On 22 January, VI Corps landed at Anzio to outflank the Gustav Line. The Allies spent the first few days consolidating their bridgehead. By the 29th, VI Corps commander, Major General John Porter Lucas, was finally ready to break out. The Germans had used the intervening time wisely, and were able to contest the Allied advance. The British on the right had taken the town of Aprilia and continued to drive to the north. At 0630 on 31 January, the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards-with the support of American tank destroyers-headed to Campoleone to take the town.
Attacker: Allied (British/American) ((British) 1st Battalion, Irish Guards and (American) Company C, 894th Tank Destroyer Battalion)
John made good use of his three smokes and, once again, I was a bit shellshocked by the rapidity of his assault. I defended most heavily for an eastern attack, and my key AT units were caught out of position - though I certainly didn't let him know that, keeping my gun hidden the entire game, and moving dummy tanks as well as my real one. Turn 2 saw him bully me out of the first line of buildings and fall back to the second. Turn 3 saw him grab his first building, as he pushed me back yet another row. I lost a squad. Turn 4 saw him grab the second building. My men retreated across the street, though an unfortunate HOB berserk result prevented one HS from breaking and routing before the British mass overwhelmed them. I lost two dummy tanks, one to a sneaky LOS, another to RBF. Turn 5 saw him expose yet another dummy tank, which emboldened his TDs to swing around from the NW. Turn 6 saw the Brits' first casualty when we swapped HS. And on the bottom of the turn he took control of his third building when a lucky shot from his bypassing motion TD managed to hit and break my HS holding it. I bungled a 32+2 shot, and paid the price when his return 8+3 shot broke my MMG squad. But he chose to break the squad that did the honors and rout upstairs to prevent me from routing a HS into the steeple. Neither of us is a fan of the endgame shenanigans of upper-level building control and, when I managed to stock both buildings capable of being taken with units able to break and rout upstairs, he was unable to take either.
2026-03-22
(A) Michael Rodgers
vs
German win
4.5 hrs
I believe that I bid for the defending Germans and Peter bid for the attacking Allies. I set up dummies in a woods line at the back of the entry board, including one dummy tank on my left. The real tank was on the right, but behind the woods line that the dummies shared. I decided to use the AT gun to fight infantry in the town center. I bore sighted one multi-hex building across the street from it. I had the MMG in the steeple and a unit on level one to see over some center hedges. There was only one good spot I could find for the German light mortar. There is a few hexes of road on the German right with woods in sight at both ends.
I had forgotten that the Allies received four smoke counters on turn one that they could put anywhere. Two went on dummy stacks and two went on my level one and level two units. Peter took advantage of the smoke to move big stacks with armoured assault. He even moved one TD in front of the dummy tank. In the AFPh, however, disaster struck. He rolled the German sniper which recalled one TD. During the German turns, I deployed often. The Allied thrust on the German right had problems with the German light mortar. Its TD moved into the one hex where the mortar could see it. I sighed to myself when I realized I forgot to bore sight it. By luck I hit the TD and shocked it. The shock went to UK and later to eliminated. That mortar also later rolled a CH against a squad that ran in front of it. The other two Allied thrusts had more average success. They worked their way into the town and the German units pulled back. Some of the HS survived longer than expected, so the British were running out of time when Peter decided to concede.
