WimO's Tonga Master Map project

[WimO]

Going to upload two versions of the my expanded Tonga master map today. One is without any flavour objects except cemetery gravestones in the two church yards. The other includes thousands of flavour objects and thousands more Rommel's asparagus. In fact, I stopped placing the latter imagining that Todt had a work in progress. The map is very tasking on my computer with a few minutes to load. The map without flavor objects should be a quicker load and will allow you, the user, to cut it up in the Scenario Editor to make smaller maps without the crazy random redeployment of flavour objects.

When I started the Operation Tonga Map I intended only to improve the historical accuracy of three existing CM scenarios and focus solely on the British Airlanding assault on the Bénouville bridge. Almost immediately it grew to include both bridges of Operation Deadstick, the Bénouville bridge across the Canal de Caen and the "pont tournant" across the Orne.

When I researched the historical events, I decided that this was not going to be a very interesting scenario due to the overwhelming force that the Brits were able to bring to bear (5:1 + surprise). Most of the under-strength German platoon were asleep and its commander was at a dinner party in Ranville.

Only one active MMG was encountered and a second captured fully supplied but unmanned as was also the old French A/Tk gun in the Tobruk. At the pont tournant, there was only brief resistance by a single German with a Schmeiser. Others were seen to be running away. Again, not much of a game.

Having already spent too much time on the map I thought that perhaps a short campaign might create some interest since there was a game-worthy small action in the south edge of Bénouville involving 7th Para. Apart from that there was only minor skirmishing and sniping around the buildings near the Bénouville bridge and in Le Port.

I found that the Brit. 12th Para Bn had a busier time in and around Le Bas de Ranville and the ring contour, sufficient to create another scenario or two. This required extending the map further south and east and that would also bring in the Brit. 13th para. This would also bring into play another small action.

The largest actions were fought in areas off-map. One to south-east in Longueval and Ste. Honorine started on D+1 that involved the Royal Ulster Rifles who had moved up from Sword Beach the night before and not any airborne elements. The most intense battles occurred north-west when the Germans attempted to punch through and  the Brits and Canadians to close, the Bréville gap.

Overall the situation does not lend itself very well to a campaign format for a variety of reasons; the size of the area, the large number of battalions crammed into the space and diverse actions all over the map in all directions. I think maybe a series of individual scenarios captures it best. Maybe two very short (two scenario) campaigns. The situation is too large for CMBN and breaking it into pieces just does not tell the coherent story. Taking a pause to read and think.

Edited July 14, 2023 by WimO

[PEB14]

I remember that the 21 Pz Div counterattacked towards Bénouville on D-Day, but I don't remember where the fighting actually occured?

[WimO]

Apart from some initial skirmishing and sniping which went on throughout the day the first semi-serious attack against the Bénouville bridge came in the form of two half-tracks while the Oxf and Bucks were still the only defenders.

A much more serious attempt west of the canal came in the form of a company assault supported by SP guns via the road to Caen. The fighting ocurred in the south edge of Bénouville near the intersection with the Chateau de Bénouville (the maternity hospital) after a platoon from the British 7th Parachute Battalion had occupied buildings in that area. It was a difficult struggle with nearly all of the paras eventually killed or wounded.

Some minor skirmishing in Le Port with German snipers.

A minor even occured west of the canal when a German PzKfw IV suddenly appeared in Le Port having arrived unexpectedly from the north. I appears to have just driven through towards Caen. Similarly to the surprise of all, two Sherman tanks appeared and disappeared along the same road - never to be heard from again.

After the foregoing nothing more seems to have transpired west of the canal. All further actions, minor and major occurred in the days following, east of the Orne with none of the German actions able to penetrate to the bridges.

[PEB14]

6 hours ago, WimO said:

A much more serious attempt west of the canal came in the form of a company assault supported by SP guns via the road to Caen. The fighting ocurred in the south edge of Bénouville near the intersection with the Chateau de Bénouville (the maternity hospital) after a platoon from the British 7th Parachute Battalion had occupied buildings in that area. It was a difficult struggle with nearly all of the paras eventually killed or wounded.

That's the one I was thinking about.

 

The problem with a Bénouville campaign is that, apart from the initial British assault on the bridges (completely bland from a gaming point of view, according to your account above), all other actions are defensive for the British. So a GERMAN campaign would be more interesting… Your 82nd Airborne campaign is very nice thanks to the balance between offensive and defensive missions. A purely defensive campaign would be definitively unattractive…

I don't think that diverse, small actions is really an issue. As long as you can track down core units and tell a coherent story with them, you can build a campaign. So perhaps you should look for an interesting core unit to build a campaign around, leaving geographical considerations aside… Interesting meaning that the core units took part in diverse actions…

 

I'm just reading a French book which mentions that very bloody fightings occured when the German 346 ID tried to reduce the British pocket east of the Orne river, from 8th to 10 June. These fighting have been completely overshadowed by the Panzer Divisionen actions. Unfortunatley, your Bénouville map focuses on the Western bank of the Orne river, so it is not a topic of interest for your campaign…

[WimO]

I agree with you for the most part. Towards the 9th and 10th the British did fight some unsuccessful actions in their attempts to move from Longueval into Ste. Honorine.  Indeed, prior to that time most of the British actions were quite small to move into positions from which they fought mostly defensive actions. Just between you and I - I am in the process of secretly creating my largest map ever - 6 km x 3 km covering the south edge of Le Bas de Ranville, Ranville, Longueval, Ste Honorine and Escoville. This will allow me to recreate a number of German attacks. It should be possible to recreate the events from both sides.

IF .. if .. if I complete this project later this year, I might attempt recreate the terrain covering  the more significant battles for the Breville gap.

This whole experience has been unplanned. All I ever intended to do was create a tiny scenario (boring it seems) of the attack on the 'Pegasus' bridge. Trying to turn it into something more interesting is a job that I really didn't plan for ...or even want.

[WimO]

This morning I have completed two scenarios; "Operation Coup de Main - Historical"  and "Operation Coup de Main - a 'What If?' variant". A bit of final play testing to do later today on the variant.

[Artkin]

Kandu, the map is amazing as always. An interesting mix of rivers and heights. 

Nothing takes longer than Hauts Vents to load though, another unbelieveable map!

[WimO]

5 hours ago, Artkin said:

Kandu, the map is amazing as always. An interesting mix of rivers and heights. 

Nothing takes longer than Hauts Vents to load though, another unbelieveable map!

@Artkin Thank you.