Something worth checking out and hearing Dave and Jeff of the 2-Half Squads.

https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/advanced-squad-leader

Very interesting Podcast and fun to hear Dave and Jeff being interviewed! Give it a listen!

Grumble Jones Book Review

To wrap up the month of January, I decided to do a brief review of a few books from the Grumble Jones Library.

One of the signature behaviors of nearly all ASL players is a love for books and not just any books...but books that cover WWII action in words and pictures that are accurate, detailed, and pertinent to the event covered. As a rule we shy away from the $10.- WWII history books at Books-A-Million. We are not interested in the coffee table version of WWII history. No...we want detail and more detail...tell us how many Panther Tanks were at Kovel and who was in command of each one...and oh tell us the numbers on the turret...don't skimp on the information. We want it all. So the books offered up today are intended to scratch the ASL reader's itch. Hopefully you will see a title you hadn't seen or considered before. So my friends...stay thirsty...for knowledge...stay thirsty!

Let's start with the Korean War in honor of MMP's "Forgotten War" release. Not WWII...but ASL nonetheless and a war that we could do more to learn about. 

John Toland is one of the author's whose many books filled my childhood reading. Toland's coverage of the early days of the war stand out for the starkness of the situation for the outnumbered US forces as they fell back to the Pusan pocket.

I can think of no other action, which so dramatically answers the question of how the American combat infantryman would hold up in the darkest circumstances. 

We cannot honor our Korean War veterans enough...

Max Hastings...need I say more...one of the greatest military writers of the contemporary generation. Hasting's gives a higher level account of the war and includes some of the experiences faced by the United Kingdom forces engaged in that awful war.

And Hastings is bold enough to discuss the need for the war. To hear an Englishman explain why America and its allies needed to fight that war...are every bit as important to know today as they were then.

And indeed...the Korean War has yet to end...

The final volume to look at today is David Douglas Duncan's outstanding...THIS IS WAR. In my opinion this is the definitive photo history of the Korean War.

Duncan breaks the volume into three parts: The retreat to Pusan, the battles of Inchon and Seoul, and the retreat from Chosin Reservoir.

His images are some of the best ever taken of American soldiers in combat. Many of them are unflinching in revealing the horror of war both physical and emotional. 

Duncan's camera is able to capture what words often fail to deliver.  And again, these images will inspire respect and pride for our veterans.

Duncan's camera captures the exhaustion of war and retreat in Cpt. Ike Fenton's face.

The fall of Seoul is well documented and should give ASL players a very good sense of the urban combat that occurred in the Korean War.

 

Duncan's images remind us that there is a horrific cost to war. Something we ASL players must never forget.

So there you have it. The first edition of the Grumble Jones Book Review Post. Future reviews will cover books relating to specific actions, units or theaters over the coming year. Hopefully, this will be an interesting monthly post.

This post is also dedicated to my very good friend and Korean War Veteran, Don Boelhauf. Don taught me a great many things as I began my career as a young buyer. In 1994, Don and I traveled to Oxford, MS from St. Louis, MO. As our plane winged its way south to Memphis, Don leaned over the aisle to tell me about his experiences in the Korean War. Up to that point, I had no idea he had even served in the military. I'll never know why he opened up about it, but his story has stayed with me to this very day.

Don arrived in Korea and reported to his unit's CP. Don had been assigned to a Signals Battalion. His CO informed him that his unit was out laying cable and would be back in the evening. Well evening came and went and his unit never reported. The next morning Don was informed that his entire unit has been wiped out in a North Korean ambush. Shaken to say the least, Don was moved over to the Quartermaster for his future details. With a ruddy faced smile Don went on to tell me that he began drinking heavily at that time and concealed his alcohol in a grapefruit can. In this way, he managed to cope with his situation. His drinking also managed to save his life. One day, while drunk and driving his jeep, Don caught the attention of a North Korean anti-tank gun. As he weaved down the dirt road, shell after shell missed him. When he finally realized  his was being shot at, Don bailed out of the jeep moments before it was hit and destroyed. 

I sat across from Don with my chin on the floor of the aircraft. I had never before heard such a story. Don just laughed and began preparing me for our meeting with the Japanese at the Hitachi facility in Oxford, MS. He never spoke to me again about the war. Don and I worked together from 1993 until I moved to Tennessee in 2000. Don died of prostate cancer in 2005 after a valiant fight against it.

I never got to tell him, what a difference he made in my life. I can only hope that he knew, what was unsaid between us. So Don, this post is for you.

BOELHAUF, DONALD T

SGT   US ARMY

KOREA

DATE OF BIRTH: 06/08/1934

DATE OF DEATH: 11/12/2005

BURIED AT: SECTION 1CC  SITE 653

JEFFERSON BARRACKS NATIONAL CEMETERY

ASL Scenario 17 - Lost Opportunities - The Conclusion!

Our Friday night game with my regular STL opponent saw the conclusion of ASL 17 - Lost Opportunities. While, the night's gaming was filled with tense and exciting moments...it would also prove once again the power of random events in the chaos of ASL combat.

