02h00 - a failed kidnapping

I trotted out 02 Hundred Hours to Bonsor on Friday night to try the Capture scenario. A group of partisans are tasked with the capture of a German officer.  I recruited experienced 02h00 player Gord to play the Germans and for his first time playing the game, Colin led the partisans.

The task for the partisans is to capture a German officer.  They know that he is located in one of the three buildings around the plaza.

The German sergeant is based in the large villa, from where he emerges to supervise the patrolling sentries.

Action under way.  Note the markers on the roofs of the three buildings.  As the partisans look inside each building, the marker is flipped.  Two are dummies, and one marks the location of the targeted German officer.  Meanwhile the partisans sneak onto the table, and have already started to fight with the sentries.  

The partisan sergeant attacks a German gendarme, as the German sergeant moves to intervene.

Elsewhere, a pair of partisan recruits tussle with another German sentry.

These provide a distraction for the partisan leader and her helpers.

The gendarme is taken out, so the partisans turn their attention to the German sergeant.

German reinforcements start to arrive!

Partisan sergeant and his friend have defeated the German sergeant, and are now free to move toward the villa.  Alas for the partisans, the villa is empty - they will need to check elsewhere for their prey!  The alarm has definitely been raised, and German reinforcements move toward the plaza.

Elsewhere the partisan leader eliminates another sentry.

The German officer then enters the action, and shoots the partisan sergeant.

The partisan leader and her companions inspect the next house, and again find it empty.  They use the building for cover as they engage the German guards.

Finally, after killing the German sergeant and officer, and many other sentries, the partisans realise they have missed their chance to capture their target, and withdraw.  They did not achieve their primary objective, but met the secondary goal in that more than half the partisans survived (just barely) after inflicting heavy losses on the Germans.

Carla

 Here is Carlo Capponi, latest of the Bad Squiddoe Women of the Reiststance. Carla's role in the Italian resistance included espionage and assassinations - this figure depicts both as she is escaping from the scene after killing a Nazi in Rome.

Zoya

And now a Russian partisan!  Here is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (try saying that 5 times quickly!).  Zoya was a teenage partisan who was tortured and slain by the German invaders of the USSR in 1941.  She was posthumously hailed as a Heroine of the Soviet Union and her name was used to rally the Red Army in their struggle against the Hitlerites.  

It's unlikely she wore a red scarf, but I took a little creative license both to allow a splash of colour and also to tie her to my Italian Brigate Garibaldi partisans.   

Pearl

Next up for Bad Squiddo's Women of the Resistance is Pearl Witherington and her bunny.  Pearl was born to British parents in France, and was working for the British Embassy in Paris when the Germans invaded in 1940.  She escaped back to England, where, after a initial stint with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), she joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) which had been formed to support resistance movements in occupied Europe.  When Annie researched Pearl, she glommed onto the story of Pearl's pet rabbit, who spent so much time with Pearl that it became oblivious to machinegun fire.  Accordingly, this miniature of Pearl is joined by her little bunny :)

Truus

Continuing with the Bad Squiddo Women of the Resistance, here is Dutch resistance fighter Truus Oversteegen.  As a teenager girl, the Nazis didn't suspect her of being a danger.  She and her sister Freddie their friend Hannie Schaft would lure Nazis to secluded locales so the Dutch resistance could kill them.  Truus eventually became a trigger-person herself.

Here's Truus with her trusty submachinegun.  I've painted her with blond(ish) hair, although as I squint at B&W photos it's possible she was a brunette.

Hedda

Continuing with the Bad Squiddo Women of the Resistance miniatures, here is Danish resistance fighter Hedda Lundh.    Hedda became an expert in explosives.  Annie's description of this model indicates that she's checking her bag to ensure her dynamite is ok.  For me, the image is innocuous enough that this figure could easily fit in to any mid-twentieth century setting as a normal person who could be encountered in the street.

02 Hundred Hours - Evade

For our Tuesday night gaming, we had another go at 02 Hundred Hours, this time scenario 5 - Evade.  In this scenario, an RAF pilot has been shot down and the local partisans are trying to get him to safety before the Germans can catch him.

The pilot starts in the lower right corner and must leave the table at the upper left. In between, the Germans are patrolling and searching for him.

The pilot starts his journey.

Germans on patrol along the road as their officer plans at the table in the camp.

Partisans move into the orchard as they move to assist the pilot.

The pilot has been spotted by the sentries on the road!

The dog handler is alerted to the partisans in the orchard.

Partisans move up to engage the German officer.

Partisans take out the dog handler with a Molotov cocktail!  Alas for them, this was their only success of the game.

The Germans surround the RAF pilot.

The partisans rush forward to help but it's too late, the Germans capture the pilot!

This game was interesting.  The pilot has a very difficult job, especially as he is rated as a 'trooper'.  In a future game, I might promote him to a 'character' just to allow him a potential of two activations in a turn.  Towards the end, the pilot's actions were particularly limited, as he kept needing to burn his activation to duck German bullets, until he was finally out of luck.