Characters for this session:
Cpl Bryn Williams: L3 leader, armed with Tommny gun
LCpl Pinko McLean, L3 combat, armed with Bren gun
Pte Cade, L3 recon, armed with Lee-Enfield
NPCs with C Section:
Pte Harding, L2 recon, armed with Tommy gun
Ptes Staples, White, Jimbo and Ward, armed with Lee-Enfields
Ptes Paddy and Lou, the other Bren team members
Driver Fishburn, with Daphne the 3-ton Bedford
Off for a day-trip on Daphne again
Corp comes out the brass’s tent, has another round of jawing with Lt. Barnet, and walks back over waving us up.
“There’s a bridge at some place called Mitting*, we’re to drive there, ready for demolition, defend it until our lads are safe across, blow it and fall back on the rest of the platoon down the road. So, fetch yer kit, and I want a list of other equipment and sundries by the time parade forms in 20” – Williams
* The bridge is over the Myitnge. It allows the 7th Armoured Bde and supporting elements to retreat on Meiktila.
Turns out there’s a few others things Barnet has let Corp in on, that he don’t see fit to pass on, but I’ll mention them as they come up.
So with a quick trip to sick-bay to tell Ward the leech-sore ain’t reason enow to skive off I get the lads on parade and we put our noggins together and come up with a few necessaries, bridge blowing, the up wherefore:
- Demolition charges and firing gear
- Picks/shovels/mattocks
- A winch and cable for Daphne
- A map and compass
- Coils of barbed wire to act as temporary roadblocks
- A new watchword and counter, ‘here I go’ – ‘singing low’
Daphne rumbles up and it’s good to see our old mucker Fishburn. I tell the lads the yarn of our paper errand in Rangoon – funny – they say they have heard it before a few times! But we’re all in high spirits and get a good early start.
A pleasant trip is interrupted by a dangling corpse and bombers too
My oath you meet some odd types on the roads these days. We’ve gotten Daphne slowly through the first few crowds of refugees – the usual long-faced hindoo types – when Staples asks Corp why he’s been looking so close at their faces.
“The lieutenant is telling me we can expect jap infiltrators, so it’s the menfolk I’m studying to be sure they aren’t cunning Oriental gentlemen” – Williams
After that you may be sure we’re all ogling the gents like so many gingers! But there’s no alarm until we reach a fork. Fishburn pulls the lorry up and he and Corp stick their noses in the map. Then what do I hear but the sound of aircraft.
“Ditch! Get off the road you black bastards!” – Pinko, gallantly encouraging refugees to safety
The Oscars, if that’s what they are, ignore us and keep on to Mandalay as we suppose. So back into the lorry, me reminding the lads we’ll need foot and boot inspection later, and off on the side road.
Not far along we find a body strung up from a telephone pole, not a looter but some poor sod of a linesman as has been got by the Burmans. On top of that the stretch of wire here has been nicked! There’s naught to be done about that, none of us having copper-core cable about us, but I shimmy up and cut the poor beggar down and we bury him proper, with words said over him by Corp, who’s a good chapel man.
[Pinko’s STR makes him the best climber at present: with checks of 10 and 17 he manages to achieve that]
A village crossroad and hijack attempt
We are still bumping around in the back of Daphne as we roll into a nice little village, abandoned we think, at first, until I cop there’s dirty work at the crossroads ahead. All out for day-larks I yell and we dust the naughty Burmans off and send one survivor running to his mummy.
[It’s a T-junction in a small village, basically bashas lining the streets on both sides, with concealment and some cover afforded by their platforms and woven walls. Pinko makes an 18 Notice and sees a lorry being rolled towards the junction, obviously intended to collide with Daphne. He gives Harding the word to signal stop, and readies to cover-fire.]
