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

I’ve been grossly negligent in updating this project for a whole host of reasons, most related to real life, some related to cricket and generally my ambition for this project being far greater than my ability to deliver.

Still, I’ve had time to play out another key battle fought at Monte Cassino.

The third battle for Monte Cassino started on 15th March following a huge artillery bombardment, particularly on the town of Cassino. The 2nd New Zealand Corps would attack along the rail way line and into the town in the valley. Up on the hill, the 4th British Indian Division would once again attempt to take the monastery against the heavily dug in Fallschirmjager.

By 17th March, the 4th British Indian Division had advanced to within 200m of the monastery. The well defended Point 593 stood between them and a direct route to the ruins of the monastery. The 4^th British Indian Division had been here before during the 2^ndBattle of Monte Cassino (also fought out in this project earlier) and they had then failed to take point 593 and at huge cost. This time it would be the turn of 9^th Gurkha Rifles and the 6^th Rajputana Rifles to carry the assault.

During the cover of darkness, engineers toiled to prepare a track leading up to Albaneta Farm, making it accessible for the tanks of the 20th Armoured Regiment. This route ran up a valley separated from the troops around point 593 by a rocky, exposed ridge, making the joining of the two forces difficult except where their combined assaults met around point 593. It took a couple of nights to complete the track and by the 19th March, the allies were able to launch their surprise attack.

Unknown to the Allies, the defending Fallschirmjager were prepared and were able to counter attack against the tanks. Without infantry support, the tanks were destroyed and by mid morning, the tank assault had failed. Without the armour supporting, the infantry assault against Point 593 would ultimately fail.

For this battle, we will use roughly the same set up as we did for the previous 4^th Indian Division assault on point 593 however we will extend the table a little to make room for Albaneta Farm and the track up to Point 593. This has been separated from the infantry by a ridge of rocks, unpassable for tanks and unpassable for troops without the Mountaineer special rule (which only the Gurkha’s have).

It’s a little unclear what equipment the Fallschirmjager had however, given the terrain and the logistics of getting large equipment into place, I have assumed that in addition to Mortars and infantry anti tank weapons, small infantry guns could have been put in place. In this case, I have assumed that four 7.5cm LG40 recoilless infantry guns are present and defending the approach up from Albaneta Farm.

Victory Conditions:

In this battle, the Allies win if they can take the top of Point 593. The Germans win if they can hold on.

German Troops:

Command: 1iC and 2iC infantry teams armed with SMG and Panzerfaust

Fallschirmjager: 3 Infantry Platoons of cmd team and 4 Rifle/MG teams

Mortar: Two mortar teams

2 HMG nests

2 MG teams

4 teams equipped with 7.5cm recoilless infantry gun

Allies:

Command: 1iC and 2iC Infantry Teams

2 Rifle/MG platoons: Cmd team, 6 teams and 2” mortar team

2 Rifle/MG Gurkha platoons: Cmd team, 6 teams and 2” mortar team

HMG Platoon of 2 teams

2 Platoons of Sherman Tanks (3 tanks per platoon)

Defences:

The Germans are well prepared and all teams are dug in within trenches (marked as TTTT on the map). Barbed wire is positioned in front of several trench sections (marked as OOOOO) and there are two mine fields in place.

Unlike the previous assault on Point 593 which was conducted at night, this assault will be carried out during the day.

Naming conventions are as before. FGP would be Fallschirmjager Greep Platoon. BOP = British Orange Platoon. GBP = Gurkha Blue Platoon.

Boxes numbered 1 and 2 and the HMG nests.

I now need to spend some time writing up the actual battle.