[Sticky] Post Churchill's Revenge reports

I'm glad to hear that the weekend went so well, the pics look great.

Just sorry that I could not make it. Looking forward to when I can.

Sorry for deserting on Saturday night all, we were really looking forward to the evening around the camp fire but it all got a bit too much for us when we found our carefully harboured dry clothes for sleeping in were as soggy as the rest of us. Will waterproof our musette bags for the next one.

The day was excellent fun as ever though and the slower pace made the firefights much more intense.

I was a bit of a rubbish squad leader though, especially after my squad went mutinous because I spilled the whole allied order of battle to the german high command!

Please bust me back to private for the next one - I'm good at taking orders and don't mind being shouted at.

Having said that, thanks to all those in 3 Platoon for a great game, especially Spiers for instigating our perfectly orchestrated attack on the vehicle - it was just like that bit in Kelly's Heroes.

Having said that, thanks to all those in 3 Platoon for a great game, especially Spiers for instigating our perfectly orchestrated attack on the vehicle - it was just like that bit in Kelly's Heroes.

speaking as someone who was in that vehicle (and has the scars to prove it!), it was a superbly implemented attack, well done on that one!

Barrie - you didn't spill the beans and we wern't trying to catch you out!

We knew the battle plans of both Axis and Allied (or at least the planned plans as it were). Even licensed radios are crap at that site and we were trying to get top brass together to make adjustments to the running order. Yith had gone AWOL and we couldn't find him. Turns out he heard the transport, saw Germans jumping out of the back so he hid.

aye I said elsewhere it was good pmsl we were officially slaughtered and it was great. From the perspective of inside the 101 it was almost comical when we twigged how good an ambush it was when we all became a tangle of bodies in the back attempting to hide from the incoming fire

Too right...

Heard vehicle coming. My squad went to ground straight away.

Guy gets out. Looks the wrong way and shouts "Yith". One of my squad points this out to me.

I notice that hazard warning lights are on, but I'm not sure what they mean. So I ran down the hill towards the car.

Previous times its just been Guy in the car so when I see 3 more Germans jump out of the back and think they have weapons I jump behind a tree and am absolutely amazed that you haven't seen me as I'm literally within 5 metres of the road.

I stay there and see you guys go and talk to Barrie. I identify all 4 germans and realise what actually is going on...

So, I decide to make my presence known and shout "Guy" several times, but Guy just got in and drove off...

Barrie then comes across the road and tells me he's told you everything and is really worried. I had to explain that it was not something to worry about...

My first mission on Saturday: Rapidly assemble squad for patrol - reports of parachute seen to the south.
Quick run-though of hand signals we would be using for our silent patrol then cam ourselves up with mud and foliage and set off toward the south. Edge of forest tree line in sight, no contact.
Orky hisses enemy spotted and we drop to the ground. I signal for squad to form a snap ambush - they crawl out to hidden positions.
Unsure as to whether we had been spotted I moved forward to an upturned tree root-ball and surveyed - looks like a Brit Commando leading some Yanks. They have spotted us and gone to ground.
Assuming they will avoid contact with us and stay put I signal to the squad to break ambush and move out to a wide line and move forward to flush the enemy out. Orky and me move rapidly to flank them and close the net to cut off escape to the west.
Flushing works - hear squad opening up. Spot Yith breaking away trying to crawl/roll away from main engagement. Hit Yith, see some medicing going on, fire into the foliage then flank right to the south to capture two US who are dead awaiting regen. Bugger, Yith is still alive and caps me before I reach them. I'm thinking that I will be the first officer captured, not good.
But wait! I see Yith running into the distance abandoning his men while one of my squad calmly wanders up to me and applies a bandage. Then I see the grins on my squads faces as we round up six Allied prisoners and escort them back to CP for some interrogation by other squads returning to base and out we go for a northwards sweep through the woods....

Heh!

My firsts:

Drop into LZ5 and start to get the squad clambering over the barbed wire. After 4 are across I notice that the gated entrance is 15 yards away so go through there instead!

20 minutes spent patrolling the area silently (my guys rocked at that) we make first sight after noticing some movement across the top of the north ridge. Quickly split the squad in two to prepare for potential contact. Contact made first squad provides cover and distraction whilst my squad flanks. After a brief firefight we've turned the Axis troops out of our path and have shot most of them. No casualties in my squad. We regroup and fight a retreat towards Hill 486 and hook up with the Dutch.

