Royal Marine Commandos hit the Beaches- Bolt Action.

Spyros has a solid force of Royal Marines for his Bolt Action games and he decided to test their mettle against some solid German defenders ( George and I).

Situation report:
Six Sections of Royal Marines  - 45 Commando-  with armour support ( A Churchill and a Centaur) and supporting weapons were to establish themselves on a hostile coast.
The German defenders were well entrenched and supplied with two Pak 40s, three MMGs.
For more pics check out Spyros' blog: http://noduffgamer.blogspot.com.au/

The German Position

The first wave of Commandos hit the beach and took out the 20mm cannon so quickly that I was having reservations about the balance of the game!
They then found themselves pinned down as the second wave hit the beach quickly followed by the armour.
The Germans scored a very crucial early success by immobilising the Churchill tank as it trundled up the beach right in front of the main German Bunker position. Although immobilised the weapons continued to function for most of the game causing no end of problems for George and I.

The Beaches and port area.

The Churchill was the main problem on the beach, but Spyros chose to land the bulk of his force in the port area. Our forces had been spread out along the length of the beach area and we were forced to quickly withdraw the MMG teams from their bunkers on the beach and send them across the battle field to engage the Marines.

View from the beach- the German Bunkers

It was initially very tough going for the Marines who found themselves under some very heavy fire from MMG's and our dug in Pak 40s. Spyros was loath to expose his Centaur to these dreaded guns, because the loss of his second tank could spell disaster for the assault. George and I kept hitting the struggling Marines on the beach with everything we had....but it was at this point that Spyros had a stroke of luck and the superior training of the Marines changed the disaster staring him in the face.

Spyros' Forward Artillery observer was able to call in support from naval gunfire and this, in combination with the machine guns on the immobilised Churchill neutralised one of our MMGs and one of the Pak 40s. -- good shooting!! His sniper then took out one of the commanders of the section holding up his advance.

On the extreme left of the invading force, one of his commando sections stormed forward, despite withering fire from a German squad entrenched in a house and a supporting MMG, and wiped out the crew of our second Pak 40. The Centaur then roared to life and remorselessly began to grind down our positions with Marine support. We had nothing left to fight with.....and George and I threw in the towel!
Royal Marines- Mission accomplished!

The Beach- with the first wave hitting the beach on the extreme and taking out the 20mm Ack-Ack gun.

They caught the defenders napping! We didn't get a shot off!

The gun pit of the 20mm is now empty but the defenders behind the hedges have the Marines pinned down.

The German defenders- the Gun in the foreground was taken out in turn 3 by the Royal Marines- and it was through this same spot that the Centaur tank came through and tore up the German positions!

Moving off the beach! The section to the right has been whittled down to one fifth of its original strength...but they are still holding on.

The Churchill tank came ashore- but was hit by the second anti tank gun. It was immobilised for the whole game but survived as a pillbox and kept the heads of the Germans down- despite suffering three more hits- the German anti tank guns failed to destroy it! The section to its left got into a firefight with the defenders of the house...and were taking some serious casualties.

German MMG crew preparing to deploy weapon to support the second Anti tank battery.( PAK 40)

view from the landing craft.

The Immobilised Churchill.

The German defenders survey the beach from their bunker.

As the Royal Marines hit the port area in strength, the defenders left their positions on the beaches and moved towards the built up area. We were caught on the back foot with some of our support weapons- there was nothing for them to shoot at except the immobilised Churchill!

The left flank. Spyros' finger is pointing at the section that took at George's anti tank gun. A turn or so later the Centaur (just behind the tree) would race forward to support them and with both Pak 40s down....George and I were reduced to relying on Panzerfausts....and Spyros' damned sniper took care of them!

The last of our defenders, moving past the commemorative statue. The wasn't much to commemorate for the Germans by the end of this game!