Finished the Script for CMFI Foiling Fustian Mission 2 (Patreon)

And it's an interesting one, that's for sure. I made a quick map during the planning stage to help get my head round it- it might help you guys reading the script to work out what I'm rambling about: CMFI Foiling Fustian Mission 2: Ad Hoc

Welcome back to Combat Mission Fortress Italy for the second mission of the Foiling Fustian campaign. Last night in the first mission, we were lucky enough to be in position to decimate British Airborne landing on one of their dropzones south of the critical Primosole Bridge, but in the chaos of the drop, a few small groups have managed to coalesce and seize the bridge.

This is a problem on two counts. Firstly, the bridge is a key crossing on the coastal road that the British 13th Corps can exploit to rapidly advance on Catania and from there, Messina and the Axis lifeline back to mainland Italy.

Secondly, the Fallschirmjaeger units deployed to the south of the bridge are now cut off.

Retaking the bridge is therefore obviously a top priority for the Germans and their Italian allies. Grasping the situation, a staff officer back in Catania- Hauptmann Franz Stangenberg- has taken the typically German measure of gathering up all the men he can get hold of and mounting a counterattack on his own initiative.

This ad-hoc Kamfgruppe, consisting of a couple of company’s worth of Fallschirmjaeger divisional HQ staff, troops from the Italian 10th Arditi Battalion and a battery of Flak guns, punched down Highway 114 towards Primosole Bridge early in the afternoon.

They ran into an ambush at about 1400 and were repulsed: the British Airborne have had the time to set up an effective defence and draw more forces in from the paratroopers scattered across the Sicilian countryside.

Not thrown off, Stangenberg’s Kampfgruppe has now regrouped and is preparing to mount a second attack.

Terrain

That means that this mission is taking place in daylight- it’s about 1630 and we don’t need to worry about the dark. Unfortunately, we’re now attacking, we’ve got a decent distance to cover and there’s a distressingly large amount of open ground.

The map is split in half by Highway 114, which runs from the Axis deployment zone in the north towards the British positions in the south.

There’s a patchy band of woodland and scrub on either side of the highway- about 200m wide on the left and 300 on the right, beyond that we’re looking at open fields. The whole map is pretty much completely flat except for a handful of shallow gullies that don’t look like they’re deep enough to offer much protection.

Objectives

Our first objective, worth 350 victory points, is a bridge over one of these gullies, marked up as Highway 114. To the immediate left of this is a triangular patch of woodland between two of the gullies.

Continuing on along the highway, we get to an arc of open ground. On the left of this, beyond an isolated farmhouse, we have our second objective: the Orchards. This is also worth 350 points and is obviously in some orchards which occupy the far map edge to the left of the highway.

Off to the right is our final ground objective: the Sunken Trail. This is a pretty arbitrary looking chunk of ground at the end of a thin arc of woodland that curves away towards the close right corner of the map.

The Sunken Trail is only worth 100 points and there’s an extra 200 on the table for inflicting casualties on the enemy.

Enemy

The briefing indicates that the enemy is defending the area with a force of two understrength companies and, because we bumped into them earlier in the day, we already have an array of contact icons that can help us map out their defence.

A key element here is that the British paras don’t have any support weapons down at company level- aside from maybe some medium mortars, we’re not going to be dealing with anything heavier than small arms.

And on top of that, British paratroopers units are heavily laden with submachineguns. They still have bren guns and a few rifles, but fundamentally, their firepower is concentrated within a couple of hundred metres. That’s going to make it very difficult for all these positions to effectively mutually support one another.

Force

Against this, the core of our force here skews the other way. We have two cobbled together companies of Fallschirmjaeger: the fantastically named 1st Coy Fallschirm Funk, presumably mostly made up of signallers, and Kampfgruppe Stangenberg.

These are equipped as Fallschirmjaeger infantry: each company has three platoons of three squads, each squad has three teams of four men, two of these teams are based around LMGs. They’re well trained and motivated, but actual Fallschirmjaeger units have a lot of very useful supporting weapons like mortars that these guys are missing.

Backing them up, we have some Italians. Starting out on map are four AS.42 reconnaissance vehicles. These are somewhat analogous to the British Long Range Desert Group jeeps used in North Africa: basically unarmoured, but festooned with machineguns. Three of the starting vehicles have dual MGs and the fourth mounts a 20mm cannon. This could be very useful, but might also be limited by only have armour-piercing incendiary ammunition, we’ll see.

Following the Fallschirmjaeger and AS42s up in fifteen minutes is a rifle company of Arditi accompanied by four more AS42s.

In support from the word go we have a battery of Flak 36 88mm guns. These are off map, firing in the indirect role, and only have 120 rounds to play with. So they’re very limited. To make the most of them, our force has two forward observer teams attached and four target reference points we can place wherever we want.

 Plan

Jamming all of this together, I’m inclined to go left. I always want to compartmentalise the map and deal with as little of the enemy force at once as possible. 700 victory points of the 1000 on offer can be found left of the highway, split between the highway and orchard objectives. On top of that, the short-range focus of British airborne troops means I’m pretty confident that enemy forces to the right will find it very difficult to interfere.