After a while we hear a vehicle and pyro it. It's Guy! We capture him and whilst deciding what to do notice the 101 coming the other way. We decide to load up and try to capture both vehicles. As we drive off about 15 Krauts pepper us in the ass having moved up from the 101. My guys on the Hill start to move down to. Most of us are captured. We return to Hill 486 to regroup in preparation for the 88 attack. Most people look very cold and wet and hungry and tired so we have a short break to feed up and then get off towards the 88.

some of us weren't in the 101 at that point we did that after the feed you mention headshot, we'd been moving up hill and having thought we'd seen movement a few times which either was nothing or the sneaky beakys had ran away by then we headed up to the top road where we saw from the middle the 101 at one end and the landy at the other. I was in CW group still from the mornings capture of yiths merry men

Some of the group went off to see what was to my left so that would be west what was happening and spotted the 101 being laiden by allies, some went east to see what was going on with the landy as it had obviously been captured, the rest were either side of the road waiting, knowing we'd be needed in either direction or to recapture one of the vehicles, peppering it as it went past was cool even though I had a teeny target of an arm poking out of canvas to aim at did I hit it, I doubt it very much and took my first hit of the day there and was very nicely mediced in time to see prisoners being brought in

But wait! I see Yith running into the distance abandoning his men

They were all dead... didn't have much choice unless I wanted to be captured...

Since I wanted to prove you guys wrong, I ran.

BTW, I didn't get captured all weekend so "ner!"

Final action of the event: Absolutely definite sighting of enemy moving from the north toward the V1 base. Objective: intercept and hold back advance.

Ad-hoc group gathered and a wide swept through to the North - no enemy anywhere to be seen. Intelligence reports stated that they had rendezvoused at the Dutch village and moved from there. So where the hell were they? I swung the squad for a sweep back toward the SE corner of the forest sector. Suspecting that the Dutch were collaborating with the Allies I hung back and I trashed their village (well, I tipped a couple of chairs over to show I was very cross ). Ran back to rejoin squad on the return sweep. Enemy had been spotted. We formed a loose circle and started moving in towards them - it was the Dutch moving toward their village along the edge of the tree line. They refuse to drop their weapons so a short engagement ensues and they leg it. We leave them and rendezvous back at the V1 for further intel/briefing.
Once there we realise where the enemy had got to - large explosions coming from the south of our CP!

(well, I tipped a couple of chairs over to show I was very cross ).

HA ha ha I love that comment

I don't think I actually killed anyone all w/e, apart from Morgs - and that was about 3 yards away, after he'd naded the V1. In retrospect, we should have tied him to a post and shot him, since he was wearing Axis uniform.

I did however have the privelege of allowing Kermit to "deploy" his MG42 on my shoulder, in the 101.

My favourite part of the w/e was assaulting the Allies in order to capture their mortar. Three of us came in from the west, over some very slippery logs across the stream. I got to within about 8 feet of the mortar when I was finally taken out twice. Returning dead to base, I also managed to recover my lost mag, which was perilously close to dropping into the stream!

That evening, Helga kept our spirits up with renditions of such wartime classics as "There'll be Heinkels over the white cliffs of Dover", and "We're hanging out our washing on the Chomley line".

First mission of the day was a recce patrol with gregg, evo, clifton matt and karl. We scouted for ages in a extended search line and were just about to swing the line round and return home empty handed when greg and i ran into he flank of an allied stick. thinking there were three of them we charged in (our comrades had gone to ground seeing the bulk of the eight man squad further up) and got mullered when we relaised we were up against a lot more!

Back to base for a brew and some rye bread and sausage before going out on another patrol, this time in the vehicle to put outa high profile presence on the roads, so high profile we got ambushed and mullered!

Back to base to brew up and start prepping a drying out fire, a great tema effort left us with loads of kindling and dry wood and a substantial ammount of wet wood that would dry out.

Last mission of the day for me was a jaunt out to guard the 88 where i got my second kill of the day (result eh?)

After this my back is really starting to go and i've run out of painlillers so scott and i stay behioned to build and light the fire. We got it going but to be honest it was scots perseverence that kept it going not me.. the guy would not be defeated!

Anyway when matt and Evo got back form the last mission of saturday we went back to the basha (we were not using a tent) to have a chat about what to do as my back was too painful to play anymore and i was out of pain killers... well i was prepared to stay in camp and just harbour up if the guys wanted to stay but then we realisewd our bashas had flooded.

My kit in its waterproofing was ok but he lads kit was swamped (they had cunningly used their waterproof bivvy bags to store their field kit and aegs in !)

So we thought best to pack and get gone before last light.

Shame as sunday looked ace.

Well awesome weekend, again many thanks to guy/old sweat for all the hard work, this one really was guys labour!

And we too contemplated how hard it must have been for the troops doing it for real potentially for months in the rain and in the case of early Russian front or italy... sometimes in trpical kit!

Having just read Gadge's report its enlightened me a little into the goings on in the Axis side.

So to counter some of the other reports I heard and general moaning that I've heard from some Germans about the Allies who gave up on Saturday night, I'd just like to say a few things...

I'm sure the German's did a lot of patrolling etc. during the day, but at least you had a camp to go back to after the patrols.

The allies had no camp until around 6pm and then had to set it up before we could use it. We had not had access to our kit up until then. Including no food, no chance to get warm or dry, etc.

