The Gloucesters at Zuytpeene

I put on a 15mm WW2 game at the club last meeting using I Ain't Been Shot Mum.  I used one of the Lardies' own scenarios featuring the Gloucestershire Regiment defending the village of Zuytpeene against the Blitzkrieg.

The Brits had two platoons, a Boys anti-tank rifle, two Vickers MMGs and three "Big Men".  Facing them the Germans had three platoons, four MMGs, five "Big Men", three Panzer IIs and some Stuka support.

The German objective was to secure the river crossing just beyond the village - which meant clearing the village in order to secure their lines of communication.  The Gloucesters simply had to stop them.

The Germans decided to deploy on one of the two roads but it was the one the Brits had not expected.  However, the German advantage was lost when they were slow to deploy and advance.  This allowed the British to redeploy some troops and hold them up along the road.

The initial German assault from the road across a field ran into some dug in opposition and after a fierce firefight the German platoon suffered heavy casualties.  After having run into the Boys one of the Panzers decided that supporting the second wave of the infantry assault in the field would be a good idea and that tipped the balance and soon it was the British retiring hurt.

The third panzer engaged a British section deployed forward of the village.

The third German platoon continued the advance up the road.

A sniper in the church tower (it's a tradition!)

After a hard fight the third German platoon eventually entered the village.

Whilst the Stuka bombed some of the retiring British.

In the end the slow pace of the Germans was their downfall as, whilst they did get troops into the village they failed to secure it before their time was up.