I always thought that Spiers was a little off...but there is a touch of wisdom here. ASL is filled with moments of random frustration brought about by two small dice. And like Spiers suggests...it helps to just "roll" with it.

 The start lines at the beginning of the US Phase Turn 2. My hopes were high that I could get some badly needed breaks and slow down the German assault.

 And yes...I finally fired my second story MMG at the mortars...good grief was I in a fog in the previous game turns. Silencing the mortar on the west flank would ultimately prove to be ineffectual...but I was nonetheless thrilled at the time!

Something which I noticed during this session and was equally true in our last gaming session, is that my opponent's Defensive Fire Phases were very successful overall. My opportunities for skulking were few and far between. I had so few forces left, that I wanted them in position to stop movements and also to try and break some of the 4-3-6's running around.

Surprisingly, the 4-3-6's hung in there for much of the scenario. I broke the 4-4-7's almost more often than the 4-3-6's.

My STL opponent is a cautious player. Despite the obvious weakness of my much reduced defenses, he continued to fire rather than move. He wanted to knock out my MMG on the second floor, before moving aggressively up the center.

He would succeed in pinning my MMG and DM'ing the 3-4-7 manning the MMG, but again his units didn't move rapidly forward. He knew he had plenty of time, so was content to reduce my defenses even more.

I couldn't disagree with his assessment. With nearly 4 full turns left, there really was no need to risk getting too many squads broken.

In the very next rally phase...my dice aided the German cause. My DM'd MMG 3-4-7 crew rolled boxcars as my 9-1 in a fury must have gone total Commissar on them!!!

Of course, sometimes...you gotta trust that your 9-1 knows what's he doing!!!

The next happy moment came when the German Marder shot the gap between A7 and B6. My anti-tank assets at this stage of the game were largely idle, so the Marder's biggest concern would be the MMG on the 2nd floor...but my 9-1 failed to take possession with dr of "6".

I had mistakenly written off the Marder after it was out of HE and Smoke. But it's 2 factor AP shells ended up causing me a lot of grief.

Despite having eliminated my MMG gun crew and the fact that my 9-1 didn't have possession...the Germans were still content to blast away on the east flank and center.

The dice also aided the American cause late in the game. A lucky snake eyes at 14 +1 eliminated a feisty 4-3-6.

Cause...every Snake eyes deserves a Boxcars, as my boys missed their next morale check and fell to a DM'd and ELR'd half-squad.

Finally satisfied that my boys were sufficiently suppressed, my opponent launched the long awaited coup de grace!

My 9-1 finally got the 30 Cal firing away, but was unsuccessful in taking out the Marder crew. On the West flank, my 8-1 and 7-4-7 fired furiously into the woods to slow down the Germans.

The next movement phase by the Germans was calculated to reduce the potential risk of spraying fire from my 7-4-7. The goal was to get a squad into the D4 building and secure the first of 4 required building locations. The plan would work as I DM'd C3 and D3. But unfortunately they would leave a huge kill stack in C2.

At this stage of the game, the end was near. My opponent switched off operations in the center and to the east. The way forward was on the west flank.

My 9-1 with the MMG and my 8-1 and 7-4-7 were all that stood in the way of final victory.

Interestingly, my 7-4-7 on the far east flank defied the odds and survived all the fire thrown at him by the Germans. They would succeed in keeping the Germans from making any progress along that flank.

They would inflict the most punishment of any of my units in this scenario.

The final German movement phase was aided when my 7-4-7 in D2 broke, leaving my 8-1 to face the entire German force by  himself. The Germans would secure three buildings in one fell swoop. 

The end came in Advance Phase the German 8-1 led the charge into the final held US building. My 8-1 leveled his M1 Carbine and prepared to defend himself at 1-10 odds.

ANGREIF!

As the close combat ended, the Germans had secured their 4th Building location and the immediate victory!

For the Germans, a victory and a well-earned rest.

January Scenario - GJ028 "WULF HUNT"

Remember to open link in a new window to maximize the view. The PDF for these scenarios can be downloaded from the The ASL Scenario Archive. (simply search on Grumble Jones)

And always remember, these scenarios are presented for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of my blog.

 

PLEASE NOTE: This Scenario is a Hypothetical imagining of an event, which took place frequently as Operation Bagration unfolded in the Summer of 1944. Forward German airfields were often overrun as the Soviet forward units raced through the German forward positions.

 

 

 

Incredibly, the Germans had fewer than 100 serviceable aircraft to support Army Group Center. My primary source materials for researching this scenario were John Weal's German Aces of the Russian Front and Alex Buchner's Ostfront 1944 .

I recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the Eastern Front. This is one of those books that you just can't put down once you start reading.

John Weal's book is printed by Osprey and is just outstanding...no other way to describe it. Just a beautiful book, absolutely full of great pictures, color plates and information. I definitely place this book in the top 10 of my library.

So, as promised for 2016, this scenario will be the first of what could be a long string of hypothetical scenarios. Hopefully, they won't crash and burn!!!