Last Counter Attack at Abbeville
4th June 1940
On 20/5/1940 the Germans captured Abbeville on the Somme River. On 21/5/40 the 57 Infanterie Division pushed a 30km wide bridgehead over the river; a springboard for future attacks south into France. The Allied high command was keen to eliminate the bulge in their lines and the bridge head was the focus of numerous counter attacks over the next two weeks.
The final counter attack was launched at dawn on the 4/6/40. It was launched by the Scottish 51st Highland Infantry Division, the French 31st Division Infanterie and lead by the 2nd DCR. The assault was proceeded by a 10 minute bombardment by 286 Allied artillery pieces, the largest artillery attack of the campaign. As usual allied all arms co-ordination was woefully inadequate and the French heavy tanks started off too late to benefit from the suppressive effect of the great weight of artillery.
The scenario represents the attack of the 4th Seaforth Battalion supported by the tanks of the 2nd DCR to capture the Corbert Ridge (Mont de Corbert) overlooking the River Somme and Abbeville beyond. The attack started at 3:30am, its now a half hour into the advance at 4:00am and the French armour is going to meet up with the German front line
Map and Order of Battle
Deployment
The 348th CACC is deployed anywhere in the orchard adjacent to Villiers-sur-Mariuel, except it may not be on the front edge.
The 349th CACC may be deployed anywhere on the road indicated on the map
B Coy 4th Seaforths is deployed within 6" of the Western corner of the table.
C Coy 4th Seaforths is deployed within 6" of the Southern corner of the table
HQ, A Coy, D Coy and Support Coy 4th Seaforths are reinforcements. They enter anywhere on the south west table edge at 5:00am (start turn 3)
Stab, 9Kp and 10Kp 217IR can be deployed anywhere north east of the pink dotted line. They are all dug in
8Kp must start in the Chateaux de Corbert - it starts the game shaken, so must be rallied (it was broken by the allied bombardment)
6 Batterie 157 Artillerie Regiment and the Flakkampftruppe may start anywhere in the deployment zone but not within 12" of the forward edge. The command infantry may be dug in
The MG of 6Kp 199IR must start in or touching Mesnil Trois Fetus. It may be dug in
Terrain
The map is an 6ft x 3ft area assuming 1"=50m. North is towards the top of the page
The grey areas are built up areas. These are mostly stone buildings and give +3 cover. The big squares are 4"x4" BUA, the smaller square is a 2"x2" BUA capable of holding a single stand
The green areas are wood, for the most part these are open woods. However Bois de Villiers is a dense wood (no vehicles, half speed for personnel)
Red lines are roads.
The green dotted lines are tree lines, these provide light cover (+1) and break LOS
The broken brown lines are ridgelines. They break LOS and provide hull down positions for vehicles toughing them
The pale brown area is a steep sided valley. Stands not in the valley can fire over those stands in the valley. Stands in the valley can not fire at each other if the line of fire exits the valley then enters it again
The broken pink line is not terrain but the forward edge of the German deployment area
The black dotted line is an anti-tank minefield, 1" wide
The open terrain is farmland of large open fields without hedges or walls.
Air Support
The Germans get a single Stuka attack. It arrives turn 4 on a 6, turn 5 on a 5-6 and so on. If it has not done so already it will arrive automatically turn 8
Special Rules
The game is 8 turns long
The day starts with a light ground mist reducing visibility to 12". The mist burns off at the end of turn 3; on turn 4 its a glorious summer's day with no visibility limits
The Scots have limited communication with the attached R-35's. The French tanks will always follow the company order (i.e. they can not be on overwatch). They can not receive rally or regroup orders. They will not take orders from the BHQ (basically they are just following the Scottish infantry not actually taking orders from them) The R-35's are each considered a company and take morale checks separately from the infantry
The Char B1bis will not accept orders from the Scots, including take command
The MG of 6Kp 199IR is removed from the game at the start of turn 6. It is too busy fighting off an attack by French Chasseurs Portes from off table to the west
The I Abt 2 Artillerie Regiment has no observers on table and is thus limited to H&I fire. However it's observers can see the Mont de Corbert from off table. Fire can be called on any stand touching the ridgeline or to the east of the ridgeline within 18" of the north east table edge unless behind the chateaux or adjacent wood (all LOS measure perpendicular to the north east table edge)
Victory Conditions
The scenario is designed to be played twice with the players swapping sides the second time
Find the Scottish infantry or command infantry that is furthest up the table. Measure to see how far away from the SW table edge it is (shortest distance). Do the same for the French tank furthest up the table. Add the two distances together, that's the player's score. Highest score after two games wins. Demoralised stands do not count. Shaken stands count as half the recorded distance. Once the distance is halved it may be that another unbroken stand is considered furthest up the table.