2020 seems to be flying along...it's already time for the March scenario here at Grumble Jones. The scenario elves were busy translating ideas into something vaguely resembling an ASL scenario. My inspiration for this scenario originated at the Quincy, IL Public Library. I am married to a Librarian and as a bit of stacks master myself, we enjoy spending Saturday mornings at the local library.
Quincy's old Public Library is a wonderful piece of architecture which serves as the Quincy History Museum today. The modern library, while very nice lacks the style of the past.
Nevertheless, it is a wonderful place to explore the stacks.
So...there I was in the WW2 sections looking for interesting titles when I found Normany '44 by James Holland.
I flipped through it and found that it had some fairly interesting maps. And in this wonderful era of smart phone cameras...I snapped a couple pictures to refer back to at GJ headquarters....aka my basement office! You knew it was in a basement...right? Sure you did!!!
After reading through sections of this book, I would have to say it appears to be a very good source for the Normandy fighting.
Now what grabbed my imagination was a map taken from Google Earth that showed the position of 4 MK IV's under the command of Hans Siegel. Now, I wasn't familiar with Hans Siegel and his 4 MK IV's. I had no idea of their fame or why they would be prominently listed on a map.
So I went home and researched the books I already owned on the Normandy Campaign. And wouldn't you know it...Hans Siegel and his 4 MK IV's were famous. Now the accounting of Siegel's actions were slightly different from book to book. Siegel and his platoon were active during Operation Epson during June 26th and 27th. As I read through the various texts, I decided to go with the account in the Hill 112 Cornerstone of the Normandy Campaign by Major J.J. How, MC. I also reviewed the accounts in Operation Epsom.
Both of these volumes are excellent source materials for understanding the Normandy fighting. And for the first time, I decided to test the search function in the updated version of the ASL Archive Website. As you know, I love this site and enjoy just surfing it from time to time. But one thing I had never done was to see if there were any other published scenarios covering this event with Siegel. I decided to search on Scenarios taking place on June 27th, 1944. And wow...there were a bunch!
So there you have it! There are currently 23 published scenarios that take place on June 27th, 1944. And one of them is a Grumble Jones scenario!!! So now, which of these might cover Siegel and his famous MK IV's....well looky looky...Siegel's Stand probably? Oh yeah, these are Ian Daglish designs and cover the very action that my scenario sought to cover. Many of the others were also in the same area as Siegel's action, but involved different German or Allied units. Scotland the Brave is a Critical Hit product and I am well-versed in the negative opinions of Critical Hit products which are pervasive on the Game Squad Forums. I don't own any Critical Hit products other then Gettysburg 1863, which I rather enjoy. So I don't pretend to be an expert on Critical Hit products. I will say that I would certainly trust the historical authenticity of these scenario designs as few people knew more about the Normandy Campaign than Ian Daglish.
Having seen that others had already covered this action did not deter me. I suppose my opinion is that the ASL Tent is large enough to accept different interpretations of the same actions. So what follows will be my attempt to represent in ASL, the actions of Siegel's famous MK IV's.
Siegel's actions on the 26th and 27th were impressive. With his force of 4 MK IV's he took advantage of favorable terrain to turn back multiple armor and infantry assaults. Ordered to the area by Max Wuensche, Siegel arrived in time to keep a breach from being opened on the road to Grainville.
Interestingly, his panzers stopped the Churchills of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment. One of the things, I learned during my playing of the Pegasus Bridge Campaign game was that MK IV's struggle mightily to knock out Churchills. My own experience in that game was that only my Panzerfausts enjoyed any success in knocking out the Churchills.
So this presented a design dilemma. It's very tough to replicate great defensive tank stands in ASL. Siegel didn't have to roll dice to achieve hits or penetrations. ASL...ya gotta roll the dice...so how many players would be able to stop 10 plus Churchill tanks with 4 MK IV's. Certainly it's possible, but the odds would suggest it to be unlikely. So I decided to include the Churchills of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment and the Shermans of the Fire and Forfar Yeomanry. In this way, I could better replicate the quantity of Allied armor without making it impossible for Siegel's MK IV's to have a good chance of stopping the attack.
The emblem of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry.
As always, my hope is that this scenario provides a fair interpretation of the action and works as an ASL scenario. I did have to use a few overlays to shape the battlefield and I do apologize for that. I hate overlay myself, but I just couldn't find a board that worked without them. So again, my apologies.
As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.
Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size.
And as always, these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive
(just search on Grumble Jones).
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