Panzer Battles Normandy - AAR, The Official In-Game Briefing

This is a continuation from my previous blog entry. The game is the soon to be released Panzer Battles Normandy. Graphics and game play functionality are subject to change. Thanks for the crew at John Tiller Software for allowing me to have the first AAR ever of this war game!

My little gig of keeping a shroud of mystery on the location of the whole game and the particular scenario I am playing kind of miss-fired. Over there at TheBlitz.org a couple of fellows figured out the exact location of the scenario. Brilliant work they have done!



So, let's lift the blackout: the figure above is the area of operations and the text below is the official in-game briefing.

Verrieres, South of Caen: July 25th, 1944. (Scenario Size: Brigade+. Head to Head or Commonwealth Human vs AI) 

To this day, there is still some debate about the ultimate goal of Operation Spring. On a strategic level, it is said that the attack was to hold the German panzer forces in the British sector so that the US could break out from the Normandy beachhead in Operation Cobra. 

On a tactical level, this was not the message passed down by the HQ of the 2nd Canadian Corps. They said it was an attack to drive the Germans from the high ground. This scenario simulates the attack by six battalions of the 2nd Canadian Division on the Corps' right flank. The plan was a complex three phase operation to be executed at night because the Germans had lines of sight from the high ground of Verrieres Ridge, and Hill 112 to the west; that had made the previous daylight attack a costly affair. However, enemy resistance proved very stubborn, and throughout the night each phase fell behind or did not meet its objectives. Daylight found the two battalions of the second phase involved in a bitter contest to secure their objectives prior to the final two battalions launching the third and final phase, the attack to capture the ridge itself. As the Black Watch of Canada advanced up Verrieres Ridge, German MGs and mortars appeared repeatedly on the flanks and in the rear. 

The Germans had hidden units in mineshafts, and used underground passages to move troops around unknown to the attacker. Furthermore, innocent looking haystacks erupted with fire to reveal hidden panzers. It truly was a day when in the words of historian Reginald Roy, "courage was not enough".

I am playing as the Commonwealth against the German AI.

Cheers,