By the next morning British armored cars began probing for a way around the enemy strongpoint at St.
This left the right flank of the 15th Scottish Division exposed but the Germans lacked the manpower to take advantage of the situation. The German counterattack failed to drive the attackers back but stopped all forward progress. Jean des Essartiers the 3rd Monmouths suffered a counterattack by a mixed German force. This time the British Second Army had clearly-stated limited objectives, to tie down German armored forces and wear them down. Martin des Besaces and cut the road from there to Hill 309. On the first day of Operation Bluecoat the 11th Armoured Division attempted to secure St. It’s not going to be easy for the British Army, thanks to a relative shortage of infantry, but they do get to play with all of the toys. They get plastered by bombs to start off, and then have to face the Brits, who make up for their roughly equal numbers with scads of tanks including Crocodiles and AVRE bomb-tossers, lots of artillery, soaring morale and staggering initiative. This is a big scenario, with a good German Army division on the defense with plenty of heavy weapons and minefields. According to The Buffs’ War Diary they cleared the Lutian Woods in "a very successful operation.” Unfortunately, the time required to accomplish all these tasks exceeded the plan, leaving the whole operation well behind schedule and causing follow-up formations to have to fight just to reach their starting lines. It took until 1500 and a "…very good shoot in the village" by the antiaircraft tanks to secure the buildings. The German heavy mining around Sept Vents cost the Grenadier Guards a good deal of time in addition to five Churchill tanks. Tank commanders popping up for a look were lost to snipers as well, but the lads pressed forward. Despite this, the spearheads started taking casualties immediately with each battalion losing a company commander early on. Two lavishly-supported infantry battalions began rehearsing for the task.įighter-bombers augmented with over 1,300 heavier bombers replaced the customary artillery barrage. Maneuvering to take the hills required first taking the village of Sept Vents and the small Lutian Woods to the east. British XXX Corps received the task of securing the Point 309, also known as Quarry Hill, followed by its area-dominating sibling Hill 361. This intel gave the Operation Bluecoat planners a good chance of success since they could therefore avoid heavy concentrations of enemy troops and hit more lightly defended areas. They’re facing the fanatic SS troopers of the Hitler Youth, who are outnumbered and lack a lot of anti-tank capability, but hold a strong position.ĭuring the previous few days ULTRA intercepts revealed German reinforcements moving to the area southeast of Caen. The British attackers are primarily high morale Welsh Guards infantry, with a good array of support weapons and artillery, and a little specialized armor support (a flame-spewing Crocodile and a bomb-tossing AVRE). At 1700 the Welsh Guards moved forward to gain some maneuver room.
This lack of progress represented a far cry from the breakout envisioned by the planners, which unacceptably retarded the whole advance. Late in the afternoon of the 19th, the Guards Armoured Division remained mired in the German defenses just south of Cagny. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, Part Three here and Part Five here Let’s continue our scenario preview of Panzer Grenadier: Liberation 1944. That dynamic would form the basis of much Allied planning for Cold War battle planning. In some ways, the 1944 British campaign in North-West France looks more to the future than the past, as both the attackers and defenders were well-supplied with tanks, vehicles and artillery and one side had overwhelming air superiority.
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