St. Barthélemy Bash

From 12:00 midnight to 4:00 A.M., August 7, 1944, the whole 117th Regimental area was blanketed by intense and devastating mortar and artillery fire. Artillery personnel supporting the First Battalion were being bombed and strafed by enemy aircraft as they tried to register their fire on enemy tanks and infantry. …

1944-08-07

DASL31

J006

From 12:00 midnight to 4:00 A.M., August 7, 1944, the whole 117th Regimental area was blanketed by intense and devastating mortar and artillery fire. Artillery personnel supporting the First Battalion were being bombed and strafed by enemy aircraft as they tried to register their fire on enemy tanks and infantry. The enemy kept pecking at various points along the entire front during the night. Civilians, sneaking through the line, reported the enemy to have a great number of tanks and infantry. When attacked at dawn in the exceedingly thick fog, the tanks and troops were upon the First Battalion positions before they could be seen. The attack came in several waves. Company "A"'s roadblock was knocked out first. Then another finger of the German drive hit Company "C"s roadblock, out on the right flank, but it held. The attack seemed to pause briefly. Then about seven German tanks and a company of infantry started on Company "C" again and, despite stubborn resistance, penetrated. Company "B" was in reserve and was ordered to aid Company "C" with one platoon, which had hardly gotten ready to move out before the full force of the attack hit the Battalion from several different directions. Company "C" was disintegrated and Company "A"s main line of resistance was broken. The situation became extremely "fluid" and all the events that followed are still not clear. Saint-Barthelemy appeared to be swarming with enemy tanks by 7:00 A. M. Before mid-morning, the bulk of the town was in German hands. Companies "A" and "C" had stuck to their positions doggedly and heroically, but in vain; the tank destroyers supporting the First Battalion had been wiped out.

St. Barthélemy, France

Operation Lüttich 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.

German

American

Scenario Type = Deluxe