There’s also plenty of open on the far left where the AS42s can roam and provide support and the triangular wood and trees lining the highway will help block line of sight from enemy positions in depth or over on the right.

The plan then, will be to take the triangular wood first, which is the key to securing the highway objective, then use it as a jumping off point to seize the orchards. Time permitting, from I can swing right over the road to tackle the Sunken Trail.

Kick Off

As the battle starts, the first thing I want to do is sidestep my force to the left. The Funk Company’s deployment zone already allowed me to move them and two of the AS42s down the line, but KG Stangenberg has to walk.

This isn’t a big deal. There’s over an hour on the clock and as the Funk Company leaves its gully to start moving up, it immediately starts spotting the enemy. Within a couple of turns it’s clear that there are British troops in the triangular wood and arrayed on the edge of the orchard.

That makes sense. The defenders here have some depth to play with, so their platoons were always likely to be arranged in a 1up, 2back or 2up, 1 back arrangement. Either way, the triangular wood is too far away from the Orchard for the two positions to support one another and I should be able to concentrate against one at a time.

I say should, because although I have a decent advantage in long range firepower and a pretty deep range envelope I can exploit thanks to all my LMGs, the ground is turning out to be less accommodating than I would like.

The open ground and scrub on the left is pretty flat, as far as I can make out, but there’s a lot of long grass and weeds. With the Fallschirmjaeger going prone whenever they stop out in the open, they’ve got too much foliage in their faces to engage in area fire.

The obvious solution would seem to be the much taller AS42s. Bringing them up quickly results in a couple of gunner casualties from long range bren and marksman fire. The reality that they’re attracting fire, are poorly protected and aren’t going to put a decisive amount of fire out with their slow-firing MGs is enough for me to pull them back again.

One is a bit too slow off the mark and is actually knocked out. With another getting immobilised negotiating the gullies, the AS42s aren’t making a fantastic first impression.

The Triangular Wood

The Fallschirmjaeger take a smattering of long range casualties too, but given the ground I’m probably getting off lightly. I have three platoons bearing down on the triangular wood.

On the left, the Funk Company’s 1st platoon is going to provide a base of fire, though this isn’t likely to be that effective because of all the grass.

In the centre, the Funk Company’s 2nd Platoon is advancing behind some of the trees and scrub to a point where they can get into the gully and either exploit up it to close the distance or cross over and start rolling up the British from the left.

On the right, Kampfgruppe Stangenberg’s 2nd Platoon is moving up to act as a closer base of fire that can better cover the front of the wood.

Ideally, I want to coordinate this attack with my artillery support. I’ve arranged for the 88s to start hitting the leading edge of the triangular wood with a long, low rate of fire barrage starting at the ten minute mark.

The shells come in right on time. Everyone is in position to take advantage and the mission is accurate- there are definitely British Airborne caught underneath it- but… the 88s are a bit lacklustre. When you think about it, 88mm is not much bigger than a medium mortar shell and with the Flak 36 being an anti-aircraft gun designed for high velocities, the shells have to endure higher pressures. That means thicker walls and less explosive filler so, although they’re probably doing something… they’re not doing as much as I might like.

Probably a bigger problem is where to go from here. There’s a TRP on the highway bridge and another at the back of the triangular wood: what I had originally intended to do was to adjust the fire mission, using those two TRPs in order to pivot the shellfire through the wood. That way, the artillery would be doing the heavy lifting on the densest chunk of terrain I need to clear.

But because I’m commanding an ersatz, thrown-together kampfgruppe there isn’t a decent link between my FOs and the 88s. Even with the TRPs speeding things up, it’ll take a good ten minutes for 88s to adjust and, at the current rate of fire, they’ve only got 12 minutes of ammunition.

I don’t think that’s a very good use of my artillery- not least because where it is, it’ll effectively block my infantry from storming the wood. So I call it off after a few turns. It’s no doubt done some damage and I can see British paras disengaging from the treeline. But I think I’m going to get more mileage out of my artillery elsewhere.

Toehold

That’s not much encouragement for the Fallschirmjaeger. The Funk Company’s 2nd Platoon gets a squad across the gully, under a torrent of speculative supporting fire from base of fire LMGs, and they grab a toehold in a patch of trees off the close corner of the triangular wood.

They find a trio of Brits in there. One’s already dead, they finish off another and the third puts his hands up. This is something of an indicator of what’s in store. British Airborne sections split down into very small teams and what really worries me is the prospect of clearing a wooded area with tiny clusters of SMG toting enemies scattered throughout.

To really nail the prospect home, the toehold comes under fire from a lone Bren gunner. They shut him down pretty quickly, but lose a man in the process.

Trying to push up the gully to expand the frontage I can easily enter the wood over is much less successful. The squad I’m pushing up here comes under enfilading fire from some Brits at the far end, in the objective.

It’s too far for SMGs, but each squad has a bren gunner and a marksman and they’re able to take advantage of the obvious approach route to put down a whole fire team before I get the message.

