08/03/2017
The thunder of Naval guns and fortified artillery, plus the roar of aircraft, tank and landing craft engines filled the air of the normally tranquil beaches of Normandy. The allies secured their precarious foothold on the continent of France and achieved many, but not all of their D-Day objectives. Allied military planners had overlooked the addition of an additional German infantry division in the Cotentin peninsula, plus how the 21st and 12 SS Hitlerjungen panzer divisions had moved closer to the coast to more quickly intervene. Pictures of the battles last weekend are posted on the NE Florida FOW page here:
The "Red Devils" of the British 6th paratroopers had a sticky wicket as Dave had the mission to both hold the bridge over the Canal de Caen, and expand his bridgehead to keep the bridge free from retaliatory artillery fire. Jeremy's Panzergrenadiers from the 21st Panzer had both mobility and the power of Tiger I tanks to check and reduce the Red Devils perimeter. As the German overall commanding general, Jeremy assigned himself two Panther Firestorm platoons from the 12SS to gave him unstoppable power. So while the Red Devils were successful in holding the bridge (historical outcome), the sector victory went to the Panzergrenadiers.
Dean's "All American" paratroopers of the 82nd airborne div had secured St Mere Eglise before the game started and received Drew's hasty counter attack by the 6th Fallschirmjager Rgt. The Fallschirmjagers were well supported by tanks and artillery, but had to advance from the cover of great bocage positions across open areas to reach the entrenched paratroopers, who desperately hoped for reinforcements by scattered paratrooper units and from the 4th infantry div advancing off Utah beach. Drew's Fallschirms maneuvered on both wings to initially secure the secondary objectives. Artillery and bazooka fire from the boys of the 82nd was extremely effective and whittled down the armor and assault platoons of the Fallschirmjagers and stalled their attack. Arriving U.S. paratrooper reinforcements allowed them to expand the perimeter as the Germans had to fall back in the face of mounting losses. The 82nd paras held St Mere Eglise (historical outcome) and were able to expand their perimeter resulting in a sector victory for the Allies.
"Bloody Omaha" beach was assaulted by Anthony's 29th Infantry "Blue and Gray" division who ran into the same strong opposition from Benjy's Grenadiers of the 352nd div as their historical counterparts. DD tanks bogged or were swamped, murderous HMG fire raked the beaches, and Benjy's 8cm mortar pits rained down a deadly barrage which kept the Blue and Gray boys pinned down (oops, they found out too late that direct fire mortars score hits only, and don't pin like a bombardment). Anthony fought this same battle in the 2014 Overlord series but this time he lacked his erstwhile 2nd Ranger bn assault troops to climb the cliffs and easily shake off pin effects. The Grenadiers keep the doughboys at bay until follow on armor helped break open the draw and permit some bunker busting by the infantry. The Blue and Gray's struggled to get off the beach (historical outcome) so the 352nd Grenadiers secured the sector victory for the Axis.
Sword beach was an even easier cakewalk this time around than in 1944. Scott's 50th Northumberland T&T's came ashore with excellent heavy cruiser and Typhoon aircraft support and quickly suppressed Don and Mike's 105mm battery and shot up anti-tank gun nests. As the Tommy's came ashore en mas, their Veteran rating seemed to make them bullet proof as they strode through the fire of 6 HMG pillbox or Tobruk positions. While the AVRE Churchill funnies had trouble reducing bunkers (due to a change from V3 rules), the bulletproof infantry did the job the tanks had trouble accomplishing. The Grenadiers Delayed Reserves were slow in coming on to support their comrades but finally, after most all beach defenses had been reduced, they finally did arrive along with some Firestorm troops to create a fairly powerful counter assault force (6 Stug III's, 2x 2.0cm flak plts, 8.8cm flak plt, and an Infantry plt). The Grenadiers inability to roll effective scores on their dice came to full fruition when Typhoons were able to shoot up and destroy two Flak 38 platoons with cannon fire without loss to themselves (hmmm). The Typhoons and AOP directed NGFS stopped the counter attack quickly and the sector victory went to the Allies (historical outcome).
The battle for Utah beach was not played out since one of the players couldn't make the session so the final tally was 2 Allied sector victories, and 2 Axis sector victories.
Thanks to all who participated, brought food, and the great cleanup assistance provided. Much appreciated.
