Scenario 28 Counterstroke at Stonne
Scott B
COUNTERSTROKE AT STONNE
SCENARIO 28, CRESCENDO OF DOOM
AFTER ACTION REPORT
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
Guderian had crossed the Meuse at Sedan and looked audaciously north to the English Channel. The First and Second Panzer Divisions would soon push into the largely undefended French rear, despite OKW’s orders to the contrary. To secure the southern flank, he ordered the 10th Panzer Division and the Großdeutschland Infantry Regiment to the line of the Ardennes Canal-the Stonne heights-the Meuse bend south of Villemontry. The village of Stonne sat on the heights overlooking the plateau to the Sedan bridgeheads.
To the south, French forces were massing for a counterattack on the bridgeheads. They would need to pass through the small gap just north of Stonne to reach the plateau and advance to Sedan. Attacking the town on the fifteenth of May, they battled for three days with the town changing hands seventeen times. The Germans finally captured it for the final time at 17:45 on seventeen, May. It was the final French failure to eliminate the Sedan bridgeheads, leaving the allies in Belgium with little flank protection.
Chronology of the battle
15 May Change hands seven times, Scenario 28 occurs on this day.
16 May Change hands three times, Billotte’s wild ride.
17 May Change hands seven times, finally German hands.
RESOURCES
Geocode: 49.550246, 4.926922; Seden to Stonne link.
“Counterstroke at Stonne.” CRESCENDO OF DOOM. Baltimore, MD: The Avalon Hill Game Company, 1980. https://storage.googleapis.com/archivesqlt/CAJ00028A.pdf
Guderian, Heinz (1966) [1952]. “Panzer Leader”. New York: De Capo Press.
Wikipedia. The Battle of Stonne.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedan_(1940)#Battle_of_Stonne
Lehmann, D. (2004) Battle of Stonne 15-17 May 1940, Axis History Forum. Available at: https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=45336#p406466 (Accessed: April 4, 2023).
Horne, Alistaire. “To Lose a Battle: France 1940”. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1969. Pages 360.
https://archive.org/details/tolosebattlefran00horn/page/360/mode/2up
Hamill, J. (2012) Stonne. John's Military History. Available at: http://johnsmilitaryhistory.com/Stonne.html (Accessed: April 4, 2023).
The Tank Museum. “Tank Chats #28 Char B-1 Bis”. YouTube, November 6, 2016,
L'Ami du Patrimoine. “Stonne 1940: char B1 bis”. YouTube, March 4, 2022,
The Chieftain. “Inside the Chieftain’s Hatch Car B1 Bis”. YouTube, October 24, 2017,
The AceDestroyer. “Tank Battles of WW2 - French Char B1 tank Ace Billotte's wild ride at Stonne”. YouTube, April 18, 2019,
TankNutDave. “The French Hotchkiss H35 Light tankHotchkiss H-39”. YouTube, March 13, 2011.
PANZER Insight. “Rare WW2 Panzerjäger I - 4, 7 cm PaK (t) footage”. YouTube, April 29, 2020.
VICTORY CONDITIONS
The side with the most victory points wins. Each stone building is worth a number of victory points equal to its ground level hex size. Hence the chateau on board 6 is worth seven points out of seventeen total points.
The French need one more building if they hold 4X1 and the chateau on board 6.
The record is 2 Allied to 13 Axis, so we agreed on the following balance modifications before commencing play:
No concealment counters at start.
No Hidden Initial Placement.
No Scouts.
German reinforcements enter on turn 2.
TO KILL numbers [front/side/rear, (IFE)]
37 1/2/3, (4)
37L 2/3/4, (6)
47 3/4/5
47L 4/5/6
75* 4/6/7
75 (HE) 3/5/7
INITIAL POSITIONS
German Comments (setup first)
The Chateau dominates the terrain and the victory conditions, its control is worth 41% of the points and it observes the open ground which the French must cross. The infantry will have trouble maneuvering around it. It is a stone building by SSR and provides good cover. The Germans occupy it with most of their forces, making a break-water against the French attack.
French Comments
The French player will understand quickly that the goal is not to capture the buildings in Stonne despite the victory conditions. The goal is to destroy the German defenders. If he accomplishes this, it will be a simple measure to occupy the town and chateau.
I will detach the H39s and treat them like light cavalry. They will swing around the flank of the German defenders and move on Stonne. There they can infiltrate the town, deny the high ground to the anti-tank reinforcements and harass the German rear. Everyone else will go for the German defenders in the chateau. The right flank will move into the orchard to further cut off the chateau and to move on the town.
This probably will not work, but I plan on using up every counter to achieve the victory. “Come back with your shield or on it!”
GAME TURNS ONE AND TWO
French Comments (move first)
The H39s have reached the high ground. They have to stay buttoned up and a good movement roll allows 80% of those tanks to move there. Now they must follow their plan and harass the German reinforcements. If they are to be destroyed, they must sell themselves dearly….
The heavy tanks move up close to engage the Chateau at point blank. They also will get some cover from that building when the H39s have to concede the high ground. Two other Char B1s move engage the ATG in the orchard. This gun has to be taken out as it threatens the heavy tanks with side shots.
The French infantry must run. Run!!! They must get to the Chateau while the armor holds out. With enough of them the French will overwhelm the building and eliminate all of the defenders. The plan hinges on this victory. Once it is done, the infantry can move up into the main town to push the anti-tank units back….
Save the Kubelwagen for our victory parade later….
German Comments
The French take the northern heights, capitalizing on the agreed upon delay of German armor until turn two. Normally, the Germans can reach the hills on the first turn and start firing from a distance. The Pz Jag I is so lightly armored (less than a halftrack frontally) that it requires a hull down position for protection, something the H39s are denying. To protect these potent anti-tank vehicles, the heights must be secured before assisting the infantry.
