The situation for this game had the German First Company, 502 SS Heavy Tank Battalion (Royal Tigers), with grenadiers of 9th SS Panzer Division, counterattacking to eliminate the British positions on Hill 112, the "Hill of Calvary". This amounted to fourteen Royal Tiger tanks with a company of grenadiers riding on their rear decks followed by another company of grenadiers in halftracked armored personnel carriers.
The British consisted of a trucked infantry battalion, a squadron (company) of Sherman tanks, a 6pdr antitankgun battery, a 3 inch mortar battery, an engineer platoon, a Bofers 40mm antiaircraft battery, three towed and two SP 17 pdr guns, two Sherman flail mineclearing tanks, and three Churchill Vll Crocodile flamethrower tanks. Accompanying the British was a company of motorized Canadian infantry with two tank troops (platoons) of Shermans.
On Turn 2 another British force of two infantry platoons with two tank troops, a M10 GMC, and three M3 Recce light tanks arrived from the east. Except for the latter force the British/Canadians started on the hill and had five turns to move. The Germans could arive anytime form Turn 3 thru 10. They chose Turn 8 as a multiple rocket launcher (Nebelwerfer) barrage was expected to hit the hill in support of their attack from Turns 5 thru 8. This barrage began early on Turn 3 so the Germans pushed forward their attack, ie. Turn of arrival, to Turn 6.
The British force deployed across Hill 112 to positions as shown of Map 1. The force which arrived on Turn 2 rapidly moved forward only to be fired on by two British 6 pars. It wasn't until an armored car and recce tank reached the British defenders that they realized their targets were also British. By then they had knocked out two recce tanks, a Sherman, and a Firefly (Sherman with 17 pdr gun). To complicate the situation, while the British were shooting up their own forces the German nebelwerfer fire smashed several platoons of infantry, half the 6 pdr guns, five or six trucks, and a Sherman and a Firefly!
On Turn 6 the German Tigers came in and moved forward as shown on Map 1. The British immediately counterattacked as shown on Map 2. The Tigers knocked out two troops of Shermans and captured a platoon of engineers. Resistance stiffened. As the German 2nd Platoon (tigers were divided into 1st (5), 2nd (5), and 3rd (4) Platoons) was engaged by 17 pars in a wheat field to their front. A troop of Shermans (most troops had 1 Firefly with 17 pdr and 2 Shermans with 75/L40), and the Crocodiles moved around the Tiger's left flank. The Tigers destroyed one 17 par, two Crocodiles, two Achilles (M10 GMC with 17 par), a couple of Shermans, and some tow vehicles to their front. The British mortars then fired smoke in front of First and Third Platoon screening them off from the British units. At this point British fire concentrated on 2nd Platoon.
Meanwhile, a British counterattack by seven Shermans (2x17 par) swept around the woods to catch the Tigers of 1 st and 3rd Platoons plus their just arrived armored grenadier company in the rear (CA 2 on MAP 2). One Tiger and three halfbacks were knocked out for the cost of five Shermans. Tiger Platoon 3 countered this with support of a platoon of infantry in the woods. 3rd Platoon came around the south edge of the woods. 1st Platoon, which had already lost a Tiger, followed them. Meanwhile, Second Platoon had had a Tiger knocked out by a 17 pdr and pulled back from the tree line it had hidden in. 2nd Platoon continued to pull back as a British troop of Shermans moved up to get on the Tiger's flank and then took cover in the edge of the woods.
This movement by 2nd Platoon proved fatal as it reduced their accuracy enough to prevent even one hit against the British tank troop on their right flank. The Firefly knocked out another Tiger, and then one of the 75's also penetrated. Two Tigers were gone, three total in the platoon. Third platoon had also lost a Tiger this turn. Advancing toward two more troops of Shermans (the Canadians) the Tigers veered off to the right instead of going straight in. This gave the Canadians a flank shot and one of their Fireflys took out another Tiger. The Company had now lost five of their fourteen, with 2nd Platoon under fifty per cent strength.
The German Company Commander decided to take a Company morale check rather than two platoon checks, the company being at 36 per cent casualties while 2nd Platoon was at 60 per cent and 3rd Platoon at 25 per cent. This was fatal. The die roll was snake-eye. The entire company turned tail. As the 3rd Platoon did so, the Canadians knocked out two more Royals. Seven Tigers total, half the company was gone. Morale was rolled again with the German morale going up. They fired their smoke projectors and turned the Tigers around to cover the withdrawal of their infantry. The attack on Hill 112 was over. The Germans withdrew.
ROD BURR COMMENTS
Due to the numerical strength of the allied forces, this is a very difficult scenario for the Germans to win. Despite the impressive thickness of the frontal armor of the Tiger II (Royal or King Tiger), it is nearly impossible for the Germans to penetrate far onto the hill without exposing their much thinner flank and rear armor. The British players basically handled the Tiger's correctly by out flanking them with their AFV. The Germans failed decisively due to allowing the Tigers to be bogged down long enough to permit the British to out flank them easily. The allied player wisely deployed his AFV in places where they could act as mobile reserves and bolster the defences as needed. A British deployment which spread the tanks around and attempted to meet the German attack primarily frontally would probably have been much less successful.
Scenario 2: Hill of Cavalry (Vol II No. 4)
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