Ok at long last this thing is ready for some testing. I'm looking for a few volunteers to give it a test drive and help me iron out any problems. Just PM me and I will send you the download link.
Here is some info about the campaign itself and following that a little background history to give you an idea of what Operation Clipper was about. Quite a few months of work have gone into this campaign and I hope it will prove enjoyable.
About the Campaign:
Operation Clipper: The Geilenkirchen Salient is a CMBN campaign designed to be played from the allied side only. It requires the latest patch as well as all the modules: (Commonwealth, Market Garden, Vehicle Pack). It does NOT require the Battle Pack just the latest patch.
Important Stuff:
This campaign is big. The maps are big as well as the missions. Yes even the first mission is a whopper because the real engagements were of battalion scale and I tried to stay as historical as possible. So this may not be for everyone. Slower systems may struggle and for those who don't like to manage a busy battlefield you may not enjoy this. It is definitely not designed for real time play.
However, I do believe that if you give it a try it will be a challenging and enjoyable experience. This is a campaign to take your time with and good planning is required to be successful.
I have tried to capture the events of Operation Clipper as accurately as possible based on research I was able to dig up. The game engine puts some restrictions on accuracy so I did my best to work around these restrictions so some modifications of the real events have been made, though they should be minor.
Unlike most campaigns in CM where you try and carry a specific core unit through the entire affair, Operation Clipper: The Geilenkirchen Salient has a extensive set of core units that were actual participants in the real battle. Though several units are involved in multiple scenarios the stress of preserving troop casualties is somewhat less, though it is still important to manage this especially with your armor support. I also added the names to the commanding officers where I could find them.
I also added in 4 of what I call interlude missions which are designed to help you follow the bigger picture of the events as the campaign progresses. These will have additional graphics as well as briefs of how the campaign is progressing as a whole. These are called Phase missions and once you read the additional information you simply click cease fire and you will be sent to the next mission in the campaign.
I tried to follow the timeline as accurately as possible and every major engagement of the campaign is covered. You may play one mission and if successful will be taken to another mission that in reality was happening at the same time. Each mission must be completed to continue as any failures will cause the campaign to ground to a halt. A Draw is required to advance. Each part is vital to the next phase.
The German units are also actual participants and I tried to model their experience levels as accurately as possible based on their real world counter parts.
Below is a listing of the Core Units:
American:
1. 84th Infantry Division ( The Railsplitters)
a. 334th Infantry Regiment - 3 x Battalions
b. 333rd Infantry Regiment - 3 x Battalions
2. 102nd Infantry Division (Ozarks)
a. 405th Infantry Regiment - 3 x Battalions
3. 84th Reconnaissance Troop
British:
1. 43rd Wessex Division
a. 1st Worcestershires - 1 x Battalion
b. 5th Dorsets - 1 x Battalion
c. 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry - 1 x Battalion
Support Units:
1. Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry - 2 x Squadrons (Attached to the 84th Infantry Division)
2. 1st Lothians and Border Yeomanry - 1 x Squadron (Specialized Armor)
3. 141st Regimental Royal Armoured Corps - 1 x Squadron
4. 4th/7th Royal Dragoons - 2 x Squadrons (Attached to the 43rd Wessex Division)
Non Core Units Featured:
1. 13th/18th Hussars (8th Armoured Brigade)
2. 94th Field Regiment RA
3. 112th Field Regiment RA
4. 179th Field regiment RA
4. 325th Field Artillery Battalion ( U.S.)
German:
XII SS Corps:
1. 183rd Volksgrenadier Division
a. 330th Volksgrenadier Regiment
b. 343rd Volksgrenadier Regiment
c. 351st Volksgrenadier Regiment
2. 15th Panzergrenadier Division
a. 104th Panzergrenadier Regiment
3. 9th Panzer Division
a. 10th Panzergrenadier Regiment
Mission Order of Battle:
A. Phase 1
1. The Red and the Blue (334th Inf Rg)
2. The Woods at Rischden (1st Worcestershires)
3. Battle for Prummern (334th Inf Rg)
B. Phase 2
4. Roadblock at Bruggerhof (5th Dukes of Cornwall's)
5. A Hard Days Night (334th Inf Rg)
6. The Assault on Geilenkirchen (333rd Inf Rg)
C. Phase 3
7. The 15th Panzergrenadiers Counterattack (1st Worcestershires)
8. Dorset Wood (5th Dorsets)
9. Mahogany Hill (334th Inf Rg)
D. Phase 4
10. The Valley of Death (333rd Inf Rg)
11. Bloody Beeck (405th Inf Rg)
12. Hoven (5th Duke of Cornwall's)
All maps were designed by the author as accurately as possible. They are large and detailed. It was difficult to find many aerial photographs for this area for that time period so most are a combination of details that I researched and google maps.
The Mods:
A number of mods were used in this campaign. Some I created but the following credits go out to their creators.
Terrain Mods: I imported some terrain features from CMFB as well as using Worgherns excellent winter mod terrain features with his kind permission.
