D-Day Part 2

When the store opened on Saturday (June 6), the bigger part of the game got under way. Even more players arrived to play the beach defenses and the amphibious landing. I believe I heard Craig say that this was the largest attendance for a Saturday Mega-game that the store has ever seen. Fitting that it would be for D-Day. Turn four of the game began, it was dawn on the 6th of June (for game purposes - I slept in this morning).

6th Airborne takes Pegasus Bridge. 21st Panzer assembles off-table.

4th US Infantry Division starts its landings.

4th turn started with a pre-turn aerial bombardment and then the landing craft were placed on the table. Alas, this blog will mostly cover only my part in the battle, so waddle over to http://www.gajominis.com and wait for them to post a complete battle report. My concern was defending St. Mére-Église from the 82nd Airborne.

The MG42s are silenced. 91st Luftlande troops defend the HQ across the street from the church.

The 82nd commander, Wil, played a great game. The 82nd troops launched several assaults to consolidate their positions and remove the German fighting platoons. First, the 91st's AT platoon bogged down trying to remove their guns from the woods, and were wiped out by the 82nd's hardest-hit platoon. So, the woods were gone. Luckily I placed my remaining sniper well at the crossroads (oops, a mistake, as I wasn't supposed to place a sniper within 4 inches of friendly troops - sorry, Wil). The mortar platoon and the MG42s did sterling work holding off the final 82nd assault. 

The Church falls, HQ bugs out, leaving the sniper to cover the retreat.

Eventually Wil got his reinforcements. The 75mm pack howitzers landed a smoke barrage perfectly on the center of town and the 82nd's second platoon assaulted the MG and mortar platoons, wiping them out. As the US airborne consolidated, the German HQ began to retreat toward Carentan leaving the sniper to delay the American advance. Additionally, the remaining flak platoon would keep the airborne divisions from linking up.

The Fall of St. Mére-Église.

The sniper was never seen again, although small -arms fire was heard from the center of town. As the HQ retreated, the Flak platoon began raking the church tower with fire, knowing that the Americans would place observers there. No luck in stopping that, however. Soon the 82nd was raining mortar and artillery fire on anything wearing a feld-grau uniform. Unfortunately, the German defenders of Utah beach eventually caved under the weight of allied assaults and naval bombardments. Sherman tanks advancing from Utah finally linked up with the 82nd.

 

As the final paratrooper assault took out my flak platoon (leaving just the HQ survivors- and those at half strength), the security of Carentan was assured as the 101st ran out of assaulting platoons. In the end, the allies won the battle with 5 objectives captured to 4 objectives held. Not too dissimilar from the actual event. 

A photo was taken of most of the participants, and I'm told an article with photos will appear later in one of those great British wargaming magazines. Looking forward to that.