Infiltrators

In support of the American COBRA offensive, the British launched Operation BLUECOAT on 30 July. Within days, combined-arms columns had penetrated over fifteen miles into the German line south of Caumont, threatening the pivotal town of Vire. Yet this remarkable advance had created no new “front line”. …

1944-08-04

AP038

In support of the American COBRA offensive, the British launched Operation BLUECOAT on 30 July. Within days, combined-arms columns had penetrated over fifteen miles into the German line south of Caumont, threatening the pivotal town of Vire. Yet this remarkable advance had created no new “front line”. The British held a series of pockets deep in territory that the German generals still considered their own. Around and behind these strongpoints probed Gräbner’s reconnaissance battalion of SS-Panzerdivision 9, while the unsung heroes of the Royal Army Service Corps drove supply columns through hostile territory.

Burcy, France

Operation Bluecoat was a British offensive in the Battle of Normandy, from 30 July until 7 August 1944, during the Second World War. The geographical objectives of the attack, undertaken by VIII Corps and XXX Corps of the British Second Army (Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey), were to secure the road junction of Vire and the high ground of Mont Pinçon. The attack was made at short notice to exploit the success of Operation Cobra by the First US Army after it broke out on the western flank of the Normandy beachhead and to exploit the withdrawal of the 2nd Panzer Division from the Caumont area, to take part in Unternehmen Lüttich (Operation Liège) a German counter-offensive against the Americans.

German

British

Scenario Type = Standard