Assault at dawn of La Barquette lock gates

Dawn will begin soon. The men of the 1st. Batalion, 501 Parachute Regiment sneak in the darkness towards their objective. The soldiers of the 914 Grenadier Regiment are looking for them. All of them will encounter at La Barquette.

(The scenary was an encounter between a parachute rifle company and a fusilier kompanie.
The U.S. army list was 3 rifle platoons, 1 mortar platoon, 1 support MG platoon and a jeep recce platoon.
The German army list was 2 fusilier platoons, 1 PaK 7.5 platoon, 1 heavy artillery battery and 1 fusilier scout platoon. The German 2-i-C made a Kampfgruppe with 2 teams of each fusilier platoon.
We played with dawn rules.)

The recce jeeps went toward the lock gates when, at the moonlight, they see two 7.5 Pak40 Guns firing at them. One jeep exploded lighting up the darkness of the night. The jeeps begun firing on move their MGs, killing Three of the guns crew.

 (The recce jeeps take advantage of their recce movement after deployment. The 7.5 Pak 40 guns didn´t see them because of night rules for range.)
 
The sniper pointed and shooted fastly, killing the leutnant of the guns. The remainder of the crew fled.
The german sniper saw his antagonist and pointed carefully. He failed by a hair, while the first sunbeams iluminated the scene.

(The duel of snipers was very funny. Finally they realized they can´t kill one each other and begin to shoot to other platoons)

The parachuted rifle infantry approached to the dry bed of the river. Then, the fusilier platoon of the allied left flank begun to shoot from his prepared positions. The U.S. sniper answered joint with the airborne infantry, but the fire from the german positions was heavy, and the leutnant of the platoon and too many men died or get bad injured. The remnant of the platoon dug foxholes on the other side of the river´s dry bed.

(Salva was the U.S. general)

The jeeps flied behind the farm from the shoots of the fusilier platoon of the allied right flank. Just in this moment, the noise of the german artillery begin to sound on the battlefield.

(The german artillery arrived on turn 4 and the remaining german platoons arrived on turn 5)
Col. Howard R. Johnson ordered the attack now in three ways. The machine gun platoon should approach from the right flank, mortars should fire from the left flank, and the remaining infantry must take the buildings of the lock gates.

(The U.S. reserves arrived from both flanks)
Suddenly the german infantry at the other side of the recce jeep´s farm left their prepared positions, fire at the jeeps and assaulted them, leaving only dead and pillars of smoke. But they were shooted by the mortars and the rifles hidden in the buildings, who killed all of them.

(The german infantry dug in from the first turn)

  (The german general, Franchi, prepare the assault to the jeeps. The jeeps failed to pin down the german platoon missing 7 of 9 HMG shoots)

The german scouts, who arrived late to the battlefield, decided to finish with the american mortar support, and begun to cross the river on unstable boats.

(After defending his deployment zone from the beginning, Franchi tried to take one of the objectives by a brave cross of the river with the scouts.)
The german artillery released howitzer after howitzer against the lock gates building where two platoon of airborne infantry were concealed, causing not very much damage.

(Salva focus his manpower in the two lock gates´ buildings, receiving continued artillery fire, who pinned down his platoons, but didn´t kill nearly anything.)

The U.S. support MG platoon draw near the german fusiliers through the wood, only to being anihilated by the german´s fire. After this, the germans, led by the Hauptmann Franz Fritz, headed towards the U.S. sniper, captured him and continue their track towards the remnant of the central rifle parachute platoon. The allied LMG fired, killing a lot of Germans, including Franz Fritz.






The fusilier scouts crossed finally the river and assaulted the american Mortars, capturing them. But without the leadership of the Hauptmann, the Fusilier Kompanie retreated, leaving the battlefield to the allies.

 (In turn 8, the risky maneuver of the scouts put Franchi near the victory, but at the beginning of turn 9 he failed the company moral check automatically. He had lost the two teams of HQ)