Ripe Pickings

On the night of 7-8 July, Combat Command B of the 3rd Armored Division crossed the River Vire at Airel despite heavy fire. In the dark, confusion was rife as American and German tanks stalked each other among the hedgerows and orchards. Isolated firefights erupted everywhere. Around Pont Herbert the …

1944-07-08

DASL11

D11

On the night of 7-8 July, Combat Command B of the 3rd Armored Division crossed the River Vire at Airel despite heavy fire. In the dark, confusion was rife as American and German tanks stalked each other among the hedgerows and orchards. Isolated firefights erupted everywhere. Around Pont Herbert the fighting was most intense; the 3rd Battalion of the 33rd Armored Regiment lost all of its command tanks. Sgt. Balderson decided to lay up in a deserted orchard and await the dawn, when he could assess the situation. He gathered a few GIs wandering around in the dark to provide him with some infantry support. Finally, the long night ended and he revved up his Sherman and pulled out of the orchard onto a road. Suddenly his gunner, "Swede" Anderson, screamed that there were enemy tanks ahead.

Pont-Hebert, France

The Battle of Saint-Lô is one of the three conflicts in the Battle of the Hedgerows, which took place between July 7–19, 1944, just before Operation Cobra. Saint-Lô had fallen to Germany in 1940, and, after the Invasion of Normandy, the Americans targeted the city, as it served as a strategic crossroads. American bombardments caused heavy damage and a high number of casualties, which resulted in the martyr city being called "The Capital of Ruins", popularized in a report by Samuel Beckett.

American

German

Scenario Type = Deluxe