Post
by TheKangaroo » Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:52 pm
Hello everyone,
I haven't been here for quite a while now, also hadn't played any of the games in ages, since I had a whole lot of other things to do. Anyhow, I today decided to get back to it, played a round of Firefight. My old campaign was still there and this is what happened:
October the 23rd, 1943. Our company had been stuck in Italy for a while already and despite the Italians' surrender there was no lull in the fighting. Our objective of the day was a ridge in front of an orchard, just above the town of Bussero.
Regiment said we could have three Sherman tanks in support to give us a bit of a punch, but only two arrived. One of the drivers said something about an engine breakdown, but I guess they just didn't want to admit that our recent losses weren't so easy to replace. Anyway, there was no use in complaining, so we took to the field at day's early light.
I decided to keep the two tanks in reserve around the hill I placed my command post on top of while the infantry would advance over an open field, through a hedge and onto the next hill on which some shrubbery would provide protection. This route was on our left flank, evading the main road and some high ground on the right that just literally smelled of 88s.
Shortly after three squads crossed the crest of the hill and took position behind the next hedge while the other three squads waited in reserve positions. The recon squad had already moved further up into an orchard and everything seemed quiet.
Suddenly, just as I ordered our heavy machine gun to reposition to the front line hill, gunfire erupted on our right flank. One man of 4th squad was wounded and the machine gun wasn't in place for covering fire, yet. I assumed this was just one squad of infantry waiting to delay me long enough for their artillery to strike, so I sent in one reserve squad to budge out #4 and one of the tanks to drive the Germans out of their position, while the other squads moved further to the left flank, through the orchard and some more shrubbery, finally ending up on the 90? flank of the objective itself. Just one small but high hill, twenty meters of open ground and the town of Bussero itself were between us and the objective now.
The tank and the reserve squad meanwhile managed to silence the German squad that had been waiting for us, unfortunately though squad number 4 suffered some losses due to artillery. Also the tank got hit by a shell fired from the hill I considered fishy in the first place.
Some ranged fighting across the large open plain of the main road ensued for a while until my flanking troops charged the small hill in front of Bussero. The second tank brought in for their support made sure the German squad there wouldn't put up much of a fight. The way was clear, two squads entered Bussero, which was completely undefended from that direction, another squad moved across town into the orchard behind the objective. The remaining reserves set up positions on the hills on the left flank to provide covering fire.
The stage was set and the final push could begin. Intense fighting broke loose in the Orchard, but losses were minimal, despite our squad not making any ground at all. The squads in the town quickly drove out the German defenders - with a little help from their friends on the flank hills.
One of the tanks took a lucky shot in the two artillery pieces set on the hill, I saw smoke rising from the area, so the way across the road was clear for the other tank which rushed in to break the stalemate in the orchard, simply by running into the German position at the objective. Thankfully that last Panzerfaust missed by a margin...
Our company suffered 12 dead and 19 wounded that day. The enemy ended up with 47 dead, two guns lost, 7 wounded and 5 captured. The battalion commander later took me to the side and congratulated me to the 'superb' performance. ?You quickly captured the objective and took few losses despite being up against strong opposition.?, he said. Strong opposition... Opposition has been strong ever since we entered Italy. Which he could tell some good news once in a while, like their defences finally crumbling.
So, hope you enjoyed the short story, I'm sorry for not providing pictures, but as usual it occured to me too late that I could tell the story. In fact given that this was my first spin since summer (or spring?) I was convinced I would get wasted.