British Army Loyalists counterattack SWoM 1 March 1938 - A Very British Civil War, Chain of Command

This battle was quite a while ago (last year), and was sitting in draft. Here it is, finally:

One of my usual gaming mates had not really played Chain of Command before (maybe once long ago). I kept going on and on and on about how good the ruleset is, so we finally decided to have a game. We played a scenario that would feed into my Very British Civil War campaign setting.

King Edward VIII's men get involved

My opponent took command of a force of British Regulars fighting for King Edward's Royalists, specifically a rifle platoon with some armoured support scraped together from local depots. I took command of an infantry column of the Sheffield Workers Militia (SWoM) with an FT-17 and a field medic.

SWoM riflemen exchanging fire with British Army regulars across the Salteye Brook (all human figures: Peter Pig Miniatures).

Counterattack at Peel Green

As the Manchester Commune's offensive to cut the Mersey Corridor has now commenced in earnest, Royalist regular army forces have moved to counterattack, striking at a gap in the leftists lines near the Peel Green cemetery just outside of the Manchester urban area. The Army unit was able to enter the Eccles neighbourhood and get in behind a SWoM column, which then had to send a reserve platoon back to remove the threat.

The fighting commenced when a section of SWoM riflemen opened effective fire on Army troops who had moved up to a tall garden hedge. Several men on both sides were hit. Taking the initiative, the Corporal of the Army rifle section took three men and attempted to cross the bridge to gain a better position, while the platoon's 2" mortar team attempted to cover the movement with smoke.

At that exact moment, a SWoM tank appeared, heading down the road towards them. ... And the 2" mortar smoke rounds landed off the mark.

(Battlefront miniatures FT-17).

Within seconds it had loosed a 37mm shell which flew directly into the unfortunate soldiers, killing both the lead man and the one behind him, stopping the crossing attempt as soon as it started.

(Paper buildings from Dave Graffam, Microtactix and Wargame Print - all through Wargames Vault).

Seeing a direct attack across the bridge presently unviable, the Army platoon commander instead brought the two other rifle sections and a Matilda I tank across Salteye Brook further downstream and moved these up to attack the SWoM left flank, which was held by more militia riflemen behind a wall.

SWoM militia hold the cemetery wall.

Spotting this movement, the SWoM section leader (who had a submachinegun and was keen on using it!) took one of his nine-man sub-sections and broke from the cover of the cemetery wall to attack the Army troops before they had a chance to emerge from the treeline.

SWoM rashly attempt an assault.

While the SWoM militiamen had the advantage of their leader's submachinegun, the Army troops had a Bren as a counter. In a hard-fought assault about five were killed and wounded on each side, and both section leaders were wounded. The Army were pushed back, but they had blunted the SWoM assault, and had another section plus a tank backing them up.

Badly beaten up in the assault: the British Army lead left flank section.

The remaining SWoM fighters pulled back to the cemetery wall, though in doing so they were fired upon and broken! As they ran back through the gate, they panicked the men of their other half-section, who started to believe they were about to be attacked by an overwhelming Army force. The SWoM section leader was too busy trying to bandage himself and run away at the same time to try to boost their confidence.

SWoM militiamen and their wounded commander flee through the cemetery gate, panicking their comrades.

Regular Army Matilda I (Zvezda miniatures) approaches from the west.

At the same time, an Army Vickers Medium II tank moved through the centre of the town to protect the first Army section and counter the SWoM FT-17. These two tanks met about 70 metres apart and commenced a duel during which they both sustained damage. (I can't remember what happened, but I think the Vickers Medium took a crew casualty but managed to drive off the FT-17).

Regular Army Vickers Medium II (QRF Miniatures) heads through the town to counter the SWoM tank.

A SWoM medic rushed through the gravestones to tend to the wounded left-flank section leader (he had just ran across from the right-flank section where he was providing first aid to that section's leader who'd also been wounded).

Medic Lionel runs through the gravestones, hoping to save his section leader from ending up beneath one (converted Peter Pig Home Guard officer and scratch-built gravestones).

It was too late though - the British Army infantry and Matilda I were able to inflict heavy casualties on the SWoM left flank section and they ran from their position as the little British Army tank crashed over and through the (obviously very lightly constructed) cemetery wall in pursuit.

"Time to get goin' lads!! Get up Jimmy! What'r ye doin'?"

British Army Victory

Somehow (due to very lucky rolls on the Bad Things Happen table) the badly-shot-up SWoM remnants on the right flank were able to hang on for quite some time after the collapse of their left flank, but they were inevitably going to lose, so we called it after a few more Phases.

The SWoM offensive on this part of the Mersey Corridor front is definitely in trouble now, with skilled and armour-equipped Royalist units in their rear. What are they going to do about that?

This was a fun and educational game (educational for me as it turned out), and really showed the impact of wounded leaders, the risks of advancing in the open without smoke cover, and the riskiness of assaulting undamaged sections which still have their section automatic weapons fully operational.