Jul 23, 2013 chapter eighty six: what’s the bloody point? As the Admiral and I cruised northward on Monday from Solomons to the world renowned Bay Bridge (because a 22 year old woman was knocked off this bridge last Friday night by a Canadian semi truck driver, and lived to tell about the 40 foot drop), the Admiral suddenly turned to me and asked “What. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.
Had the privilege of spending the 75th anniversary D-Day week in Normandy, witnessing commemorations, celebrations, reenactments, and events of all kinds. A wonderfully memorable week.
[Sorry, no photo right now for technical reasons! I should add one in a week or so.]
Naturally we had to mark it with some suitably themed wargames. One highlight was joining the Guerriers du Marais for their exposition in the municipal gallery in Carentan. They had two display games: one a 28mm Bolt Action section of Omaha Beach (fine scratchbuilt bunkers by Pierre); the other a 10mm representation of the whole of the battle for Carentan, using a WWII adaptation of BBB.
The buildings for the latter were real works of art, having been handcrafted by Colin based on actual Carentan buildings, using photos from 1944. The game was good value too. The poor German players really felt pummelled by the US artillery, airpower and naval gunfire support. At the end their paras were still hanging on grimly, but 17th SS had taken a battering and the Ostbataillons had lost interest long ago. The game felt right, and of course it was great to fight for Carentan in Carentan.
We fought a couple of other battles as well. But my favourite game of the week was the tail-end of Operation Bluecoat. Bluecoat seems to be a somewhat neglected operation in Normandy histories, perhaps because it is a kind of bridesmaid as it covers the US flank after the more glamorous and well-known US Operation Cobra. But whereas much of the Normandy fighting is simple frontal assault slog with limited options for the defender, the last part of Bluecoat offers scope for games of much more complex and interesting maneuver.
The focus of our game was the period in early August 1944 when two British divisions - 11th Armoured and Guards Armoured - push south from St.-Martin-des-Besaces toward Vire and the critical east-west highway through it that the Germans are using as an axis for their drive on Mortain. The result is that they collide at right angles with 9th SS Panzer Division 'Hohenstaufen' and some other fragments and remnants. Hence the attacking British forces are not much larger than the defending/counterattacking Germans; both sides have substantial mobile and armoured formations; and both sides need and want to maneuver.
To me the situation is strikingly similar to the ACW Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. (See here and here.) Invert the map east-west, and you have the British playing the part of the Union - with Guards Armoured showing some of the diffidence and caution of the passive and confused Union army - while 9SS is Bobby Lee's mobile, smaller but highly motivated and aggressively led army, striking at ninety degrees. Vire isn't quite Richmond, but near enough in providing an objective at the southern end of the pitch that the CSA/9SS have to stop the US/Brits from reaching; and to do so they have several options of blocking, smashing, or cutting rear lines of communication.
We fought this twice in Normandy, having fought it once already in UK. In game 1 (UK), the British easily raced south and cut the road at Vaudry and Viessoix but then couldn't make much progress along it to the east, and ended up winning by turning west and taking Vire (unhistorically, since in the actual campaign this could shifted from the British to the US sector during the operation). Game 2 was another British win as the Germans opted for a straight punch to the west from Estry, came within an ace of cutting British supply lines completely, but left the road to Vire and the highway too open. Game 3, benefiting from previous experience, the German players followed a more historical plan. KG Weiss's Tigers successfully dominated the main road toward Vire for the whole game, and 9SS managed to string out along the key Estry ridge and hold that against all efforts. There was an alarm late in the game when Guard Armoured briefly opened a gap on the eastern flank and looked like getting through behind 9SS; but reserves plugged the gap. By then all the British formations had run out of steam, so a German win evened up the score somewhat.
The game was fought with a playtest version of Frank Chadwick's forthcoming Breakthrough! rules.
[Sorry, no photo right now for technical reasons! I should add one in a week or so.]
