75th Anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino and Northern Italy (Gaming The Battles)

Firstly, apologies for the barely painted Stuka and unpainted Tiger 1. The Stuka is now finished but the Tiger is in the painting queue – I just didn’t have a painted one to use.

Turn 1

This was a short turn as the Germans just advanced. Where possible, the tanks moved at dahs speed. The Luftwaffe failed to turn up in turn 1 leaving the British unmolested. Everyone was out of range to fire and the British refused to move out of their positions and so no shooting took place.

Turn 2

The Luftwaffe put in an appearance this turn and the Stuka decided to make a run at the British artillery. Otherwise, the entire German line continued its advance up the board. With the British lines drawing in range, the tanks moved at standard speed to apply some fire.

With nothing else to shoot at, the M10’s turned their AA MGs to the skies to shoot at the Stuka bombers. They were able to apply enough fire to deter one bomber from arriving but not enough to stop the other. The Stuka unloaded on the artillery unit hitting one gun team. Being dug in, the gun team was able survive the attack but this does pin the artillery.

The Tiger turns its gun on the HMG nest next to the road and is able to hit the target but the heavy protection of the nest is able to shrug off the hit.

The British don’t move so we go straight to the naval gunfire support. The 8d6 less 8” comes up with a 29” distance from the German table edge. The width comes up with 24”. This lands just behind the Tiger, so great shooting from the Allied naval fleet! The shot hits the 1iC Panther, the Tiger and both Panzer IV’s but thanks to some good armour saves, only succeeds in bailing out the Panther and one of the Panzer IVs.    

The Allied big guns aren’t finished yet as the British Artillery unpin and begin to bombard the Tiger. The shots land on target but the Tiger and Panzer IV pass their armour saves.

The British deploy their sniper from ambush on the hill behind the minefields. Fallschrimjager Green Platoon is in range and the sniper takes aim, hitting the leading squad. The squad saves, so no damage done but this is enough to pin FGP in place.