Annoyingly, the problem position dominating the gully is in a good keyhole where neither of my base of fire platoons can get at them and- despite the fact that they’re literally sitting on a TRP- I’ve already started calling the 88s in elsewhere.

Reinforcements

The solution comes from an unexpected direction. Fifteen minutes into the battle, my Italian reinforcements arrive. And they bring with them some much needed support weapons.

While the 10th Arditi’s riflemen and AS42s disperse into the low ground and woodland in case the Brits have any mortars up their sleeves, their attached Brixia light mortar and Breda machinegun teams head off to solve my gully problem.

In the background, the 88s come in for a second time. The Brits in depth, defending the Orchard, are conveniently lined up along the treeline and I made the call to expend my remaining artillery ammunition on them. It won’t help that much right now- they’re mostly been taking ineffective potshots at the Funk Company’s base of fire- but with the attack on the triangular wood slowing right down, smashing the next position should hopefully lubricate phase two.

And pushing into the triangular wood it seems that clearing it might take a while. The first fire team across- backed up by four more in the toehold- gets zipped by Bren gun fire from the opposite corner of the wood, then stumbles into sight of a PIAT team. After a hail of 9mm fire and a shot from the PIAT, the team is down to a single man.

The Brits bug out on the next turn- chased by fire from distant LMGs- but the incident is exactly what I don’t want: a sharp ambush from a tiny, hard to find, “don’t tread on me” team.

On the plus side, it looks like I’ve managed to open the gully up. With one of the Brixias dumping its entire load of 45mm HE grenades onto the offending positions and one of the Bredas keeping the angle closed down, I’m able to exploit.

With another squad getting into the triangular wood from the gully, I’ve opened another angle, and I’ve brought a platoon of Italians up to help out.

This is less a hard-nosed gamey judgement that the Italians are more expendable than the Fallschirmjaeger and more an acknowledgment that they actually did pretty well in the last mission and that what I really need to clear the wood is a surplus of bodies. The Italians can fill that niche in a way the Germans here can’t.

And they do really well. Gradually working my way forward, the Fallschirmjaeger and Arditi mop up the British Airborne troops still lingering in the triangular wood without too much trouble.

The Brits Pull Out

I’m already starting to think about how I’m going to leapfrog onto the Orchard objective. A base of fire in the triangular wood complementing a flanking move onto the left and a roll-up of the orchard position seems like the best bet, but the Brits pull the rug from under that option.

I’d already seen a few Paras running back across the open ground but assumed they were scattered survivors fleeing the triangular wood. It soon becomes clear that the British positions on the untouched right flank are making a move as well.

Whether they’re pulling back or pulling out isn’t clear, but it’s certainly something I need to take advantage of. I have one squad from the Funk Company way forward in a gully on my left and they’re able to get some flanking fire on the squirters leaving the wood. They seem pretty safe there too: it looks like the 88s really did a number on the enemy in depth.

With that forward edge on the left relatively secure, I decide to send the AS42s up. By the time all 6 of them get into position the enemy is clearly making a run for it and they’re able to pick a good number of them off as they cross the open ground.

With that, it’s also pretty clear that my infantry can accelerate. So a mix of Germans and Italians clear out the Highway objective, while more occupy the farmhouse and cover a couple of Funk Company squads as they cross over to the Orchard. They don’t come under fire in the process. There are a couple of scattered Paras in the back of the orchards that go down fighting, but no serious resistance.

After getting a squad into the Sunken Trail objective and making sure all three objective areas have been combed for lurking red berets, I opt for a ceasefire.

Endex

The result is a total victory for the axis. I’ve secured all three ground objectives and taken a good chunk out of the British force, though they’ve managed to keep their casualties down by bugging out.

All in all, I lost 27 men to their 77, about 30 of whom were taken out by the 88s. Judging by the number of bodies lining the edge of the orchard, switching them onto that target was a good call.

It’s hard to shake the sense that this was significantly easier than it should have been because the enemy conveniently disengaged. It took me a long time to clear out the triangular wood. I made a choice to move slowly to keep my casualties down and that’s something that a better equipped or human-controlled opponent could have easily exploited. On the other hand, I never had a good idea of what was lurking in the wood until I’d gotten well inside. An attack by mass, that is: using my superiority in numbers and firepower to bulldoze my way forward, was always an option. But I don’t think it was clear exactly when that option changed from a good way to get a lot of my troops shot to an effective means of expediting the attack.

Regardless, we’ve driven the British defenders off the north end of Primosole Bridge. Overnight, they will disengage from the south end as well, leaving the Fallschirmjaeger to occupy it. Kampfgruppe Stangenberg will return to Catania to catch up on all the paperwork it should have been doing in the rear, while the defence around the bridge is re-established.

In the morning though, the first British elements from the landings will be arriving from the south, bringing with them armour and artillery. Should be fun.

Hope you all enjoyed this video and found it interesting. If you’d like to watch these early and support the channel you can do so via Patreon and Youtube memberships. Whether you do or not, thanks for watching and I’ll catch you in the next one.