Solo gaming the battles for Monte Cassino

 I’ve always had an interest in the Battles of Monte Cassino, partly due to the involvement of the 2^nd 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 19^th 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