Wednesday, January 9, 2013

15mm Peter Laing battle

    What got me started looking for Peter Laings was an article in a copy of "Battle for Wargamers". It was about wargaming WW1 and used the Peter Laing WW1 figures for illustrations.  Among the photos was a British trench with 4 infantrymen in it. So when I bought a large WW1 lot of PLs, I was delighted to see I got several of the trench figures. However, I never have used them, until today.
  The battle was quickly thrown together.  A British battalion would be entrenched on a ridge with 2 machine gun units in support. The Germans would attack with a Jager battalion, supported by 2 batteries.  The rules would be tweaked Bob Cordery's Memoir of Battle. I will try to keep the narration to a minimum, and hopefully illustrate it with photos instead.

German guns (on left) bombard British trenches (on right side of picture) as the Jager Battalion crosses no-mans land.

The German artillery fire has caused some losses for the British in the trenches, however  one Jager company is almost wiped out by machine gun fire.


One German company ( top of picture on left) is thrown back by heavy machine gun fire. However, German artillery fire has eliminated one of the British machine gun units.
The Germans (on bottom of picture) rally and start to advance again. The German command noticed that the British left flank was weakening; the advancing companies started shifting towards the right. Meanwhile, artillery fire kept the British machine gun unit from advancing.
The leftmost trench is finally carried by a combination of  artillery fire and  assaulting  infantry.


Germans clearing first trench.


With the Germans getting a toehold on the ridge and the rest of the German infantry  sliding to the  British left, the rightmost British infantry's line of fire is blocked, therefore the British commander pulls the troops from that trench to counter attack if necessary. The last machine gun unit advances and brings the German infantry under infiltrate fire.
The German artillery forces back the machine gun unit. The German infantry on the ridge clears the next trench, then throws itself at the British infantry that's in the open, hoping to carry the last trench from behind.


However, once again the British machine gun advances and eliminates  the closest infantry company. The German unit on the ridge shifts its' attack to the trench; the British counter attack and finally clears the ridge of the last of the Germans.
The fight has gone out of the remaining Germans, who quickly retreats across no mans land.


 

2 comments:

  1. John - do you still have the article (I do) - only if not, let me know and I will send you a copy

    Ian

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    1. Ian, yes I do , if fact I was thinking of scanning the article at a later date. But thank you for the offer.

      John

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