Combat
Initiatives:
- Cade/Harding
- Burman Tommy gunner
- Williams/rifles
- Bren team
- Other Burmans
Round 1: Cade vaults into cover [28 Athletics!] just in time to avoid a Tommy gun firing from right-forward of the T junction. [Those in the back of Daphne need only DC 9 to avoid] Fishburn Lou and Ward are all hit. Williams empties a full clip in return and is disappointed that there’s no immediate sign of success. The rifles vault clear and into cover as best they can [Athletics, only Harding mucks his check up] – two left, two right following Harding.
“Scramble lads, I’m right behind ye” – Pinko, putting a cover burst in from the hip and vaulting onto the road beside Daphne.
With Lou and Paddy safely in cover left only Williams, Harding and Pinko are obvious targets. The expected intercept lorry rolls down the lane, across the street and ploughs into a basha, a good 20′ in front of Daphne. The cab crew scramble clear and a couple more Burmans reveal themselves further up the street. They are disconcerted by the preparedness of the Brits and no-one takes fire.
Round 2: “Cover fire! Pour it into ’em!” – Williams, possibly realising how exposed he is
Cade duly knocks dusts off the lorry driver. Harding finishes getting safely to cover and Williams follows him, both now threatening the T with their Tommy guns. Pinko steps to cover behind the nearby basha and empties the remainder of the mag into the wall where the Burman Tommy gun fired. Bits of rattan and weave shower the lane as a gap is torn there.
“Reload! You rifles head left and work round” – Pinko to the two rifles near him
There is much shouting in Burman as the ambushers try to decide their next move.
Round 3: “Rifles rally forward on the lorry! I’m advancing!” – Williams
Cade advances right. Through the gap in the basha wall, he can see an arm dangling limply. He moves up with Harding who holds ready. Heeding Williams and ignoring Pinko all rifles rally behind the crashed lorry. Williams hustles forward and across the lane to the damaged basha. There’s no obvious target. [Rolls a 1 on Notice]
“Well those buggers buggered off, it’s up to us lads. With me!” Pinko creates his own flanking movement, exiting behind the basha and hustling forward to the left forward corner.
A Burman sited so as to cover direct up the lane fires and misses a sitter of a shot at Williams, but another Burman pitches a grenade accurately, and it lands behind the lorry among the clumped rifles!
Round 4: Cade scurries across the lane missing a shot at the Burman covering he and Williams, but Harding has line of sight and probably hits with a burst. Williams empties another full clip at the same and definitely hits. At this point his life gets interesting: Staples, Jimbo and White sprint rearward away from the grenade; Ward has maybe seen one war flick too many and boots it away with a mighty kick that happens to send it under the lorry, out across the lane, and very close to Williams!
BANG!! Williams fails REFL SV and takes 11 damage. He’s also unable to hear the next exchange of questions/orders. Pinko puts a lethal burst into a Burman and steps back to better cover:
“Lou, Paddy! Grenades into this’ere basha!” – Pinko
The remaining Burmans fire at Williams but all miss.
Round 5: Cade and Harding both fire again at the resilient Burman covering the lane and at last he drops. Harding scuttles diagonally across the lane to Williams while Cade flanks right, around the basha. While not stunned, Williams gets his bearings and reloads. On the other side of the battlefield Lou and Paddy’s grenades both go off, but are wasted since there are no more living Burmans in that basha. Pinko advances around the next basha. The Burmans begin withdrawing, one firing at Cade who is now rather exposed.
Round 6: Cade returns fire and retires adroitly to cover as the Burman drops. He has a fair field of fire along the back of the bashas but can’t see the main road. Harding empties the rest of his mag into the next basha, with no visible effect. Williams tosses a grenade at fleeing Burmans, and it not only goes off but kills both of them. Pinko puts another burst near the Burmans he is aware of and moves to the next basha for cover. The remaining three Burmans run!
Round 7: “Teach them a lesson!” – Williams, still somewhat deaf
Cade moves in pursuit and wings a Burman, while Harding reloads. Williams waves his rifles forward and they fire down the main road accurately, dropping both the Burmans there. Pinko’s enfilade wasted, he sends a burst at the winged Burman but misses, and that gent flees into the jungle, wiser for the experience.