The German armor confronts the H39s on the heights. Two Pz Jag Is are at thirteen hexes to move the TO HIT column over and penalize the French 37 with +1 penetration. The Stugs get close to maximize penetration and cross the T. This will either be the best move of the game or the worst.
Further south, the French armor pressures the Chateau and their infantry draw near. It is the best cover on board six, so the Germans can hold it. For now.
I don’t have a good use for the Kubelwagen.
GAME TURN THREE TO SIX
French Comments
Turns 3 to 6 is where the French plan goes off the rails. Only a small number of troops have made it to the Chateau. Those lucky few consist of 3 squads and 1 crew. This appears to be not nearly enough to take the building. Let’s review the plan as it was:
All Char B1 Bis and 90% of the infantry will attack the Chateau. This object is vitally important. If the Chateau does not fall to the French, most of the rest of the stone buildings will have to. It represents 7 of the 17 possible victory points. On this objective, I would say the French are almost at failure. In the picture above, most of the attacking infantry were either KIA or broken and hiding in the woods to the south of the building.
All H39s will move into the town and capture stone buildings with their crews. The thinking here is that the H39s will be destroyed before the end of the game anyway. If that happens they will probably not be able to capture any objectives. This mission was a success. The problem is that they would not be able to defend against a sustained counterattack. In a pinch, the Germans would probably win the game by reversing this result late.
Two squads and one leader would capture the one stone building at 4X1. This was accomplished. It was meant to prevent a German halftrack from reversing the result.
Capture the three story building in the village with one Char B1 Bis, two squads and an H39 crew. This was not accomplished. It was a pipe dream at best and even if accomplished, could not have been defended without huge lucky breaks.
This plan has led to 7 VPs in French hands. Unfortunately, this is likely to be the highwater mark as the lack of the Chateau will prevent a French victory. The Germans only need to defend the Chateau and the 3 level building to win.
German Comments
The most important objective is control of the Chateau, and all units are best used supporting it. My gut wanted to send the STUGs against the French infantry. However, this would fail to recognize the French armor as the biggest threat to them. So all vehicles were directed against French armor, and the STUGs proved effective tank killers at close range. By the end of turn six, the French were down to one functioning Char Bis, allowing the STUGs to turn their attention to the infantry and burden the Char Bis to come looking for them.
The German infantry stayed in their initial positions, reducing the French infantry to only a few squads by turn six. The 9-2 and HMG terrorized the enemy, as they always do. The Char Bis’ engaged them with the 75s, but they proved resilient and unbreaking; performing better than expected. The Germans, in their stone and wood building positions, gunned down the French in woods and while moving in the open.
The Germans were fortunate that few squads broke and no MGs malfunctioned. They held only three buildings in their defensive line and the whole force was required to reduce the French mass of infantry. An early loss of strength may have left the French enough forces to take the Chateau.
AFTERMATH
French Comments
Add this French attack plan to the other failed French plans. My miscalculation was that all the heavy tanks and most of the French infantry could carry the Chateau. The German leadership, MGs, ability to rally and armor leaders on high ground ended that effort. The attack on the village by the H39s and the 4X1 were meaningless without the Chateau being carried.
Scott played a very good game. His defense acted as he predicted. It was a breakwater. Once the French wave was turned back and broken, the Germans were able to sweep up the pieces and clean the board of any attacking French.
My thinking is that this scenario is very one-sided. Scott’s proposed changes made the game more fluid, but make no mistake. Once the Germans are established on the hills and in the Chateau, it is just a matter of time before the French are driven off.
German comments
This was a very mobile game with the engagement covering three boards. The combination of delayed German entry and high French wireless rolls (129.51) resulted in three boards commingled in units from top to bottom. Both the French and German have options on how and where to engage their armor and that made this scenario an interesting one.
I agree with Monty this is still German favored, but am not the magnitude. The loss of a key German position before turn five could prevent them from sufficiently reducing the French mass. The German armor does outclass the French, but they might not prevail over massed, mutually supporting Char Bis and H39s. The thirty-seven mm guns can deliberately immobilize as well as eighty-eights. This needs more plays to see if there is a winning (or even competitive) French strategy.
PARTIAL ARMOR PENETRATION SHOCK (131)
It is a satisfying shot that brings a behemoth Char Bis grinding to a halt. He was trying to slip around the rear of the chateau to pound the infantry with his 75 when the PzJag1 fired from atop a distant hill. The tank itself is fine but the crew within were shocked by the shell impact and are unable to move or fire until the end of the next player turn.
Partial Armor Penetration Shock (131) models a non-penetrating shell’s effect on the crew. Failure of a normal moral check leaves them temporarily shocked. Subsequent hits may re-shock the crew or cause them to bail out. It feels like a hail-mary when you get one.
Whenever you miss the TO KILL number by one, the crew must take a shock NMC. This is most beneficial to the low caliber, multi-rate of fire guns because it increases the chance of harming an AFV by as much as double. For example, a TO KILL number of ‘3’ is 8.3% but possible shock occurs on ‘4’, a 16.7% chance of your efforts resulting in not NE. It gives the smaller arms of 1940 some hope, especially when combined with the Multi-Hit rules (130.5).
It is far from certain that I'll destroy this beast, but at least I stopped it from moving - for now.
I like this rule because it brings a human element to armor. Before, armor was a machine, valued only by its armor thickness, caliber and speed. Now one feels a vehicle possesses and is limited by the abilities and vulnerabilities of its crew; that is only a tool of man and even armor is still a contest between men.