Faid Pass Pictures

This game was played in September 2015. Dave N was the Allies and I played the Axis. All the kit and terrain on display came from my collection.

Faid Pass with the French in position. North is to the right hand side of the map

5th Company in position on the hills to the north, hiding in my new dug in positions made of air drying clay

6th Company reinforced with a 25mm AT gun (SHQ) hold the valley floor

7th Company hold the heights to the south.

French heavy weapons in the centre of the valley. SHQ 47mm and mortar, EWM (ex Toms Tins) 13.2mm AA

French Artillery in the rear. SHQ 75mm

French pioneers in Faid

The initial Axis assault hits 5th Company on the southern heights. Esci Semovente, Matchbox SdKfz-11 and PSC PaK-38. The Semovente's fire at the 25mm proves ineffectual

First assault ends in failure as 1 Kp roll a 10 for morale and fall back shaken. It would take a while for the Battalion commander to rally them and get them back in the fray. Meanwhile the 25mm and the Semovente trade ineffectual fire

The T2 Bataillon arrive and try to flank the French 7th Company. What should have been a perfectly coordinated assault was stymied by 1Kp morale failure

The Germans bring up their 88mm. As the French have no tanks its role becomes that of artillery. Skytrex (now EWM) PaK-43 masquerading as a FlaK-41 and Cromwell SdKfz-7

French FT-17 (Matchbox/Revell) enters the battle. The Germans were not very impressed and the tank wasn't due to last very long

Gruppe Grun arrive at the battlefield and catch the French artillery napping. Matchbox PzKfw-III and Airfix PzKfw-IV

The Luftwaffe makes a strafing run but are distracted by the fire from the French 13.2mm AA Gun. By Faid the lead element of TF Stark can be seen

Company H 13th Armored Regiment arrive to confront the panzers. However it was a jammy flank shot by the French AM-80 armoured cars that would do most damage in the first exchange of fire. Airfix Shermans, Italeri halftrack and Cromwell AM-80's

AM-80s in close up moving past the burning FT-17

The Germans get the upper hand in the tank battle with the Americans either burning of shaken. However to the east the German infantry assault has been completely blunted with minimal casualties inflicted on the French. It will take more than the two remaining panzers to winkle the French out of their trenches so we called the game an emphatic allied win

This was the first version of the scenario, and it was clear that it was too hard a nut to crack for the Germans. Changes have been made since. See here