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Welcome to Kampfgruppe von Luck the threaten the invasion beaches. It is on these second Pint-Sized Campaign for Chain of critical few hours that we will focus. Command and the second set in Normandy around D-Day. This time, we look towards the One of the keys to making any campaign British sector and the events to the East of the viable is keeping things simple and brief. Our Orne River on the 6th of June. Our At the Sharp End campaign handbook protagonists are 21 Panzer Division, in provides the key to unlocking this campaign. particular the forces under the command of Using the rules in At the Sharp End you’ll be Major Hans von Luck, and 12 Parachute able to run this campaign very easily and Battalion, one of the British airborne units quickly, straight from the box. The fact that deployed to form part of the bridgehead East the support lists are specific to this campaign of the Orne, protecting Pegasus Bridge from a also means that collecting the forces required counter-attack. is also very achievable. Putting together the firepower of a Panzer Once you are ready to begin, the campaign Grenadier force with the professionalism and will provide between four and eight games in tactical finesse of the Paras is sure to cause total by which point it will have reached a fireworks. What I enjoyed most about this measurable conclusion. You’ll have a winner campaign was the hard-fought nature of the and a loser, all in the type of time-frame actions, as two of the toughest forces in Chain which is ideal as a club project or for a couple of Command met on the battlefield. What my of friends gaming over a month or two. coleague Richard has done, taking just the Perfect, we think, for a fast, fun and brief period of one day in June 1944, is to fundamentally enjoyable campaign show how flexible At the Sharp End is. This experience. campaign introduces some additional considerations, such as the importance of As a bonus, these Pint-Sized Campaigns come managing limited assets to achieve your goal with a pint-sized price tag. Literally! The which really enhances the game experience price of each one will be the same as a pint of further and highlights how a campaign adds my favourite tipple in my local pub. We hope so much to gaming enjoyment. you enjoy Kampfgruppe von Luck. The invasion of Normandy on June the 6th was Richard Clarke an operation meticulously planned. However, Lard Island, January 2015 as von Moltke stated, no plan will survive contact with the enemy, and in this case the outcome was by no means certain. As we saw in 29 Let’s Go!, the margin between complete success and abject failure is a thin line and, on the morning of the 6th of June, the lightly equipped airborne forces in the bridgehead were ill-equipped to deal with an aggressive counter-attack supported by armour. For a fleeting few hours, the Germans had an opportunity to destroy the bridgehead and to Whilst Operation Overlord as a whole requires Specifically, Major General Richard Gale was no introduction, the British Airborne tasked with three tasks. Firstly was the Operation to secure the Eastern flank of the capture of the Orne bridges at Benouville. invasion, Operation Tonga, is less well known Second was the neutralisation of the German and bears some discussion as an introduction coastal battery at Merville where, it was to our campaign. thought, a battery of 150mm guns were located which could fire directly onto the Undoubtedly the most famous aspect of invasion beaches. Finally, the bridges across Tonga, thanks largely to the film The Longest the Dives and its tributary, the Divette, at Day, was the capture of the twin bridges Varaville, Robhomme, Bures and Troan were across the Orne River and Canal, Pegasus to be destroyed. This area had already been Bridge and Horsa Bridge. However, Tonga inundated by the Germans as part of their was far more than simply an audacious coup anti-invasion measures, so destroying the de main to seize a couple of bridges. In fact a bridges would seal off this flank almost total of six bridges were targeted, largely completely. along the River Dives further to the East. These were to be demolished to ensure that there was no German interference from that quarter. Planning for Operation Overlord had begun in May 1943 when Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan was appointed as Chief of Staff to an as yet un- appointed Supreme Commander. From its inception the plan included the use of airborne forces and, as detail was added, their roles as flank guards were confirmed. The US airborne forces falling to the West, the British 6th Airborne to the East. With these tasks then completed, the Division on the 5th of June, “Do not be daunted if was to defend its bridgehead, holding a chaos reigns. It undoubtedly will.” continuous defensive line between the Orne and the Dives, until relieved by the general 21 Panzer Division Allied advance. The 21st Panzer Division had an illustrious history, making its name as part of the Afrika The capture of the Orne bridges was the Korps under Erwin Rommel. However, that responsibility of a reinforced Company of the Division had been destroyed in Tunisia and Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry the name had been allocated to a fresh under Major John Howard. These were to Division raised in 1943. On paper this was a land at LZ X and Y. After seizing the bridges fresh Panzer Division, in reality it had scarcely this coup de main force was to hold their completed re-equipping and retraining. Its position with 5 Parachute Brigade dropping commander, Generalmajor Edgar Feuchtinger, on DZ N to provide them with relief and was an artilleryman by background and a man protection. 7 Para were to move into with friends in the regime. Before the war, he Benouville and Le Port to the West of the river had been involved in organising the Heer’s and 12 and 13 Para were to occupy Ranville contributions to Party rallies and was not a and Le Bas de Ranville, forming a defensive man afraid to use the contacts he had perimeter there. developed in the Nazi Party to advance his career. To the North, 9 Para and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion were to drop on DZ V, Inexperienced in armoured warfare, tasked with destroying the Merville battery, Feuchtinger attempted to surround himself the Dives bridges and clearing the DZ for the with men who knew their trade. He used his arrival of Divisional HQ at 0330 in 68 gliders. influence in the Spring of 1944 to secure the appointment of Major Hans von Luck to his Finally, 8 Para were to land at DZ K from Division as opposed to Panzer Lehr, to where where they were to destroy the bridges at von Luck had been posted. It was to be a Bures and Troarn before withdrawing fortuitous appointment as von Luck was an northwards to assume their place in the experienced commander. Such postings perimeter at Le Mesnil. On the evening of D- allowed the General to spend as much time as Day, a second wave of gliders would deliver possible in Paris where he had established a the 6th Airlanding Brigade made up of the 12th “Special Headquarters” that was more to his Devons, the 2nd Oxfordshire & liking than the provinces. Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the 1st Royal Ulster Rifles. Additionally, Lord Lovat’s The Division was made up of one Panzer 1st Special Service Brigade would cross the Regiment, the 22nd, with two battalions. Orne bridges as rapidly as possible before These had only just been equipped with turning North and clearing the coastal zone of Panzer Mark IVs and a minority of these were any isolated German forces in the area of the old short barrelled versions of early war Sallenelles, Franceville Plage and Cabourg to vintage. Additionally, two Panzergrenadier the East. Regiments, the 125th and 192nd, were both made up of two battalions, one in armoured For 6th Airborne Division, the greatest threat half-tracks, the other lorried. However, these was a strong German counter-attack before vehicles were not standard German the evening airlift consolidated the position. equipment but, rather, were French Army Until then, a dozen 6 pounder anti-tank guns surplus which had been ingeniously converted were the limit of their support weapons. It for the purpose by the talented Engineer, promised to be a long day and, as Brigadier Major Alfred Becker. Hill of the 3rd Para Brigade warned his officers the immediate defence network if an invasion were to occur. To describe the German chain of command as complex is to understate the matter. Rommel’s Army Group B shared responsibility for the defence of France with von Rundstedt’s Oberbefehlshaber West. Their difference of opinion as to how an invasion should be countered is well known. Rommel believed that an immediate counter-attack, destroying the enemy on the beaches was the only hope, and it was to that end Becker was an Engineer by profession, but he littered the coast of France with obstacles, had served as an artillery officer in the Great all designed to delay an invader attempting to War. Taking control of the Hotchkiss plant move inland. Rundstedt held the contrary near Paris, he converted literally hundreds of belief that a major co-ordinated counter French vehicles to equip the new Division.

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