Overlord After Action Report

Part I: Recap of the day

The player Roster:

German Festung Commander Ron Winkler
Festung company Mike Pfanensteil
Fallshirmjaeger company St.Mere-Eglise Tom Burgess
Grenadier company St.Marie Dumont Tim White
Reserve Ost company at the crossroads John Fortune

82nd Airborne landing at St.Mere Eglise Mike Pike
82nd Airborne landing near St.Marie Dumont Fred Mottern
Utah beach assault TareGreen Mike Updike, Doc Walker

H-Hour: The Airborne attacks on St.Mere Eglise and St.Marie Dumont

Elements of the 82nd Airborne division landed near St.Mere Eglise and moved to attack the town in the predawn hours. Assembling rapidly after their landing, the main force pushed into contact with elements of the 6th Fallshirmjaeger regiment. The in town fighting was sharp with the objective contested until the German forces were forced to withdraw shortly after dawn.

Several miles away, another company of the 82nd, scattered off their dropping zone in the night, launched a probe into St.Marie Dumont, and skirmished with the German grenadiers garrisoned there. The engagement continued through out the morning, with neither side gaining an advantage.

H-Hour: Landing at Tare Green beach

At dawn two companies from the 4th Division landed on Utah beach proper, storming ashore in the face if intense German defensive fire. Fleet support fire was largely ineffective against the heavy German fortifications, and after several hours of fighting the assault troops were largely pinned on the beach, many of the DD tanks laned in support burning, and casualties mounting up rapidly.

H-Hour: Landing at Uncle Red beach

Landing on the eastern sector beach was far more uneventful than the main effort and found units coming ashore against relatively light resistance. Heavy flooding of the grounds immediately behind the beach, however, made advance from the beach almost impossible. Reconaissence units from the beach began a slow advance into the flooded countryside along the Douvre river estuary.

H+3: Airborne actions

Having taken St.Mere Eglise, the US troops dug in for the expected German counter attack, that was not long in coming. Summoning up the festung reserve grenadier company and training tanks from the nearby school, the grenadiers and the fallshirmjaegers attacked St.Mere Eglise to dislodge them from the town and drive the paratroopers back toward the beach. Stubborn resistance by the paratroopers thwarted this action, and held the key crossroads throughout the afternoon.

Meanwhile, St.Marie Dumont was becoming a hotter fight as the US paratroopers pushed against the stubborn grenadier defenders. The fighting became bitter, short ranged and hand to hand, with the German grenadiers grudgingly yielding the town after several hours of fighting.

On Tare Green beach the Navy provided another warship for close fire support and more assault troops were pushed onto the beach, some rescheduled from Uncle Red and all the reserves in an attempt to force the very heavily fortified German troops out of their bunkers and trenches. This effort continued throughout the afternoon with US casualties mounting for no great gains. As late afternoon approached, it was decided to launch an allout attack from Uncle Red over the exit 2 zone causeways and into the crossroads in an attempt to link with the airborne forces and isolate the garrison on Tare Green beach.

H+7: Push toward St.Mare Eglise through the crossroads

4th Division rifle company teams supported by 82nd Airborne forces pushed into the area between St.Marie Dumont and St.Mere Eglise in an attempt to expand the beachhead from Uncle Red beach. German grenadiers from the reserve, freshly arrived in the invasion zone, were rushed into action alongside elements of the 352nd Division to stop the US linkup attempt. Fighting a skillful delaying action, the German forces delayed the American assault long enough to see the end of the first day in France.

H+7: Push on exit 2 to isolate Tare Green beach and open the beach exits

Rifle companies from the 4th Division linked with more 82nd Airborne units and pressed into the flooded French countryside. Opposing them were the shattered grenadiers from St. Marie Dumont and the 6th Fallshirmjaegers. The American troops moved forward in a quick attack against the German infantry only to be met by a withering hail of machine gun fire and be stopped cold. The German troops were well supported with heavy mortars and the Junkerschule Renault R35 light tanks as the battle in the boggy dunes stopped the last US push of the day to connect the two crossroad towns with the invasion beaches.

