Building the Arnhem Bridge Perimeter - Part One

The Ambition

This is an ambitious project, and so will take a while to come to fruition, but the plan is to build the British Perimeter at the Arnhem Road Bridge in 15mm. ( or that part of it that will fit on a 6 x 4 table). A Kickstarter earlier this year provided most of the building files, albeit some need quite a lot of work to print correctly.

I was twelve when "A Bridge Too Far" was released at the cinema, and immediately become fascinated with Operation Market Garden, even if at that age I didn't really understand much of what had happened. Over time I slowly built a collection of books covering predominantly the actions of  the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, Oosterbeek and the surrounding areas.  In 2012/13 I worked on the Market Garden module for the Combat Mission computer game (as an unpaid volunteer) and designed and built maps covering the Arnhem Road Bridge, the entire Oosterbeek Perimeter as well as the Johanna Hoeve and Dreijenseweg area for the game. 

Oosterbeek in the Combat Mission editor and in game

During this time I gathered further resources from the web and so am now very excited with the, hopefully, imminent release of the Market Garden Handbook for CoC given this is ground I have looked at in detail before.

The Arnhem Road Bridge perimeter is well known by anybody with a passing interest in the subject, but only existed from about 20.00hrs on Sunday 17th September 1944, when the first British units arrived there, until late evening on Wednesday 20th September when British resistance at the bridge effectively ended. The last armed resistance is quoted as having ended at 05.00hrs on the Thursday morning - three days and nine hours after the first men had arrived at the bridge. (Middlebrook, 1994)

There are a great many drawings and photos of the bridge area but this video I found a little while ago gives a great sense of the layout and will help greatly with the project although it covers an area larger than I will be able to do.

3 minute video - Arnhem Bridge Perimeter by Secander Raisani

I could not find the original source for this map, but it is watermarked Gelders Archief and looks to show the maximum extent of the perimeter

Using Google Maps to establish a ground scale I was able to establish an area that can be covered using a 6' x 4' table and overlaid this on the map from Middlebrook. Scale is approximately 1/100

The red box and green boxes are both 6 x 4, with the green being the area I intend to actually cover although I will have to tinker with edges somewhat.

To date I have printed the bridge support, towers and staircases together with all the buildings immediately to the east and west of the overpass and this has allowed me to establish the ramp dimensions and its fit on the table. The only real disappointment is that the iconic girder arch will not actually feature on the table as this falls outside of the area I can cover.

Next up is to get the Van Limburg Stirum School printed (building no 26 on the map above) so I can start work out how to create the road ramp and surrounding area.

I have no idea how this table can, when complete, be played in CoC, but that's a problem for another day.

Part Two

 Reference

Middlebrook, M. (1994) Arnhem 1944 - The Airborne Battle. 17-26 September.

AAR - Probe at the Crossroads

The Probe

Having discussed the design of this table in an earlier post, diaries aligned and Matt and I played this mission last night. I was attacking with a plucky British infantry platoon, while Matt was defending with a devious and cunning German infantry platoon. We had previously rolled for Support Points, where I had gained six SP and Matt two (plus a further point due to his force rating of -1).  On a previous play through of this mission,again as British Infantry, I had purchased a Dingo armoured car and RAM Kangaroo, so this time with fewer points I wanted to go with a very different strategy in the hope that Matt might think I would try something similar again. 

• Infantry Section  5 SP
• Replen Point      1 SP 
  

My plan for the force was to use two sections to advance and engage Matt in the hope he would think that my main effort and concentrate his forces against them, and then bring on the third and the surprise fourth sections in the hope they could move quickly and freely to achieve the required objectives of capturing a German JOP and exiting one section from the enemy's table edge before game end. 

At game start when rolling to determine the axis of advance I was lucky enough to roll low meaning I would be attacking across the table - a shorter distance to have to traverse in order to exit the map than length ways.

With the direction of attack known my plan formalised as the following. 

• Two sections to move and occupy the buildings at the main crossroads and go firm with the hope Matt would deploy at least two sections against them.
• After a slight delay to draw Matt in, then commit the remaining two British sections on the left and move up through the orchard with one section to exit the map and the other to capture the closest JOP.

Neither of us were particularly happy with the placement of our respective JOP - but as they say, war is hell. 

The first few phases saw the British deploy their first platoon as planned and advance as far as the crossroad before coming under fire from a German section deployed from their central JOP. With the deployment of the second German section near the crossroads I brought on the second British section and double timed on the left flank up to the Suze farmhouse (hence the shock). At this point the dice gods abandoned me and for the next few phases I was only able to undertake limited actions. 

This included bringing on the Plt Sgt and the third British section while first section moved into the "L" shaped building and second section moved through the Suze farmhouse and into the small orchard (The wall on their right is high and so they are shielded from the two German sections).