Naturally we had to mark it with some suitably themed wargames. One highlight was joining the Guerriers du Marais for their exposition in the municipal gallery in Carentan. They had two display games: one a 28mm Bolt Action section of Omaha Beach (fine scratchbuilt bunkers by Pierre); the other a 10mm representation of the whole of the battle for Carentan, using a WWII adaptation of BBB.
The buildings for the latter were real works of art, having been handcrafted by Colin based on actual Carentan buildings, using photos from 1944. The game was good value too. The poor German players really felt pummelled by the US artillery, airpower and naval gunfire support. At the end their paras were still hanging on grimly, but 17th SS had taken a battering and the Ostbataillons had lost interest long ago. The game felt right, and of course it was great to fight for Carentan in Carentan.
We fought a couple of other battles as well. But my favourite game of the week was the tail-end of Operation Bluecoat. Bluecoat seems to be a somewhat neglected operation in Normandy histories, perhaps because it is a kind of bridesmaid as it covers the US flank after the more glamorous and well-known US Operation Cobra. But whereas much of the Normandy fighting is simple frontal assault slog with limited options for the defender, the last part of Bluecoat offers scope for games of much more complex and interesting maneuver.
The focus of our game was the period in early August 1944 when two British divisions - 11th Armoured and Guards Armoured - push south from St.-Martin-des-Besaces toward Vire and the critical east-west highway through it that the Germans are using as an axis for their drive on Mortain. The result is that they collide at right angles with 9th SS Panzer Division 'Hohenstaufen' and some other fragments and remnants. Hence the attacking British forces are not much larger than the defending/counterattacking Germans; both sides have substantial mobile and armoured formations; and both sides need and want to maneuver.
To me the situation is strikingly similar to the ACW Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. (See here and here.) Invert the map east-west, and you have the British playing the part of the Union - with Guards Armoured showing some of the diffidence and caution of the passive and confused Union army - while 9SS is Bobby Lee's mobile, smaller but highly motivated and aggressively led army, striking at ninety degrees. Vire isn't quite Richmond, but near enough in providing an objective at the southern end of the pitch that the CSA/9SS have to stop the US/Brits from reaching; and to do so they have several options of blocking, smashing, or cutting rear lines of communication.
We fought this twice in Normandy, having fought it once already in UK. In game 1 (UK), the British easily raced south and cut the road at Vaudry and Viessoix but then couldn't make much progress along it to the east, and ended up winning by turning west and taking Vire (unhistorically, since in the actual campaign this could shifted from the British to the US sector during the operation). Game 2 was another British win as the Germans opted for a straight punch to the west from Estry, came within an ace of cutting British supply lines completely, but left the road to Vire and the highway too open. Game 3, benefiting from previous experience, the German players followed a more historical plan. KG Weiss's Tigers successfully dominated the main road toward Vire for the whole game, and 9SS managed to string out along the key Estry ridge and hold that against all efforts. There was an alarm late in the game when Guard Armoured briefly opened a gap on the eastern flank and looked like getting through behind 9SS; but reserves plugged the gap. By then all the British formations had run out of steam, so a German win evened up the score somewhat.
The game was fought with a playtest version of Frank Chadwick's forthcoming Breakthrough! rules.
Chapter 6 The moment between life and death |
There was a fierce fight between the army and three red monsters on the street. According to the neighbor who lived upstairs, the army named those monsters as Red Shelled Insect. It belongs to the Insecta class in the animal kingdom. They had extremely strong defence and attack abilities. Their secretion was also extremely corrosive.
Luckily there were tanks and armored vehicles on the street. However, although they killed three red shelled insects, they paid a heavy price for it. There was no celebration after the fight was ended, no crying or sad screaming. Everything went back to the quiet state like what it was before.
In the following day of the incident, the army started to give out even less food than before. The neighbor who lived upstairs told him again that, it was not safe to transport supplies now. Everywhere was under the attacks from large amounts of red-shelled insects.
He also claimed that he even got a message from the whistleblower inside the army, saying that the military would probably abandon this area. They already started to prepare for relocation. He said that there was a place where many red-shelled monsters were constantly coming out, and the number of them started to increase rapidly. The army seemed to have lost control of that place.
