Early in '02 some of us here at the CGC (that's the Chico Game Club) were sharing a pitcher of beer, as is our habit, when someone cleverly stated something like, "Hey, we should use that 1/32 scale 21st Century Toys stuff to put on the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach!" At first, this seemed like insanity, even through the pleasantly deluding haze of several pints of Fosters. However, someone piped up, "Yeah! Jochen has already got the beach scenery from that big 40K game he held last year, remember?!?"
Well, that's about all it took. We set the date
for as close to June 6, 2002, as we could. Preparation was a little
tight, as we were also planning the Villiers Boccage
game for about the same time, but we pulled it off, no small thanks
to the fact that we did it as a group, with a lot of people contributing.
In fact, several guys from that other bastion of wargaming - the South
Bay Game Club - put in an effort as well, turning it into a wargaming
community effort! My special thanks to Jochen Kehoe, Scott Driver,
Chad Bluette, Anthony Hanner, and Pete Michaels, all of whom contributed
above and beyond the call to make this game possible.
We
prepare for the action at Mangrove Games.
Jochen had made the scenery for a WH40K game he helped
host sometime in 2001. It seemed a shame for it to be one-use scenery,
and this game was just the ticket to see it used again! The Germans
are deploying on and behind the heights, and the Americans are placing
their landing craft and DD Shermans at the points where they will enter
the battlefield.
On
the American's right flank, a landing craft takes a direct hit!
Doug Carroccio was put in command of the American's right,
and was assaulting the extreme left of the German's defenses. Doug
had the bad luck to take a direct mortar hit on one of his landing craft,
pretty much cleaning it out in a single blast. It's a good thing
he had more to command!
The first wave hits the beach!
The initial wave of Americans were met with murderous
machinegun and mortar fire as their landing craft ground to a stop on the
sand and the assault doors were dropped open. Many of them were quickly
pinned in place, but some were able to scramble onto the beach, seeking
cover behind one of the numerous obstacles.
The
dual-drive Shermans land!
The first American wave was supported by dual-drive Shermans.
Some of these had floundered in the seas and were sunk, but a few made
it it shore. This one has arrived, but has taken a hit from one of
the guns watching the beach. There were two 88's sighted to watch
most of the beach front, which meant that it was a pretty dangerous place
to be driving a Sherman around...
Help,
it's got me!!!
This trio of Shermans managed to all land safely.
The biggest problem for them were the beach obstacles, which they had to
maneuver around, and there wasn't room for all three to do so. The
gigantic hand belongs to Scott Driver, without whose help this event wouldn't
have looked half as good as it did.
The German's main bunker.
There were several bunkers protecting the beach, and
the largest was in the center. It housed two MG42's and made life
hell for the GI's trying to land anywhere nearby. You can see an
88mm gun beyond the bunker, and plenty of German riflemen on the heights.
Chaos
on the beach!
The Shermans managed to clear out the Germans defending
the path up to the heights with HE rounds (note the "pools of blood" where
the Germans used to be...). But not they are stuck, and one has taken
a glancing shot from an 88. Meanwhile, more American infantry come
to shore to join the attack.
The
German mortars prepare another fire mission!
When Pete Michaels showed up on the morning of the game,
bearing something like a half dozen large boxes filled with 1/32 scale
toys, it blew me away. Pete is primarily responsible for the German
second line, and for many of the buildings and other goodies. It
turns out that he has been collecting this stuff for years, and that certainly
worked out to our benefit! FYI, the closest guy in the mortar pit
has a sign built into his base. It points to "Kharkov" and another Russian
city or two. This is a 21st Century Toys model, and they don't make
any Russians, only Germans and Americans. We concluded that this
guy must be really, really lost. Here's another 21st Century
Toys fun fact: Their 1/32 scale line includes a bunch of American
and German infantry and vehicles for World War II, BUT it also includes
a Walker Bulldog. This tank was not used in WWII. We have been
trying to figure out why it is part of their line. Dave Worley has
guessed that it is because one of the company's founder's or executive's
father or grandfather drove one in the service. If anyone can answer
this perplexing riddle for us, please forward your answer here.
