Battle at Griffonsville

 

Battle at Griffonsville 

Battle 1

German assault of an American prepared position

1/26/23 Using GHQ Microsquad rules

This was our first attempt for the German to take Griffonsville. Before the game the Germans had just taken the bridge and formed an offensive. The Americans retreated to the woods to support the town while waiting on reinforcements. 

Turn 1

The German Panzer IVs and Halftracks blitzed up the road and to the west to prepare to assault the town. The German engineers prepared to lay a bridge across the river to open another front. The Americans stayed hunkered down to not reveal their positions.

Turn 2

The Americans repositioned in the trees to defend the newly opened bridge. The first company of German halftracks repositioned to attack the flank of the newly moved American infantry. The second company of halftracks ignored the newly opened bridge and sprinted up the road to the undefended north eastern bridge. 

Turn 3

The central German attack started to stall as the 1st company missed their shots and were unable to move. The Americans responded by starting to pick off some halftracks. The German machine gun team did succeed in laying down a beaten zone over part of the town. The 2nd company moved into a vacated American fortification and started to assault the remaining positions. 

Turn 4

The main German assault turned on the village satisfied that the forest was suppressed. The eastern support continued to overrun the fortified positions. Unpictured, the American forces counterattack the western German Panzers in the rear. American artillery arrived this round and for being plotted on turn 1, would have landed on top of the main German assault if not for some unfortunate drifting. 

Turn 5

The German assault began in ernest. The Panzer force overran the wall of the town calling off the artillery strike as it would have been danger close. The second German company of halftracks advanced around the north eastern edge of the village. The Americans continued their counterassault on the rear of the panzers. 

Turn 6

The town was quickly overrun except for the American General headquarters holding their own against the German engineers. American troops also held their foxholes near the church on the western side of town, but didn't receive their orders to occupy the church. Two platoons of Shermans and Easy 8s arrived via road to counterattack from the east. 

Turn 7

The Germans took a pause to fortify their hold on the town. American resistance continued as they took to the streets as they fell back to the church. The American tank platoons split around the farmhouse and the brave German recon unit. 3 panzers lie waiting in the woods to slow their counterassualt. To the south the remaining panzers try to deal with the remaining American resistance and avoid being whittled down. 

Turn 8

The German mortars were successful in dropping a smoke mission to reduce the incoming fire from the American counter offensive. Some of the tankers took the opportunity to advance up the road but took fire from the Panzers in the trees delaying their advance. 

The Germans tried to eliminate the American resistance with mortar fire on the church, but they held their ground along with continuing the fighting in the street. 

Turn 9

The Germans finally killed the American GHQ and some of the soldiers in the church. The Panzers wrapped up combat south of the town and started to move to link up with the other tanks. American tank pushed up the road but took some casualties, as the main tank line was still obscured by smoke. 

Turn 10

The Germans took some time to reposition and prepare for the American offensive as the smoke drifted and continued to limit the Americans opportunity to fire. 

Turn 11

The Germans reinforced the middle of the road and limited the effectiveness of 1 platoon of Shermans. The second platoon ran up the flank to try to gain some protection from the Panzers in the forest. 

Turn 12

The Americans killed 1 Panzer and pushed the remaining 2 to retreat while the other tank fight bogged down in the middle of the crossroads. The Panzers positioned there did have the advantage of keeping the Easy 8s out of assaulting the town. 

Turn 13

An American company arrived in support to retake the town and took cover behind the trees. The reinforcements were hit with mortar fire. One Sherman had maneuvered into the forest pictured on the left. The German commanders had called in an 105mm artillery strike on that position back on turn 7 that finally arrived. It succeeded in disrupting the American tank but it was more impressive it actually hit something. 

Turn 14

The Americans were back on the offensive in an effort to retake the town. The tanks were relagated to the back of the fight as the Panzers and Shermans kept each other out of the battle. The American machine gun was successful in laying down a beaten zone that succeeded in suppressing the majority of the German resistance in the town. This worked out well until the troops exited their halftracks to assault the house on the hill, but were suppressed by their own machine gunner. 

Turn 15

The Americans assaulted the house and eliminated the German infantry on the first floor, leaving the machine gun team stranded on the second floor. The remaining German engineers had circled all the way around the wreckage of the tanks to the south of town, and assaulted the American infantry hiding out in the church. They had survived numerous mortar barrages and attempts to shoot them out, but the engineers running in finally broke them. 

We called the game a minor German victory at this point with everything but the first floor of the house on the hill under German control. The Americans were running out of troops and time and may have made some more progress but seemed unlikely to retake the town. The game was played over 3 days and many hours representing 45 minutes of in game time. It was a great experience and fun was had by all with hopefully more Battles of Griffonsville to be had in the future.