British Forces at Villers-Bocage, Part One: B Company, 1/7th Queen's Regiment

On to the Queen of the Battle, the Poor British Infantry.  The Brits have a full infantry company to man the houses of Viller-Bocage but don't really have an awful lot of PIATs to scare the Germans.  I think that at most they will be able to chew up the relatively weak German infantry and assault any bailed out German tanks.  That might be enough, as well as to contest any objective.  Once in the houses, the Brits will be hard to dig out.  The British infantry company has three full platoons.  I painted these for my British 3rd Infantry Division force, but as this is a Lorried Rifle Company, they should do the trick. 

A complete Lorried Infantry Company, minus the trucks.  No room really and trucks are boring anyway. 

A platoon of Tommies moves up through the hedgerows.  Each platoon has 6 Rifle/MG teams, a Light Mortar team with a 2"mortar, a PIAT stand and a command Rifle/MG stand. 

Another of the infantry platoons with an enthusiastic subaltern. 

An overhead view of the last infantry platoon. 

The Company Commander and 2iC Command Rifle teams. 

Stray British shots.  How long will they survive the Panzer onslaught? 

Forward! 

 

The Brits also have a Lorried Anti-tank platoon , (5 Anti-tank platoon) with four 6 pdr guns AND Sargent Ton Stanley, a fictional warrior of sorts.  With a ROF of 3, 6 pdr AT guns are not to be sneezed at, especially if you are a Panzer Mk IV H.  Tigers are sterner stuff, but the others need to be careful.  On the other had, there just aren't a lot of places to put the guns, even in ambush.  My son painted these guns. 

The full Anti-tank platoon moves into the town, probably looking anxiously for stray Tiger tanks. 

A battery of four 6 pdr guns might spell trouble IF the Brits can deploy them. 

A frontal shot of the intrepid British gunners. 

A rear view of the guns. 

I don't think the Bren gun carrier will add much to the defense of the town.  Still, there should be at least one Bren gun carrier to blow up. 

A Lloyd carrier at rest.  These are boring too and will probably stay safe and sound in the British shelf. 

Yawn. . .

 

Lastly, the British have Battery B, 5th Royal Horse Artillery Regiment with four Sexton self-propelled guns and an Observation Post Sherman.  I currently find this unit's utility to be a bit ambiguous.  Perhaps they can smoke the Tigers to keep the Cromwells alive a bit longer, or even shred the exposed German motorcycle troops.  I think they might have some trouble surviving if the German panzers get in close.  This unit was painted by my son. 

A half battery of Sextons could be nasty.  The 25 pdr isn't a great weapon for either bombardments or direct fire, but they should be able to do something. 

The battery comes with battery commanders, staff and a Sherman OP tank. 

 

British artillery staff request a fire mission from the Division.

A standard Sexton.

The Sherman OP Tank.

Sextons take up a firing position to pummel the Jerries. 

Staff members wish the full battery was present. 

So far, so good.  Next up is the special guest victim of Villers-Bocage, the 4th CLY.