I also used Mords excellent CMBN/CW portraits so that in each scenario the actual units have the correct insignia and unit name. (The only exception to this is in several scenarios where there is more than one British armored unit then the same Unit Portrait will appear for both. Nothing I could do about that.)
All other mods are my stuff or variations there of.
All mods have been tagged specifically for this campaign and should not conflict with any other missions or campaigns.
I hope the campaign will offer a different experience than most as it follows the historical timeline reasonably accurate.
Historical Background:
The Geilenkirchen Salient
The town of Geilenkirchen on the Ninth Army’s extreme left wing was more than a block severely restricting maneuver space at the line of departure for the November offensive. It also was the hard tip of a German salient created and exaggerated by the advance of the XIX Corps northeastward toward Gereonsweiler. Following generally the course of the Wurm River as it winds northeastward between Geilenkirchen and the Roer, the salient formed a wedge between the Second British Army’s 30 Corps west of the Wurm and the XIX Corps between the Wurm and the Roer.
Flanked by clusters of West Wall pillboxes, Geilenkirchen sits astride the Wurm River, which is the only terrain feature distinguishing this sector from other portions of the Roer plain. In the valley of the Wurm and on undulating slopes on either side are to be found the same drab farming and mining villages and the same endless rows of stock beets and cabbages that characterize the greater part of the plain. An occasional patch of woods may be found in the valley.
During November of 1944 nearly twice the amount of annual rainfall had fell in the Geilenkirchen area. This turned the entire valley into a quagmire of sticky mud that hampered both vehicle and troop movement. It also added a somber mood to an already dull desolate landscape. The squalid weather and horrid conditions would last for the entire campaign.
Two main highways in the salient laterally bisected the planned northeasterly direction of attack. Though secondary roads connecting the villages were muddy, they were adequate for normal tactical purposes. The Aachen-Geilenkirchen-Muenchen-Gladbach railroad follows the valley for several miles past Geilenkirchen before veering eastward at the village of Wurm.
In devising the plan and securing British approval for the 30 Corps to take Geilenkirchen, the Ninth Army commander, General Simpson, had been motivated by the need for a two-pronged thrust against the town and by the problems which might have developed had headquarters of different nationalities tried to control the attack. Temporary attachment of the 84th U.S. Division to the 30 Corps had solved the problem. Knowledge that the British in November had greater stocks of artillery ammunition than had the Ninth Army also had influenced the arrangement.
Having assumed control of the seventeen-mile sector from the Maas River to the vicinity of Geilenkirchen, General Horrocks’ 30 British Corps had positioned the 43d Infantry Division northwest of Geilenkirchen. South and southeast of the town, between Geilenkirchen and the left flank of the XIX Corps, a regiment of the 102nd Division, the 405th Infantry, held a narrow sector which at this time was the only front-line responsibility of the XIII U.S. Corps.
The German defenders consisted of the bulk of 176th Division, northwest of Geilenkirchen and the 183rd Volksgrenadier Division, in the town and southeast of it. General der Infantrie Günther Blumentritt—commander of the XII SS Corps—had placed the bulk of his artillery in the area.
South-east of Geilenkirchen, deep minefields had been laid from Geilenkirchen to Jülich, via Immendorf and Puffendorf, about 10 km . The area was at the point where a new section of the Westwall, built while Aachen held out, joined the established defenses. Westwall used the compact, stone-built buildings in the villages, which had been fortified, and purpose-built concrete bunkers.
Operation Clipper
Labeled Operation Clipper, the fight to eliminate the Geilenkirchen salient was to develop in several phases. Attached for operations to the British but still tied for other purposes to the XIII Corps, the 84th Division was to make the main effort by passing through the 102nd Division’s narrow sector in early morning of the first day, 18 November, two days after the start of the Roer River offensive. Using but one regiment at first, the 84th Division was to take high ground east of Geilenkirchen and the town of Prummern, two miles to the northeast.
A second part was to begin about noon on the first day when the 43d British Division was to attack to gain high ground in the vicinity of Bauchem and Tripsrath, villages west and north of Geilenkirchen. In conjunction with the 84th Division’s first attack, this drive was designed to promote virtual encirclement of Geilenkirchen, whereupon the 84th Division was to launch a third attack by moving into the town and continuing a mile and a half northward to Suggerath in the valley of the Wurm. In the final phase, the 43rd Division was to continue to clear the west bank of the Wurm as far as Hoven, three miles to the north of Geilenkirchen, while the 84th Division pushed beyond Suggerath and Prummern to a trio of villages located near the point where the railroad veers away from the Wurm River. These villages—Mullendorf, Wurm, and Beeck—are approximately three miles northeast of Geilenkirchen.
Taking all these objectives would eliminate the German wedge between the British and Americans. The front line then would describe a broad arc from the Maas River near Maasbracht, southwest of Roermond, to the Wurm River at the trio villages, and southeast to Gereonsweiler. The final boundary between the XIII and the 30 Corps (and thus between Second British and Ninth U.S. Armies and the 12th and 21 Army Groups) was to follow generally the course of the Wurm to the villages, thence northeastward along the Aachen-Muenchen-Gladbach railroad.
Let me make the adjustments to it that the testers have suggested and I will PM it to you.