It took me about 2 hours to get my stuff from the 9x9 tent at the car park and set it up at the camp. This after almost 6 hours of patrolling and hiding, continually getting rained on without food and without heat.

Getting kit to the camp site required all kit to be carried 100 to 200 yards over barbed wire up a hill over terrain that was either flooded or was covered in fallen trees/branches and involved at least one rather scary jump across a rather deep stream. Thank you to all the Germans who helped with this. You were saviours!

We then got hassled (yup, that's the best word) to make sure the Germans who'd had all day to set up camp next to a road, got something to do. To be honest by this point I couldn't have cared less for what the enemy wanted from us. But after some cajoling from Steve we did put on a defence and by the sounds of it, it was great fun for you guys... For which I'm pleased.

Now at this point I had no idea that your camp had become flooded for which I heartily sympathise, that can't have been much fun! But at least you guys had the option of sleeping in your cars, which I notice many did. We had no such possibility available to us.

After the Germans left our camp the only thing I could think about was to lie down and rest. I didn't want to do that in the wet so decided to get in my tent, get dry and get some rest. I wouldn't be getting out of there until the morning.

Luckily on the Sunday morning I woke up after a rather nice sleep. I'd put my sleeping bag, pillow and denims in separate, sealed bin bags and hence managed to sleep very soundly.

Others weren't so lucky or had planned ahead so well. Webby had got no sleep at all and Syd had been sopping wet all night as his dry kit had got wet as it wasn't fully sealed. How he'd actually managed to sleep in that condition I have no idea, but I can say categorically he did sleep all night long as I heard the snoring!

We all knew that the morning's assault would mean at least a kilometre walk up hill through wet and rough terrain followed by an assault with us being killed repeatedly. This I'm sure accounted for even more morale loss.

If there's one thing I've learned from this its that bin bags are wonderful items. Keep your dry kit in them for the night, then in the morning put the kit back in some new bags and seal it again!

Okay... enough of the rant. I did really enjoy the weekend!

Final action of the event: Absolutely definite sighting of enemy moving from the north toward the V1 base. Objective: intercept and hold back advance.

Ad-hoc group gathered and a wide swept through to the North - no enemy anywhere to be seen. Intelligence reports stated that they had rendezvoused at the Dutch village and moved from there. So where the hell were they? I swung the squad for a sweep back toward the SE corner of the forest sector. Suspecting that the Dutch were collaborating with the Allies I hung back and I trashed their village (well, I tipped a couple of chairs over to show I was very cross ). Ran back to rejoin squad on the return sweep. Enemy had been spotted. We formed a loose circle and started moving in towards them - it was the Dutch moving toward their village along the edge of the tree line. They refuse to drop their weapons so a short engagement ensues and they leg it. We leave them and rendezvous back at the V1 for further intel/briefing.
Once there we realise where the enemy had got to - large explosions coming from the south of our CP!

Lol!!

We moved North to the Dutch camp by 0900 to rendezvous as previously planned but they were nowhere to be seen. We nabbed a Flecky jacket thinking it would come in useful. We then trekked down the road a bit and moved through the woods to see if we could get eyes on enemy positions and the V1. As there was only 6 of us we didn't fancy getting gang-raped by dirty Krauts within the first 5 minutes so we kept very quiet.

Using binoculars I could see Oldsweat riding his pushbike up and down the road. We didn't come across any German patrols but did hold up on a couple of occassions when we heard branches snapping. I think we must have just missed one-another at the Dutch camp by a matter of minutes.

After checking the road for OPs we crossed and made our way to the south of the German camp with the intention of infiltrating it to get a helmet. Unfortunately there were quite a few Germans there and we assumed we had been spotted (I later learnt from Helga that this was the case). Undeterred I got in there and managed to 'knife kill' one of your chaps and nick his helmet.

We dressed Morgs up as an unconvincing German sent him to sabotage the V1 and started to move east around the camp towards the V1 setting off some big pyro to attract attention away. We moved up to engage people, all got shot within about 2 minutes (all 5 of us!) then someone told us that Morgs' pyro hadn't gone off (they were wetter than an otter's pocket) the V1 had been launched and that it was end-ex.

...all got shot within about 2 minutes (all 5 of us!)

I didn't get shot and neither had someone else.

The reason I didn't was that I had to go and get my Thompson which I'd mislaid whilst setting up the pyro.

You see i've learnt from bitter experience to put *all* kit in zip lock water proof bags, military waterproof bags or strong bin liners (the garden waste type) even if you dont think its going to rain *and* to put separate items in seperate bags not all in one bag.

I dont know much aboutthe placement of the camp sites other than to say that it sounds like neither was ideal.

We contmeplated digging a drainage ditch in ours at one point but relaised ti was far too mwet and we wewre just churning up mud.
____________

I doubt a drainage ditch would have worked where we were either as the first few inches of ground were just compacted pine needles.

I was actually quite dry on the needles, there was just a very muddy section where people had been walking around the fire and under the tarp.