Battle of Hemel Hempstead

This game was played 11/12/11 at chez Chris. Everyone contributed some kit. Commands were divided up as follows

Chris: Apsley Mills Workers Militia, 5th Republican Artillery Regiment & Force HQ Company. Republican Fighters

Dave: 2nd Northamptonshire Regiment, 3rd RTR, FHQ. Republican Attack

Bob: 12th Lancers, HQ, A & B Sqn 13/18^th Battalion Royal Hussars, Colonna Mobile di Volontariato della Legione Britannica, Royalist Fighters

Ian: C Sqn 13/18^th Battalion Royal Hussars, 1^st Battalion Queens Own Royal West Kent Regt, 11^th Regiment RHA, FHQ, Royalist Attack

12th Lancers ready for the off. Lanchester by Milicast, Morris car by Cromwell and Rolls Royce by Grammodels (?)

Apsley Mills Militia and their Soviet Advisors at Leverstock Green

Militia and their attached Northover Projector, deployed on the road north of the canal.

13th/18th Hussars enter the battle. Frontline models

The Hussars, tasked with reaching the Nicky Line, chose to ignore the Militia's positions and moved between them. The Light tank Mk III is an SHQ and the mighty Independent is from Gesibirs

C Squadron 13/18th Hussars. SHQ models (the Mediums have yet to be released)

P Company 2nd Bttn Northamptonshire Rgt probes forward. BA-6 of unknown provenance, BA-20 and Norton by SHQ

The Lancers pass Leverstock green on the way to confront P Company

Overhead the air forces tussle. Republican I-15 (ICM)  shoots .down a Royalist Gladiator (Frog?)

Whilst the fighters dog fight BOTH sides bomb the Militia. the Royalist Lysander bomb them intentionally and the Republican I-16 by accident. Lysander is Matchbox the I-16 Revel.

The Hussars move past the Lancers to engage P Company. The old British armoured cars are not up to confronting P Company with their 45mm armed modern Soviet cars.

The Republican FAA get in on the act and dive bomb the biggest target on the battlefield. Luckily for the Royalists the Independent is unharmed by it promptly fails its morale check and goes pinned.

The main body of the Northhamptonshires arrive. SHQ carriers and Britannia Gaz-AAA

3rd Republican Artillery Regt deploys behind the Nicky Line, thus ensuring a later battle with the Hussars, as the guns are right in the middle of the Hussars' main objective. SHQ 76mm M1936, Liberation 122mm M1910, PST, ZiS-5 and kit-bashed K6 trucks

Whilst one company successfully engages the armoured cars of P Company, and drives them off, the rest of the Hussars move past Bennetts End

1st Battalion Queens on West Kent Regt slowly advances on the Militia

Royalist Hawker Fury (Matchbox/Revel) covers the Hussars advance

I-16 strafes the West Kents

Over an hour after their arrival the West Kents approach the Militia

West Kents are supported by C Coy of the Hussars

For a an hour or two the Republican airforce was very active over the battlefield and the the West Kents were the favoured target. This slowed their advance even further. Although casualties were light several companies lost their nerve and hid in the bushes.

As the Hussars move west the Northamtonshires and X Battery 3rd RAR deploy to cover their flank. Ostmodels 45mm, Unreleased SHQ 4" Gun Truck, US Casts Gaz Pickup and unknown diecast staff car

The constant Republican air attacks took their toll on the morale of the Independent, which remained stuck in the same field for several hours

The arrival of the Italian Volunteer Legion leads to an assault of Leverstock Green. Cromwell CV-33

Overview of Italian deployment. OM35 by Ostmodels, 47/32 by Waterloo 1815

The West Kents attack the Militia

The Northamptonshires slide round behind the Hussars. The Hussars have no choice but to deal with them before confronting the 3rd RAR

The West Kents are bombed yet again!