H+16: End of the day

With the sunset both sides, exhausted from the days fighting settled down to patrol and regroup. The festung units behind the Westwal had held many of their positions, critically stopping the vital US landing on Tare Green beach while grudgingly giving up the Uncle Red beach and its flooded lands near the Douvre River. The US paratroopers were still fighting on their own for the most part, and various kampfgruppen were between them and the supplies landing on Uncle Red beach. The key crossroads towns of St.Mere Eglise and St.Marie Dumont were in US hands, but hundreds of US troops were dead and wounded on Tare Green beach, and the plucky defenders of the beach were showing no signs of leaving their bunkers. Another Anzio was building up on the Normandy coast, and the Allied High command was evaluating their options….

Part II: Lessons Learned

One of the nice things of a wargame is that you can make changes to history. This campaign was no exception. During the playtesting of the system, several changes were enacted to insure the game would have adequate balance. One of them was going to prove to be too much of a benefit to the defending beachhead troops, while other options would prove to be a bit too rare in occurrence.

Allowing the German player to add a second, reinforcing company to either the beach or one of the two key towns was a good idea. Letting the defending beach company deploy in full on the beach, however, was not a good idea. This allowed for twice the expected firepower as the US troops came ashore. In a future replay, this will be changed to allow the grenadier company to arrive in support, but the original scenario rule of ½ the beach garrison on the table will also be adhered to.

Giving the US a free NGFS was an adequate move, even though this increased their net landing strength by 250 points. Given the general poor performance of this option, it is unlikely any player would waste his base points to get this fire support option.

Allowing the US teams to come in as rifle teams was not a bad option but it did deprive them of the specialist assault troops with their mix of weapons. The ‘up to six’ assault platoons vs. the three rifle platoons, weapons platoons, and light antitank guns of a rifle company might have had some impact on the assault, but the smaller size of these units might also have led to more being broken and destroyed faster.

Allowing each of the US assaulting companies to have a supporting DD tank platoon was a good idea, even if the 88 picked them off like ducks on a pond.

It would appear that more use of smoke could have benefited the US attack forces.

In the interim between session 1 and 2, and session 2 and 3, the rolls for supports did not net a lot of support. This will be revisited, as the only way to get support units is to have this routine provide them. One support element, when it is a small and largely ineffective type unit, isn’t doing much more than prolonging the agony. While no one wants to see a full stug III battery as a single choice, a slightly increased chance of supports is suggested.

The drop of 200 points for a loss is too excessive. In the future, players will keep what they have remaining, and roll on a survivors table for destroyed teams and platoons to recover some of their losses between battles. This will also induce a more equitable and player controlled mechanism; if you are losing the fight, disengage, regroup, and return to the fight as soon as you can.

This campaign was based around the events on Utah beach, due to the large number of players with either Airborne or Fallshirmjaeger companies. As such, no real penalties were imposed on the German players regarding their fortifications on Utah beaches. Historically there were minimal defences in place, a few bunkers, virtually no wire or minefields, and heavy reliance on flooded areas and garrisoned crossroads towns to contain the invaders. If Utah beach is the object of another Normandy campaign, defences will likely be player deployed but reduced in number, with emphasis on bunkers and small entrenchments around key positions as opposed to the well designed Atlanticwall that the US team faced today. Kudo’s to the German player for finding a way to contain the US troops with minimal losses for very clever play and skillful use of the system.

Part III: Photos of the action

Tare Green, from the sea side, setup H-Hour

St.Mere Eglise, H-Hour seen from the west as the fallshirmjaegers start to deploy.

St.Marie Dumont, showing the grenadiers sitting in the rubble after B26’s bombed the town the day before, H-Hour.

Tare Green beach H Hour, the landing s begin…

St.Mere Eglise, the fallshirmjaegers move out…H-Hour

St.Marie Dumont, the grenadiers still hold the square, but the US paratroopers are closing in from all sides.

Carnage on Tare Green : H-Hour

Tare Green beach, the German front trench line that was to give the landing forces so much trouble throughout the day.