With group games becoming a thing again, I put my hand up to take part in Django and Nigel's 'A Thousand Tank' participation game recreating the Battle of Hannut. I played the first day of the game in October 2014 and it was a lot of fun seeing that many 15mm tanks on a table.
The game would use Battlefront's Flames of War (version 3) Total War rules, breaking the wargaming day up into two sessions, representing the first and second days of the battle. Each day will comprise six turns and would be played on a 6x8 foot table with the same terrain layout.
While you
may never have heard of it, it was one of the largest tank battles
in history, involving about a thousand tanks (and hence the title of the game).
Briefing
13 May 1940 - Following successful attacks on Denmark and Norway, Germany launched its forces against the combined armies of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.
Eastern France is secure behind the Maginot Line, a series of powerful forts from the Swiss border as far north as Sedan. Here the Meuse River turns north, marking the western boundary of the Ardennes, a hilly, forested area with narrow roads, presumed impenetrable by tanks. Further north there is a gap between the forest and the Belgian fortifications around Liege, notably Fort Eben-Emael (10-11 May 1940), which fell to the Germans (with heavy casualties) after Fallschirmjäger landed on top of the fortress with gliders and using explosives and flamethrowers to disable the outer defences of the fortress.
Implementing their pre-war plan, the Allies moved into Belgium to defend the river Dyle, east of Brussels. The French and British need at least three days to complete the move and dig in. To cover this, the French High Command ordered General René Prioux’s Corps de Cavalerie to hold the area around Hannut and Gembloux for this time.
German General Erich Hoepner was given the task of the matador, demonstrating with sufficient enthusiasm in the Gembloux Gap to hold the French light mechanised divisions (Division Légère Mécanique (DLM)) in place, far from the breaching of the Meuse at Sedan and elsewhere along the wide river.
The forces were drawn from Prioux’s corps with the elite 2nd DLM and the recently formed and under-trained 3rd DLM for the French and for the Germans the XVI Armee Korps consisting of the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions.
The challenge for Andreas and I (as the Germans) to pin the best French armoured troops in Belgium (under Phil and Wal) and prevent them interfering with the crucial crossing of the Meuse, while at the some time ensure we weren't delayed to allow the First Army to dig in.
Andreas and I split our forces roughly in half, with Andreas taking the right flank and myself spearheading the centre left side of the field. The German side is on the right in the first photo. As actual Germans, Andreas communicated in German with each other. And just like the Germans with the Enigma machine we thought it was a secure form of communication...
Day 1
Day 2
Debrief
It's a long day, and coordinating that may platoons (even amongst two players) is exhausting. Andreas and I failed to push hard enough (if not towards the town in the centre then the villages on the right flank) on the first day which made the launching off points on day two that much further back than would be optimal. On the second day I failed to hold the left flank (instead making a piecemeal attack and leaving the Pakfront exposed to Wal's French tank assaults). When Andreas left early I took over his forces, and was able to break Phil's division... but he held on by his fingernails as Wal had granted him control of Somua tanks (all that was left on the right flank). We failed to create a clear line along the roads from our base edge to the opposite table edge. What didn't help was some open terrain for our truck born infantry to traverse and being terrible (extremely terrible) at being unable to unpin a lot of our units. The six-turn time limit for each day doesn't leave much room for early setbacks.
Well done to Phil and Wal (who also understood a lot of what we were saying - which was the biggest mistake we made!) on blunting this attack, obtaining a major strategic and tactical victory.
Thanks too to Django and Nigel for organising, umpiring, and letting us use your miniatures (and apologies to the ones that got a knock).
Playing on a 6’ x 8’ table really gives a good game as armour has a chance to manoeuvre and artillery needs to be deployed with care.
