Normandy '44 Research & Planning

Over the past few weeks I've been pondering how to kick off my Normandy campaign, given that it is the 80th Anniversary this year. Normally I'm always drawn to the airborne landings and Sword beach, but a chance pulling of a book off the bookshelf lead me down a completely new rabbit hole. This is one of the joys but also 'dangers' of a bookcase/library!

The book in question was John Keegan's 'Six Armies In Normandy' a book that I've had for a long time and is an excellent read to say the least. So quite by chance I opened chapter 3, Canada: to the South Shore and started reading. On page two I was immediately taken with the names of the militia territorial regiments: the Voltigeurs de Quebec, St Clair Borderers, Argenteuil Rangers, Megantic Light Infantry, Princess Louise Fusiliers and the wonderful Temiscouata and Rimouski Regiment. In short I was hooked and decided there and then to focus on the Canadian landings!

Now as my good friend Keith Flint once pointed out, wargaming beach landings is not that interesting, as it is essentially a full on frontal assault, rather like storming an 18thC fort and the like. Now others may disagree, but I agree with him. So to get inspiration and ideas of how to make this more fun, I consulted the following books:

Where it all started and a book that contains lots of info I've not read in other accounts of the landings. It is also a superb read from an excellent author.

Similar to an Osprey book, with useful info on German troops dispositions and defences, but also on where the troops landed, their objectves and naval fire support etc.

Whilst for the wrong beach, it does contain a nice snippet of info in what landed in what wave on the beach, something that I've taken on board for my planned game.

Well if you want one book on the first days of the Canadian landings, it has to be this one without a shadow of a doubt. Lots of detail as you can imagine, but again nice little snippets of info to help me plan my game-cum-campaign.

A really useful guide to the Canadian OOB and ToE. A bit dated but a great starting point.

Having done my homework as it were, I decided to use the landings on Mike Green sector to the West of Courselles as the basis and inspiration for the game. There were some defences there, but not so much to reduce it to a slogging match, but enough to give a challenge to the Canadians. Then there is the option to land on Love Sector, to the West of Mike Green, but one which was never used. 

It probably wont come as a surprise, but rather than use a historical regiment, I decided to go with one of those named above, but base everything else upon what happened during the landings, the push inland and the oppostion they faced etc. For me this gives me some flexibility in organising the scenarios, based upon my experience of BKCII, but keeping them entertaining as opposed to the aforementioned slogging match. Heresy maybe, but I know it will work for me!

OOB & Support

My broad outline so far currently is thus:

Air Support

The Canadians were due to be supported by medium and heavy bombers just prior to the landings, the help suppress and neutralise the German troops there. However due to cloud cover and how close the timings were, Eisenhower directed them more inland at the last minute. So the decision is whether to have them hit their original targets as planned, or move inland as happened. I think a simple dice roll covering either option will suffice to resolve this.

Naval Support

Rather like the Air Support, this was primarily aimed at suppressing the defenders, rather than knocking out the major gun emplacents, which the Navy never said they would be able to do. After the bombardment, they switched to direct fire with the smaller ships that could sail closer in. To be honest I'm not sure how to replicate this latter part in BKCII, but will have to give it some thoughts.

Rocket Support

The rockets mounted on the landing craft I discovered were aimed at destroying the minefields and barbed wire, something which was news to me. This should be pretty easy to sort out with BKCII, but again I just need to check the rules and see how best to impliment this.

Canadian Infantry Assault Battalion

For BKCII I am going with the following:

1 x CO

4 x HQ's (each had an integral FAO for the landings and push inland)

1 x FAO

1 x Naval FAO

4 x Infantry Companies, each with 3 x Infantry Platoons and 1 x Assault Engineer Platoon

Support Units:

1 x MG

1 x 3" Mortar

2 x 6pdr ATG's

2 x 17pdr ATG's

1 x Squadron Sherman Tanks

? x AVRE's

1 x Priest SPG

1 x M10 Wolverine

? x Naval 

? x Artillery 

The Landings and Push Inland

My aim is to play this as a mini-campaign, based upon some fairly standard BKCII scenarios, tweaked if required to suit the main historical actions and events. Victory Points will be as per the rules, so profligate attacks by either side will have consequences! As the Canadians have objective lines of Yew, Elm and Oak, these will naturally form part of the campaign and break it down into nice sections.

Certainly the inital landing will be played down the length of a 6' x 4' table, which looking at the maps and movement of the troops, should pretty much cover the actual areas each Battalion moved over. After that I'll wait and see, depending upon how the first scenario went.

The Germans

This will take a bit more thought, as only a Kompanie, albeit in good defensive positions, broadly opposed the area my action is due to take place in. I have some ideas but need to start sketching out some plans for the landing area, defensive positions, range of weapons etc. At least I will get to make some nice German defences for their ATG's etc, which sort of takes me back to the Airfix Coastal Defence Fort that featured what, to us then, was a nice bit of terrain.

Aside from the troops on the beaches, there is some good info on troops deployed further back that should fit on the initial landing table, that will make a nice basis for a German defensive position. As for reinforcements, there is the option of some 21st Pz Division troops to be in the area, which historically they were, but as we know, were moved across towards the Orne and Caen. Certainly a nice 'what if?' as who could not resist this mish mash of armour that formed this Division!

What Next?

Well aside from more planning, I've been looking at the troops I have and what I need to add to produce all the units I need. For the Canadians this is mainly some Assault Platoons, ATG's and some SPG's. For once I've been keeping my focus and these are progressing nicely. For the Germans I know it will involve plenty of ATG's, some Artillery and more Pz IV's and Panthers, plus some Beutepanzer if I go down the 21st Pz Division route. 

So plenty to do for sure, but I'm enjoying this more focused approach to my gaming. Alongside this I'm making some more terrain, namely fields, plus I need to figure out the best approach to make the narrow sand dunes for the landings. Easy to do, but storing them and making them 'quickly' will be the challnege. But more on this in due course.

TTFN.