The Oosterbeek Perimeter, Arnhem 44.

general Hoth · **general Hoth**

The Oosterbeek Perimeter, West of Arnhem, 25 Septembre 1944.

Despite securing the North edge of the road bridge at Arnhem the british 1st airborne division, also known as the red devils, soon found itself under severe pressure from the IInd SS Korps. General Horrocks sensing that he might just get a bridgehead over the Rhine despite the general worsening situation ordered the recently dropped polish brigade to cross the river by boat and reinforce the red devils at Oosterbeek. This boat assault would prove costly.
At the same moment in Arhnem, Bittrich, the german commander sent his 9 SS division supported by most of the IInd SS Korps artillery to eradicate the british threat to his right.
In Oostebeek, Urquhart's men were desperate for reinforcements...

Maps and Special set up notes:

North-Map 1- Map F3 with the river at the south end-South
Place Map 1 over half of Map F3

Creating the Oosterbeek perimeter:
Place city tiles over the jungle hexes. These are 3 british stongpoints worth victory points.
Place 2 city tiles right against the river in the middle of map 3. These represent the ferry landings worth points too.
Place trenches tiles over the forest hexes on map 3 for a total of 12 trenches. Trenches give cover to infantry only.

The line up:

British 1st Airborne division:

Set up on any city, trench or ferry landing hex with one restriction: all city or ferry landing hex on the map have to be occupied by at least one unit.

Inspiring lieutnant x2
Inspiring hero
defiant paratrooper x8
vickers mg x2
piat gunner x2
6 pounder AT gun x3
M8 75mm pack howitzer
jeep x2
universal carrier
spitfire mk1

Sosabowski's polish airborne brigade:

From turn 1 roll a dice: on a 5 or a 6, two polish determined infantrymen enter at the ferry landings.
Note only a maximum of 4 polish unit can enter the game.

KG Von Tettau, SS" Hohenstauffen" division:
Enter on turn one on any side hex of map 1. Half hexes are in play.

ss leader x2
veteran infantry x8
SS stormtroopers x6
Mg 42 x2
Stug III D x2
Flamepanzer III x2
disciplined spotter
sdkfz 250 x2
7.5cl LEL x2
Messerschmitt me 262

KG Frundsberg:
enter on turn 4 from any map 1 hex

Sdkfz 250 x2
panzergrenadier x2

Victory conditions.

Each Oosterbeek city hex on map 1 is worth 1 point.
Each city hex on F3 and each ferry landing hex is worth 2 points.

at the end of turn 8 the winner is the player holding more points.

Sources:
Michael Reynolds, II SS korps.
Vae Victis, hors série n11.
Robert Jackson, the battle remembered.

Have fun! Cool

the flame panzer card from the Sharpedia.
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general Hoth · **general Hoth**

A few Pics to help set up:

http://s668.photobucket.com/albums/vv48/generalhoth/Arnhem%2044/

Cool

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Bean965 · **Bean965**

General,

This looks very cool! My last two Falaise scenarios are taking MUCH longer than anticipated to finish, but when they are done I'm going to go on development hiatus so I can play some of the great scenarios people have written during the past year!
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general Hoth · **general Hoth**

general Hoth · **general Hoth**

I'm working on a few battle tips as the set up in this scenario is interesting for both sides. It really can decide the winner. Wink

Soon here. Cool

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general Hoth · **general Hoth**

Battle Tips for Oosterbeek.

I find this scenario really interesting as the set up for the brits is hard and interesting and the arrival of the germans crucial. i hope these few notes will help you play out this scenario.

The 1st airborne:
Well, before set up you will have noticed that most of the points are on the southern part of the map. Keep in mind that all the city hexes on the map have to be occupied!
Choose well which units you will leave to defend Oosterbeek, worth 4 points in total. As the germans can enter the map pretty much anywhere apart from the Rhine banks i advise to leave at least a couple of AT guns in the town. They should cover all the german tanks advance routes.
A tactic, that worked well during the playtests is to reinforce your flanks with vickers mg teams and infantry. This will force the german to opt for the long approach to the Rhine through Oosterbeek instead of the flanks. Remember the scenario lasts 8 turns.
The combo Jeep/ inspiring lieutnant is great to get your polish infantry up to where they'll be needed most (hoping that: 1/you have lucky dice rolls for reinforcements and 2/that the poles will not be forced to defend the ferry landings! I've seen it happen.)
Nevertheless you have a strong army, even the poles have great short range attack and SA.

KG Von Tettau:
As the german player you have 3 options for entry on the map:
-A strong attack on both flanks is the most obvious one as it will get you close to the victory points. It is also the more risky one for your infantry as the red devils will shoot your assault troops right in the open. But with a bit of luck it could well work and disorganise the british defence. With this option your flame panzers will have every oportunity to burn out british strongpoints.
-What i call "the long route": an assault from the North only. It will certainly save you a lot of infantry, give you time to set up your howitzers nicely and secure Oosterbeek. If you choose this, make sure to silence the british anti tank guns first and use your sdkfz 250 to move ss stormtroopers forward!
-A combined assault on one of the flanks (probably the eastern one) with a second assault team coming from the North. I did try this option a couple of time and it worked due to accurate stug fire on british batteries. The only problem with this option is that the red devils might manage to break one of your assaults and then the second one will be doomed too!
Overall you have a tough job to do.