Things were not happening as quickly as I would have liked and Matt played the first of his full CoC dice (being required to play two as soon as they become available to end two turns and start the final countdown).

With Matt only able to see and fire at first section they were taking the full fire from the two German sections, steadily incurring shock and casualties including the Junior Leader. 

British section was "inside" the building, but placed behind for ease of casualty removal

He did however also deploy his third section to guard his last JOP, facing the MG42 towards the orchard wall and left flank, and the rifle team back towards the main crossroads, while I was able to exit second section off the German table edge and so complete the first of the two objectives.

With a full CoC dice I was able to move the JOP on the left flank and push it up to the Suze farmhouse and then immediately deploy my forth section, which I think did catch Matt somewhat by surprise. However I was not able to relive the pressure on first section, and they were now down to four men, broken and carrying a shed load of shock. Matt then ordered Handgranaten! and overrun the section taking the surviving three men prisoner. At this point Matt played his second full CoC dice to end the second turn and start the final countdown, with eight phases to be played before game end. 

I now belatedly deployed my 2" mortar and placed smoke on the crossroads to protect third squad from the German section now in the "L" shaped building. With only a few phases left I now had to start pushing my luck. With two German sections in the centre my only option was to continue with my original plan and see if I could capture the German JOP on the left. Having seen the success of Matts Handgranaten! attack I decided to have fourth section throw their grenades over the high wall at the MG42 team in an attempt to whittle that section down before trying for the JOP. In order to hit the team I needed to roll 11/12 on the 2D6. Amazingly one grenade did hit causing casualties and shock to the MG team. Having retained the next phase I was able to bring on my Replen point and gain a further two grenades for fourth section, with the third thrown again hitting and eliminating the MG team. The platoon commander also deployed and joined fourth section in order to increase their chances of being able to move and close on the JOP.  Third section under the command of the Plt Sgt was using concentrated fire from the Bren on the rifle team and then having those rifles that could bear also fire with decent success.

And so with two phases remaining this was the position, and I was ready for a last minute rush onto the JOP by fourth section. The hope was I would be able to move them onto the JOP and win the close combat, however with a fence and hedge to cross before being able to move into the ploughed field the dice gods were not kind and fourth section ended up along the hedgerow facing the JOP, but able to move no further when the game ended. 

Game End

Victory for the Germans and Matt played a blinder being tenacious in defence. He had spent his three support points on a panzerschrek team, and so my plan to avoid vehicles did pay some dividend. In retrospect I should have used second section to try for the JOP, as they would have had more time to do so, with fourth section moving to exit the map. Live and learn. 

Photos by Matt

Table Design

Laying out a Battlefield 

The CoC rule book provides six missions, ranging from a Patrol action to a full blown Attack on an Objective, but very deliberately rather than providing a scenario map a brief précis of the suggested terrain is provided. This means that each mission can be repeatedly played with the terrain and table layout differing every time. Scenario maps are typically provided in Pint Size Campaigns as these,for the main, are recreating specific actions at known locations. 

One advantage or disadvantage of playing at 15mm, depending on your point of view, is that it allows for more terrain to be used as each terrain piece has a substantially smaller footprint than its equivalent at 28mm while still being played on the standard 6'x4' table. To my mind this allows for slightly more complex or detailed layouts. However I must admit that I find laying out a table challenging as it is difficult to know how much terrain to put down and what is an appropriate and balanced layout. 

Mission Two -The Probe

The terrain guide for this advises "This table represents one force's outpost line. The ground should be terrain typical of the region but should have a limited number of buildings which can be occupied as small observation posts and defensive positions. One or two roads may be present with tracks leading off them."

At present my terrain is predominately for the Normandy region, although I'm slowly building up pieces for the Market Garden area, and so I try and recreate something that looks vaguely Norman when laying out a table based on the numerous photos I have viewed over the years. I have no real methodology for this and first and foremost try for a natural look with a strong visual aesthetic although I generally have in mind the two sides of the table which will belong to the attacker. Once the layout is complete I always ask my opponent if he wants to move anything, although to date he's never done so.

This is the table I put together yesterday for the Probe mission, with the rear and left edges, as viewed, being the attackers potential start lines. Which edge is used and whether the attack will be along the short or long axis of the table will be determined by a die roll before the Patrol Phase is undertaken as per the mission rules.

Two hedge lined roads crossing the map in both axis, with a couple of junctions and smaller tracks, three houses and two barns, along with a small orchard and some fields. Seems to match the Mission Terrain Guide and hopefully is balanced from both the attacker and defenders perspective.

I took the opportunity to draw a rough sketch of the layout for future reference and from this created a scenario style map which will enable me to recreate it in the future. Given it can be played in four directions this offers a great deal of flexibility, and with a little tweaking it can probably be used for each of the six mission types as well, or form the basis for a brand new layout.

And now to see how it plays out.