"The Tide is Turning" - Part Five

To the west of Regensburg lay the strategically important river crossings across the Donau. The task of taking these had fallen to the Canadian 4MECH and a Mixed West German battlegroup.

View looking east towards Regensburg in the distance. Canadian 4MECH (Nick Gerlach) and West Germans (Andy Taylor) tasked with crossing the Donau defended by Soviet Airborne (Gordon Malcolm) and myself due to a few last minute no shows.

Canadian Medical Aid Station and Supply Dump by Nick Gerlach. In our games if players field a Medical Aid Station (Infantry), Repair Depot (Vehicles) and a Supply Dump (Ammo) they get a percentage back over night and also its a great excuse to model some great bases and there were some superb bases on show. Photos of those later on.

On the Canadians left flank the ferry crossing at Enning. A superb little model by Steve Graham. In game turns it could transport one truck unit. 

On the right flank the bridge at Neustadt a.d. Donau.

Soviet T62's arrive to support the dug in Soviet Airborne forces.

The Canucks approach the ferry crossing at Enning.

Canadian artillery lay a smoke screen over the river and the Russian positions before their assault across the river.

A Canadian Hornet supporting the river crossing strays too close to the Soviet air defence and pays the price.

Meanwhile in Kelheim the Spetsnaz sleeper cell at Pauma Plastics are now in a fierce battle with West Germans. The Spetsnaz are joined by some airborne units that have advanced across the river to support their comrades.

The Canadians start their river crossing but are held up on the opposite bank by hidden minefields laid between the river and the Neustadt/Enning road.

VDV forces in Neustadt come under heavy air and artillery attack from the Canadians.

Back in Saal a.d. Donau across the Donau from Kelhein T72's move up in support of the VDV advance.

Heavy fighting continues around the Pauma Plastics factory with the West Germans falling foul of Spetsnaz ambushes.

Canadian FAO crosses the Donau on the ferry at Enning to support the advance.

T72's supporting the VDV make it onto the bridge at Kelheim and push onwards.

TO BE CONTINUED.......

"The Tide is Turning" - Part Four

Meanwhile to the north of Regensburg a Soviet MRR (Ian Shaw) has dug in along the Naab River between Burglengenfeld and Pielenhofen.

Facing the French (Andy Canham) Soviet Motor Rifle infantry in their dug outs along the Naab River are suddenly enveloped in a smoke screen as sign of things to come!

NATO artillery drop smoke along the Naab River as the Soviet MRR Commander (Ian Shaw) inspects his defences in preparation of the oncoming attack.

The Commander of the 7e (Fr) Armoured Division (Andy Canham) begins his advance towards the bridges over the Naab, unaware that Soviet engineers had rigged some of the bridges for demolition.

French armour and mechanised forces head for the river covered by the smoke barrage along the river.

French bridging units move up to the river.

A French AMX-VCG reaches the bridge at Pielenhofen.

Under the cover of the smoke French AMX-10P's make it across the Naab between Pielenhofen and Nittendorf.

Across the Naab French forces take Nittendorf

As French armour crosses the bridge Soviet engineers roll to detonate the demolition charges. The explosives fail to go off (the story of the weekend for Warsaw Pact!!) and the French armour trundles onwards.  

TO BE CONTINUED 

(CANADIAN 4TH MECH AND MORE FROM US 3ID)

"The Tide is Turning" - Part Three

As the mist began to clear in the early morning NATO gathered their forces for the assault on the Donau and Naab Rivers hoping to breakthrough to Regensburg and hopefully force the Warsaw Pact forces back to the Czech border and make the Czech 1st and 4th Armies think twice before committing their troops to the battle.

Recce unit from US3ID uses the cover of a hedgerow to survey the Warsaw Pact defences.

US 3ID (Steve Graham) and 2Cav (Andy Hamilton) advance using the Emmeran Forest as cover as they advance towards the Bruckdorfer Holz near Kapfelberg on their way to attempt to cross the Donau River.

Warsaw Pact T72's, already taking hits, await the oncoming assault from the US forces from their positions above Bad Abbach.

Two West German Phantoms provide air support for the US advance.

 

Elsewhere on the table the Soviet Airborne troops dug in along the banks of the Donau River set up their medical unit to treat casualties.

Soviet Airborne CO in the centre of Saal a.d. Donau reads through reports of West German armour and infantry approaching his positions along the Donau.

Soviet Airborne prepare to meet whatever NATO care to throw at them.

