The Silencing of Merville

Scenario
This event is another history-based Comrades in Arms’ WW2 event and follows the lesser known actions at Merville Battery in Normandy on D-Day +1.
The event takes us to the morning of 7th June 1944 when No 3 Commando, who had landed at Sword Beach the previous day, were tasked to re-take and silence the guns of Merville. The battery had been attacked the previous day but had been retaken by the garrison and was re-shelling the landing beaches.

The game will require guile and tactics as well as brute force and fire power. Motor bikes, vehicles and push bikes can all be usefully deployed. The British will have to navigate the Normandy countryside with mobile Germans troops everywhere and meet the withering fire power of the well entrenched battery garrison. It is hoped this game will, like no other game, make full use of the awesome and well-fed spitting ‘Spandau’. The British forces have a poor line of supply so will have to be economical and resourceful.

In the real battle on the 7th June the British over-ran the battery only to lose it later in the day. How will our event pan out?

Sides
British:
No 4 Troop, No 3 Commando, 1st Special Service Brigade
No 5 Troop, No 3 Commando, 1st Special Service Brigade

German :
1./ Artillery Regiment 1716, 716th Infantry Division
3./ Grenadier-Regiment 736, 716th Infantry Division
4./ Grenadier-Regiment 736, 716th Infantry Division (formally Ost-Batallion 642)

Site
Close Action’s Grafton Park near Kettering

Date and time
10am to 6pm Saturday 2nd August

Cost
£45 payable by £25 deposit or in full

Camping
Yes, on Friday and Saturday night – hard standing and flat grass alongside car park

Full information can be found on the forum: www.ww2airsoft.org.uk

This event is a WW2 Airsoft community event. That is to say it is organised by a small group of players who have given up their time to make something happen. The key component is you, the WW2 airsoft player. Your contribution both in sharing the costs of running the event and giving up your own time is contributing to the experience of your fellow players. You are not paying to be entertained for a weekend and you don’t have a right to play as you please (off-piste, cheating, win-at-all-costs etc). There are no marshals, there is no need, no one wants to let their fellow players down and we are responsible for not just ourselves but others too.

Comrades in Arms events are not airsoft skirmishes, quite the opposite. Within the bounds of a fun and safe weekend they are concerned with getting into the mindset of a WW2 soldier – getting frustrated, disillusioned, exhilarated and elated in equal measure. Winning or losing each have a fascination, each brings its own slant to the experience. Following orders and objectives, keeping alive, looking after your comrades are very much to the fore. It is the experience to remember that we are looking for – something to look back on and say, “wow, that was amazing”. It’s a shared experience and it only happens if we are all working together – welcome to Comrades in Arms.