Taking the Gembloux Gap: The Culverts at Noirmont (Table 2, Turn 3)

 As the Germans leave Perbais behind them, they race forward, attempting to cover as much ground as possible while the defenders fall back. The French second platoon takes over the rearguard action from the first platoon as they pass through Noirmont. There they are charged with covering a group of engineers attempting to destroy a pair of culverts to slow the German advance. Supporting Lieutenant Garnier and the rest of his stalwart defenders is a Panhard 178 armored car as well as a battery of anti-air machineguns. Attached are two teams of engineers with the required explosives to knock out the two culverts. Feldwebel Hintz, on the offensive, is down 17 men, along with Lt. von Becker and Obgfr. Hermann. To account for their losses, they are assigned a squad of motorcycle troops, a Panzer IV from the 5th Panzer Regiment, and an attached adjutant to make up for the missing leutnant. Additionally, there is word of continued sabotage and misdirection behind the French lines.

Noirmont, note the two culverts to the south and the west

The field from the attacker's perspective

The German recon elements establish safe routes into the hedgerows, along the southern flank, and slightly inside the woods on the northern flank. Lt. Garnier's platoon has set up their defensive positions in the southern woods adjacent to the culvert, in the farmhouse that commands a wide field of view from the center, and lastly among the hedges by the western culvert.

The German Jump Off Points

The French JOPs

The German advance with their motorcycle troops who are able to use their expedient nature to get a head start on the assault. The chateau to their front was reported clear by the recon elements, so the motorcyclists race toward it to ensure it stays that way. 

As they advance, the French engineers begin their work at the culverts. Under Monet's protection, who has established an overwatch position in the farmhouse, both teams of engineers make good ground setting the explosives on their respective culverts.

The engineers in the woods working on the southern culvert

And the engineers at the western culvert, protected by thick hedges

With the supposed gun position at Perbais cleared, divisional HQ has deemed it appropriate to begin employing the panzers once again. A Panzer IV with its stubby 75mm cannon begins its rumble forward to assist the infantry. Staying off of the road, it presses forward towards the motorcycle troops. 

The Panzer IV surveys the field to its front

It's just as well that it remains off road, for just at that moment, a French Panhard 178 with it's decently high velocity cannon races forward along the French roads. It presses past the close in buildings and maneuvers toward to the forwardmost engineers, who have just finished setting their charges. The car pulls to the edge of the woods, prepared to deter any incoming infantry from assaulting the culvert.

The Panhard speeds along the dry dirt roads

The panzer crew watch as the armored car races past the intersection in front of them. Intent on the hunt, the panzer commander has his tank move into the road to pursue the French armor.

As the Panhard joins the forward engineer team, the team backs off of the culvert, unwinding a cord of wire with which to detonate the culvert at the appropriate time. Perhaps they can catch a number of unsuspecting Germans in the blast? Supporting this, Sergeant Monet redeploys with his group de combat from the farmhouse to the southern woods. However, on hearing the rumble of German armor approaching, Monet falls back to more closely support the withdrawing engineers.

Lt. Garnier deploys to take direct control of Monet's group and the engineers, while Sergeant Dubois urges the engineers at the westernmost culvert to finish their task. Advancing German armor can be heard not far down the road. The rumble of armor is all the encouragement they need, and they finish their task and fall back to Dubois to shelter among the woods, awaiting the command to detonate.

Sergeant Dubois yells at the engineers to expedite their work

The German motorcycle troops lug their way into the chateau. Aware of the lone armored car, they set up in the windows, preparing to dowse the vision slits of the vehicle with MG34 fire. Fortunately for them, the Panhard never has the chance to react, for just as the Panzer reaches the crossroad, the gunner puts a highly accurate 75mm through the body of the car. The 45mm shells within go up in flame and the car explodes in the woods.

Panzer IV 212 races to the crossroad before the Panhard can react...

...and fires a well placed round through the woods and into the car

At this, the motorcyclists send forward a pair of scouts to probe the French defensive positions, as Lt. Garnier leads his infantry and engineers toward the rear. The panzer crew scan the woods as the scouts advance.

German scouts advance past the burning wreckage of the Panhard

The engineers quickly fall back, dragging the detonator with them...

...quickly joined by Lt. Garnier and Monet's group de combat

The motorcyclist scouts reach the German farmhouse on foot while the Panzer IV advances to secure the woods. Both French defensive positions appear to be secure. Unfortunately, the Germans neglected to attach any engineer teams of their own to this advance, and Fw. Hintz's platoon has no way of disabling the explosives at the secured culvert. They instead give it a wide berth as they spot the detonator cord running to the west.

German forward elements secure the abandoned French positions

Lt. Garnier gives the signal for the culverts to be blown, but in their haste, the western group of engineers failed to attach their detonator cord to the explosives themselves. Unable to buy more time, Lt. Garnier watches as the southern culvert goes up in a cloud of smoke and debris. "One culvert will have to do," he thinks to himself as he signals the withdrawal.

The western culvert explodes, collapsing this section of road with it

The French were moderately successful, having detonated one culvert for their efforts. This won't delay the Germans in this area, but it will keep them from using any wheeled vehicles at the tip of their spear. When speed is of the essence, that could be a sore loss for the Boche. Fw. Hintz's platoon made out fairly well, having lost no one in the engagement. His men were well pleased with that result, and so too was their CO. So pleased was he that he's ordering Fw. Hintz and his platoon to continue pushing at the very front of the German advance. Suffice to say that Fw. Hintz remains in a short-tempered mood. Lt. Garnier, however, is quite happy with their work. After the blood bath that 1st Platoon endured at Perbais, his men are over the moon that they took no casualties from their core platoon. His CO would have liked to see a bit more effort; clearly more could have been done to destroy both culverts. Lt. Garnier isn't convinced and he remains cheerful as they fall back toward Villeroux.

This is possibly one of my favorite scenarios to play using Chain of Command with its push/pull nature. The attacker has their objective, but so too does the defender. It isn't enough for the defender to keep their powder dry till the attacker is vulnerable - here they also have to complete an objective in the face of an advancing attacker. -A- and I had good fun with this scenario, and while fairly bloodless (minus the slowly reacting Panhard), we found the push/pull nature challenging. While this game wasn't enough to delay me for a turn, it was enough to keep me from using an wheeled vehicles in our next game. Our next game being a Blizkrieg scenario, where my objective is to clear two units off the field before A can rack up two CoC dice, I feel I may miss those armored cars at our rear.

Caleb