25th October Oostende Defense

Oostend was under attack, and a Jerry victory here would open up an attack on England itself. Troops, equipment and morale were low.

Two Churchill VII's, two Cru III's and a rag tag assortment of trucks, 6 lbr's and infantry set off from Jabbendike to undertake the long and dangerous journey to attack the enemy forward base to the east of the town.

After a minor mishap had taken my Church off the road and into an enemy tree, I was about 2 miles behind the rest of the vehicles. One well placed enemy ATG had already taken out the lead churchill, and more enemy panzers had been spotted to our west.

The unfamiliar sound and shape of destroyers loomed over the horizon as our Churchill neared the forward base. Luckily, they flew the flags of the Royal Navy and the MarNat.

It turned out our engineering team had been taken out in previous operations, so we had no way of taking down the enemy staging post. The remaining tanks and ATGS moved up and set up a perimeter east of the buildings. Heavy fighting had broken out in the town, and the destroyers of the Allied Navies were busy shelling the enemy positions.

I heard a lot of fighting, but saw none, save a single enemy panzer that came tearing through the bushes towards me. As I brought the gun round to bear, a 6 lbr not 100 yds from my position tore through him like paper.

Fearing enemy sappers, I approached the FB from the south. Several trucks passed by me, all taken out by either tank or ATG well placed to the SW of the FB. Finally, I saw a Pz III parked in the doorway of the tent. He was firing on some approaching soldiers, so I began hitting him about the turret with AP shot from around 900 yds. He carried on firing, then stopped and turned towards me. Two more shots of AP, and then he began firing his high velocity shells at me. I carried on hitting him, mixing HE and AP shots until his gun fell silent.

At this point, a StuG IIIG appeared alarmingly to my east. Fortunately, he was heading away from me and I dropped a few good AP shots on his rear decking. He turned broadside to me, and I slotted an AP shot into his rear quarter, causing an almighty explosion.

Turning back to face the enemy position, I saw several infantry and ATGs setting up about 700 yds to my north. I sprayed them liberally with MG from the co-ax, the forward gun and dropped a few HE rounds on for good measure. Feeling a little unloved, I attempted to move the Church a few hundred yards closer to the town, but a horrible crunching sound suggested I'd lost a track, probably from the IIIH earlier.

I called over the radio for backup, but none was coming. Two more guns Bofors 40mm AAA guns set up to my north west, and they began pounding my tank with the ineffective but annoying HE rounds, causing the commander to duck down and get the lid on pretty darn sharpish!

Unable to range or see, I hosed the area with co-ax and forward MG, until mercifully the pounding stopped.

The commander popped up to survey the scene, and noticed more infantry of a German variety heading our way. We shot every bushline and tree stump around for 600 yds, switching to forward MG when the co-ax needed reloading. Finally, as the dust settled, the commander popped up again and saw the brown and green camo of a Stug IIIG heading in our direction. Out of AP and HE ammo, tracked and unable to move, we decided discretion is the better part of valour and we high tailed it back to Oostende for a well deserved cuppa.

Not long later, Jerry pulled the attack and the defense was a success!



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