Waterloo 1944
The Battle for Le Haye Sainte

Monday 29th June 2015

German forces were holding the historic farm of Le Haye Sainte, there commander was a direct descendant of the original defenders from the KGL - Major Georg Baring.

The new commander, Hauptman Von Smallhousen was heard saying after the battle -

"Ze came on in the Zame way, und we beat them in the zame way"

Initially the forces were deployed in and around the farm, with the Free French (French again!!!!) starting on the ridge just like history.

The planned German flank attacks, stalled initially as command dice were rubbish.
As too were some British dice throws, meaning the majority of armour was off table.

One British commander (Bob!) tried to argue that a tank could shoot through a friendly 1/2 track.

The left flank anti-tank gun scored an early success taking out an M3 1/2 track, but it was empty.

The Right flank gun struggled to get hits, Rob marched slowly up the allied right facing a determined squad of troops who kept rolling the saves, time after time until close range and then they suffered. One stoic defender retrreated but came back at the end undeterred.

On the allied right, once the extra armour arrived, Bob and Tom decided to attack. Taking out the A/T Guns helped, but the smaller ones at the front of the wood ere a thorn in their side needing to be dispatched at bayonet point. Luckily the Axis forces had a mobile gun, initially held in reserve,  to help in the fight against the tanks. The brave Germans who charged forward with panzerfausts were the true heroes on the day, stalling the allied thrust.

The battle ended after 8 turns and night fall, German tanks were heard approaching as a relief force in the distance (Prussians arriving in nick of time?). Their was still a full squad holding the farm and the closest allied units were only just level with the gates. The Germans had held!!
The Allied troops were forced to retreat and leave the victorious (but battered) axis forces in charge of the farm.

Rules were home grown by Lee who also umpired, good set of rules and a great game.