Normandy '44 AAR

[CountryBoy]

Turn 69. 20:00 12 June 1944. 

Visibility two hexes. Highlighted units are disrupted units.

Starting as usual in the far eastern edge of the map and looking at the area east of Caen. The only item of interest here continues to be the action around the village of Troarn. The 346th Infantry Division, backed by significant artillery assets from 1st SS Corps, is holding the line and trying to take Troarn from the Allies. I haven't highlighted it in the screenshot, but see those SS armoured units in travel mode just south of Grentheville? That is SS Panzer Battalion 101 with a certain Wittmann in company. He leads a 4 vehicle VIe Tiger unit which has a hard attack value of 64/2! I'll be keeping the unit in reserve as they are too valuable to waste this early on.



Moving to the west, to the area west of Caen and there is no change here to speak of. The 12th SS and 21st Panzer Divisions are taking it easy here.



Further west again and we are now south of Bayeux. There is a push here by units of the British 79th Armoured and 50th Infantry Divisions. This is a little serious as there are large numbers of Allied tanks involved. I have some AT guns in place but I dare not direct fire with them as it brings down a terrible artillery barrage. I may move a few tank units from 12th SS here, just to encourage the Allied tanks to hang back.



Further west again, and we are now just north of St Lo. US forces are still pushing hard here and as the terrain is not great for defence, I am steadily giving up ground. I have brought most of Panzer Lehr's armour here as a deterrent (which is why they are not near Bayeux). German infantry in this area is pretty poor though, mostly the 77th and 352nd Infantry Divisions and a few paratroopers. I am building defence lines in depth however.



Further west again and this time I have opted for a zoomed out shot of the Cherbourg peninsula. This shows the progress of my withdrawal to a new defensive line further south, brought about by the push by the 101st and 82nd south west from Carentan. There are a lot of moving units and I'm hopeful I can pull everyone back before the Allies breakout west of Hill 30.

You may recall from the start of this AAR that I was worried that I hadn't blown that last bridge over the La Vire just north of Carentan and it has proven to be a major mistake. In terms of units, there are a few beaten up infantry divisions here, but the bulk of the work will be done by the 17th SS Pzgr and 2nd Panzer divisions. At the moment 2nd Panzer is on the right flank of the 17th SS Pzgr, however I want to eventually move them to the left flank of 17th SS.



Now a look at the jump map. I have put a yellow line directly across the map which represents my intended defensive lines. They're not dead straight of course, but I will try and keep it reasonably straight by withdrawing along the entire line if I am pushed back in an particular area. This will allow me to keep my front as short as possible. In most cases I am aiming for a defensive line 4 or 5 hexes deep. There is about 95 hexes from the front line to the bottom of the map, so I have to hold each hex for about 6 turns before retreating!



And finally the Victory points, reasonably steady in terms of the differences in losses of men.