Bagging the Hun in Brown Deer

Western section, Spitfires over the Solent

Before I moved to Wisconsin I put out a few requests for gamers in the area and Bill - via the medium of TMP - kindly invited me to come along and play with his group who meet up in Brown Deer about 10 miles north of Milwaukee, about an hour and forty-five drive for me.

For my first game we would be playing a Battle of Britain scenario with a version of Bag the Hun simplified for multi-player games. Players were requested to be nationally themed snacks, so Victoria set to and made a rather splendid Tiffin. I picked up a packet of Pipers Crisps with real Anglesea sea salt, crisps you shall note, not chips......

As we have been without a car for four months it was questionable whether I would be able to get the 100 or so miles to Brown Deer, but fortunately, Zimbrick Honda came through and I picked up my splendidly green new car on Wednesday evening ready for the trip.

Arriving at Bills by around 0900 to be greeted by everybody I contributed a small amount of my micro-terrain to the already great looking table and was given a short briefing on the rules and scenario. We would be using Bag the Hun but with turning radii rather than hexes and we would forego the altitude rules. It made a lot of sense as there would be twelve of us playing.

The table was divided into an East, West and Central sectors with play staying in each area to allow the game to flow. I was in the eastern sector under Lewis. Lewis had two sections each of three Spitfires while I had a section of three Hurricanes. We were joined in our sector by Jim who had two sections, one of three Hurricanes and another of a pair of Blenheims off to bomb a factory in France.

Opposing Luftwaffe forces where Dan and Morgan who between them had eight Bf110 and eight He111. 

Lewis took to the air first with two sections of Spitfires and made towards the enemy, we had formulated a plan that we should largely ignore the escorts and go straight for the bombers as best we could.

Lewis was soon engaging and through the Luftwaffe fighter sweep that was ranging ahead of the bombers, shooting down the SchwarmFuhrer a Junior Ace no less! One of the Spitfires was also forced down, but the pilot crash landed in a field just outside Fixington.

My flight of Hurricanes soon joined the fray and attempted to keep the Bf110 busy while the Spits closed in on the lumbering bombers.

Central section Ju88 attach a Chain Home station

The Luftwaffe Top Ace in his Bf110 was proving quite a pain and the superior numbers of German fighters were taking a toll, the RAF were losing planes, but in each instance but one the pilot survived either the bail-out or the crash landing.

The Spitfires were soon tearing into the bombers and accounted for three shot-down and another was forced to abort due to effective AA fire defending the factory complex that was their target.

Eastern Sector, scratch a Bf110

The Blenheims commanded by Jim continued on to France and destroyed their primary target with no loss to themselves, quite a feat in itself, while their Hurricane escort returned to join in the fight now going on over Fixington as the German bombers advanced on their target of Tangmere.

The RAF were looking rather thin now, surprisingly the losses and abandoned missions were more due to the effectiveness of the air-gunners in the He111 than any part of their fighter escort. However losses among the German bombers were now high enough that they could abort their run on our air-field and instead attack their secondary target of the factories in Fixington.

Continued efforts by the AA-gunners and remaining RAF fighters saw the factory badly damaged but not knocked out. The RAF losses were quite bad, four fighters had been lost, but only one pilot killed. Many German air-crew were rounded up by the Home Guard and Police and will not be taking any further part in this war.

A great game in great company and I hope to have the opportunity to do this again sometime.