Leffrinckoucke Beach Landing

Introduction

Humiliatingly, Rear-Admiral Danone-Yoplait sailed into Dunkerque harbour in his pinnace. The defeat at West Hinder preyed heavily on his mind as he radio-graphed to Legion headquarters to report the predicament he and his command found themselves in. The beaches between Dunkerque and Bray Dunes had some Marteau Bombard batteries and a couple of small fortifications dating back to the Napoleonic era. Along with two regiments of local infantry this was all he could call upon to see off the huge invasion fleet Müller was bringing along the coast. Headquarters, at once both despairing and desperate, had no choice but to send elements of the GNE 12e fleet and a whole armoured regiment from the 9e Legion “Singes Capitulards” to shore up the landward defences and attempt to interdict any Prussian landing.

Deployment

The scenario was effectively Operation Takeda from the Hurricane Season Campaign, scaled up for a large (3000 MFV) game.
The French (commanded once again by Rear-Admiral Danone-Yoplait) had a large number of skimming ships (including a Mk I Magenta, a squadron of Marseille cruisers, a squadron of Alma frigates and a Tourbillon) with some water-bound support (a Couronne and a squadron of Lyon frigates) coming from the west, but only a light scout formation (just a squadron of Lyon frigates and an understrength squadron of Furieux) coming from the east. On the beaches were two shield towers, two regiments of infantry, a squadron of Hotch FT-12 light tanks and two squadrons of Marteau. Reinforcements were a Bastille with L’Aman attachments, three squadron of Focault tanks, another squadron of Marteau and a squadron of Hotch FT-12 light tanks.
The Prussians (now commanded by Kommandatur-General Heinrich von Önken) had a Medium Panzer Regiment (an armoured starter box) on landing barges with two Metzgers and masses of aerial support (an Imperium, two Aufsehers and two squadrons of Pflichts) and an equally heavy naval presence to protect it (two Emperor battleships, a squadron of Konigsberg battle-cruisers, a squadron of Hussar gunships, two squadrons of Arminius frigates, two squadrons of allied Korsor Minelayer and two independent Skagerrak gunships). The French were slightly outnumbered (as the scenario required) by around 200 points.
Actual deployment was determined by the scenario.
French land forces deployed in zone C, reinforcements entered from area 1 on Turn 1 (the Bastille) and from area 2 on Turn 4 (the rest of the 9e Legion).
French naval forces could enter from areas 3 and 4 on Turn 1 (all the naval assets and the Tourbillon were in area 4, the Furieux and some Lyon were in area 3).
The Prussian naval assets deployed in zone B and the landing assets deployed in zone A. Prussian deployment for naval assets was to place the Arminius as close to the French as possible, with some air support. Then the Danish minelayers would lay mines across the landing zone to try to prevent French intervention. Konigsberg and Emperor heavy ships would pound the beaches and any French ships that got through the frigate cordon. The landing force and most of the aerial support were deployed in zone A (all the barges and the Imperium and Ausehers).

The Battle

This was a shockingly one sided affair. The Tourbillon, Alma squadron and Marseille squadron all turned inland and headed for the yoghurt factory objective. The Couronne and Lyon frigates gamely battled the left flank of the Prussian forces. Within two turns though, all the Arminius and most of the Lyon were wrecks, along with one of the Skagerrak gunships, but a quick thrust by the Pflichts got in an unopposed boarding attack against the Couronne, capturing it unscathed. The Furieux fared no better, the first came within range of a UPG generator and suffered the maximum result and then a critical from the main armament which left it critically damaged, with no systems, no defences and very few marines and a temporary reactor leak caused it to flare all the way back to the board edge. The Magenta then had no choice but to turn back out to sea to attempt to rescue something from the debacle. In subsequent turns the Prussians downed a Furieux and captured the other. They also sank the Magenta, wrecking it just off the Bray-Dunes headland in shallow water but not before it had sank a Konigsberg, a Pflicht and damaged a Metzger and the Imperium.
The landward conflict fared little better for the French, long range fire from the bombard squadrons and the towers did little damage until they started concentrating fire on the Metzgers being towed by the Prussian battleships (with Tesla generator assistance). In the end the Bastille land ship crested the dune line just as the battleships released their tow lines and between the combined heat lances and more concentrated fire from the bombards both Metzgers were lost and sank into the mud and soft sand just off-shore. At this point the red mist descended and the battleships both opened up against the Bastille. A critical effect on the Bastille caused a magazine explosion, that proceeded to destroy both L’Aman heavy tanks, but not before one of them flared into the middle of the bombard’s position and exploded there, damaging another three vehicles (the Combustible Cargo MAR is literally da bomb). With one broadside the whole game changed. It was looking as though significant parts of the armoured force would not get ashore in the face of combined artillery and heat lance attacks, but with the Bastille’s destruction and the rest of the “Singes Capitulards” only just entering the table there was now little to stop them.

The view onto the beach from the Aufseher Landing Ship "Hochmeister von Rusdorf"

The Aftermath

I would argue that this time Len (again as Danone-Yoplait) did everything wrong. Concentrating his force, sending significant elements of it ashore and not attacking the landing force (except the Metzgers) specifically were all instrumental in allowing the Prussians ashore. Len’s plan had been to fight them hard on the beaches with both armoured and naval assets, hence the GNE heavy fleet.
My deployment left a lot to be desired again. Even though the French deployed first I didn’t support the left flank enough to prevent a breakthrough if that had been the tactic Len had taken (luckily he didn’t). If he had gone for it I would have probably lost half my landing force! I also totally made a mess of mine-laying… In the end my Korsors were just gunboats taking pot-shots at targets of opportunity (or the towers if there were no targets). I’ll need to practice a bit more.
We ran out of time for the landing element of the game so as we packed up, we made a note of what each of us had left in terms of forces available to play on land and opted to play out the game at the next club night.