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Counterattack at Abbeville 28 May 1940


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#1 healey36

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Posted 29 May 2021 - 03:22 PM

Counterattack at Abbeville

28 May 1940

 

A Mein Panzer play of some of the action around Abbeville in late May, 1940, had been in the works for a very long time, deferred for more than a year-and-a-half due to the pandemic. Finally, having vaxxed-up, a few of us codgers were able to convene on a day leading up to this Memorial Day weekend to get some stuff on the table. Zoom and Google-Meet calls were at last replaced by an in-person gathering. It felt good, an air of relief hanging over us, and it felt appropriate, this being the eighty-first anniversary of the battle.

 

Here in America, I find that many don’t know or understand much about the early stages of the war, especially the Battle of France. The mythology runs deep, and one encounters a lot of condescension when the topic of the “collapse” in France is raised. Notionally (and inaccurately) envisioning ourselves as the “saviors” of Europe, we tend to ignore all that came before, instead focusing on the years of American involvement. We think of armor battles in the West as great swirling engagements fought by hundreds of Panthers, Tigers, and Shermans (of such engagements, there were virtually nil). The breakout from Normandy and the subsequent drive across France to the German frontier was instead largely a deliberative combined arms operation executed by allies, one of infantry led by tanks facing an adversary primarily of infantry supported by tanks, with the former enjoying prodigious air support. Everything between D-Day and the Bulge tends to be a haze in our American memory; like I said, in my experience, the mythology runs deep.

 

That post-June 1944 “collapse” in reverse was certainly the product of all that had been learned before. Everything had grown in scale tactically; the tanks were bigger, better armed and armored, the infantry was better armed and organized, the artillery was bigger and longer-ranged, more mobile, and the fighter-bombers, a progression from the Sturzkampfflugzeug of 1939/1940, were nearly overwhelming. As Patton once said, when it came to the art of war, we’d grown up, and the result was often horrific.

 

If our American sensibilities are rife with mythology, it seems to me it is nothing as compared to that of the West during the first year of the war. The public, especially on the western side of the Atlantic, was quickly thrown into awe for what became known as Blitzkrieg, lightning war, a term coined by the press (America’s Time magazine perhaps being the first) to describe a new method of war executed by a German army led by legions of tanks and vast columns of motorized infantry. It was, in fact, baloney; the German army had less than half the number of tanks often attributed to it, and more than sixty percent of its transport remained horse-drawn. It was instead a refinement of the concepts of penetration and exploitation (largely introduced by the British in the closing years of WWI) that led to Germany’s initial successes. Blitzkrieg, it would seem, was largely a whitewash of the poor planning and field ineptitude of the French, Belgian, and to some extent British defenders.

 

When it comes to the French, I find myself torn, so many laying the blame for the coming debacle squarely at their feet. It is nearly impossible not to do so, the Third Republic having declined into a shambles during the years leading up to the war, and the psyche of the poilu was one largely of exhaustion and disinterest even before the balloon went up (I recommend Sartre’s novel The Reprieve for some invaluable insight into the mindset of the French). I’m not sure I would describe them as defeatist, but clearly, for many, the experience of the First World War lay heavy upon them. Rampant corruption within the government, over a decade of economic depression, and a near total failure in strategic planning proved a recipe for disaster. And yet, despite all of that, the mobile arm of the French army was formidably equipped (if not competently led).

 

Abbeville is located 50 kilometers northwest of Amiens and approximately 200 kilometers due north of Paris. It was at the mouth of the Somme, a point just 20 kilometers northwest of the town, where the German army, on 20 May 1940, drew within sight of the Channel, effectively cutting the French army in two and severing most of the BEF from the rest of France. It was recognized as a catastrophe of the first order, and was followed by a series of battles attempting to dislodge the Germans and reopen an avenue of communication with the rest of the country.

 

On this day, our focus was the 28 May 1940 attack by elements of De Gaulle’s 4th Armored Division on the German perimeter defense (57th Infantry Division) a few miles south and west of Abbeville. While the French force historically comprised nearly 140 tanks, who has that many French tanks in their bit box? Not our host, so he scaled it back a bit, which was both fortuitous in terms of the table size, the number of players available, and the amount of game time required.

 

Abbeville
A rough drawing of the five-foot-by-ten-foot table, where one foot is approximately one kilometer. Gray roads are highways, beige roads are secondary. Ridges in this area represented only a few feet of elevation change, typically topped by tree lines. Open terrain was pastures and tilled fields, with no penalty on movement.

 

Despite having convened early in the morning, it was nearly 0945 before we got ourselves sorted. The French were prepositioned in their jump-off locations, but the Germans were left to be deployed by the players. The French force was comprised of 18 Char B1s, 30 Hotchkiss H35s, and a dozen Somua S35s, all supported by three companies of infantry. The Germans had most of the 3rd Battalion of the 179th Infantry Regiment, along with dozens of Pak36 37mm AT guns, a company of 88mm Flak guns, and a handful of 105mm howitzers. Things finally got underway around 1030.

