Italy: Soft Underbelly, Scenario One: Biazza Ridge

 

In a recreation of the US 505th Regimental Combat Team action in Sicily we were to meet and attempt the first scenario in Warlord Games Italy Soft Under Belly book. Both Commander Roy and I have had great fun playing missions out of the Stalingrad book and were looking forward to sunnier climbs in the Sicilian summer sun.

The objective was clear Colonel James Gavin was to take objectives east of the railway station. The Germans in the guise of the Hermann Goring Division Kampfgruppe East were to deny the sneaky yanks by grabbing the same objectives. 

Initial thoughts from the German side was that this would be a an easy mission. I'd have two Tigers to dominate the table and take out any armour and that I'd have a good chance at holding the most northerly objective as I was deploying nearby

   

For my initial deployment I went with a full infantry squad and a PAK 40 over looking the village to take out tanks when they arrived 

The US Airborne wasted no time and quickly took the first objective

Clever placement of the senior officers in the stone buildings meant that Commander Roy was able to maintain the initiative by snap to it orders from a position of safety

Very quickly the tables began to turn, the multitude of additional orders called up a group of three Bazooka teams.  My initial confidence was shattered when the first Tiger took a bazooka in the face and blew up

The German advance began to slow up immediately. After a couple of turns getting shot up in the middle of the board and a couple of the larger HGD squads turning yellow bellied the AA truck went on the rampage and was aggressively hunting out small infantry teams. the additional pen was proving very useful in breaking apart veteran troops too

At the top of the below picture you can see the US quickly moving around to the second objective, but German trucks on the way to reinforce and counter attack

The Pak 40 was relegated to guarding the last objective, the supply dump. Its sole job was to stay on ambush and destroy the first squad coming around the building

The US infantry taking the second objective, poor Hans with the sore head in the woods

Parachute Rifle squad on its way to take the second objective

The remaining Tiger began to wait out the arriving Shermans, where were they?

Truck Assault coming

Sneaky mortar, getting lucky strikes

At this point it was very tense, i had managed to break a look of the US force with very accurate mortar fire from the other end of the table and some lucky heavy anti tank fire. The last surprise of the game was the airstrike that i had forgotten about for the last couple of turns and had been refusing to appear. it eventually arrived and with amazing accuracy landed near practically all the units i had prepared to rush the two objectives I needed to scoop the win.

Sadly the pinning that was dished out was enough to completely scupper the Germans counter assault. First scenario to the Allies 

An incredibly enjoyable scenario that could really have gone either way. a great deal of work had gone into getting the game on the table but both of us felt it was worth it, we know had an even bigger hill to climb for scenario Two: Storming the Pigs Snout. at this point I had no Italians, no suitable models for objectives and Commander Roy had no Commandos