Le Cateau - The German Advance

After dispositions were mapped the German commanders needed to decide how they would conduct their advance. They could advance in column which would mean they would advance much faster or they could spread out in open order. Open order would result in less casualties but would mean a slower advance to target. Oberleutnants von Emvier and von Vagabund were given time to decide this over some bottles of beer I had bought at the Black Sheep brewery at Masham whilst on holiday. This was an important conference as in the game they would only be able to talk to each other if their character figures were within 6” of each other on the board.

Meanwhile, I as the British was allowed to put barricades up across the roads and building fronts.

Having built the barricades, I managed to drag the Germans away from their cosy fireside chat and figures were placed on the board. The German players were not allowed to view the British dispositions from anywhere except their end of the board. They were unsure as to the number of machine guns the British had. Oberleutnant von Vagabund produced some 1:1 scale binoculars to view the British positions.

The British machine gun position commanding the vital cross roads. There was only one Vickers to hand for Colour Sergeant Snapcase’s boys but the Germans weren’t to know that.

On the right, Colour Sergeant Snapcase, second from right is Lance Corporal Spankhurst. Corporal Alf Tucker commands the 4-man Vickers team.

Now was the time for the German commanders to put their cunning plan into action. They had elected to advance ‘en colonne’ in the Napoleonic fashion. The early days of the Great War more often resembled the wars that had gone before, rather than the war that was to come. Cavalry roamed the battlefields and guns were bought into action by teams of horses and limbers. The overall British commander of II Corps, Smith-Dorrien had survived the slaughter at Isandlwana and fought bravely as a junior officer in the Second Boer War.

The two sections under von Emvier advanced, one in the fields to the south and the other directly up the cobbled road leading to the disputed crossroads.

The two sections under von Vagabund form a column together and take a more northerly route through the open fields.

The section advancing up the cobbled road start to take casualties from the Vickers. British casualties are light at this point as only the front two ranks of each column can fire. With an understrength platoon though, the Die-Hards cannot afford to take any casualties in their desperate defence.

Out of focus (as he often is) von Emvier can be seen here leading from the rear. He assured us that this is the correct military tactic and who were we to argue?

The German advance continues relentlessly and the more northerly column is surprised to find very limited fire coming from the Boucherie. This is due to that British section being out of contact with their Sergeant and throwing some very poor dice to activate with a corporal in charge.

At the start of Turn 2 the Maxim gun teams arrive on the eastern edge of the board on random tiles. They begin to advance to catch up with the fast-moving columns.

Although the Vickers continues to fire directly into the advancing German infantry, the rate of fire is halved as two of the Vickers crew are killed.

The Germans are now very close to the British barricades and it looks like they may have to storm these barriers with the bayonet. More portentous events will unfold in the next post as the 26^th Magdeburg charge with cold steel.

To be continued…