 

The game started, as historically, with a fairly vigorous French artillery bombardment. The French die-rolling was "très bien", resulting in a pretty lethal churning up of the German forward positions, including the vaporization of at least a half-dozen AT guns/crews and leaving some of the infantry in disarray. The French then launched their attack, leading with the Char B1 heavy tanks. The attack corridor centered on the Route Nationale highway leading into Abbeville from the southwest, and they hadn’t gone more than a few hundred yards when a lucky shot by a German Pak36 AT gun hidden amongst a copse of trees disabled the lead tank. The glee of the German gunners was quickly extinguished by the following tanks and infantry which quickly drove through the tree line, mopping up a few gun emplacements while breaking into the open ground beyond.

 

The H35s and their supporting infantry jumped off a few minutes later, running almost immediately into the bulk of the German infantry and a few AT guns. Where the well-armored Char B1 had a 47mm gun mounted in a turret and a hull-mounted 75mm gun (limited traverse), the Hotchkiss H35 light tank had a poor-performing short 37mm gun mounted in a turret along with a coaxial machine gun. It was also quite slow for its intended cavalry role, less than half as fast as the more lightly-armed/armored Vickers MkVI light tank employed by the British. The German Pak36, despite what has been written in some contemporary accounts, was quite capable of punching holes in the H35, and on this day, they did. Seven were knocked out within minutes, the remaining 23 left to scurry for cover and regroup.

 

The Char B1s, having pushed into the open ground ahead of their first objective, the crossroads at Huppy, drove the Germans before them. One German platoon made an effort to stand and deliver, only to be quickly overrun with heavy casualties. A barrage of 105mm arty slowed the French advance briefly, one heavy tank knocked out by plunging fire, but by our 1300 lunch break, the tanks had passed through Huppy and were pressing their attack toward Huchenneville.

 

Having made quick work of a Subway order, the French offensive resumed around 1345. Two more heavy tanks were disabled by AT fire, a pause in the advance called while they waited for the light tanks to catch up on their right flank. A lack of radio communications prevented them from knowing that the H35s had scarcely made any headway. Some well-placed 81mm mortar fire, however, soon dislodged a number of the German AT guns, and the French infantry, together with a few H35s in support, cleared the German position sufficiently such that the advance could resume. Within an hour they’d pushed the Germans back beyond the crossroads at Limeux where the advance to Huchenneville could begin. Six more knocked-out H35s were left behind.

 

The H35s made good progress across a mile-and-a-half of open ground, crossing the D13 where they shot up a German truck column bringing up more Pak36s. As they drew toward a tree-covered ridge east of Huchenneville, they once again came under AT fire from the tree line. Two more Hotchkiss were knocked out while they waited for their infantry to catch up. The road up to and over the ridge appeared to be strongly defended, and efforts to find an alternate avenue of attack got nowhere. Under stiff AT fire from a German position dug into the top of the ridge, the attack stalled, but not before another four H35s were knocked out. Down to just 12 tanks, the French pulled back beyond the range of the German AT guns.

 

Relief would come in the form of a dozen S35s, a faster, well-armored cavalry tank sporting a 47mm dual-purpose gun. More than half-again faster than the H35, the Somuas pushed up the road into the very teeth of the German position blocking them. Two were knocked out, but the rest were on the Germans before they knew what hit them. Heavy casualties quickly turned into a rout, the German infantry fleeing the ridge, abandoning their positions and much of their equipment. Despite having lost considerable time, the ad hoc column of infantry and cavalry tanks was then able to pass east of Huchenneville where they soon linked up with the Char B1 column.

 

The situation was looking disastrous for the Germans, but they had time on their side. We’d been at this now for nearly six hours and, while the French had achieved two of their three objectives, we had an arbitrary stop at 1900 for dinner (now just 90 minutes or so away). The French reorganized their column with the Char B1s on the point and the S35s on the right flank. Leaving the H35s behind to protect their rear, they began to push up the Route Nationale toward Abbeville.

 

They hadn’t gone far before the lead Char B1 was staggered by direct hit, stoving in the front of the tank while launching the turret high into the air. The French had stumbled into the lethal range of the Germans’ battery of 88mm Flak guns, positioned with their backs to the Somme River as a final defense on the southwestern approach to the city. A desperate effort to press the attack developed, with two more of the heavy tanks soon burning along the road. While the Char B1s temporarily withdrew, an attack by the S35s from the right proved no more successful. Four of the Somuas were shot to pieces before they could reach cover. Now, with the offensive stalled, the French caucused as the clock ran.

 

With the French deep in contemplation, the Germans regrouped. A few fire teams attempted to close-assault the S35s from the rear, but were cut down by the following French infantry. This was followed by a barrage of 105mm arty which disrupted the French infantry, pinning most while sending the others scurrying in all directions.

 

After much gnashing of teeth, the French reluctantly decided to call it. It was thought that there was simply too much open ground along the highway’s approach to allow the heavy tanks a reasonable chance of success in the face of the 88s. The six remaining S35s, while they had some cover, similarly looked vulnerable in any contemplated bull rush of the German position. There certainly was insufficient time for the French infantry to be able to reach them. No, the French decided enough for today and withdrew, nearly to their start line.

 

Aftermath

 

French casualties were considerable. More than half the French tanks had been destroyed and, had they chosen to press their attack, it was likely quite a few more would have been lost. The much-maligned French infantry remained generally intact and had performed well, uncharacteristically well, as had the French artillery.

