The Invasion So Far

The US Army has reached Cherbourg and pierced the perimeter under the direction of VII Corps. After cutting the peninsula XIX Corps has turned south, pushing against Axis troops towards Coutances. VIII Corps is advancing south on the highway to St-lô. V Corps is trying to reach the southern edge of the map to split Axis forces in two lines. The British XXX Corps is helping in this endeavor while UK VII Corps continues the grind against Caen. The I Corps is advancing east trying to surround Caen from that direction.

June 23^rd

The Germans keep playing the troop shuffle trying to contain Allied lines while giving as little ground as possible. They started shifting some of the big units from the 12^th SS Panzergrenadier division in preparation for an attack on British lines and managed to take back Epron!

It may not seem like it but the Allies very nearly lost the game here. I may have eluded to this in an earlier post to German automatic Victory conditions. Briefly, to achieve victory you need to force one of three conditions:

• Close 3 of the 4 Allied beaches (that didn’t happen and when 21^st Panzer tried they got beaten back)
• Eliminate or reduce to cadre level seven (7) US 3-step units. (A big reason 82^nd Airborne was withdrawn).
• Eliminate or reduce to cadre level five (5) British units 3-step units. After hitting the 51^st Infantry, Britain now had 4 cadre units on the map! This is a big reason you might assign lots of hits to the many small UK tank battalions.

I had actually eliminated a 2-step UK airborne unit as a cadre by mistake and at first thought I had reached the five unit limit (though the Allies have until the end phase to remedy the situation). Once I corrected the mistake it turns out I had just reached four cadre units.

During the Allied turn the US and British restore some cadre units to get a safer margin against German automatic victory (at the end phase the British will withdraw the 6^th Airborne Division). The 2^nd Armored and 101^st Airborne took the small town of Octeville just southwest of Cherbourg. The 9^th and 90^th Infantry supported by CCB forced back other units from the forest. It’s almost over.

There wasn’t much action here as the Allies are mostly content to hold the line until Cherbourg is captured and the forces up north can join the attack on this front. That doesn’t mean the US Army is idle. The Axis paratroopers suffered a step loss after being attacked by 29^th Infantry and the 30^th Infantry forced back the 275^th division. The 3^rd Armored and 2^nd Infantry took a secondary road that will allow more forces to bear on St-Lô from the east.

CCR took out the 30^th brigade supported by the US 1^st Infantry. The UK 11^th Armoured division supported by the 53^rd Infantry inflicted more losses on the 17^th SS Panzergrenadier division which had shifted over to this side to support Panzer Lehr.

I’ll take an opportunity now to talk about the dashed demarcation line. You can see it on the figure as a series of dashes following the hexgrid, most visible next to Caumont ending in hex 1622. It turns out I misplayed that rule and it took me a couple of turns before I realized what I did wrong. US units are not allowed to move and attack more than one hex east beyond that line (oops!). Similarly, British units can’t move or attack more than one hex west of the line. Once the Allies are south of the line the demarcation line no longer impacts the Allied armies (but they still can’t combine attacks).

The front has stretched quite a bit and 7^th Armoured division along with the Canadian 3^rd , 43^rd Infantry and 2^nd Canadian, 8^th Armoured brigades inflicted heavy tank losses on the 12^th SS Panzergrenadier division.

June 24^th

Wonderful blue skies! The Allies renew their effort to grind the Germans into pulp. Still, the British and Americans have taken numerous casualties so they have to be careful not to give the Germans an opening that would cause an automatic loss.

The death knell for Cherbourg has been tolling for a while. This turn simply drove the point home as the 243^rd and 709^th divisions took more losses and their now huddling to a man in the northwest city hex. The 9^th Infantry attacked from the east and 90^th infantry from the south east. The 2^nd Armored division supported with combat strength but the big city prevents armored shifts from occurring.

Meanwhile, up the highway the axis paratroopers take another loss, reduced to a cadre (but so did US Armor). The 79^th Infantry inflicted another loss. St Lo is within reach. There is little the German side can do here but hold on for reinforcements to stop the Americans.

After taking a wallop, US Armor is giving the Tigers a wide berth and is hoping for more artillery and infantry support before re-engaging. The 11^th Armored trades casualties and eliminates the recently arrived battalion. The objective is Aunay-sur-Odon.

Despite the successful Axis counter-attack last turn the Germans recognized that one bad roll would be catastrophic if they didn’t occupy all the city hexes, so they were forced to regroup and cede Epron back to the Allies (since it is also within reach of Royal Navy battleships). This allows the Canadians to attack and take Carpiquet and the first Caen hex just on the shores of the river Orne.

Summary

Cherbourg is collapsing and will last at most, one more turn. The Axis elite troops have lost nearly all the outer villages on the approaches to Caen. Pretty soon it will be do or die time. Already one of the four Caen hexes has fallen. Still, the Allies have shown great success penetrating the shoreline to the east. While an automatic victory is doubtful at this point the Allies have taken a large number of cities beyond the June 27^th historical line. They can probably win at this point just on game score as long as they avoid massive casualties.

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