Le-Mesnil-Adelée

On August 6th, Bradley and Hodges received a report from Allied aircraft indicating a build-up of German forces in the Mortain area. The US 30th Division therefore only had a day's warning to assume a defensive posture. In the other …

1944-08-07

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On August 6th, Bradley and Hodges received a report from Allied aircraft indicating a build-up of German forces in the Mortain area. The US 30th Division therefore only had a day's warning to assume a defensive posture. In the other camp, Hausser, knowing Hitlers expectations, dared not postpone the attack. Thus Operation Luttich began, shortly after midnight, with no preliminary artillery bombardment and many Panzer units still out of position. In the South, the 2nd SS Panzer Division pushed toward Mortain. In the North, Schwerin withheld his orders and the 116th Panzer Division failed to launch its attack. The 2nd Panzer Division achieved the most success in the center. Under cover of fog and darkness, it drove forward almost six miles and at sunrise was just outside of the town of Le-Mesnil-Adelée. When the ground fog began to dissipate, it revealed the 119th US Infantry deployed in town and on the nearby hills. Still strung-out from their night march, the Germans halted to redeploy prior to their assault...

Le-Mesnil-Adelée, France

Operation Luttich was a codename given to a German counter-attack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain in northwestern France from 7 August to 13 August 1944. The offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of Normandy as the Mortain counterattack. The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany. The main German striking force was the XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer Divisions and two Heer Panzer Divisions. Although they made initial gains against the defending U.S. VII Corps, they were soon halted and the Allies inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops, eventually destroying most of the German tanks involved in the attack. Although fighting continued around Mortain for six days, the American forces had regained the initiative within a day of the opening of the German attack.

Wikipedia: Operation Luttich

German

American

Game Type: Standard

Board Type: Countryside

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