Script for Foiling Fustian Mission 5: Burning Bridges (Patreon)

A little longer, to take into the end of the campaign. The mission itself was a bit of a grind, but at least it didn't necessitate using the entire 6 companies plus addons. Blergh. Too many pixeltruppen.* * *

Welcome back to the final mission of Combat Mission Fortress Italy’s Foiling Fustian campaign. It’s now the day after the last mission and repeated attempts by the Fallschirmjaeger to retake Primosole Bridge have been countered by the British pumping in more and more reinforcements.

This uneasy stalemate is not in the German’s favour and this morning, the Fallschirmjaeger have orders to abandon the bridge and fall back to new defensive positions further north. Before pulling out though, the German Paras have one last card to play.

Primosole Bridge is still a piece of critical infrastructure and even though the British have already crossed over and established a bridgehead, they will need the bridge intact to support further advances up the eastern Sicilian coast. If the Fallschirmjaeger can destroy the bridge before they leave, they’ll impose a significant delay and give the new German defensive line more time to solidify.

The problem is that the bridge is a substantial structure requiring a significant amount of time and effort to properly prepare for demolition: time and effort denied by the British troops surrounding it. So the Fallschirmjaeger have come up with a more direct approach: sidestepping the careful and precise application of demolition charges to the bridge’s structural weakpoints, they’ve gotten three Opel Blitz trucks and packed them with a gratuitous amount of explosives. The intent is to simply drive them onto the bridge and blow them up.

This isn’t some kind of scenario design flight of fancy, the Germans at Primosole Bridge did try this. And as you might expect, it didn’t work. But it’s going to be interesting to try.

Terrain

The map is almost exactly the same as the last one. It’s missing the river and the bridge itself, but we have the approach. The main difference comes with the setup zones. The Fallschirmjaeger on the left in the orchards have been pushed about 150m back from where they started last time.

Everything else is pretty much the same.

Forces

The German force is also almost identical, minus losses. The Pioneer battalion is now deployed on the right, in the sunken trail they were defending last time. The Funk Company is in the orchards on the left again, where they’ve been joined by a rifle company from the 4th Fallschirmjaeger regiment which jumped in to reinforce the line last night.

Further back, we have the flak battery with its four 88s and single Flakvierling, plus the Italian Arditi from Mission 2.

Spread throughout the force we’ve also got the Fallschirm-MG company from Mission one. Their 120mm mortars remain on call, along with the on-map 81s from the Pioneers.

Starting out on Highway 114, we also have 3 AS42s- these are the survivors from the second mission. They’re going to be joined in 20 minutes by the remaining AS42s and the three demo trucks.

Objectives

The main aim for the mission is to get the demo trucks into an Exit objective at the far end of the map where the Highway hits the bridge.

Supporting that objective, we have two occupy objectives. Farm One, worth 2000 victory points, consists of two long thin buildings at the kink in the road just before the bridge. Farm Two is the large, main farmhouse building a bit closer. That’s worth 1000 points.

Clearing both of these is obviously going to be conducive to getting the very vulnerable trucks to the exit.

Enemy

The enemy, meanwhile, is again the Durham Light Infantry and their supporting Shermans from 44th Royal Tank Regiment.

In the campaign, I’m pretty confident this particular battalion of Durhams has suffered 100% casualties. In reality, that didn’t happen so I have to assume that they’ve had replacements or reinforcements to make up their losses.

Conditions

At the start of the battle it’s 0600. It’s dark and dingy, but with an hour on the clock we have sunrise to contend with. There’s a bit of light fog, but visibility is going to dramatically improve over the course of this mission.

That’s going to open up sightlines and fields of fire as time goes on, which could present problems and opportunities in equal measure.

Plan

That said… I want to keep this pretty simply. In the last mission, I counterattacked through the orchards up to the level of Farm One. Getting to that point will take me most of the way towards the exit objective and open up an approach route for the demo trucks through the orchards with a lot more cover and concealment than straight up the highway.

Bringing more forces up to storm the two farm objectives, with supporting fire from the mortars, Sunken Trail and orchards should give me the room I need to rush the trucks to the exit, preferably behind the biggest smoke screen I can throw on.

The faster I can get up there the better, because the darkness will help hide the trucks, but once it starts getting light I can also bring more fire to bear from further in depth that might help.

