They Are Here! - A Great War Chain Of Command Narrative

These Hun know what they are about, we have hardly had chance to recover from the effect of the bombardment and they are upon us.

We manage to get the Vickers firing, but the Hun take every advantage of what cover they can find, leaping to and fro, Cpl. Oxley's bomber section lend supporting fire but again the Hun seem impervious to our hail of bullets. The Hun are attacking left and right, we are still suffering from the bombardment effects (one less Command Dice in the first Turn) but over on the right Cpl. Parker gets his rifle section to the parapet to give the Hun a warm reception.

The Hun however give as good as they get, Cpl. Parker is wounded, but his lads have their dander up and keep firing, another Hun section appears adding more weight of fire against them. Cpl. Parker is hit again whilst valiantly inspiring his men. Cpl. "Jock" Calder brings forward his Lewis Gun section, we may still repel the attack, he splits the fire of the Lewis teams, one lending support to Cpl. Parker's section the other firing on the new threat to the front. 

Back on the left we are holding the Hun off, (more down to poor movement dice than British fire I may add). I really need to get that SOS bombardment called in, but either the wires cut or the Hun have a counter bombardment, we really need the rifle bomber section up but they have yet to appear ( the British are now down another command dice due to developments on the right)

 The remnants of Cpl. Parker's section suddenly come under a hail of grenades (Handgranaten! a German National Characteristics rule) before they can recover the Hun are on them, cutting them down mercilessly,

Cpl. Parker's section are broken. The Hun are in the trenches!

 We are in disarray (down to three Command Dice, with the loss of Cpl. Parker and now his section) but undeterred Cpl. Calder leads a counter attack on the Hun in the trench, unfortunately they are no match for the stormtroopers, Cpl. Calder is wounded and the remains of the section are ejected from the trench broken. 

With this loss we cannot hope to hold them any longer (Force Morale is now zero) so I order the retreat of the Vickers team and the remnants of Cpl. Oxley's section.

I can only hope that the little time we have gained for the troops at our rear is enough for them to gather more troops to stem the German advance,

Lt. Reginald Rawnsley, OC, 2nd Platoon, Pendeford Pals Battalion, 46th Div

11.01.18