This guy must be jinxed! Everything he said started to happen. Around seven or eight days later, red-shelled insects started to frequently appear around his housing estate.
There was a building just right behind the housing estate where Chu Yunsheng was staying. Every time when it was around the time at late night in “age of light”(1), there would be many horrified screams mixed with high-pitched of animal roars rang out from there.
Troops were sent out to dealt with it several times, but gradually they stopped it and never went back to check again.
As time passes, The red-shelled insect's roars started to appear everywhere around his housing estate. Shen Cheng city was no longer a safe place to stay. Dangers were everywhere. Chu Yunsheng was living in fears day by day, but he still did not forget to cultivate Yuan Qi.
It was not long until the army began to withdraw its first regiment from the city. Under the protection of a large number of tanks and armored vehicles, a long procession of the private motorcades was slowly passing the street in front of Chu Yunsheng's housing estate. The neighbor upstairs said that the first batch of withdrawal was some people with power, they were protected by the elite troops. But he did not know exactly where they were going to, perhaps some military bases.
...One week later...
The soldiers that distributed food in the area had stopped showing up for some days now, a number of law enforcement troops started to reduce, the situation started to get worse. The upstairs neighbor's wife almost got raped, but luckily Chu Yunsheng was there. He used the gun he purchased to stop the guy.
The neighbor was very grateful to what he did. Later that night, he told him another secret he knew. He heard from his contact inside the military, saying that after three days, the last group of well-equipped elite troops would help to evacuate rest of important people. Because of some unknown reason he was on the list.
Although he was on the lowest-level protection list, he was allowed to bring three family members with him. Unfortunately, he was a family of four. So he could not bring Chu Yunsheng with him. Chu Yunsheng had already known that he was not eligible to be on the list. So he did not think too much about it.
...Three days later...
![Bloody Six Blogspot Bloody Six Blogspot](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124700369/548698322.jpg)
Although he thought that it was actually his book saved the woman’s life, he did not dare to tell anyone. Of course, others would not believe him as well. The woman seemed to have a good heart, but He gave up the idea of seeking help from her. After all, the explanation would only cause more trouble for him.
However, he did not expect that the last evacuation on the third day was compromised. Even with the help of heavy armored vehicles, they only had a chance to move a very short distance before they were stopped by the civilians. The people in the city were very angry that the military wanted to abandoned civilians, everyone was gathered on the street demanding for fair treatments.
Chu Yunsheng did not come downstairs, he was worried about if red-shelled insects would appear. He just removed a small metal plate on the window and observed how the situation progress on his flat.
The street was already blocked by the crowd. The military’s vanguard was only able to advance for a few blocks from his flat. He could see some cars were blocked at back and people started to throw all kinds of stuff toward the cars to express their anger.
Before the neighbor who lived upstairs left, he told Chu Yunsheng that the military headquarters had already given out the order. 'During the evacuation, any obstruction of the military task would be neutralized. All the troops did not need to report to a higher level before executing the order. this was the trouble time. The harsh punishment was inevitable.'
But when the 126th regiment was blocked by thousands of people, even the senior military officer also did not dare to execute the order. There were too many people and they were all just regular civilians. It would only cause more trouble if they started to kill people. Reports were sent to the headquarter constantly. But in the meantime, The military officer needed to calm the crowd down.
Soon, Chu Yunsheng heard a man's voice from far away, the man was using a megaphone shouted.
“Comrade! Comrades! Please listen to me! I am the 126th regiment political commissar Qin Gang. please stay calm, I can assure you that the headquarters will never give up any comrades. The military withdrawal plan, including you definitely, please believe me! '
……
“You are lying !”
“Bullshit!your people are gone,who is gonna evacuate us?”
“They are people, we are not people? Are you the people's army or the army of a rich people?”
……
Crowds were enraged, no one believed a single word he said.
