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| Memoir '44 |
D-Day Operations June/July 1944
Scenario #1 – Pegasus Bridge, June 5th/6th 1944
Scenario #1 – Pegasus Bridge, June 5th/6th 1944
Historical Background:
The late hours of June 5, 1944. Led by Major John Howard, the men of Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry step aboard six Horsa gliders on a secret airfield in Dorset. Their mission: to launch the first airborne assault of D-Day and capture two bridges, one astride the Caen Canal, the other over the Orne river, in Normandy.
A few minutes past midnight, now June 6, 1944, the gliders clip through the treetops and land in a small patch of rough field, between a pond and the Caen Canal, only yards away from their objective! Major Howard and his troops pour out of the planes, achieving complete surprise and rushing the stunned German forces. Despite furious opposition from a heavily sandbagged machine gun nest at the end of now famous ?Pegasus? bridge, they capture their objective within moments. To the east, the Orne bridge is secured equally rapidly, giving British troops the first victory of D-Day! BBC Historical Link
Pegasus Bridge Map
Briefing:
Axis Player(s): Pete & Tom
Axis Instructions:
Take 2 command cards (Germans were surprised). Draw two cards after turns 1 and 2. You will then have a hand of 4 command cards for the rest of the battle.
Allied Player(s): Gary & AndyB
Allied Instructions:
British: Major John Howard
Take 6 command cards.
You move first.
Conditions of Victory:
5 Medals*
*An Allied unit that captures a bridge hex (Pegasus & Orne) counts as one victory medal. Place an objective medal on each of the bridges. As long as the Allied unit remains on the bridge hex, it continues to count toward the Allied victory. If the unit moves off or is eliminated, it no longer counts. Both the “Pegasus Bridge” and the "Orne Bridge" must be taken as part of the Allied victory total.
Outcome:
The Allies began their advance to the bridges under the cover of darkness. However progress was slow and with daylight soon breaking through, Howard's men were spotted and found themselves under extremely heavy and accurate machine gun fire from the sandbagged German infantry at Pegasus Bridge. The resulting heavy Allied casualties, so early in their advance, would prove to be decisive and the initial Allied progress towards Pegasus bridge was painfully slow.
On the Orne Bridge flank, the German forces again spotted the Allied advance early and, taking up strategic defensive positions in the wooded areas close to the bridge, the Axis forces again effectively laid down heavy machine gun fire. As a result the Allied forces on the Orne flank never made any real progress towards securing the Orne bridge.
Back on the Pegasus bridge flank, the Allied forces soon rallied and succeeded in capturing the German sandbag position at the end of Pegasus bridge, suffering heavy casualties in the process. An immediate German counter-attack over Pegasus bridge soon recaptured the sandbagged position at Pegasus bridge, re-established German control of the area. Having suffered such heavy casualties the Allied forces could not mount another serious attack for the bridges and were forced to withdraw from the area of the Caen Canal, having failed in their mission to secure the bridges as objectives for the Allies.
Axis win with 5 Medals vs. the Allies 2 Medals.
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