 

The Germans had suffered heavy casualties, with some one-third of the infantry destroyed or driven from the field. Similarly, nearly half the AT guns had been wiped out, including a half-dozen when the French jumped the column of trucks bringing in reinforcements. The German artillery, as is usual in my experience, gave a good account of themselves, disrupting a number of attacks while knocking out a few tanks. The 88s, just as at Arras, proved decisive.

 

Subjectively (we never keep track of “victory points”), the day seemed to belong to the Germans. Their hold on Abbeville remained intact, while the French had withdrawn for a do-over. Both sides were left significantly weakened. Historically, the battle would rage for another five or six days, with both French and British attempts to dislodge the Germans continuing, and failing. The wedge would remain in place, and the march toward the debacle of Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk would begin.

 

I was left wondering if the French, using the hull-mounted 75mm howitzers of the Char B1s, might have successfully beaten up the 88s in a gunnery duel, allowing whatever tanks remained to reach the final objective. Historically, I doubt the French would have had the stomach for such a fight, but then who knows, sometimes the dice go your way.

 

We knotted this day with a good dinner and a few beers amongst friends, remembering the two we lost in recent months. Before we left for the night, I handed out a few souvenirs for their game rooms. Hopefully the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

 

On to the next.

 

Abbeville C

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#2 simanton

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Posted 30 May 2021 - 11:15 PM

Nice!  Yes, I am glad to see a counter to the chest thumping American "we had to bail you cheese eaters out twice" outlook, when we twice came in after the French, Brits and Russians had soaked up the casualties!  Have you read Alistair Horne's "To Lose a Battle"?  Not sure I would call the hull gun on a Char bis a "howitzer."  But all in all, a nice game!  Had such actions occurred earlier in May, 1940, who knows?



#3 healey36

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Posted 31 May 2021 - 08:26 AM

I have read Horne's book, but it's been a very long time, perhaps three or even four decades. I should pull it out and give it a reread. To some extent, that book is very similar to Tuchman's "The Guns of August", as it provides much regarding all of the political, economic, and military planning missteps that led to the catastrophe on the field. The situation was terrifically complex, but at the very core was, IMHO, the lingering exhaustion of the French some twenty years after the conclusion of WWI. Sure, there were doctrinal flaws in the plans, and communications, both operational and tactical, were problematic, but in the end, the Germans were hell-bent to avenge November 1918, the French foot-soldiers were still trying to put the experience behind them.

 

The 75mm on the Char B1 is alternatively described as a gun or howitzer. When I say it had "limited" traverse, that's being generous to the point of being inaccurate. In fact, it had zero traverse, only elevation. To aim the gun, the entire tank had to be moved, which made it virtually useless against armor (hence the driver also served as the aimer in the two-man crew for the gun). Also, while it did have a high-explosive armor-piercing round, muzzle velocity was low and it had a relatively short range (just 400 meters). The round was designed for taking out concrete or armored fortifications, not tanks. By the time the balloon went up, the Char B1 version in the field carried 74 75mm rounds, of which only a handful were the APHE type. The hull-mounted 7.5mm machine gun mounted adjacent to the 75mm, was also in a fixed mount. The 47mm gun and coaxial machine gun had a different set of problems, the most glaring being it was a one-man turret occupied by the commander (you had to be a really adept multi-tasker to rotate, load, aim, and fire the 47mm, whilst also commanding the tank). Interestingly, the first generation of the British Churchill had a similar configuration (hull-mounted 3-inch howitzer and a 2-pounder in a two-man turret).

 

The Char B1 put the frighteners into the Germans primarily for its armor strength...it was tough to knock out with the limited AT equipment available in 1940 (most of the after-the-battle photos of Char B1s I've seen are of abandoned vehicles, not tanks that had been knocked out or disabled by enemy fire). Despite its design flaws, there are a number of reports of the Char B1 and the subsequent Bis version having success against German armor. Perhaps the most famous, or infamous, was of Pierre Billotte, a Bis commander who, together with his crew, knocked out more than a dozen PzIII/PzIVs in the fighting around Stonne (Pierre Armand Gaston Billotte, not to be confused with General Gaston Billotte, his father). Billotte's tank, despite being hit more than 140 times, survived the action and escaped to fight another day.

 

The fighting around Abbeville gets short shrift by historians as compared to the feeble counterattack by the British at Arras. The action at Abbeville was considerable, stretching over nearly a week, with both sides suffering heavy losses. The failure to retake the town and reopen a corridor to the BEF and other French forces trapped in the collapsing pocket was disastrous. De Gaulle counted it amongst his "victories", which of course it was far from in the larger scheme of things.

 

With regards to the AAR, the battery on the Nikon went dead from the start, so no pics of the action. The host took a few using an iPad...if I can get some of those, I'll add them.

 

Char B1 A
A staged shot of one of the Char B1 tanks next to a battered French farmhouse.
 
Char B1 B
Another shot of one of the Char B1 tanks from the Abbeville dust-up.
 
