The Battle of Elouges August 24 1914 - 1914 Rules AAR

Last Monday night we up again with some Great War action, a scenario based on the 1914 Battle of Elouges, a pre trench deadlock with Tommy against the Hun.

A.I. told me this about The Battle of Elouges;

‘The Battle of Elouges, on August 24, 1914, was a rearguard action during the British retreat from Mons in World War I. It involved elements of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the German Army, with the British aiming to delay the German advance. The battle saw fierce fighting, particularly around the village of Elouges, with both sides suffering casualties’

The Game (by George, thanks!);

The Battle of Elouges, a bloody encounter! 

The British stood their ground buying time and take it while the Huns tried to use overwhelming numbers to decide the issue! Unfortunately, the Germans were all from a reserve corps so not quite up to the standard of the defenders.

The sheer numbers told and the British were eventually able to get some remnants of their force back over the bridge. Mention goes to the Coldstream Guards who died where they stood holding up the whole of the German cavalry in the centre, three Regiments in fact. A gallant effort was made by the 2nd Dragoon Guards who took on an entire German regiment of three battalions on their own. They eventually went down fighting but again delayed the German advance. The Black Watch advanced manfully but found eventually that the fire power of the poor quality German Reservists was still overwhelming and they were driven back.

Odd mention to D battery Royal horse artillery who seemed to forget about one of their sections until near the end of the battle. They still managed to incapacitate some of the German Uhlans with long range sniping (but would it could have been oh so much better if their Officer had remembered the other gun section).

The Royal Munster Fusiliers with support did what they could on the road. However eventually only the attached troops from the 15th Hussars managed to scurry away to safety.

The Germans had the entire Cavalry Brigade of three regiments reduced to a single squadron in the hard fight. They lost a battery of field artillery and three battalions of infantry. Two of the remaining battalions were reduced to single companies. The carnage was quite impressive. The British had worked hard to inflict small casualties on lots of units thus downgrading them for the inevitable hand to hand later.

All in all a good tight game that was not so much won by the Germans as not lost by the British.

Some Pictures;

Coldstream Guards stand up to 2 regiments of Uhlans after pushing a third back!

Scots Guards on the high ground prepare to assist the Black Watch

The Munsters with horse and artillery support defend the road to Elouges, they hold the tree line until the Coldstream Guards are defeated and their flank is exposed!

The British 2nd Dragoon Guards (left of picture) start the flank attack on the advancing Germans. They destroy one Battalion and maul a second before being defeated!

A Battalion of the German 22nd Reserve Regiment is across the canal the rest of the Regiment is following them!

Side view of the Munster defensive line, the start of the attack by the 15th German reserve regiment and the 2nd Dragoon Guards debating whether to attack them.

 

The town of Elouges British Horse Artillery can be seen deployed along the tree line beside it!

Summary;

1914 rules like Iron Cross are a pleasure to play, this scenario put together by George is a great one! The Germans with second line troops have one option 'push ahead' whilst the British have two; stand and fight losing some units allowing others to escape or try the "run for it' and get to the town and defend it grimly. I chose the hold option inflicting heavy losses on the endless stream of Germans while taking horrendous casualties but getting some troops off thereby winning a pyric victory!

So good scenario, good rules good terrain resulted in a great evening! George you just need to finish basing those great minis!

Next time we play it will be another Iron Cross game and in the meantime I'll try to post more of our backlog of games!