“Look son I need your help here, we have a bit of a problem, there is a young Belgian girl who has been collecting information on the German positions and – well she’s been shot by a sniper, - one of theirs of course, not ours”.
Well I bet she’s pleased it wasn’t the good guys shot her I thought.
“Anyway she’s out in no mans land - bleeding to death I imagine and we need someone to go and fetch her, quick. She has vital information that we need”.
I thought good job she has something we need or I guess we would just leave her there.
“Ok Captain we are on our way” I said. “Just one thing son before you go, we think the sniper is still out there”.
GREAT!!!!
“Bolton, I want you and 2 men to get into the wood up front to cover us. Me and the rest of the guys will run across the field to the woods over there to the north and then cover you as you follow up. Got it”. “Yes Sarge” they all chorused. Bloody sycophants. “OK Lets go”.
McCaulay and Dokes took up position in the wood. We set off at a run, if she's bleeding we need to get to her quick and so we risk everything - running fast. Phutt, the bullet hit my helmet, a glancing blow otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this now, I hit the deck stunned.
Phutt – Wilson went down OOF, no one could identify the snipers position., the guys started blazing away at likely spots. “I’ve got him” shouted McCaulay “he’s in those trees”, Phutt, MaCaulay goes down, fortunately just stunned. Haining another new guy opened up on the sniper, who returned fire and Haining was down - dead.
“Go” I shouted to Bolton “get to the woods, I will see to Wilson and cover you”, off they went like rabbits, greyhounds would have been better but the kit weighs so much that rabbits was good.
Phutt - a spurt of mud just to the left of Green another new man, as he belted across the open ground following Bolton. Dokes meanwhile with his BAR man down un-slung his carbine and took a bead on the sniper. BANG BANG he hit him twice, killing him with one of the shots, who cares which.
“Bolton get the girl”, “yes Sarge”, - sycophant!
Two of them lifted her up, she was only a slip of a lass (do Americans say lass?) and trotted back as fast as they could.
This was a really interesting game, though you might not think so, because we didn’t know where the sniper was until we could spot him, and as you can see he was very effective. The other problem we had very limited time to get the girl back before she bled to death, by this time I'm getting very careful with the men - trying to keep them alive, myself included. Well done Dokes.
Haining was the only casualty but dead is dead, but we did get the girl back alive.
Everyone else recovered for the next mission.
Cheers
These batreps are making me want to dig out the Band Of Brothers dvd's!
ReplyDeleteExcellent stuff John and many thanks for posting :-)
Better still, I just found the novel in a charity shop :-)
DeleteHi Greg, they were the inspiration for me and I'm sure the scenario's were written with them very much in mind.
Delete"(do Americans say lass?)"
ReplyDeleteMaybe sometimes. Especially if they had Brit/Scots parents or maybe exposed to Brits while billeted in the UK or something like that.
Interesting scenario/report, with the hidden sniper. I guess there must have been some mechanisms for figuring out where the sniper was?
Hi Fitz, yes there was a way of deciding where the sniper was but I can't reveal that information. During the game until he was discovered I didn't know the location but I could lay down suppressing fire to keep his head down.
DeleteAnother excellent batrep, John. It may have been a brief scenario but that sniper certainly ratcheted up the tension. A fair result in the end, but it could have been a lot worse. One question for you - were Hydte and Plink the names of the Belgian girl and the German sniper respectively?
ReplyDeleteBryan the titles of the posts were the names Ed gave the scenario's, I've no idea what they meant, sorry.
DeleteThe big problem with this scenario was the time, I had to hustle to get the Belgian girl back before she died and so it was all done on the fly.
Another exciting BatRep John, Snipers can be fatal to whole platoons, especially great ones ! I would say this one was mid level as he stayed in the same position too long, rule of thumb is normally two shots move and fire again, sometimes if the position can cover the muzzle flash then you can stay longer as it will take longer for the enemy to get a bead on your position
ReplyDeleteCheers Dave, I think you are right, he was a bit mediocre I guess another good game would be to take the part of the sniper.
DeleteI think I liked this one best John the Sniper just added so much tension to the story, I could just picture your guys ducking & diving across the open ground while the lads covering you's try to work out where he was, great stuff mate :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Frank the time scale meant I couldn't be cautious, which is how I'd been approaching the scenario's up to this one.
DeleteI agree with the others, what a tense scenario. Excellent
ReplyDeleteCheers dGG, I'm pleased the tension is coming out in my story because that's certainly how the games played.
DeleteMaybe the scenario was brief, but it did have all the tension of a larger scenario - very atmospheric.
ReplyDeleteCheers Joe, hope the visit goes well.
Delete