H 35s B
Hotchkiss H-35s (tanks 3 and 5, 1st Section, 3rd Company, 44th Armored Battalion)


#4 healey36

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Posted 29 June 2021 - 03:33 PM

This game deserves a replay, but this time at 1/285-1/300, greatly expanding the scale of the battle in the same available game-space. While I love 15mm gear for skirmish-type actions, larger battles don't work too well unless you have a gymnasium to play them in. Failing that, scales and optics get quite compressed, almost to the point of being silly.

 

When I was a kid, we played a lot of armor battles using Roco 1/87-scale gear together with a house-rule modified version of the Angriff! rule-set. The old pool table in the basement got quite a workout, but the engagements were relatively small, maybe 30 or 40 tanks in total, just a bit more than a company or two per side. One of the rule changes we made was to expand the gunnery ranges to something a bit more realistic, which suddenly made terrain/LOS much more important. Next, I convinced The Old Man to get us a couple of sheets of plywood which we could lay on top of the pool table. With 64 square feet of table space, things started to get interesting.

 

The next problem was I was 12 years old and Roco wasn't cheap. Mowing lawns and delivering papers didn't go far in funding the defense budget in the face of so many competing priorities. The answer came a few years later when I stumbled onto the 1/285-scale stuff that was just starting to hit the hobby. Suddenly five tanks could be had for the same price of two Roco, and the better part of a Panther battalion looked in reach. Better yet, my 64 square-foot table represented a far bigger chunk of French or Russian countryside. Fifty years later, 1/285 is still the favored scale here.

 

For many of my mates, however, 15mm has now supplanted the smaller scale, and I think there are a few reasons for it. For one, there's been quite a bit of commercialization of 15mm by various companies with soup-to-nuts offerings of models, rules, terrain, etc. For the ancients, Napoleonics, ACW/ECW, etc., the scale's been around for ever, but armor was relatively scarce; now it's much more available.

 

Another reason, IMHO, 15mm has grown in popularity is a bit more insidious. I tend to look at miniature gaming as modeling in two forms, one of the troops and vehicle "models", the other being the engagement itself. For me, I derive as much pleasure from one as the other. The problem is I'm 20 years past the point where my eyesight started its inevitable degradation. Most of my mates have moved to the larger scales to mitigate the issue (although many might deny that, lol). Model scale 1/285 became 1/100, 1/2400 became 1/1200 or 1/1250; the real estate involved similarly expanded (but typically not enough for my tastes). At least for now, I have resisted; the Optivisor has become my friend.

 

But back to Abbeville...    

The scenario could be expanded to include the historic number of tanks for the French 44th, 46th, and 47th armored battalions, along with what was left of the 10th Royal Hussars and 2nd Dragoon Guards cavalry regiments, both of which participated. Renault R-35s were the correct tank for the 44th battalion, not the H-35s we used (although they are very similar). Likewise, German infantry and support weapon numbers (including off-table arty) should be expanded.

All of this, however, would mean a sizable investment in miniatures, which is likely a deal breaker. Only a whack-job such as myself could get enthusiastic about acquiring and painting another 70-80 French tanks, along with all of the MkVIs for the British cavalry outfits. It would require a big commitment of time and treasure, and the lead pile is already busting at the seams. It sure would be fun though.



#5 healey36

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Posted 24 April 2022 - 09:27 AM

Counterattack at Abbeville

29 May 1940

 

A second Mein Panzer play of the battles around Abbeville in the final days of May, 1940, finally hit the table this past weekend, my friends in West Chester hosting. To get this done in a day, they’d counted on six-to-eight players and an early start; only five turned up and one of those didn’t arrive until nearly ninety minutes after the requested start time. So a late start, followed by a few hours of what devolved into an unanticipated and dreadful slog, then we bagged it and cracked open the fridge.

 

Unlike the first, which had a loose foundation in actual events, this one was largely based on conjecture. The earlier game had focused on the De Gaulle’s attempt on May 28 to break into Abbeville from the south, an attack eventually blunted by 88mm anti-tank and direct-fire artillery positioned on the high ground at Monts de Caubert. He would attempt again on May 29, but again was unable to push the Germans off the ridge. This day, we would explore what might have happened if he’d redeployed his tanks north and west of the ridge, attempting to flank it and the Germans on it.

 

Dirk, our host and game master, assembled a great five-foot-by-ten-foot table primarily comprised of flat farm fields and poplar-lined roads. He’d also done a good job of researching the situation to assemble a credible OB for both sides. Again it was somewhat limited by what was available in the cabinets, but he kept everything scaled appropriately so that it felt right (at least given what I knew of it going in). The Germans, defending a perimeter around Abbeville, had the better part of the 217th Infantry Regiment, a chunk of the 157th Anti-Tank Battalion, and a couple batteries of off-table artillery. Due to the whining of the German players in the first go-round, a couple platoons of Pzkpfw I tanks were thrown in, the origins of which were unclear.

 

Historically, De Gaulle’s 4th Armored Division (4e DCr) had suffered some pretty severe losses on the 28th. Figuring out what was left is a challenge, but most accounts list a dozen Char B1s, a couple dozen R35s, and at least a squadron of S35s. Roughly fifty tanks in all, one source also listed a number of H39s, the up-gunned version of the H35, but this seems highly unlikely, as not many of these were actually built in time to see action. There was, however, still a goodly amount of infantry available, and this, together with some off-table artillery fleshed out the French OB.