Check and loot: There are no fatalities other than the enemy, though Williams is quite badly shaken and Fishburn Lou and Ward are the worse for splinters, glass cuts and so on. Four working Lee-Enfields and plenty of spare clips are looted, as well as the Tommy gun, a couple of spare mags for that and enough rupees for a few each. Pinko recovers his empty box mag and reloads it as well as his part-empty mag, leaving 14 spare clips for the rifles.
Combat ends
The bridge! – and another village! – and more to puzzle!
For a bit of a change when we get to the bridge, what do we see but clear fields beyond the river! And a nice little hill for siting in my Bren. ‘Let’s have a dekko’ says Corp and we walk the abandoned little village on our side, across the bridge – two pillars of proper British concrete and about 100′ long – and up to the kidney-shape hill, which has a couple buildings on it.
Looking out across the fields we see another village and a bigger hill, this with a pagoda on it. The hill shoulders the road, making it bend around. ‘If we had more men I’d say put a picket on that there hill, but we have to check the village anyhow,’ says I and Corp agrees. He’s spotted a couple corpses hung in the maidan.
Once we get some nice slit trenches dug in our kidney hill he leaves White and Staples, and Cade and Harding who are our demolitions boys of course, and Daphne takes us up to the far village.
We’re sweeping it when Jimbo yells there’s a funny coot jabbering at him, and sure enough there’s not just the two poor sods of Indian soldiers dead, there’s a live Burman. I put a couple rounds near enough to him to move him along. Corp goes after him – taking his name and number maybe – but the Burman beetles off and good riddance.
[Cade’s player says he can only remember Pinko as a name to call! I am going for an intimidate check but the GM overrules that in favour of Converse and I roll a terrible roll
anyway, then Williams rolls a 3 for Converse]
Then up the hill we climb, the pagoda is clear, and far away we see half a dozen of our lads foot-slogging along the road.
Some extra pairs of hands from the Royal Artillery
I have a feeling these lads know I’m waiting for them [the position chosen is OK, Pinko rolls a 1 for Hide] so I stand up and ask for their paybooks, nice-like. These are the genuine British articles, a Bombardier name of Postlethwaite and four Gunners from the north, and two Jocks. I whisper in Corp’s shell-like and he offers them a lift in Daphne in return for standing-to with us!
Jimbo acts cool as dammit and what does the snotnose do but offer them a swig each – out of Cade’s hip-flask!
The five captured firearms are duly handed out. As the enlarged section is introduced we leave them there:
The new men:
Bombardier Postlethwaite, northerner
Gnr Hitchcock, northerner**
Gnrs Campbell and McDuff, Scotsmen
Gnrs Withers, Thomas and Crane, northerners
** Hitch’s paternal grandfather
Historical note
Despite Slim’s best intentions it has been 4 weeks of failed schemes and retreats for the Chinese and Allied armies. Now in late April the British army corps (including 38th Chinese Divn) is stretched across a line running from Seikpyu on the Irrawaddy’s west bank, through Chauk, Kyaupadaung, Zayetkon and Meiktila. The 7th Armoured Brigade is somewhere between Meiktila and the Chinese V army which is retreating north, parts of it shattered, through Lashio. It’s understood that the British will act as rearguard.
As a player I enjoyed the uncertainty factor at play in the fire-fight. The GM put enemy pieces on the board (mainly to help run them) but did not indicate when one dropped, unless it was obvious. Corporal Williams needs to learn about fire discipline like Harding and Cade did, now he has a Tommy gun.
One negative, which is just a D&D thing, is the speed of the encounter. The whole thing took about a minute in rounds. There are skirmish rules that more accurately imitate how these types of encounters are very stop-start and tend to take plenty of time.
PartyBickering 