The Invasion So Far…

Last time the Germans tried to take out the British mulberry but failed with one last lunge by Panzer Lehr (which got surrounded and mostly destroyed for their efforts). Now the British can turn their focus to firming up their front line and pushing to Caen again. The American armies expanded their front at Omaha but it’s really thin and they need to land more infantry if they want to push to St. Lo. Over at Utah premature efforts to cut off the peninsula were abandoned and instead the focus is to link the beaches by sieging Carentan and driving northwest to Cherbourg.

June 13^th

The weather has cooperated this turn and the Allies get a lot of air and naval support that is crucial to keep pushing northwest and taking the huge port city of Cherbourg. Even at regimental scale, the importance of roads can’t be overstated. For one, troops move faster on roads, so reinforcements can get there quickly. For another supply depends on being relatively close to roads to trace all the way back to the beaches.

Montebourg has good defenses including some anti-tank vehicles so 9^th Infantry, 2^nd Armored and 101^st hit hexes to either side that aren’t as well defended. Ozzeville falls to the 9^th Infantry. The 709^th doesn’t have any forces backing them up and now find themselves vulnerable to being surrounded and cut off.

Using the 82^nd Airborne, 4^th Infantry, and a tank battalion, US Army forces manage to destroy the last German paratroopers defending Carentan. UTAH and OMAGA are now linked by road.

This is an interesting time to talk about Zones of Control (ZoC). If you’re familiar with hex and counter wargames, such a concept will not be foreign to you. The idea here is that a game unit exerts an influence beyond the hex it occupies. In most games where you see this concept applied, the unit has influence in each of the six hexes surrounding it unless there is some kind of impassable barrier like the sea in the adjoining hex-side.

Simonitch goes one further and introduces the concept of ZoC bonds; the idea that two or more units separated by at least one empty space can form a physical barrier between them by combining the influence of their ZoC together. In the figure above, the Allied lines have two empty hexes in their lines, yet the Germans can’t move into them. The Allied units are forming the ZoC bonds along the hexsides which connects the hexes they occupy (even disrupted units can do this). This ZoC bond also extends to entire hexes between two units in the same hexrow.

Now there is a genuine hole in the US line. In theory, the 77th could move around 29^th Infantry, but the swamp means it would have to stop immediately, and right behind the 29^th is the recently landed 3^rd Armored CCA. That’s just inviting the US to cut off the 77^th and destroy them before they could even begin to exploit the “hole”.

The 51^st Division managed to push back the 21^st Panzer division and gain another hex inching closer to Caen. The game has interesting stacking rules that allow the players to be creative when they need to pour troops into a particular hex or location.

It’s all about stacking points. You can have a maximum of four in the hex. Any unit with a combat strength of 3 or greater counts as 2 points. Everybody else counts as 1 point. However, the first silhouette unit (showing a picture of a tank or a gun) is free for stacking purposes regardless of the combat strength. Additionally, strong points, engineers, artillery and HQs are free, but only one of each can be in the hex.

June 14^th

The 101st Airborne and elements from 2^nd Armored push to Pont l’Abbé. Now the Carentan has been taken, a shift in focus along the road westward across the peninsula is in order to reach the highway leading southwest from Valognes. The 9^th Infantry takes Montebourg, hits the 709^th Division, and is poised to strike Valognes where the 246^th Division awaits.

The 3^rd Fallschirmjäger finally arrives on the scene south of Carentan to help block the US Army from moving south towards St. Lo. It inserts itself between the 275^th Division and the remnants of the 352^nd Division. So far, in this game at least, triple-digit division troop quality is… poor. Meanwhile the US army continues the attrition game.

The British 3rd Division & Guards Armoured push back the 346^th Division gaining another hex on Caen. The 51^st Division trades shots against 12^th SS Panzer Division. The 11^th Armoured and 50^th Division push Panzer Lehr. Germans on the ropes as British expand their front line. The 2^nd Panzer division is rushing to cover the gap.

While the lunge by Panzer Lehr was a lot of fun, it was definitely ill advised. Its decimation means there is no ready reserve that the Germans can use to blunt Allied efforts.

June 15^th

Another brand new day that’s a bit overcast, so it’s reducing air support a little. On the other hand the Mulberry ports are complete and more supplies are coming ashore (with the ability to add more artillery as the Allies find move the bulk of their forces in England to Normandy). The Germans adjust their line a bit so the 243^rd Division can cover more frontage from the decimated 709^th. The American 2^nd Armored assists the 9^th Infantry to force the Sinope River. The 101^st Airborne and elements of the 9^th Infantry push back 243rd to flank Valognes.

Like most wargames, units in Normandy ’44 have numerical ratings that quantify traditional attributes like strength and movement. Additionally, Simonitch added some values for troop quality and armor quality (the latter only applicable to armored units obviously).

The figure below has a good mix of these stats on the counters. Units with numbers in parenthesis can only defend with their strength (like strong points, engineers and headquarters). The paratroopers have quality +1 while many standard formations have 0. Some German units have -1. Units with pictures (tanks, guns, etc.) have an assumed troop quality of 0. The German panzergrenadier troops also have +1 quality. US Armored battalions and British Armored brigades have an armor quality rating of 3. German Panther tanks have a quality of 4, while the Tiger tanks have a quality of 5! For both sides, recon units tend to have armor values of 1 or 2.

On the east end of the map, the German 2^nd Panzer division and 12^th SS inflict heavy losses on the British 50^th Infantry and proceed to contract the Caen line to bolster the city defenses there. In response, the British 3rd Infantry and Guards Armoured hit the 346^th division across the river and take back Ranville! The 3rd Canadian Division hits a brick wall against the 12^th SS Panzergrenadier for no gain. The 11^th Armoured pushes back the Tigers one hex but otherwise cause no losses.

German offensive capability has been significantly weakened by enduring many losses along with the virtual destruction of Panzer Lehr. The past few days almost no reinforcements have reached the front, although 2^nd Panzer’s actual tank regiments will be appearing on the map soon.

Summary

The Americans accomplish their objective to take Carentan and link the Utah and Omaha beaches. The focus is now on the drive to Cherbourg and cutting the Peninsula. Since 4^th Division has suffered a lot of losses they may pause for a few days before testing the German paratroopers again. Another division that may need replacing in the front is the 82^nd Airborne. It has suffered hideous losses in the campaign so far, with one regiment destroyed and two more reduced to cadres. Rather than keep them exposed I will likely bring in the 30^th Infantry Division to assume their position west of Carentan and push back the 91^st Air Landing Infantry.

On the East side of the Map, the British have landed considerable numbers of tank battalions and have extended their front line far west of Caen looking to find a gap and punch a hole in the German lines. It may be time to start amassing supplies for some big attacks. Meanwhile attrition continues to be the name of the game.

As for Germany, there will come a point where the US will cut the peninsula, there are no more troops available in the short term and some divisions will have to move south and others hole up in the Cherbourg perimeter. This will force the US Army to split their forces and they can’t be strong everywhere. Other than that, pray for rain seems to be the order of the day.

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