 

The objective for the French was to break through the German position (wherever they were) and motor/march as many units as possible off the western table-edge (outskirts of Abbeville). Their jump-off locations were the villages of Miannay and Cahon, both of which were just two miles east of Cambron, a road junction a few hundred yards in front of a low ridge abutting the city. The intervening ground looked to be good tank country, primarily large open fields. The northern edge of the tactical area was lined by forest, orchards, and the Canal de la Somme. The Coast Road, running along the southern edge from Miannay to Cambron, looked the best avenue for a quick advance, although there was precious little cover should resistance be encountered.

 

Abbeville 29
Map of the play-area.

 

The umpire advised that there were “special events” tables for both sides that he would manage. We were not allowed to review them prior to the game, but listed events were described as “cutting both ways”. Each turn, after initiative was determined, a single d12 was rolled by a player on each side. On a roll of “1”, a second d12 roll was made and the umpire reviewed the table and announced the “event”. Any single “event” could occur only once during the game, so a second roll for the same event was a “No Effect”. The umpire would also control communications between units on the table and the off-table artillery via random die rolls.

 

The French players caucused and decided on a two-pronged attack, the heavy tanks massing at Cahon to push down the narrow road southeast toward Cambron. The lighter R35s and the S35s would form up west of Miannay, with the R35 light tanks pushing up the Coast Road, while the S35s travelled overland toward Cambron. There was no transport for the infantry, so that would follow on foot.

 

It all went to hell-in-a-handbasket for the French rather quickly. Sending the heavy tanks down the north road proved a bad decision…a really bad decision. The road was narrow, barely wide enough for a single tank. The first three quarters of a mile was through some dense woods, nearly impassable off-road. As the column emerged from the trees, the lead tank was hit by anti-tank fire and disabled, effectively blocking the road. Efforts to push the tank forward and out of the way had the disastrous result of seeing the pushing tank disabled by enemy fire, now completely blocking the road. A steady barrage of enemy fire gave the tanks little choice but to retreat back up the road (in reverse), moving so slowly that they were effectively out of the game. It proved another example of a light anti-tank weapon able to wreak havoc on a more substantial adversary.

 

If the Char B1s had it bad, it was worse on the Coast Road. The little Renaults are agonizingly slow tanks (counterintuitive given their size), and this, combined with their light armor and poor gun, was a potentially lethal combination. They, together with a bunch of infantry, had scarcely gone more than a half-mile when a barrage of 105mm artillery came in to churn them up. Four tanks were knocked out and the infantry crumbled. The road, looking like some tree-lined avenue, offered little cover for more than a mile. Nor did the surrounding farm fields. A half-hour went by before the infantry could recover sufficiently to regroup and resume the advance, and in that time, some additional stands arrived to join the move forward.

 

Abbeville 22
R35s in column, advancing east along the Coast Road.

 

They’d not gone more than a few hundred yards further when they came under anti-tank and automatic weapons fire from a small farm that sat astride the road ahead. The French infantry fanned out to either side while the tanks continued forward. The CO’s tank was disabled by a 37mm anti-tank round which damaged the left-side drive sprocket and threw the track. Having observed the anti-tank gun’s position, two other R35s applied a steady succession of 37mm HE rounds which silenced the German gun, bringing down most of an adjacent building. After a few minutes, the fire coming from the farm diminished and a number of German soldiers, along with at least one Pzkpfw I tank, were seen retreating up the road toward Cambron.

 

The Germans had sited a battery of 88mm dual-purpose guns along a hedgerow on the western edge of Cambron, and there they waited for the seemingly inevitable French assault. Cambron sat like the tip of a funnel, the likely apex of any attack coming from the west on this side of the city. To the north was the impassable canal, and to the south and east was Monts de Caubert, another heavily fortified position. At around 1600, clouds of dust were observed to their front and the German braced themselves for the onslaught.

 

Abbeville 11
French infantry advance past a knocked out or abandoned Pzkpfw I.

 

The dust was raised by eleven Somua S35s charging across the dry fields, unknowingly into the sights of the 88s. They were moving at an oblique angle to German position, hoping to reach the narrow road that entered Cambron from the northwest. In so doing they presented the German gunners a flank shot across ground as flat as a table-top. The first volley, at a range of some 1500 yards, destroyed three of the cavalry tanks, including the CO’s. Minutes later, a second volley took out another three, even as the remaining five retreated as best they could. Behind a cloud of dust they managed to fall back, losing just one more of the remaining tanks.

 

Abbeville 33
One of the S35s (tank 12 of 1st Company, 4th Section)

 

Nearly concurrent with the S35s reaching their Götterdämmerung, the French heavy tanks had finally reached a new position from whence they could resume their advance. In the distance they could see the smoke of burning tanks, and they were confident they weren’t German. With more than four-plus hours of sunlight remaining, the tankers knew what a frontal assault would likely bring. A well-timed and coordinated attack by the infantry together with support from the off-table artillery might have been enough to oust the Germans from their position, but it was going to require a few hours, and to be honest, none of the French players had the stomach for it. With morale waning and their position rather exposed, the decision was made to hold their space until darkness fell, then possibly make a night attack. However, at 2210, orders came down to return to their assembly points and prepare for a general withdrawal. The remnants of De Gaulle’s division was to fall back 20 miles to Beauchamps on the Somme. The Battle of Abbeville was over.

