Mission and Opposing Forces

“The front line has been swinging back and forth here for several days, and the litter of the battle lies all around. Our main defensive position is several hundred metres to the south, with several forward positions like this one scattered along the front”.

The mission is, for all intents and purposes, rather simple: hold out against the scouting British forces at the Plaisance Farm, just a couple hundred meters outside of Caen, on the road from Tilly to the Commune of Carpiquet and warn the main defensive position of the up and coming allied assault. It’s now 0720 hours, 12th of June. Friendly forces are but an understrength section armed with more than enough automatic firepower to go around with 2 LMG and plenty of submachine guns. The opfor’ing british have a battalion sized force, north of our position but exact numbers are unknown.

We, as the germans, may by undermanned, but are certainly not undergunned. The shelling outside the building is a stark indicator on how dangerous it is to venture alone into the wild, so it’s of the utmost importance to hug the hedgerows or stay inside for cover. There are a lot of ways to come into the farmyard but by holding the fence to the left and the main road with two MG Teams, the widest avenues for approach are covered.

Hedgerow Hell

The first brits are heard organizing themselves by the orchard west of the farm but not seen, by an advanced, solitary scout.

Unaware of how much of the enemy force is commiting to the western flank, all other units maintain their starting locations.

Future Iron Cross recipient, Klaus isn’t taking any chances and immediately springs into action, spraying foe and foliage alike with his Maschinenpistole 40.

The first casualties are in, with the scouting british soldiers being the first ones to fall. For the wrath of Klaus is to be feared.

Two more british soldiers jump the gun and advance towards the western gate of the farm, but the sneaky Klaus has his submachine gun at the ready. He opens fire and kills one before…

The supporting Bren sections atop the orchard spot him doing his usual wartime mischiefs and bring his valiant adventure to a swift end before he could gun down both of the advancing soldiers.

The first british soldiers are now starting to arrive by the western gate where they plan to use a destroyed german halftrack as cover to flank around both the farm’s and the hedgerow hugging machine gun teams field of views.

Unfortunately, for them, funneling their troops into such a small entryway was met with unrelenting heavy fire.

The HQ section taking position on the house took turns on covering the MG team while they reloaded their dead cranking utensils.

The unparalleled firepower and inability from the british bren teams to suppress both my units were absolutely disastrous for their momentum, killing it – and their soldiers too.

The brens finally moved up but it was all a bit too little, too late and while the enemy eventually managed to cross the open field between the machine gun team towards the open field there was little they could do rather than hide and hope the would survive the rest of the scuffle.

As seen above, three units have already crossed the field of effective fire from the machine gun team on the corner of the hedgerow. While the MG is still too busy pilling up bodies on the western gate, the british soldiers are planning to assault and run up the hedges covering my lines of fire from the farmhouse. Unfortunately, for them, even a blind man could have foreseen this and I had just moved up my other machine gun team that laid on the eastern side of the maps during the early moments of the fight right into the farmhouse, and ordered them to lay suppressing fire with the help of the HQ squad.

Their firepower was overwhelming and the brits were again falling down like autumn leaves. Suppressed and unable to move, their advance was stopped in its tracks, with the remaining troops being picked up on by one or randomly caught on the crossfire.

The tragic, final moments of a British trooper after coming chest to bullet on the open field of the farmyard.

After Action Report

A German Army Total Victory, as it should, with not a single dead body, with Klaus being seriously wounded, but Klaus being the absolute warrior that he is, it was nothing but a scratch for him. Mayhem was caused: 20 enemy casualties, with 14 dead and 6 wounded. This one’s for you, Klaus.

Follow Strategy and Wargaming Socials

Strategy and Wargaming needs you to follow its socials. Are we the best strategy gaming website around? I would say so. Heck, what other options do you have? The Wargamer? Please.

So why not give us a follow on the cesspool that is Twitter, or join the 1000 other geriatric patients on Facebook? Or subscribe down below? Or maybe do everything? I don’t care, I’m not your grandmother.

If you enjoyed the article, consider buying me a coffee!

I’ve been running Strategy and Wargaming at my own expense since 2017, with only the ad revenue to cover the hosting, with everything else being done by me. So, if you’re an avid reader, you can afford it, and want to support the website, please consider Buying Me a Coffee by clicking this link, for as low as one euro! If you do, just know that you’re helping out a lot and contributing so that Strategy and Wargaming can continue growing!