Rendezvous with Destiny, The aftermath of Carentan

The aftermath of Carentan.

Donville and the Road to Baupte.

My Chain of Command US 101st Airborne have followed their Rendezvous with Destiny and finally captured Carentan.  The bonus scenario is a bath tubbing of the battle of Bloody Gulch.  My instinct is to focus on a specific part of this battle instead, so i will focus on the Band of Brothers, E Company 101st's stand in a farmhouse near Baupte south of Carentan. 

The town fell to the  101st on June 12th, after its final defenders, a rearguard of 6th Fallschimjäger Regiment was overrun.  Carentan had been one of the US division’s objectives on D-Day, but the scattered drop meant that it had taken six days to gather the men and equipment, organise the attack and gradually drive the German defenders south. The town was an important objective. It formed the link-up point between the two US Corps coming ashore at Utah and Omaha, thus presenting the Germans with a unified US front, rather than two separate beachheads. 

The German commanders could see that retaining Carentan would drive a wedge between the two US Corps, from which further attacks could be launched.   In order to regain the town  17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division, ‘Götz von Berlichtingen’ was moved forward.  

On the night of June 12th, 17th SS PzGren  division’s troops and armour were still south of the town, but they had been given orders to launch a rapid attack to retake it, before the Americans could be reinforced.

Because of Ultra the attack was expected.  The Reserve Task Force A, 2nd Armoured Division, stationed 15 km away at Isigny were pushed forward.  Having cleared the town, the US paratroops were ordered to quickly push south-west and west to secure a wider perimeter around it.  501st Regiment moved to the west, and 506th further south.  

A dawn on the 13th. As the paratroops prepared to move out again, the SS attack began. Artillery and mortar fire preceded an attack by 17th SS Panzer Regiment’s armour (mostly StuGs) supported by 37th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment (on foot) and elements of 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment.  Throughout the morning, the paratroops fought amongst the rain soaked fields and hedgerows, south and west of Carentan. 

The Germans’ main assault along the Perriers-Carentan highway made some progress, and by midday they were within 500m of the edge of the town.  Further west, 501st had held its lines better (against less odds), but was still under pressure to give ground.

By early afternoon the US Armour passed through Carentan and attacked the German spearheads. Splitting into two groups, the US tank thrust south along the main Perriers highway, and along a western side road towards the village of Baupte. Here they relieved the hard-pressed men of E Company, 501st PIR, holding the line in the area of small farm called Donville (marked Douville on the maps). The Shermans led armoured infantry directly into the attack, into the SS lines.

The fighting continued all afternoon, eventually driving the Germans back 2km from Carentan.

Objectives

There are three objectives on the battlefield.  The Donville farm (its largest building), a road junction on the Baupte road and another small farm building south of the Baupte road.

This will be a Big COC Command game. 

E Company, 501st. are the "Band of Brothers" and I have no intention of using their names that would associate with the real history of this battle. Instead I will focus on my "game" platoon, who have been fighting all morning, holding this position under StuG, mortar and artillery fire.   At the start of the game three squads are all that is available under Lt Harry "Bing" Crosby, and his Sergeants W.C, Costello and Abbott.

The Germans are attacking and take the first initiative.  

Rain.  Visibility reduced to 18 cm.   Any action dice roll with more than a single 6 increases the ferocity of the rain, reducing visibility by a further d6 cm, to a minimum of 6.  Any roll of more than a single 1 and re rain slackens by d6 cm.  This was the storm that damaged the Mulberry harbours and it was reported to have been fierce.

Ammo low: After hard fighting all morning, the US paras are now running low on ammo. If the German player rolls a random event, he can choose to play Low Ammo. It must be played on a US airborne unit.

The Carentan to Perriers road 

in the aftermath of the battle, 

littered with the wreckage of a 

still smoking Sherman and StuG.

US Forces

Elements of E Company, 

501st PIR US Airborne platoon 

3 x Squads, .30 Cals + a combat medic

Turn 5 – Point 1

M4 Sherman platoon

5 Sherman tanks

Turn 6 – Point 2

M4 Sherman platoon 5 Sherman tanks

Turn 7– Point 3

3 x Armoured infantry Squads, 

in 4 x M5 halftracks

Op Team in jeep for 4 x 105mm howitzers 

(M7 Priests of 14th Armoured Field Artillery)

German

Initial Attackers

2 Fallschimjäger Squads

HMG-42 team

Panzerschreck team

Combat medic

Turn 2 - Point C.

3 x StuG III Gs

OP team in Kübelwagen for off table battery

Turn 3 Point A

3 x Pz IVs

Panzer Grenadier platoon, 2 Squads

(may be riding the tanks)

Turn 4 Point B

Panzer Grenadier platoon 2 Squads

Pak40 auf 39(H)

Off-Table Battery

2 80mm mortars

2 105mm field guns

From the diary of Lt Harry "Bing" Crosby.

"Without a rest we pushed on south of Carentan towards Donville.  W.C from 2 platoon has become my top Sergeant and I'm running a Company that's only platoon sized.  Sgt Costello is still with us, goodness knows how after his heroics yesterday.  Sgt "hang back" Abbott however needs watching.  We have no battalion assets with us, except "Dr" Clooney, a medic Corpsman.  How we will manage without that .50 Cal team I have no idea."