 

Aftermath

 

What did we learn? Well for one, the oft-heard claim that the 88mm Flak 36 is the queen of the battlefield proved itself true. The S35 medium tanks and Char B1 heavy tanks proved no match. Better coordination with the off-table artillery might have disrupted the German anti-tank fire, but getting that support, as was the case historically for the French, proved nearly impossible. 

 

Another thing we are learning is that it is pretty easy to break up a concerted armor attack by carefully choosing targets. Knocking out select tanks resulted in gaps between vehicles, which then led to command/control issues because individuals were becoming separated by too much intervening ground. Lousy morale/troop quality and things start to fall apart pretty quickly. This would be a reason to employ the oft-seen bunching of tanks on the table; losses happen, but most vehicles remain within contact range of each other, mitigating separation. Playing at 15mm scale, I believe four inches was the required "contact" distance. Bunching looks silly, but in some cases there seems good reason for it.

 

We needed to make a fair number of structures for the scenario (even though we never really came to grip with folks in or near them). I used Evan Designs' Model Builder Software to come up with a number of them. It's easily scalable to 15mm/1:100, so one can churn out quite a few in an evening. Between that and Paper Terrain, one could build a large town without too much difficulty.

 

And what's with the French and those poplar trees lining the roads, anyway?

 

Admittedly, current events sapped a lot of enthusiasm for this session. As we cleaned up the game room, folding tables and chairs, sorting bits back into the bins, packing up the notes and binders, one of the guys ran out and picked up a couple of pies. Spent an hour or so trying to make some sense of things while solving nothing. Dirk had a full mini-fridge of sodas and beer, and way in the back I found a Grape Nehi. I hadn’t had one of those since I was probably twelve years old; I didn’t even know they still make the stuff. Dirk says he buys them on Amazon; there’s a surprise. I could feel my teeth dissolving as it went down, but fifty years rolled off the clock, if only for a few minutes. Like they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Man, the world is really messed up right now.

 

(Apologies for the lousy pics; I’m still trying to get the hang of this iPhone.)



#6 Kenny Noe

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Posted 19 May 2022 - 08:11 PM

Healy,

 

Awesome writeup as usual!  Thank you for this!   The miniatures are fantastic!



#7 healey36

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Posted 20 May 2022 - 08:20 AM

Thanks, Kenny. The games have been fun, although I much prefer micro-scale over 15mm. The visuals are better in the larger scale, but it's almost impossible to field anything approaching an accurate OB, plus the real estate requirement is commensurate. Who's got 50-60 R-35s in the cabinet? I contributed 38 and, frankly, if I ever see another one it'll be too soon!

 

I was hoping for one more visit of Abbeville, one that included the British effort on the 28th, but I think the guys want to roll it back a week and tackle Arras. I suggested they might want to try to break that up into four or five actions, but it's their show, not mine. I've got a box full of unpainted Matilda I tanks I can contribute.

 

One thing for sure - I wish these games were a bit closer together than every six months or so. I can't remember the rules for that long  :rolleyes:


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#8 healey36

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Posted 21 September 2022 - 07:06 AM

Another Abbeville scenario has been proposed for later this year or early next, one that involves a hypothetical city-fight, a sort of Stalingrad-on-the-Somme. The write-up postulates de Gaulle and the remnants of 4th Armored Division reaching the outskirts of the city to fight their way toward the river and the bridges therein. Seems a stretch, but could be fun to explore. MP urban battles, in my experience, are agonizingly slow slogs (as they should be). Lots of infantry and artillery (if available), a few tanks to keep things interesting. Haven't seen a proposed OB yet.

 

I picked up the recent issue (no. 120) of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy recently which included a number of small scenarios for action in France and Belgium. One, De Gaulle at Abbeville, 1940, covers some of the same ground as the our first here. Worth checking out if you can find a copy. 



#9 Peter M. Skaar

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Posted 24 September 2022 - 01:04 AM

Very nice looking game on Abbeville, Healey!  I look forward to seeing more Mein Panzer games posted here.  I will be wrapping up my first MP Tutorial here soon.



#10 healey36

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Posted 24 September 2022 - 07:56 AM

I've been enjoying the tutorial, Peter, while making a few notes along the way. You're killing me with the GHQ Terrain Maker.


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#11 Peter M. Skaar

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Posted 27 September 2022 - 03:11 PM

Thank you very much, Healey!  The Tutorial game will be concluded with my next post and then I will add my comments in the next one after that.



#12 healey36

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Posted 12 May 2023 - 01:32 PM

The third part of this thing is still in the works, although the date remains months in the future. This suits me as I've been tasked with building a bit of the town and the river's edge for the table. I've plenty of time (although my tendency toward procrastination will almost assure a panicked build after a late start, lol). For the buildings, I think I'll use the Model Builder software I have which can easily scale down to 15mm (1/100). For the river, and possibly part of a bridge, no ideas yet. Pouring it with resin or using Mod Podge would be optimal.

