HYSTERICAL WARGAMER  

Vol. 1, No. 7 -  13 September 2006

 

 

Operation Market Garden:  Week #2

 

             We left off last week with the British XXX Corps tank column bogged down on the road to Valkenwaald.  They had cleared the German’s first line of defense on the west side of the road and silenced two guns, destroying one gun, a machine gun nest east of the road remained an obstacle.  Moreover, the first of two allied tank tractors had been hit and immobilized.  Although one British tank had reached a wooded area along the road about half way to Valkenwaald, German ground troops there effectively stopped the lead British tank there.  The Brits were about a quarter of the way down the road towards victory. 

 

            During our second week,  on Market Garden we were able to get through turns 3 through 6.

 

            Starting off from last week, the British Infantry on the west side of the road made considerable headway.  Having cleared most of the German first line of defense there, most of the remaining Brits hopped a hedgerow located several hundred yards (@18”) to the west that runs parallel to the road.  Meeting no resistance, the infantry has reached a point that is almost even with the north side of the woods situated along the road, and a short distance south of another small patch of woods located west-southwest of Valkenwaald.  However several infantry squads that remained east of the hedgerow ran into some resistance that popped out of the southern edge of the woods along the road, using another hedgerow that ran from the woods to the west, and inflicted casualties.  Eliminating a machine gun, a small German tractor-cycle popped up with another machine gun and inflicted a few more casualties.  Fortunately, the British infantry were very good shots, for they instantly took out the opposition. 

           

            On the east side of the road, the British infantry had a harder time.  It took at least two turns to finally eliminate a German machine gun nest.  Once cleared, part of the British infantry moved ahead towards a hedgerow that ran perpendicular from the road, from a point on the east side of the main road woods to a smaller grove of trees that hid one of the tank-killing guns and a few infantry squads.  This maneuvering forced the Germans to expose several other units, some that were eliminated.

 

            British Armor, on the other hand, still was bogged down on the road south of the woods.  Several units of armored infantry in a duce-and-a-half drove up the road and disembarked.  They were partially responsible for taking out the German machine gun nest east of the road. Drawing air, artillery, and mortar fire, miraculously, the truck survived.  Moreover, it managed to move up the road and opened a lane for the remaining armor to move through.  Once opened additional infantry then engaged German troops and a gun crew lurking in the woods.  The infantry and several long range British artillery barrages and several air strikes eliminated the visible threats in the woods.  On the down side, German mobile artillery and mortar fire took out the second of two tank tractors, complicating the British advance up the road.  Casualties were medium for the Brits.  However, the German’s also took some medium casualties.   

 

At the beginning of turn 7, the British are about half way to victory.