Encounter at Eecloo 11th October 1914 - Part 2

 

The British were a bit more confident that they could hold the German advance now that 20^th Infantry Brigade had arrived.

On the left wing the Borderers engaged a somewhat over-eager company of German regimental machine gunners which had advanced up to the stream in front of the Borderer’s positions. The few survivors were soon sent scurrying back to their comrades stationed in the fields behind them.   

 

The Borderers cut up on the left wing

6^th Cavalry Brigade reacted as best it could with its limited remaining strength. The small but defiant band of survivors from 10^th Hussars managed to join up with the Gordon Highlanders.

 In the centre 1st Dragoon Guards attempted another bayonet charge, this time against some German infantry which had finally succeeded advancing out of Somergem village. These Germans were made of sterner stuff and the Dragoons were forced back, while their supporting RHA artillery was badly pounded by German counter battery fire and dispersed.

 

The few surviving Dragoons fall back

 It was on the third turn of our second session that the BEF witnessed the full power of the German 5^th Reserve Infantry Division’s schwerpunkt….

 The cards were shuffled properly for the turn and the full firepower of the Germans was unleashed!

 As card after card was turned, only to reveal that another German unit was activated, only 20^th Infantry Brigade HQ was able to react (half-heartedly) to the unceasing German fire that fell on the British units.

 All three BEF infantry battalions were badly cut up, with several companies each being forced back with disruption galore. The Dragoons also had to retreat again, while there was just about no return fire from the stunned BEF force.

The BEF right wing about to retreat

 After a quick consultation Brigadiers Makin and Riggles-Brise conceded that they had no option but to concede the field to the advancing Germans.   

 After the game we counted no less than 14 German cards had been turned against only one British one during the third turn. ITLSU is a very good set of rules, but perhaps this game does show an extreme case where the use of unit cards has limits. We played a large scale game, so there were a lot of both German and British cards in play each turn.

 Even with the defeat of the BEF I was quite pleased how the scenario worked overall.