Normandy Eastern Flank – 10th June 1944

One of my wargaming ambitions was to put on a big D-Day game which I did with my refight of Sword beach.  After that I was keen to refight the battles that were fought after D-Day for the forces involved in Sword beach and other significant battles involving the British forces in NW Europe up to the end of the war.  So far, I have put on two battles post the D-Day game involving the 21^st Panzer Division. The counter attack on Perries Ridge on the afternoon of the 6^thJune and Hans Von Luck’s counter attack against the Paras on 8/9^th June.

This was the next instalment in the series allowed me to use all those commandos I painted for the Sword beach game. I converted a scenario that I downloaded by Don McHugh for Rapid Fire reloaded for my Modified Version of Spearhead for the German 346th Infantry Divisions’ attack on the British 1st Special Service Brigade. In addition to being able to use my Commandos it allowed me to field my late war German Infantry figures and all of those lovely horses I had painted.

The following background was largely taken from Don’s scenario. Thank you Don.

Very little has been written about the role of the 1st Special Service Brigade and its time in Normandy following D-Day. Most peoples’ recollection of the commandos is of Piper Millen crossing Pegasus Bridge in the film ‘The Longest Day’ and of them being slightly late. The brigade was the most easterly formation of the Allied invasion force and following its arrival late on 6th June, it held its positions until the German withdrawal on 17th August. Apart from a number of replacements, its only reinforcement was the 4th Special Service Brigade on 12th June. It had seen heavy fighting in the Juno Beach area and had captured the Douvres radar station.

Lord Lovat and his Commandos

Following the timely arrival of the 1st Special Service Brigade at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day, the brigade had moved east to reinforce the 6th Airborne Division’s positions north of Ranville. With the Airborne division short on numbers due to the very scattered parachute drops, General Gale cancelled the Brigade’s D-Day objectives and re-assigned it to a new defensive line south of Sallenelles. It had originally been assigned positions further east around the coastal town of Cabourg.

The German 346th Infantry Division began D-Day in positions near La Havre. The first elements were ordered to move across the Seine late on 6th June. The majority of the division followed over the next few days and was fully deployed against the Allied eastern flank by the 9th June. It took over the positions of the poorly rated 711st Infantry Division to the south of Sallenelles, only leaving them to cover the northern area between Sallenelles and the coast. The division was classed as a static division and was therefore very short of motor transport, only having enough towing vehicles for its anti-tank guns. It was equipped with large quantities of captured equipment, mainly Russian, but including some inter-war French artillery.

With the arrival of the 6th Airborne Airlanding Brigade on the evening of D-Day, the pressure around Ranville was eased and the 1st Special Service Brigade looked to take more ground towards Sallenelles. It was also tasked with the retaking of the Merville Battery that was believed to have returned to action. Unfortunately, this left No 3 Commando out on a bit of a limb and after a couple of days of intense German pressure it was decided to fall back to a concentrated defensive area south of Sallenelles. It was in these positions that the 346th German Division attacked them on and around 10th June.

The order of battle for this game was as follows

British Forces – 1st Special Service Brigade
HQ 1st Special Service Brigade (Lord Lovat)
No 3 Commando
No 4 Commando & elements of 10th Commando (Free French)
No 6 Commando + Attached 3rd Airlanding AT Battery (6 Pdrs AT guns)
No 45 Royal Marine Commandos + Attached from 3rd Airlanding AT Battery (6 Pdrs AT guns)
150th Field Regiment (25 Pdrs) – 3 x OPs
211th Airlanding Light Battery Royal Artillery (75mm Pack Howitzers – Paras) +OP
SP AT battery (M10s) 3rd British Infantry Division.

All the Commandos were understrength (most missing a troop of 2 sections) due the casualties sustained at D-Day and afterwards.

German Forces – 346th (Static) Infantry Division & 711th Infantry Division
857th Regimental HQ (Oberst Adolf Hartmann)
1st battalion 857th Grenadier Regiment
346th Fusilier Battalion
2nd Battalion 857th Grenadier Regiment
2nd Battalion 346th Artillery Regiment (105mm Captured French Howitzers) + 2 Ops
3rd Battalion 346th Artillery Regiment (122mm Captured Russian Howitzers) +2 Ops
346th Anti-Tank Battalion (Marder III)
2nd Battalion 744th Grenadier Regiment (711th Infantry Division)

I created on new unit for this game for a bit of fun. This was the German Regimental horse drawn kitchen which would give a +1 morale boost for those troops with 6” of it.

The German Mobile Field Forge & Field Kitchen

Orders & Objectives
The players were given the following orders and objectives

German orders & German Victory conditions
Break through the eastern flank of the Allied beachhead and recapture the Orne bridges.

To win: Capture three of the following six objectives. Chateau d’Hauger, Chateau d’Amfreville, the Mairie, the Church or Commando Farm (counts as two).
To draw: Capture two of the objectives.

British orders & British Victory conditions
Hold the eastern flank of the beachhead against all German attacks.

To win: Prevent the Germans from capturing three of the objectives.
To draw: Only lose two of the objectives to the Germans.

