Rommel "D-Day 6th June 1944 Assault on Juno Beach" Germans v Canadians

A first game for a considerable while against my usual Rommel opponent Andy saw us decide to play the 'Juno Beach' scenario again. I'd bought some tanks specifically for this scenario previously when we played it in 2019 and got a coastline strip so it also seemed a good opportunity to get some more use out of them!

The scenario recreates the landing of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division with the German 716th Infantry  Division defending the beach area, the 352nd Division further inland and the 21st Panzer Division hopefully arriving to counter-attack later in the day:

To win the Canadians have to capture 5 of the 7 towns and 2 out of 3 of their objectives by nightfall. It is a tricky scenario for both sides with a number of ways of approaching it!

The invasion is here! Canadians arrive on the beaches:

Support from the RAF as one German-held town is carpet bombed damaging the defending German infantry:

The Canadians waste no time moving off the beaches quickly and beginning to take out isolated German defenders:

While the Canadian infantry attack the German-held towns their armour pushes inland. At this stage the Germans can do little but try to hold the Canadians up and minimize losses:

The Canadians capture there first objective but the towns prove a trickier task with the Germans holding on grimly:

The German defenders refuse to be evicted from the streets and buildings as fighting rages on:

The first elements of the 21st Panzer Division arrive to support the 353nd Infantry Division. So far no fighting has been seen this far inland but the Canadians have been massing their forces and it won't stay quiet for long:

The Canadians have a number of tank battalions well inland but no infantry support as yet:

The Canadian armour advances while the 21st Panzer moves to oppose them:

One town finally falls to the Canadians, they need one more objective by nightfall to win the day. The battle is now into the afternoon though so they will need to press on:

The remainder of the 21st Panzer arrives:

The Canadians prepare to attack:

The remnants of the 716th Infantry Division hold on to the last town having given and taken huge losses they are now almost spent:

Meanwhile the two inland objectives come under attack resulting in a rare counter-attack from the 21st Panzer. In the distance infantry from the second wave of Canadians (9th Brigade and some self-propelled artillery) are hurried forward to support the Canadian armour:

The Canadians push the assault very aggressively and begin to hammer the defenders. The objective on the German right looks secure but on the left things are starting to look desperate. Night may save the Germans yet though: 

More and more Canadians reach the fighting while the Germans have no more troops to commit. They are holding on but weakening quickly under the Canadian attacks:

The two towns that were the scene of fierce fighting are now deserted of troops:

The Canadians are concentrating on the German left objective using their superior numbers and the newly arrived artillery to pound the defenders into submission:

It is almost nightfall and the Germans won't hold on much longer:

The last remnants are about to be overwhelmed:

The right hand German objective is still held but the Canadians have screened it with enough force to prevent them moving to help their comrades on the left:

More attacks pile in around the left hand objective:

All that is left is the two units holding the objective, both with a single hit left:

The Canadians roll over them taking the last objective they need to win the game as night falls:

Another fantastic game of Rommel against Andy which went right down to the wire! Rommel has a variable end to the game and I did have two chances for the game to end with me still controlling two objectives:

I think Andy played really well, he wasted no time at all and pushed forward at every opportunity to get inland as fast as possible and overwhelm the defenders especially with his second wave infantry that made all the difference in the final attack on the last objective.

As for me it became obvious the difficulty the Germans had with their two defensive lines being too far apart to support each other allowing them to be taken out piecemeal and bypassed, I think given the choice I'd have deployed both the 716th and 352nd forward to make a much more solid line and relied on the 21st Panzer to defend/retake the inland objectives if necessary.  Sadly as in reality I wasn't allowed to do my own deployment though......

Planning Juno Beach

Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of D-Day so Andy and I thought we would play the 'Juno Beach' scenario from Rommel.

I thought it might be interesting to plan how I was going to play the re-fight and afterwards see how my plan compared to what happens.

This is my initial plan:

I intend to deploy the slightly larger 8th Brigade on the right with the 7th Brigade on the left.

The 8th Brigade will push forwards as fast as possible with it's initial objective being the town at D8. 7th Brigade will also push forward with the dual task of taking the town at H7 and the objective at E7. To win the scenario the Canadians need to control 5 towns and 2 objectives by nightfall. The 9th Brigade will arrive as a second wave late morning with some SP guns.

The Germans have the 716th infantry available defending the beach with the 352nd Infantry further back in reserve. They also have the 21st Panzer Division which will arrive late in the morning. I think Andy has two choices with the 716th Infantry, either to spread them very thinly across the table to try to delay me or to concentrate them in the two town and the two marsh squares perhaps with more on my left in the open to delay me. This is how I would deploy them. However, Andy has had success in the past with a sacrificial line of infantry so I wouldn't be too surprised if he goes for that.

Tactical phase one and the Canadians rush forward with the tanks in advance:

Tactical phase two the advance continues. As far as possible we will ignore the 716th Infantry and leave them for the 2nd wave to deal with:

Tactical phase three and the two towns have been secured as has the objective, though due to the slow movement of the infantry (they have no half-tracks) tanks are having to hold the town initially:

So by the end of Turn One the Canadian plan is to be well forward with enough towns and the first objective secured. Having tanks holding the built up areas is not ideal but infantry can replace them later and  I don't think the German's are strong enough to counter-attack before the infantry can take over them.

The plan then is perhaps to mop up the 716th Infantry who will hopefully be isolated and push on towards the second Canadian objective in B2. It looks a tough task to take it, the 352nd Infantry is a strong unit and will have the 21st Panzer in support. My 2nd wave infantry, although numerous, will find it hard to get that far forward before darkness unless I can clear a route for road movement for them. That's probably one advantage for me if Andy does use the 716th as a screen, they will be wiped out quicker (hopefully) allowing me to use road movement later on. The other thing the 2nd wave brings is extensive artillery support which will help attacking.

So some tough choices for both sides.