West German (Andy Taylor) recce unit keeping watch in Kelheim, The quiet before the storm as this area was soon to be the scene of bitter fighting between West German troops and Soviet Airborne and Spetsnaz (Gordon Malcolm). The recce unit is a great little conversion from a Scotia Iltis using some H&R stowage and a staple!

Kelheim before the battle with the now infamous Pauma Plastics factory which was to see heavy fighting. The factory was a Soviet sleeper cell and home to several units of Spetsnaz!!! Much to the surprise of the West Germans. 

Saal a.d. Donau across the Donau from Kelheim and one of the objectives of NATO. This town was occupied by Soviet Airborne for the entire battle who successfully held their position and with the support of a battalion of T72's even went on the offensive and crossed the river and took Kelheim in a heroic operation. Vodka all round!

A selection of the superbly painted and based US 3ID and US 2Cav commanded by the Grimsby contingent, Steve Graham and Andy Hamilton.

Some more of Steve and Andy's great work.

TO BE CONTINUED

"The Tide is Turning" Part Two

After a nightmare journey from Stone to Broughton thanks to failing traffic lights in Chester which brought Chester to a complete standstill I arrived at the Deeside Defenders over 2 1/2 hours late for the set up on Friday night! Thanks to Richard C for passing on messages. Steve and Andy H from Grimsby had arrived and with Ian S, Andy C and the chaps from Deeside Defenders they had set up as much as they could without my stuff. So after a couple more hours setting up we stood back to admire our work.

Regensburg looking east along the Donau River

Regensburg looking north along the Naab River. NATO enter on the inner table edges.

Then a short drive to the excellent Days Inn (Chester North) to check in and then a great curry with Steve G and Andy H just up the road from the hotel then to bed for a good nights sleep before battle commenced.

After a superb breakfast which worked out at £2.50 after a charging error from the hotel we all jumped in Steve G's car for the trip back to Broughton. At 9.30am Warsaw Pact began to deploy their forces anywhere up to the rivers and NATO would be using mobile deployment to enter the table from the north west (inner table edges). When deployment was complete a short briefing took place and around 10.30am Warsaw Pact forces began to hear the rumble of tanks in the early morning mist.

The castle at Burglengenfeld, centre of Soviet communications in the region and also home to a SA-2 Battery. NATO objective to neutralise the AA threat in this area.

Schwandorf and Wackersdorf another NATO objective to retake the power station.

The transmitter at Saal a.d. Donau, another NATO objective to disrupt WP communications in the area.

MORE PHOTOS TO COME IN PART THREE

Triples 2014 - Part Two

As promised more from my trip to Triples 2014 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

The Triples Hoard!

Clockwise from top left. Two packs of Timecast 6mm scale trees and two packs of Timecast 6mm boxes, barrels, crates etc, four packs of GHQ LVTP-5 from Magister Militum, some Adler WWII Russians in fur caps (will be used as Chinese), some Undefire Miniatures Russian support weapons for my Andreivian forces along with some of the new Rhodesian African Rifles for Force on Force Bush Wars, a GZG 15mm Crusties Starter Force for my son Joe as he is starting to take an interest in wargaming and wanted to do a Sci-Fi force, a 6mm Pegasus Bridge from Steve at the Baggage Train, a copy of the Hammers Slammers rule book and in the centre some 2mm MDF 150mm square and 75mm square bases that I had pre-ordered from Leon at Minibits. All in all a good days shopping!

A very kind gift from Mr Richard C, a C1 Ariete that will be the start of an Italian force for our Arc of Fire 'Andreivia' games. Many thanks RC.

THE LEAD PILE GROWS!!!!!!

Triples 2014 - Part One

Hi All,

Hopefully the internet problems are behind me now and I can start getting the loads of stuff I have been working on uploaded. But first had a very pleasant hop over the Peak District to Steel City and the show that is Triples. It has been many years since I have been to Triples so I was looking forward to a day out and what made it even better was firstly a lot of the Crisis Point team were attending so it was great to meet up with Steve G, Andy C, Richard and Jamie C to discuss the CWC 6mm MegaGame at Broughton in September and secondly, as mentioned in a previous post, I was collecting the second installment of my Timecast commission. So here in all its glory is part two of the Timecast commission along with three bases I have been working on as a comparison (or no comparison would be a better way of putting it!).

Thats the end of the Timecast stuff, the next three buildings are my attempts using a couple of the great Leven Miniatures range and a building I picked up from the Penkridge Wargames Tabletop sale earlier this year. I am quite pleased with how they look with the Timecast commission.

More from Triples 2014 next