A Bolt Action Campaign, part 3: counterattack at Mill

During the last battle of our campaign, the Germans succesfully assaulted the Peel Raam stelling. Now for the first time the dutch would go onto the offensive, by counterattacking the recently conquered defense line at Mill in the morning of the 11th of may. Historically the attack consisted out of an amalgamation of various availlable units. 

We played a modified Point Defence scenario, with the three Pill boxes being the dutch objectives. Although we had both suffered casualties in the previous scenario's we could replenish most casualties and deploy full units. Because he wanted to take advantage of the availlable cover Michael deployed his forces relatively far forward  along the trenches. As usual we used our hidden markers for units that had not yet been spotted (Germans blue, dutch red). 

The first turn saw the dutch fire suppprt move up to the treeline allong the road, ready to fire at the defending germans. A platoon of two squads and a lieutenant were send to outflank, and the huzaren advanced on the left flank. Casualties were relatively light.

  The second turn started with a full on assault of the most forward german positions, and even though the german defensive fire caused some casualties the dutch infantry managed to redeem themselves and won the close combat. The germans redeployed some veteran infantry in the centre of their line to cover the retreating german right flank.

On the third turn the dutch left flank bravely advanced, but the german infantry and pioneers counter attacked, causing severe casualties on both sides. A squad of wielrijders reinforced the dutch left flank. On the dutch right flank the German defenders kept their heads down, avoiding the worst of the dutch direct artillery fire. 

The fourth turn started with a massive dutch artillery barrage smokescreen coming down in front of the pillbox on the german left flank. Under cover off the smoke, the dutch outflanking sectie(platoon) made a dash for the pillbox. This forced the german defenders to reveal themselves, trying to ambush the advancing dutch. In return they exposed themselves to the dutch firing line. 

In the mean time the dutch assault on the left flank reached the first german pillbox, which was quickly captured (due to a lack of firing slits on the rear, the germans had chosen to not occupy the pillbox, but to deploy their defenders behind them as cover).

The situation was not looking well for the germans, and since this was a campaign and not a one off, Michael wisely decided that it was better to save as many of his forces as possible, than to risk them all for the slim chance of getting a draw. The Dutch, having the second pillbox within reach, focused all their effort on it, and only consolidated their already succesfull left flank.

The battle ended with the dutch in firm control of two pillboxes, gaining the first Dutch victory of the campaign. The german choice for a forward defence turned out to be a costly mistake. Only a few of the german casualties would be replaced, and the loss of the light howitzer was costly. 

Just like history the dutch counterattack was succesfull due to a combination of bravado and a coincidental simultanious attack by two units. Unknown to the brave Dutch forces the rest of the Peel-Raamstelling had already been abandoned, so during the night the Dutch left their reconquered positions and retreated to the next defence line: the Zuid Willemsvaart.