German Srong points?

[Tactical Wargamer]

"STRONG POINTS" Seem them all the time in maps and writings. Just curious what would be in a typical (ok maybe there was not a typical) strong point in say the Juno area?

IIRC we only have concrete bunkers for infantry. No stronger emplacements for guns except tranches?

Any aerial shots of a strong point people might have.

Thanks as always guys!

[YankeeDog]

Correct; we presently do not have any kind of gun bunker. In fact, the guns themselves don't even currently fit in trenches; if you place the gun in a trench, the crew may benefit some from the cover the trench provides, but not the gun itself. Same thing goes for mortars, too incidentally. Currently in-game, the only fortification that provides any kind of protection to the gun itself is the sandbag wall.

As for what a strongpoint is/looks like, the term is often used fairly loosely, and can mean anything from a small (squad-level) defensive position, up to a battalion-level defensive position. So you have to look at the context. In the 1945 "Handbook on German Forces" published by the U.S. Army (available here: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Germany/HB/HB-4.html), you can find generic diagrams of German strongpoint layouts of various sizes in Section V - Defensive.

As for Juno Beach specifically, I don't have any images of the defensive strongpoints there saved in my browser Bookmarks, but I would assume that they were similar to the ones on other Beaches. Here's a simple overhead diagram showing the layout of WN-66 and WN-68 on Omaha, as well as a photo of WN-66 taken sometime after D-Day, to give an idea of how it looked from ground level:

From here: http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/james.dion/pictures.html

WN-66, Sometime in June, 1944 after D-Day:

From here: http://www.omaha-beach-memorial.org/Maps/Map_05-Wn66.html

Note that the heavy concrete gun and MG casements generally face along the beach, not out to sea, to protect them from direct Naval gunfire; they were sited to shoot and small boats and troops as they landed on the beach, not at boats further out to sea.

[Highlander Recce]

You might get a good idea of Juno's defences from a book by Company Sgt-Maj. Charlie Martin, DCM, MM, CM, of the QORs. Page 2 of his book "Battle Diary" by Dundurn Press. Sgt-Maj Martin included a sketch map of many of his battles in the book. They're rudimentary but just how much detail do you truly need ? ;-)

There are also some post war picture to help out a little bit.

Cheers !

[rocketman]

"STRONG POINTS" Seem them all the time in maps and writings. Just curious what would be in a typical (ok maybe there was not a typical) strong point in say the Juno area?

Please - make a Juno scenario

I would be soooo grateful

[LUCASWILLEN05]

A scenario on Juno Beach would be graet when the Commenwealth module is published. A couple of sources I could suggest is the Battleground Europe series Junmo Beach and Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy by Terence Copp. Johm Englih's The Canadian Army in Europe was, I believe, recently republihed by Stackpole HBooks.

[pagskier]

Strongpoint can vary a lot, from concrete position, to a well set basic dug in set of foxholes

Here is a few example:

Main defense line:

Wooded-Iron MG shelter

More organised, but still no concrete in there:

Use of Cellar:

To me a strongpoint is more a key-position you want to keep, where you put in your heavy weapons, that can support the other ''weaker'' element of your defensive system.

All those are germans BTW, it doesn't make much difference if the line in between is lightly held, because then your reinforce strongpoint will isolate the ennemy that has crossed the line, and a counter attack will whipe out the opposing force(that's german tactics). That's why 21st army group had a tactic of digging in when they were on objective and having a following unit overlapping them. It was to defeat armored counter attack on their newly acquired position.