I’ve
always had an interest in the Battles of Monte Cassino, partly due to the involvement
of the 2nd NZ Division in the battles. My first two games of getting back into Bolt
Action were themed on the Free French trying to outflank the Gustav line just prior
to the start of the Battles for Monte Cassino so I’ve decided to continue this
theme into a solo wargaming campaign.
I’ve some excellent books on the campaign including John Ellis’ Hollow
Victory and Plowman & Rowe’s Battles for Monte Cassino then and now which is
an amazing resource for the battles.
So
what I am thinking of doing, at least until I run out of interest and move on to
my next shiny game/idea, is to fight a series of solo battles using the Bolt
Action rules to fight games inspired by some of the actual
engagements. Bolt Action is a small scale (typically reinforced platoon) and
may not obviously lend itself to such an approach but my thoughts are to run a
series of games inspired by an actual engagement during the battle and refight
aspects of the campaign.
This
idea came about the other day when thinking about locating my first Free French
vs Germans battle within the Italian campaign context and so chose the Free
French attempts to outflank the Gustav in early January 194 as a starting
point. That led me to considering running a larger narrative campaign and this
is what I think I will do.
How
I think I will do this is work my way though the campaign in chronological
order and recreate small scale table top battles which could be part of the
larger engagements using Ellis’s book to guide the various battles.
Using
my initial games as a starting point I will continue with the Free French
attempts to capture Monte San Croce and so bypass Cassino and the major
defensive lines.
This is the outline of the various games in the first battle of Monte Cassino (Jan 11- Feb 9 1944) that I will enevour to game:
- The
French Expeditionary Corps drive for the Gustav line: 11-24 Jan
- X
British Corps on the Garigliano: 17 Jan- 9 Feb
- 36
US Division attempts to cross the Rapido River: Jan 20-22
- II
US Corps on the Cassino Mastiff: 24 Jan- 12 Feb
- French
Expeditionary Corps on Colle Belvedere: 25 Jan- 3 Feb
For
each of the different attacks I will play a series of three battles, forces of
which will be based on my research into that particular battle.
The
games so far:
French
Expeditionary Corps drive on the Gustav line
Game
1-
Having secured their initial objectives Consta San Piedro the Free French
advance towards the Rapido and try to secure crossing points on the Rapido
River and capture Monte San Croce beyond. This was a successful assault and
lead to game 2.
Game
2- German counter attack of the newly
established Free French Bridgehead- the Germans
launch a fierce counter attack against the newly established French
Bridgehead and drive the French troops back across the Rapido river.
Final
game:
Game
3- January
19th 1944, having taken heavy casualties and lacking reserves and with
German resistance stiffening General Juin makes one last attempt to capture
Monte San Croce and bounce the Gustav line.
Craig