The Italians increase the pressure on the Militia at Leverstock Green

Hitler enters the battlefield, after being stuck in a traffic jam behind the West Kents, and moves north to where the Luftwaffe are joining the Italians. Matchbox Protz and a car of unknown provenance.

Fire from the Hussars starts to inflict casualties on the Northamptonshires

The Matildas of 3rd RTR move past X Battery on their way to Leverstock green. SHQ Matildas

Having dealt with the Northamptonshires the Hussars and Lancers move south ito the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead

The Independent finally regains its nerve and moves to rejoin the Hussars. However time is running out and its unclear if the Independent will be able to reach them in time

3rd RTR continues it advance

The Matildas are attempting a pincer movement on Leverstock green which has fallen to the Italians. Two Matildas along the main road and two outflanking to the north

Hs-123A1 (Airfix) bombs the 3rd RTR. No physical harm was done but morale failures considerably delay the advance of the tanks

The West Kents move to outflank the exceptionally tenacious Militia north of the Grand Union

The Hussars try to outflank the 3rd RAR. This is partially successful but one 76mm gets in a long range shot and the Rolls Royce succumbs to a close assault

For a long time held up behind the West Kents 11th RHA moves into position. SHQ tractors and guns

The Independent vaporises a carrier. Hardly a fair fight, however a Matilda II lurks just out of sight behind the hedge and that may prove a tougher proposition

11th RHA deployed. In the background the West Kents finally oust the Militia from their defences

The 3rd RAR commander, fearing for his gun line, moves X battery up to the railway. In the background are a Moonlite Modelwerks Gaz-AAA radio van and a Skytrex 3.7"

11th HAA battery also watches for the Hussars

The Matildas reach within striking distance of Leverstock green but unfortunately for them the Luftwaffe have managed to deploy the 88mm,.much to Hitler's delight. Hasegawa 88mm & Airfix SdKfz-7

However the northern flanking force manages to sneak up on the town

The rest of the 3rd RTR is thrown in to disarray

Despite finishing off the Militia C squadron's morale breaks and they retreat back towards Watford

Having escaped the clutches of 3rd RTR's Matilda II the Independent rumbles forward to reach the rest of the Hussars

Aftermath of the battle for the Nicky Line. A handful of the Hussars' tanks lurk in the outskirts of Hemel, the others burning or having retreated, whilst most of the 3rd RAR is in no better state

On the last turn of the game the 6" Howitzer attached to 11th RHA deploys at Nash Mills. None of the 11th RHA got on table in time to fire a shot. SHQ gun, the Scammel is an Airfix conversion

Time up! The battle pretty much broke down in to three separate actions. The West Kent's push along the Canal, the battle for Leverstock Green and the battle for the the Nicky Line. So who won?

Ian had a cunning plan: ignore his main objective and thus leave his fellow player without any support (remember players on both sides are competing) and aim for valuable secondary locations (the bridges) which were poorly defended by a few militia stands. The plan was good but the execution wasn't and the attacks on the Militia were somewhat piecemeal. Having said that the constant attention of the Republican Air Force didn't help co-ordination

Dave pretty much made a beeline for his objective, and must have been helped in making by Ian's forces sticking to the south, The Matildas are very hard to get moving under air attack and really struggled to reach Leverstock Green. As the West Kents were deployed in the south he was denied many juicy soft infantry targets.

My plan (I think) was sound, certainly tangling with the Militia in close assaults with tanks would have been a bad idea. In hindsight charging the 3rd RAR was perhaps a mistake. I could have scored more points shooting up the Northamptonshires.

Chris thought very hard about where to place his militia in the south and made a good choice. He was helped as Ian attacked in column, and was very lucky with his air support rolls. The 3rd RAR was placed in exactly the correct place to ensure it got plenty or targets and despite my attempts to outflank it did a good job blowing up Vickers Mediums.

In the end the points broke down as follows: Dave: 5, Ian 6, Bob 12 and Chris 16, so Chris was the winner

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