 

I picked up a copy of Avalanche Press' 1940: The Last Days of May scenario booklet. While these booklets are written for their (Avalanche's) tactical game, I find the "situations" to be easily adaptable to Mein Panzer, especially if you're looking for an action with a compressed footprint. The OOB's tend to be rather small in scale, but they still make for interesting reading and a quick play. I've slogged through a few of them including at least a couple on a two-foot-by-two-foot playing surface. These were predominantly infantry/heavy-weapons fights and still worked on a small space, even in 15mm. Worth a look if you need some ideas/inspiration.

 

Back to the build...they've provided me a very rudimentary map to follow. It's not necessarily "historical", but it should be representative of parts of a decent-sized town. My understanding is that Abbeville suffered little actual structural damage during the battle (likely because the French never got further than the outskirts, at best), and I don't believe there'd been much in the way of aerial bombing. That should make things a bit easier; we'll see. I'll post a few pics as we progress with construction.


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#13 Peter M. Skaar

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Posted 14 May 2023 - 12:35 PM

I look forward to seeing your next installment of Abbeville, Healey!  I do have a fair number of French and early war German vehicles to do a decent game in 1/285th ..... when I get them painted.  I am looking to do some Barbarossa scenarios in the not too distant future but need to paint more early war Russians and Germans.  Once again I have the minis but need to get more painted.  Right now I am working to finish up some Panther Ds for my mid-war German forces.  It is a project that quite frankly has taken way to long.


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#14 W. Clark

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Posted 15 May 2023 - 12:10 AM

I take it there is nut and bolt reason that the French arty could not engage the 88s? It seems to me that a FLAK 36 is very vulnerable to arty fire. But I don't play the rules and have no idea of the limitations on getting the arty to engage a target so obviously deep in the maneuver box. It would probably have entailed displacing the arty forward from its starting positions and that would be time consuming given the control measures in 1940. Other than that, it seems to be a pretty straight forward outlining of the strengths and weaknesses of French tank design and usage.

 

As for the comments about whether the US saved Europe in the WW I and II; take us out of the equation and see what you get. WWI goes on longer and is even more destructive. I believe the Allies win a pyrrhic victory and none of them recover. In WWII the Brits will not invade cross channel as Churchill is committed body and soul to the idea that mountainous Southern Europe is Europe's soft under belly. The Soviets are walking from Stalingrad to Berlin using flags and arm signals to communicate. They'll get there, just not in the spring of 45. And we get to see Soviet Guards Tank Corps not trade in their superior T34/85s for inferior Sherman 76s (Because Stalin apparently hated his Guards Tanks Corps and wanted them in the worst tanks he could find). And if having Europe under Stalin totally would have been in Europe's best interests, then of course we did not save Europe. And Europe should have said so and kicked us out and welcomed the Soviets in. Of course, that does not comport with the British describing NATOs purpose as keeping the Soviets out, the Americans in and the Germans down. I could go on for pages. None of that belittles the efforts of America's Allies. They paid in blood for the liberation of Europe as did we. Many of our advances in radar tech came from the Brits. But they could not mass produce it and many of their ships made do with older radars until refits in American ships yards. We all contributed and if American involvement did not save Europe, then continued American isolationism would have doomed it to totalitarianism one way (NAZI) or another (Communism).

 

WMC



#15 healey36

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Posted 15 May 2023 - 09:19 AM

There was virtually no artillery available to de Gaulle for his assault on the Germans at Abbeville, much like there hadn't been any in the final phase of the British counterattack at Arras the week before. French artillery had mobility issues as it was substantially horse-drawn (as was much of the German and British artillery, although the British somewhat less so). There was little-to-no capability for the artillery to keep up with advancing units for support. At Arras, the British advance finally got stopped when the Germans rallied some artillery in defensive positions on a low ridge, firing over open-sights on the Matilda 1's grinding toward them (some sources have 88's in the mix, but only one or two, if that). Similar situation, a bit of arty or infantry likely could have driven the Germans off the ridge and the advance could have continued, but there was none, and the legend of Rommel was born.

 

When we played de Gaulle's attack into the Huchenneville corridor, the same thing basically happened, only this time it was a section of 88's that put paid to the advance. Some patience and cover for the Char B1's and their hull-mounted 75mm howitzers, together with a bit of infantry, likely could have driven the Germans off the high ground given sufficient time, but they (the French heavy tanks) were in the open on the road and they panicked after a couple tanks got knocked out, then the whole thing went to scuppers. Even a few mortars, of which the French Army had some decent examples, would have been helpful, but heavy weapons were only available at the company level, so having them in the right place at the right time was hit-or-miss. A coordinated attack with the S-35's, even better, but we're talking the French, 1940, few if any radios, so the whole concept of coordination is laughable.

 

Quite a bit has been written about France '40 but, to be honest, the more of it you read, the muddier it gets. My advice, stay away from most of the contemporary accounts; I think many of these are written by "historians" just trying to re-spin events to sell books. Much of it is outright awful. Go back to some of the stuff written during the late-1950s and 1960s; there I think you can find a more truthful account of the problems in the French high-command, the organizational flaws in the French Army, and probably most importantly, the debilitating morale issues that were in place at the get-go.

