1st US Army Campaign #1: Saint Pierre du Mont

general Hoth · **general Hoth**

The men from 352nd infantry division.

Saint Pierre du Mont, West of Omaha beach, 7 June 1944.

Despite securing La Pointe du Hoc after a tremendous morning assault the 2nd rangers found themselves surrounded with their back to the sea due to continuous german counter attacks. Ammunition was running low and the rangers had to resort to use german weapons until rescued.

Coming from the right flank of Omaha beach, the U.S. 29th infantry division with some ranger support was sent early on 7th of june to help the 2nd's rangers. The men from the 116th had to break the Saint Pierre du Mont german strongpoint first to get there. It was going to be a hell of a morning.

In the meantime the germans fell back from Omaha to their prepared positions blocking the way to La Point du Hoc. It was a rag tag kampfgruppe made of reatreating pioneers from battalion 17, ost units (russians forced into service), remains of the 352nd Infantry division and most importantly: elements their Artillery regiment...

Maps:

West -map7- map16 (upside down)- East

http://s668.photobucket.com/album...on=view&current=zAAMMap71.jpg

http://s668.photobucket.com/album...n=view&current=zAAMmap161.jpg

The Germans set up first.

The U.S. have initiative on turn one.

Half hexes are not in play in this scenario.

Replace the pond hex on map7 by a city tile:
You then have built the 4 hexes german strongpoint.

The U.S. can then add 2 shellhole tiles anywhere on any full hex of map16. Shellholes give cover to infantry.

This scenario is perfect for 3 players. The U.S. can split its force equally in two only sharing the supporting mortar fire.

Line Up:

Reinforced 29th U.S. Infantry division:
set up up to 4 hexes from the East side of map 16.

Red devil captain x2
M1 garand x4
Rangers x4
Untested recruit x4
M1919 MG x2
Bar gunner x2
Thompson gunner x2
U.S. engineers x2
Hunting sniper
bazooka
M1 81mm mortar

Saint Pierre du Mont's strong point:
set up anywhere on map7 full hexes.

Bunker x2
Barbed wire x2
Minefield x2
SS leader
Sandbagged MG
MG 42
Disciplined spotter x2
7.5 lel G18 x2
81mm mortar
Mauser x3
Fortress defender x3
Ost russians (use the Volkstrum card) x3
Flammenwerfer
Expert sniper
Sdkfz 2
Sdkfz 250 x2

Victory conditions:

At the end of turn 8:

Major U.S. victory: the allies hold the 4 hexes of the strong point.

Minor U.S. victory: the allies hold 3 hexes.

German victory: the allies hold 2 or less hexes.

the men from 29th infantry division.

pictures of the battle soon.

to be continued, this is the first scenario out of three.

Next mission for the US first army: Carantan.
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Scenarios?:
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general Hoth · **general Hoth**

as a teaser, the pictures from last week's game:

http://s668.photobucket.com/albums/vv48/generalhoth/pointe%20du%20hoc/

More to come before Carantan...
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Scenarios?:
http://aaminis.myfastforum.org/forum3.php.

Thuddeus · **Thuddeus**

A buddy and I played this twice, tonight. Each of us played both sides.

First, this was a very fun scenario with lots of tactical problems to solve. The map set up was confusing, however, and, after examining the AAR pictures carefully, I think we had the city at the wrong end of the map. As we interpreted it, the city hexes were at the farthest possible extreme from the American starting point. If we had placed the city more toward the middle of the map, the game would likely have played quite differently. As it was the Americans were effectively delayed in reaching the objective both times.

It each case the Germans set up a defensive line along the trees on the center map side of map 7. Try as they might, the Americans just couldn't push through. The German MGs, artillery, and flamethrower, were just too much for the rapidly advancing Americans.

To reach the far side of the map by game end, the Americans needed to advance almost continually. They either fought and moved too slowly to reach the objective, or advanced and got slaughtered.

Overall the battle was fairly balanced both games with the Germans and Americans each giving as good as they got. The problem for us was that the victory conditions, as we set up the map, were just too much for the Americans.

I would just like clarification on the map arrangement.

general Hoth · **general Hoth**

Thank you very much for the feedback. Cool

I believe you achieved an historical result as the US couldnt force the german strongpoint during their first assault. They had to wait for a couple of shermans to help out later during the day.

Map wise the strongpoint should be closest to the US set up in the middle of the map. I feel sorry for your US troops as 8 turns will surely be too short to have them control the whole strongpoint!

When facing the map yourself, place map 7 on your left and then map 16 (upside down, that is with the number 16 at the bottm left corner) on your right.

You are right, both sides will face difficult decisions during set up (the germans) or during the assault (the US). Cool

Still playing as you did you will surely have had a good taste of the US task ahead!
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Scenarios?:
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