We’ll see how it goes.

Kick Off

The game starts with a preparatory bombardment, but at this time it’s mine. It’s mostly concentrated on the left, in the orchards, where one of the heavy mortar sections pummels the anticipated front line of British troops while the other blazes a trail up that flank. They’re supported by some brief fire from the on-map 81s hitting other targets in depth.

Under cover of all this, the Fallschirmjaeger on the left start probing forwards. It doesn’t take long for them to get close enough for me to cancel the nearest 120s and soon after they run into resistance.

The Brits are lined up pretty much exactly where I was expecting- not too far back from where the frontlines were in the last mission- and under cover of darkness and the lingering suppression of the bombardment, I’m able to punch a few teams forward. Getting into the British centre rapidly causes their position to become untenable. A handful of LMGs there allow me to enfilade the low wall the Brits are manning on the left, driving them off and allowing another FJ platoon forward to overrun that flank.

The Durhams are not exactly crumbling- they are hanging in there, they just don’t have the firepower to compete once the Germans get going.

So far so good, but I want to keep the momentum up. This leads to inevitable casualties as I push forward and encounter scattered survivors who elect to go down fighting… there’s not much to do about that apart from suck it up and keep going.

Sherman on the Track

I can see an enemy tank contact on the main track through the orchards though. That track is how I intend to get the demo trucks up- I want to keep them hidden behind the trees for as long as possible- so even though I could bypass the Sherman with my infantry, I’m going to have deal with it at some point.

In theory, the 88 dug in at my end of the track can sort it out, but of course it can’t see far enough in the darkness. That leaves it down to the Fallschirmjaeger on the left who can potentially engage it with rifle grenades or close assault it… those methods might work, but I want something a bit chunkier up my sleeve as a backup.

That means bringing some of the Fallschirm-Pioneers and their demo charges across from the right. This wasn’t a problem in the last mission because the Pioneer battalion was on both flanks, but this time they were restricted to deploying in the sunken trail.

Crossing the highway isn’t ideal- and the first squad to try gets shot up as they make the run- but with the sun coming up it’s only going to get worse.

Speaking of things getting worse, the Sherman looks like it’s somewhat isolated. I’ve managed to push up on the left into a flanking position without encountering resistance and, still thinking about the time factor, decide to take a swing at it.

I’ve gathered up two FJ teams armed with rifle grenades and brought them forward to positions where they can engage the Sherman in the side while some pioneers sneak up from the front and try to get a demo charge on it.

We’re at about the 15 minute point now and, not that I’ve noticed because I’ve been zoomed out and using the artificial brightness, it’s pretty light.

So in hindsight, it’s maybe not that surprising that the Sherman manages to spot one of the rifle grenade teams and smacks them with a 75mm HE shell. The other team is too close and ends up pinned at exactly the moment the pioneers make their move.

They manage to chuck a couple of hand grenades on the tank and immobilise it, then the Sherman methodically mows them down with its MGs, joined by a lone Bren gunner I’d missed, hiding in the scrub nearby.

By now the pinned rifle grenade team has recovered and they manage to plink a small hole in the side of the tank. It goes quiet for a bit, but it’s still in the fight.

It is at least immobilised though, so I set up another pioneer attack with teams coming in from both sides. With the Bren gunner neutralised, the team on the left makes it right up to the Sherman and they lob all four of their demo charges onto it, finally knocking it out.

Hooking in from Far Left, the Centre

With that out of the way, I have an open route up the left to at least the next intersection.

Meanwhile, the growing light is revealing more enemy units. In particular, there are Brits holding the Farm 2 building, supported by a couple more Shermans and a universal carrier mounting a Vickers HMG.

The Shermans in particular are a major stumbling block- unlike the one on the track, they’re not conveniently deployed next to woods my Fallschirmjaeger can use to sneak up on them. I am past them on the left though and can get eyes on their more vulnerable flanks. It’s also past the 20 minute mark, so the demo trucks have arrived with their AS42 escorts.

Two of those AS42s are armed with 47mm antitank guns. That’s a bit of lacklustre weapon, especially against something like a Sherman, but with a clean flanking shot they might have a chance… plus, because I want to use the orchard track to get the demo trucks up, I need to check that it’s safe.