Historically, the german assault failed but the red devils withdrew later that night across the Rhine, leaving only the wounded and medical personnel to defend the perimeter. As Manstein would say: A lost victory.
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boersma8 · **boersma8**

Played this scenario solo over the course of this week. It's definitely a lot of fun! It was a complete German victory at the end of round 8; but actually it had already become clear that this would happen by round 5 or so....What I really liked is the ability to quickly redeploy your forces being the Brits thanks to the tally-ho SA. It's also a great though simple idea to place one map partly over another one to create a different kind of map. So simple, yet I'd never thought of it, thanks!

First off a few questions:

1.) The German reinforcements, should they be SS panzergrenadiers or just " regular" ones as stated?

2.) When a hex is partially on map F3 and partially on map 1, can the Germans enter play there or does it need to be on any hex that's ONLY on map 1?

3.) Do the trenches work as is described on the back of the combat zone tiles, which is how I played (+1 on cover rolls for infantry, double cost terrain for vehicles with the high gear ability and a movement roll required for such vehicles) or do they simply and solely provide (normal) cover to infantry in your scenario?

4.) Do you roll for initiative normally on turn 1? (Important, because if the British win it, or start with it for sure, they can put some AT guns in overwatch which can make it much less appealing for the Germans to eneter play in certain hexes...)

The Germans opted for a two-pronged attack. They entered the western map edge with a flamepanzer, a Stug accompanied by several squads of infantry support and an SS haupsturmfuehrer. The rest chose the lonmg route: entering from the North map edge.

The British had set up a Vickers MG, an inspiring Lieutenant, 2 paras and a jeep and a universal carrier in the town of Oosterbeek itself.
The right flank was covered by the howitzer, an AT gun and 1 paratrooper and an officer. However, as noted above, the Germans did not enter the board here, so these units were not as useful as they could have been here. The rest of the English forces were deployed on the Western map edge, reday to meet-or so they thought-the German attack, which indeed concentrated on that flank.

The British were well entrenched on the left flank, but neverthless the Germans quickly made some incursions into their lines. Overhead an ME262 and a Spitfre fought an air duel which resulted into the ME262 scaring off the Spitfire for the time being (disruption). The British forces in oosterbeek retreated from the village proper upon seeing the superior number of German forces headed towards them. The officers in charge felt they'd better defend the ferry landings and buildings close to it (because they yield more points at the end; perhaps they should've made a stand here in hindsight).

Since the Germans had won initiative (they actually did constantly but once), no British units could be placed on Overwatch to make movement hazardous for the German armour. This wasa reoccuring problem for the British.

For a long time the battle seemed to be fairly even- the initial German penetration was somewhat halted by the timely arrival of the Polish reinforecements on the left flank (they had all arrived by turn 3) (also partly thanks to the way I played the trenches; +1 on cover rolls, which made them a better defensible position for the British). However, in the end (that is, from turn 4 or 5 onwards or so), German superior numbers began to tell: since they had encoutered only a small regard in oosterbeek proper, their main force had moved through the village practically unscathed. They were now beginning to get the other British units in their sights. The spotter meanwhile had been directing artillery fire against the left flank, aiding the German units there to push on. However, this offensive seemed to have stalled (SS leader dead on turn 1, rest, though they'd made it to the buildings and trenches, was constantly disrupted). Fortunately for the Germans the British there became a bit overconfident and tried to outflank the enemy ( i.e. create enfilade fire.) However, the one remaining non-disrupted German unit (Veterena infantrymen) disrupted all three units trying to pull this off, so rather than having superior firepower there, all the British really accomplished there is that nearly all their units on that flank were disrupted (too) and the (disrupted) SS stormtroopers now had ample units to use their ruthless SA against.

From that point onwards the battle became a slaughter. The Enmglish were eradicated at a very low cost for the Germans. A paratrooper trying to close assault a Panzer III flammenpanzer failed miserably twice (only three and two successes respectively resulting in two face up disruptions. A German MG which had by now become undisrupted dealt with the threat to the tank then. Th Spitfire also took out two manned German halftracks that had become a bit too brazen and careless. The British hero tried to defend the landings, but seeing himself hopelessly outnumbered, he opted to try and blow up a flammenpanzer nearby, but he was " killed" by defensive fire from an SS stormtrooper already in the same hex (face up disrution, face-down destroyed; lethal defensive fire from the expanded rules). So he did make it to the tank's hex, but managed to roll only 1 success out of 8 dice or so.!

In the end I guess 70% of the German force was still intact, although many of its vehicles had been damaged. The only British unit left was a disrupted AT gun.

Again, a very fun scenario. It does seem to be a bit hard for the British, though.

general Hoth · **general Hoth**

Thank you so much for the after battle report Boersma! It seems you've had a very interesting battle there. Very Happy

To answer your questions:
1/ just the regular panzergrenadiers.
2/ only the hexes on map 1. It's funny you mention this as i only realised during my LAST playtest that this could have been an entrance hex too. I played without.
3/The trenches only add cover to the infantry. No malus for crossing them.
4/The german have the initiative on turn one.

i hope this helps!

thanks again for the feedback.
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RAEVSKI · **RAEVSKI**

wow nice.
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general Hoth · **general Hoth**

Bump!

Get some Arhnem action before the end of Septembre.
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