Terrain Map

The Battlefield – (left hand edge was British and the right hand edge is German)

I converted the map supplied in Don’s scenarios from an 8’ x 5’ board into a 12’ x 6’ board to accommodate the larger units that I use in my rules. The board was liberally covered in terrain. The wood and orchards do not slow down infantry movement in these rules but make it far harder to spot, giving the Germans lot of cover before contacting the defending Commandos. I did not treat the buildings as BUA (Built up Areas) as per the standard rules. Each building was treated as a type of ‘bunker’ so troops could fire in and out of them and be they could be captured as such. This made them very “tough nuts” to crack for the Germans.

The British forces deployed first and had to follow an historical deployment as follows.

British deployment
All the British forces begin the game dug in and concealed in the following areas:
No 3 Commando in and within 6” of Chateau d’Amfreville.
No 4 Commando in and within 6” of Chateau d’Hauger.
No 6 Commando in and within 6” of the Mairie.
No 45 Royal Marine Commandos in and within 6” of Commando Farm and the church.
HQ 1st Special Service Brigade in and within 6” of the Post Office.
Artillery OPs can be deployed with any of the above units.
211st Airlanding Light Battery Royal Artillery may deploy anywhere to the west of the Mairie.
150th Field Regiment Royal Artillery is off-table.
SP AT Guns (M10s) 3rd British Infantry Division would come on in the afternoon on the road at ‘X’

The Germans then were allowed to stay 6” in following their historical deployment as follows.

             

German deployment
857 Regimental HQ can arrive anywhere on the eastern edge of the table.
II / 744 enter on the northern / eastern edge at A
I / 857 and OP from 3rd Battalion, 346th Artillery Regiment enter at B
346th Fusiliers enter at C
II / 857 and OP from 2nd Battalion, 346th Artillery Regiment enter at D
346th Anti-Tank Battalion can arrive anywhere on the eastern edge of the table.
Both artillery batteries are off-table.

The resulting game was close-run affair. Trevor and Doug were German with Richard, Brian and later Kamall being The British.

One part of the rules I should have used was to ensure the Germans plotted their attack orders properly on a map (one to remember for the next game!).

Trevor focused his two battalions (II/744 and I/857) and the SP AT guns to capture Chateau d’Hauger whilst Doug planned to take Commando Farm with II/857 and had the support of both artillery batteries. The 346th Fusilier Battalion was to be pin the British center and support the II/857.

Richard took control of the British left Chateau d’Hauger and Chateau d’Amfreville whilst Brian took over the right Mairie, The Church and Commando Farm. Kammal later assisted Brian and took over his command. The artillery OP were deployed to assist across the entire front. The British moved a few of the 6Pdr AT guns into better positions.

The German took advantage of the terrain advancing close to their objectives. The difficulty in spotting the advancing Germans allowed them to mass their troops more easily to assault their key objectives. This was attritional warfare with the British troops having the advantage of their defensive positions and being veteran troops. Commando fire power was significantly enhanced at close range with their SMG status and large number of integral snipers. The German formations had a much bigger punch with heavy weapons with 5 HMG per battalion compared to 1 in each British commando. Germans also had 2 82mm mortars to the single British 3” mortar. The Commandos are indeed light infantry.

 

By masing 2 battalions against one commando in Chateau d’Hauger Trevor was making some real progress in degrading the defenders. Richard used their 25 pdr artillery almost every turn to try hold the attackers back. On the other side of the battlefield the German artillery batteries were pounding Commando Farm whilst being under heavy fire from the II/857 battalion.

Richard later to try to reinforce 4th Commando with the SP AT guns (M10s) and sections from 3 Commando defending the adjacent Chateau d’Amfreville. This was a little too late and Chateau d’Hauger fell with 4 Commando withdrawing after sustaining 75% casualties although Trevor was very close to a morale test for his II/744 battalion which was very close to 50% casualties and the 1/857 had taken a battering too.

Commando farm fell at the last turn of the game with 45 Royal Marine Commando withdrawing after sustaining more than 75% casualties despite valiant attempts to reinforce it from 6 Commando. A German Victory on the last turn with them securing 3 of the 6 objectives.

 

What Happened Historically

During the afternoon of the 10th June two Allied M10 SP guns were sent from 3rd British Infantry Division to help deal with the German SP guns harassing the Brigade. They arrived later in the afternoon, and it was a good job they were not heavily engaged, as they later learnt they had faulty ammunition that could have gone off prematurely. By the 10th June the majority of the German 346th Division had arrived in Normandy and was finally committed against the Allied positions east of the river Orne. Despite many desperate actions over the following days the division failed to break through the British bridgehead and during the period to early August lost over 3,000 men. The division was still in place during August, when the Germans withdrew over the River Seine.

It is credit to the 1st Special Service Brigade that despite high casualties and the intense pressure from the Germans, the brigade held on to these positions until the breakout on 17th August.

All the players thought the game was good fun to play and thought it would be a great game to play again in the future as it was so close. It was pleasant to change to have an infantry battle without many tanks. Thanks to all the players.

What is next?

There are few more 3 Division engagements to consider in the few days after D-Day following the landings at Sword to push forward to Caen such Leibsey (7th June 1944) and Canbes (9th June 1944) . I will also to look a few key engagements post the landings at Juno (Canadians) and Gold. For Juno the fight the Canadians had with the 12th SS trying to capture Carpiquet airport in particular (7th June 1944) and look at the actions of the Sherwood Rangers (Brothers in Arms book by James Holland) after their landings on Gold beach.