So off goes one of the AS42s. It doesn’t attract any attention while it’s on the track, which is excellent news, and it’s able to swing off into the orchard and get into position to hit one of the Shermans in the side.

It’s first shot is a HEAT round that hits the base of the Sherman’s turret and fails to penetrate. Frantically reloading as the Sherman turret starts to turn, the gunner switches to armour piercing and manages to poke a hole in the upper right hull… that doesn’t appear to actually do anything. The Sherman does not have this problem and puts a round straight through the AS42, wiping out the crew.

Farm 1

Not great, but by this time the platoons flanking on my far left have managed to sweep back in towards the highway and chewed through the minor resistance they’ve found at the next intersection.

This is about where I ended up in the last mission and, just like then, my troops start to take fire from the farm buildings.

I have a much more significant force forward this time, but it’s not as easier to support my lead elements as I thought. The scrub in between the wood blocks is proving to be a major impediment to line of sight and the narrow frontage where I can push without being overexposed means I’m reluctant to try overwhelm the enemy by sheer mass.

There are Brits in the buildings of Farm 1, supported by another Vickers carrier and some randomly scattered teams that probably fell back from the bombardment… but the big kicker is that there’s another Sherman. This one is right at the back of the map, almost on top of the exit zone I need to get the demo trucks to, and is far enough away that it’s basically untouchable.

The fight up at Farm 1 rapidly descends into a vicious meat grinder. I’m able to knock the Vickers carrier out with a direct hit from one of the Italian Brixias and chew up what British infantry I can see, but there always seem to be more small teams popping up in the undergrowth or the buildings and that Sherman is having a field day stacking bodies.

Trying to exert some pressure in the centre by pushing on Farm 2 from the orchards and the sunken trail gets the same kind of treatment. It’s now definitely light, there’s plenty of open ground and the British armour can engage with almost total impunity.

The Sherman that got hit by the AS42 proves itself to be one of those disgustingly lucky tanks that only the enemy ever seems to have. It shrugs off a hit from a rifle grenade team I snuck forward, pops smoke and reverses off. This brings it into the very fragmentary line of sight of one of the 88s in depth- this punches a hole in the turret, but the Sherman just keeps going. It reverses off again, dodging more rifle grenades now coming at it from the orchards, and eventually ends up where I can’t deal with it.

The Great Bumrush

The battle has now reached a kind of grinding stalemate. Both sides are steadily withering away at the point of contact around Farm 1 without achieving anything and the British armour advantage- or perhaps more accurately, the German inadequacy in antitank options- is preventing any progress elsewhere.

With about 20 minutes left, I decide to go all in and play the hand I’ve been holding back. The demo trucks are in position, waiting in orchards, and the exit zone is only a few hundred metres away. So I gather up all the on-map mortars and have them expend all of their smoke ammunition around Farm 1.

Supplemented by the platoon light mortars from the company that came in last night, I’m able to put down a pretty thick smoke screen.

And off the trucks go into the smoke. It’s a little gamey- in reality driving through unknown, complicated terrain without being able to actually see anything is a recipe for disaster, never mind what’s going to happen once they get onto the totally exposed bridge and the smoke is gone.

But they all make it, right under the nose of the most annoying Sherman to boot.

At the same time, the smoke offers me the best chance I’m going to get to take a real swing at the Farm 1 Objective. The Fallschirmjaeger platoon I had managed to push up close has already been shredded and swarming into the first row of buildings as the smoke started to come in not only revealed that the next building along was full of angry Brits, but that the Sherman in depth had not quite been obscured yet.

It put a 75mm HE shell into the buildings and brought them down, leaving two men from the platoon HQ as the only survivors.

With the smoke building though, that platoon HQ managed to somehow get into and clear out half of the first building, and with a foothold established, I rush up a squad of Italian Arditi.

Piling into the building, the Italians cleared it with sheer volume of numbers, leaving me in possession of the objective.

With that secure, the demo trucks on the bridge and no particular inclination to sit around getting pummelled by Shermans for the remaining few minutes of the battle, I hit ceasefire.

Endex

The result is a minor victory for the Germans. Presumably the bridge gets blown up, or at least heavily damaged and the Fallschirmjaeger and Arditi can watch from the farmhouse.