Americans
pile out of their landing craft.
The hardest thing for the Americans was getting out of
their landing craft and up to the beach wall, where they were relatively
safe from German fire. Many times the Americans would get pinned
or killed inside or just outside their landing craft, forcing the survivors
to crawl forward from one beach obstacle to the next.
Oh-no!
It's the Blurry Germans!
I don't know where my camera was focusing for this shot...
The white casualty cap on the German machine gunner indicates that he is
pinned. Red caps indicate a wound. Medics could remove wound
caps, but in the heat of battle, I don't think that was successfully pulled
off more than once. (Fun Fact #2: Medics seem to attract scattered
artillery fire...)
Some
GI's taking heavy MG fire!
This was one of those "Saving Private Ryan" moments.
The door to the landing craft opened, and the entire squad was hit by German
MG fire. These guys were lucky; they were all just pinned.
In the next turn some of them were killed as they hunkered down in fear.
The guy to the left in the water behind the beach obstacle is a survivor
of the first wave who has refused to come ashore.
Some
of the DD Shermans make their way up the heights!
The first Americans to get up the heights were these
two Shermans. Unfortunately, the Americans had to get infantry up on the
heights to claim a victory. Still, this was a start. The Shermans
proceeded to wreck some havoc among the German second line, and much effort
was diverted in trying to stop them.
The
Big Shot: Action all along the beach.
This is an excellent picture showing the action along
the entire beach. You can tell by the proliferation of casualty caps
that the Americans are taking it hard. This was their last wave,
I believe. You can see many of them huddled up against the base of
the heights, free from German attack (except for grenades and mortar fire)
but hesitant to continue. The Sherman has been taken out by one of
the German 88's.
Another
shot along the beach.
About the only other bit I can add to this shot is that
the beach was 16' long, and 8' deep at its center. It was quite an
impressive site, to say the least.
Okay,
who let that guy in?!?
This "incident" occurred shortly after our mid-game beer
break at the legendary Rico's Pizza next door to Mangrove Games.
One of the guys insisted that he be allowed to run over a fleeing German.
I figured it was fairly ridiculous, since a guy on foot is only about a
billion times more agile than a tank. Still, in the spirit of the
game (and the German player agreed), we rolled a die, with a 10% chance
of the German getting caught. "Don't roll a 1!" Guess what?
He rolled a 1.
Woo-Hoo!
Get those Germans boys!
With the help of the Shermans, the Americans were finally
able to gain the heights - in the German center no less! Here they
are spreading out, trying to clear the heights (and the bunkers) of the
remaining German defenders.
Some
of the carnage.
The game was pretty much over at this point. The
Americans had accomplished their objective, but needed every resource to
do it: Three attacking waves of infantry, DD Shermans, support fire
from the Navy and air force! Their cost had been pretty high too.
Many of the GI's hadn't made it out of their landing craft to even try
to take the beach. Many others were gunned down on the sand by the
deadly German MG fire.
Who
are these guys?!?
I'm not sure who these guys are, it's been so long since
we played. I believe, however, that they belong to Chad Bluette,
the guy in charge of the American left flank. Chad was the victim
of bad dice rolling all along; the fact that any of his guys made
it inland was a major accomplishment!
As stated previously, Jochen Kehoe was responsible for
the beach scenery, and all the beach obstacles. The buildings and
bunkers are a combination of scratch built and manufactured. The
vast majority of the infantry are by 21st Century Toys, with a few exceptions
brought and painted by Pete. Most of the vehicles are plastic toys,
the brand of which escapes me at the moment. The Shermans were really
too big in scale when placed next to the infantry, but they are still very
nice, and darn cheap at less than $10 each!
We used a very, very sawed-off version of Flagship
Games soon to be published Gunfight! rules. The rules are
proactive (like "Habet, Hoc Habet!") in that
both the attacker and defender are doing something all the time.
This keeps all the players involved and therefore interested at all times.
If response is great enough, we'll post the rules online for those who
with to mimic this great undertaking of ours!
If you would like to see more of the CGC's wargaming efforts, just click on the links below!