'Qin Gang raised the voice and shouted. 'Comrades! Do not be blinded by certain conspiracists. The military will not give up on you. I, Qin Gang is willing to stay behind and help to evacuate every single one of you. Please, believe me! a large number of troops are still defending the front. We are not the last batch. Evacuation requires order. Otherwise, it will be vulnerable to monsters' attacks, we must ensure the smallest loss!'
……
'Do not listen to this bastard, nonsense!'
'If this is really the case why the government officials and the rich the first? why we are the last?'
'Money is worthless, it is just paper now.'
“You know nothing! Rich people have a background relationship with those government officials, they must have some kind of dirty deal. We are nothing to them !'
![Bloody Six Blogspot Bloody Six Blogspot](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124700369/396896306.jpg)
'I hope they all got eaten by insects, those fuckers....'
The situation was very chaotic. The crowd did not show any signs of leaving. More and more people started to gather together. One soldier who could not handle the pressure fired a warning shot all of sudden. It was like a bomb just dropped in the crowd, the crowd instantly exploded.
“Murderers!”
“They are going to kill everyone now!”
“Let's fight them”
……
Qin Gang instantly turned around and shouted at his men. He was furious. 'who the fuck fired the shot? I am going to kill him!'
The soldiers who fired the shot were already surrounded by the enraged crowd, and they were preparing to rush to the military vehicle as well.
Suddenly!
Someone screamed. 'Mon! mon! , monsters!...'
One, two, three...
At least fifty or sixty of red-shelled insects were running along the walls of buildings on both sides of streets. They were approaching the crowd fast! The whole crowd was terrified and started to disperse. Everyone was running everywhere.
There were more than fifty the red-shelled insects! No one dares to stay.
While the telecommunication could not be used at moment, the 126th regiment commander was using the megaphone shouted.
'Ready to engage! the 2nd battalion, the 3rd battalion, the 7th battalion, get ready the heavy machine guns, the rocket launchers, all armored vehicle get ready! ...'
While the heavy machine guns were firing, the rocket was flying, the crowd was trampling onto each other and running toward the nearest building looking for hideouts.
Under the hail of bullets and rockets, red-shelled insects were still rushing forward fast, only a few of them were blown away by the rockets, rest of them were not affected by the bullets. The saturation fire only caused a few cracks and holes on their shell, none of them died.
When they reached the crowd, they immediately started slaughtering people. The spine-chilling screams just right before people die constantly came out crowds.
They were agile. One of them easily dodged the rockets and tank's attack, rushed into the troop’s formation and stood on the top of a tank. It opened its bloody mouth and spat a green liquid on the tank. The armor of the tank was quickly corroded at a speed which was visible to the naked eyes.
It made a loud high pitched roar and its body started to glow in red. Then, it just used its front claw to open up the tank's armor. Through the hole that was penetrated by its secretion, it killed the soldiers inside the tank. Before the soldiers inside the tank were skilled, they were still trying to use the pistols to kill the monster.
Chu Yunsheng admired the determination of those soldiers. If it were him, he would probably have fainted already.
Chu Yunsheng took a deep breath. He needed to cast a frost talisman onto the crossbow he bought three months ago.
According to the book, after the enchantment, he would be able to use to Yuan Qi on his crossbow. It would unleash an arrow with frost damage. It was a very effective way to kill those monsters because they happened to be the fire elemental monsters.
Before the monsters appeared, He did not know what kind of monster would appear. So he made a lot of fire elemental talismans, which were less effective than the frost talisman.
In order to protect himself, he needed to hurry up making more of those frost talismans.
The reason why he was in such a hurry was that he noticed that, three red shell insects were chasing a group of people towards his building. Unless the book glowed again, otherwise those three monsters would definitely follow them into his building.
But when the book was going to shine the light again? He did not know. So he had to rely on himself.
He had to avoid having a close combat with those monsters. Because he did not have any protection nor his speed was fast enough compared to those monsters. That was why the crossbow was the best option for him at the moment.
1. Age of light is referred to the day before the sun disappeared, people refer now as the dark age.