This was messy though: I lost 203 men overall, plus a handful of AS42s. The Brits suffered heavy casualties, but only a few more at 250 total, along with a single Sherman, a couple of universal carriers and a jeep.

I can definitely see why the actual attempt to get some trucks on the bridge failed. It’s a real hail-Mary that I got away with because of the kind of arbitrary restrictions you get in games, like the battlefield having an edge and drivers who don’t get lost in smoke.

The real big problem though was again the lack of effective anti-tank assets. Against the British infantry, I could bulldoze my way forward with superior weight of fire. Against the British armour, I was pretty powerless providing they kept their distance.

I was also pretty damn lucky that what artillery strikes the Brits got in were either off-target, not that effective or landed away from my main effort on the left. If the Brits had started dumping 25pdrs in front of Farm 1- like any sensible human opponent would have done here- then it would have been game over.

But it is over, and with it the campaign.

Campaign Endex

The grand total of German and Italian casualties comes to 522, plus 6 AS42s. It should be no surprise whatsoever that the bulk of those casualties came from this mission- where the Fallschirmjaeger were attacking against a combined arms force- and mission 3- where they were on the receiving end of a combined arms attack.

Dispersion

I would say, however, that another major component of losses was the size of the force involved. Having a battalion plus in a relatively small area with little opportunity to disperse- like Missions 3 and 4- is a recipe for high casualties. There were plenty of instances in this campaign where I had squads lined up almost shoulder to shoulder simply because there wasn’t room to spread them out.

This might be necessary for some forces in some situations because of the way firepower is distributed at squad level. The US, for example, has its squad level firepower tied up in its riflemen thanks to the Garand, so you need to mass soldiers to concentrate firepower. The Germans, however, are built around the MG34 or MG42. So the bulk of the squad’s firepower comes from one weapon: concentrating firepower is about careful deployment of the LMG, the mass of individual riflemen don’t actual contribute that much. So there’s really no need to have loads of bodies in the line as the Germans- you just end up exposing more men to enemy fire.

The Fallschirmjaeger in particular are very firepower heavy: the rifle squads come with two LMGs each, so they should in theory be able to operate in a much more dispersed, less vulnerable way… with the critical, argument destroying caveat that the kind of dense terrain in the orchards and scrubland featured in this campaign totally overrides that.

CM Practicalities

Naturally there is some personal bias floating around here too: I’m definitely in the camp that thinks Company or Company-plus is the best scale for Combat Mission. This was the case for Mission One, in Mission Two the forces increased to battalion strength and just got bigger from there.

My personal opinion is that that gets very unwieldy very fast, the workload for the player increases exponentially and things generally become unfun very quickly. This results in me not indulging in the kind of squad or team level micro-management that might be necessary to get the best results or leaving entire force components static and unused so that I can focus on handling a smaller force.

In this mission, for example, I left almost the entire Fallschirm-Pioneer battalion where it was in the Sunken Trail and they really didn’t contribute that much. Whether they could have done effectively is certainly questionable given the British tank problem and the fact that they were on the wrong flank, but in all honesty judging whether I wrote them off because they weren’t in a position to contribute effectively or because I really didn’t want to triple my workload is a bit of a chicken and egg question.

The History

That’s getting into my personal preferences though- the scenario designer here put these forces in because they were the forces that were there for Operation Fustian and, as far as I can tell, this is as accurate a depiction of the fighting over Primosole Bridge as you can get in CM.

It’s definitely opened my eyes up to an airborne operation that I simply hadn’t heard of and, from a historical perspective, it’s a really interesting battle- not least because it’s difficult to avoid comparisons with the later Market Garden experience.

It’s also very good for putting the tactical balance of mid-1943 into perspective. As I’ve mentioned before, playing early Fortress Italy as the Axis powers is a really good way to have respect for the humble Sherman beaten into you. In this campaign especially, the Brits had significant advantages in their artillery and armour: although they were being controlled by the limited AI, it’s easy to see how the combined arms machine works and how poorly supported infantry- even elite infantry like the Fallschirmjaeger- have great difficulties in standing up to it.

Conclusion

So that’s the Foiling Fustian campaign for Combat Mission Fortress Italy. Definitely worth a look if you’ve got the Gustav Line expansion, a very solidly put together historically accurate mini campaign.

Hope you all enjoyed following me through this, if you’d like to see these videos 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.