infantry.

1940 BEF British artillery - awaiting crew!

These are two 18/25lb gun howitzers from the Plastic Soldier Company 25lb box set. I've sacrificed the wheels from the limbers to make two extra guns, and now assembled and painted I am quite fond of them. I think it's all the rivets and how it's very much a transition gun that straddles both world wars. The real weapon was used by the 1940 BEF as the classic 25lb field gun was not ready so a number of WW1 vintage 18 pounder carriages were hastily converted.

I am going back to Kent, and the original command bunker, to collect a few projects to take back to Bristol, and I will be using the crew from the HaT WW1 US artillery box to furnish these guns with crew in suitable attire. It's interesting to see how the BEF of 1940, bereft of their tanks, air support and motorised transport, doesn't look all that different to a 1916 vintage force.

1940 BEF British infantry - first batch

8th Army infantry

I've recently acquired some Allied infantry from a local model shop and I like sorting the individual troops out into squads I want to see on the wargaming table.

The squads are made up of Revell Australian and British 8th Army infantry. Each line represents a section that will be mounted on my standard 100mm x 50mm bases. The Australian Vickers machine gun teams may be mounted on a smaller base, I haven't quite decided yet. Looking forward to seeing these lads take on Rommel's Afrika Korps!

Churchill Mk 1

This is my own conversion of a Plastic Soldier Company Churchill tank. I have retrofitted it with a spare 2 pounder from the A9 Cruiser sprue and the awesome looking 3 inch howitzer in the hull is a sawn down 6 pounder. I have cut away the big mudguards to expose the tracks, giving this Churchill a very WW1 appearance. I have painted it with my usual scheme for early war dark green tanks, and as part of my collection represents the disaster of Dieppe where some of the early Churchills went into ill-fated action for the first time. It wouldn't be until the deployment of King Force, using Mark III Churchills, when the tank finally showed itself as the ultimate evolution of the Infantry tank concept.

A9 Cruiser tank (Desert, 1940)

This is my third and final A9 Cruiser from the PSC box set. As the other two were painted up for the disastrous Battle of France, I opted for a desert colour scheme, to try out a few painting techniques and begin an early war British army in the desert. I stuck with the classic 2 pounder gun in the main turret but heavily customised the tank with some furniture but also two fuel tanks that came with the set, but I couldn't find any online photos of where exactly they go. So I opted for positioning somewhere between a T34 and a photo of an A10 Cruiser.

With regard to the paint scheme, I initially tried the slightly strange blue and grey green classic British desert colours but used a completely wrong shade of blue! In the end I deleted it and kept to a standard sand colour, in this case Games Workshop's excellent Karak Stone. Highlights were done with Ushabti Bone again, and I kept the tracks grey. For the weathering / subtle camouflage I used GW's Typhus Corrosion. When I finally got on with the painting I was pleased with the end result.