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

On 16th February, elements from the 4th British Indian Division had advanced up Snakeshead Ridge and were preparing to launch an assault on the key defensive position of Point 593. 1st battalion from the Royal Sussex Regiment, supported by the Rajputana Rifles and a Battalion from 9th Gurkha Rifles, had reached a low rise just 90m from Point 593. Opposing them, and heavily dug in around Point 593, were the elite German 1st Fallschirmjager.

As night fell on the 16th, the Royal Sussex Regiment attempted to cross the 90m and capture point 593. Nearly 50% of the men that attempted the assault that night failed to return.

In this battle, we will try to recreate the assault by the Royal Sussex Regiment. The table set up is as close to scale as possible, with just 90cm separating the low rise occupied by the British and the base of ‘Point 593’. There is no cover between the two locations, similar to the actual battlefield where the troops had to try to cross the gap nearly completely exposed, only able to inch forward.

Troops:
1st Fallschirmjager
1iC and 2iC armed with SMG
3 Platoons of SMG HQ stand and 4 infantry stands, all behind trench lines
1 MG Platoon of 2 stands
1 Heavy Mortar Platoon of 4 stands
2 HMG nests
3 8” barbed wire entanglements
2 8” mine fields that will get deployed randomly

Royal Sussex Regiment:
1iC and 2iC Infantry teams
5 MG/Rifle Platoons of 1 HG, 6 stands infantry and 2 light mortar teams (I’ve replaced the PIAT team by a light mortar team due to not needing a Piat up in the hills and the weight of carrying it up)
1 HMG Platoon split into smaller Platoons of two stands each (no penalty for splitting this)
1 Light mortar Platoon of 4 stands

Victory Conditions:
In the actual battle, both sides took heavy casualties so while the Fallschirmjager actually held their position, it’s questionable whether there was really a ‘winner’. To reflect this, there aren’t any victory conditions. A nominal objective token has been placed on top of Point 593 but this game is more an exercise in ‘seeing what happens’.

Special Rules for the Scenario:
Night Fight. The attack was launched after night fall so any platoon attempting to shoot must roll 2d6 and double the result to get their spotting range in inches. Anything outside of this range cannot be targeted
Pinned – The entire German force starts the game pinned from the mortar barrage that proceeded the assault
Open Ground – Due to the exposed nature of the ground that the British tried to cross, every British platoon in between the two hills (barring 1iC and 2iC) starts the second and subsequent turns automatically pinned and must unpin to move. Furthermore, British teams cannot attempt to dig in.
Tricky Terrain – The battlefield, despite offering little in the way of protection, was difficult to cross. Teams cannot move at Dash speed.
Unknown Minefields – Snakeshead Ridge was laced with barbed wire, booby traps and minefields. To represent this, two imaginary lines are drawn across the battlefield, one at 30cm from the British starting position and one at 60cm. The first time that a British Platoon crosses each line, a dice is rolled. For the first Platoon crossing the 30cm line, they encounter a minefield on a roll of 6, for the second team it is 5+, third team 4+ and so forth. Same for the second line at 60cm. Once the minefield on each line is found, further teams crossing the line do not need to roll.
As the attackers, the British will start the game.

Turn 1:
All of the British platoons advance 8”, trying to spread out across the front line as much as possible. Four of the teams reach the 30cm line and roll to see if they encounter the minefield – nothing so far! MG1 is able to roll high enough to spot the Fallschirmjager MG1 but fails to score any hits. BGP can also spot FBP but again, the range and the fact that the Germans are concealed and dug in means that no damage is caused.

The entire Fallschirmjager force is able to unpin giving them full rate of fire should they be able to spot anything. The Fallschirmjager are trained well enough to know that they shouldn’t move out of their positions and so go straight to shooting. Unfortunately, despite straining into the cold night air, they fail to spot any British teams and so cannot fire this turn.