'Battle' In The Bocage - The Plan

Many years ago now I bought Kenneth Macksey's superb book 'Battle', a fictional account of an attack in Normandy around the time of Operation Bluecoat, but one based upon his experiences during WWII. It really is a great read and shows one all the preparation and effort that is required in mounting a hasty Battalion level attack.

I've been wanting to make a scenario from this book for quite sometime, but somehow I've never got around to sorting it out, until now. It seemed a perfect time in light of the recent D-Day anniversary and the fact that I wanted to christen my games room, with a period that is one of, if not my all time favourite, periods.

So last night I spent some time skimming through the book, making a note of the forces broadly involved, the terrain fought over, the objectives for the Attackers etc. Whilst a work-in-progress, I'm pretty sure I've got it more or less sorted now.

Scenario

The book doesn't have a map of the starting positions and all of the terrain, but it does include one with the action well underway, as can be seen below:

Sadly the map is not very clear in the book, but hopefully it gives you some idea of the terrain.

The objective for the Attackers is to seize the farm (where the British C.Coy is on the map) as well as the ridgeline, broadly where the German 6th Coy is. Using the ever excellent WWII rules, BKCII, the British have 8 Turns to achieve their objective.

British OOB

1 x CO

3 x HQ's

1 x FAO

9 x Infantry (3 with PIAT upgrades)

2 x MG's

1 x 3" Mortar

3 x Shermans

1 x Sherman Firefly

1 x Sherman Flail

1 x Churchill Crocodile

1 x 25pdr 8 gun Battery (scheduled creeping barrage and FAO)

1 x 5.5" Medium Artillery Battery (scheduled on the farmhouse & counter-battery fire)

1 x Typhoon Ground Attack (scheduled)

US Airborne

1 x HQ

3 x Infantry (1 x bazooka upgrade)

1 x 81mm Mortar

1 x 75mm Artillery (scheduled)

German OOB

1 x CO

3 x HQ's

9 x Infantry

2 x MG's

3 x 81mm Mortars

1 x Jagdpanther

1 x Stug-III

1 x Minefield (unmarked)

1 x Command Post (the farm)

The farm is made of stone and has been turned into a defensive strongpoint, so 6+ to hit and a 4+ save.

Two German Kompanies are dug-in, with one in reserve. Those dug-in to the Bocage banks are classed as in hard cover, so 6+ to hit and with a 6+ save.

So with the Scenario and OOB basically sorted, next up it will be the game itself. This won't happen until next week at the earliest, but at least a start has been made.

TTFN.