 

As far as American involvement goes in either war, you can't convince me it was anything but pivotal. Perhaps less so in WWI, but certainly more so in WWII. The Americans substantially tipped the balance in Europe during WWII while virtually whipping the Japanese single-handedly (despite the anguished protests and arguments of my British friends). Do the Americans take out the Germans alone? Certainly not, and nor do the British and/or Russians. It had to be a true coalition, and the Americans, primarily through their logistical back-office capabilities, made much of it possible. That's my take and I'm standing by it, lol.

 

One very important point about American involvement in WWI vs. WWII; in WWI the Americans basically came over with just their rifle and a pack on their back. Pretty much everything else was provided by the French and British. The Americans used French and British artillery, used French transport, used British tanks, and used French and British aircraft. Much of their ammunition and victuals were provided by the French and British. Not so in WWII, when the Americans brought over all of their personnel along with all of their heavy equipment, aircraft, transport, and sustaining supplies, all without nationalizing big chunks of their infrastructure and manufacturing base. IMHO, this is perhaps the greatest story of the war, largely unwritten.



#16 W. Clark

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Posted 15 May 2023 - 10:10 AM

We made a lot of mistakes across the board, but we also got some things right from the start. The primary thing we got right was that this would be a war of production. The government appointed an expert (I for the life of me cannot remember his name) in mass production to oversee our spin up to war time production and we simply out produced the world because of it. There are other areas where we were better if not the best at. We probably had the most responsive arty in the world and coupled with air power hung our tactical hat on that. That more than made up for our error in judgement that the rifle and not the machinegun was the primary weapon of infantry. And we motorized everything that we could. War by WWII was complex and had a lot of moving parts. Our efforts at all of them ranged from the best too good to so-so and in some cases the worst. we learned the hard way at places like Kaserine what war against the Germans was like. But we learned fast and got better just as Germany was getting worse. 

 

WMC



#17 healey36

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Posted 15 May 2023 - 11:13 AM

You might be thinking of Donald M. Nelson who headed the Office of Production Management (January 1941), later the War Production Board (December 1941). An executive plucked from Sears, Roebuck & Company, Nelson had a tough job with full authority over war procurement and production. The other guy to be aware of was Joseph B. Eastman, chair of the Interstate Commerce Commission, who would head the Office of Defense Transportation. All of the activity on America's railways, motorways, airways, and waterways fell under his (ODT) purview. 

 

Nelson's job was brutal; he had not only to balance the needs of civilians and the services, but also the rivalries between the services for resources. He was frequently criticized from all corners for perceived favoritism or indecisiveness in matters of allocation, but he survived it and was subsequently credited with having done a brilliant job. Eastman similarly butted heads with Nelson over resource allocations (i.e. building tanks instead of locomotives, etc.), but together they formed the back-office that drove production and transport for the nation's war effort. Unfortunately, Eastman, an extraordinarily dedicated public servant, didn't survive the war, dying of exhaustion in March 1944 (just a month before Roosevelt collapsed similarly). He was replaced by J. Monroe Johnson, a fellow commissioner at the ICC. Eastman was an incredibly interesting guy; his memoirs, had he gotten the chance to write them, would have been terrific.



#18 W. Clark

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Posted 15 May 2023 - 01:48 PM

That's the guy and he never received the thanks he was due IMHO. How do you thank the architect of victory properly?

 

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#19 healey36

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Posted 16 May 2023 - 08:00 AM

The French armaments industry was, by comparison, a case-study in disaster. Following WWI, the French industrial base had recovered rather sharply, an example being their motor industry quickly becoming one of, if not the largest and most innovative in the world. Similarly, aircraft development and shipbuilding advanced. Things like half-track vehicles were first developed by the French, as I recall, by Citroen. Similar innovation could be seen in steam locomotive design. I believe they were the first, or one of the first, to mess around with cantilevered/torsion-bar suspensions for tracked vehicles. Not everything worked, but research and development efforts were yielding effective designs.

 

The disaster came with the Popular Front winning the general election in 1936. Amongst the social reforms implemented were the rewrite of the labor laws (i.e. the mandate capping the 40-hour work week) and the nationalization of the armaments industries. This lead to a lot of disinvestment and saw production levels decline to those last seen in the mid-1920s, this at a time when the Germans were kicking it into high-gear. There was also a gutting of intellectual property protections, i.e. patent law, which disincentivized efforts in research and development. Nearly everything required to meet the German threat head-on was thrown off the rails at the critical moment, and I would argue largely led to the thrashing they got in 1940.



#20 healey36

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Posted 16 May 2023 - 08:40 AM

I look forward to seeing your next installment of Abbeville, Healey!  I do have a fair number of French and early war German vehicles to do a decent game in 1/285th ..... when I get them painted.  I am looking to do some Barbarossa scenarios in the not too distant future but need to paint more early war Russians and Germans.  Once again I have the minis but need to get more painted.  Right now I am working to finish up some Panther Ds for my mid-war German forces.  It is a project that quite frankly has taken way to long.

 

Same here, Peter. I've got quite a few packs of 1/285-scale French armor in the lead box, plus a number of decal sets as I recall; just haven't been motivated to get on them as I'm a bit of a one-man-band over here with any interest in 1939-1940 activities at the micro-scale. At least for now, 15mm prevails, which is okay by me if it yields a few get-togethers and some die-rolling.


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