The stories of D-Day and the subsequent fighting in Normandy, and the brave deeds of those who fought for freedom were simply too numerous and enormous to confine to a single Bolt Action campaign book. Hence our D-Day trilogy! D-Day: Overlord focuses on the day itself, June 6th; including the amphibious landings of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno beaches, and the nighttime airborne assaults.
For the purposes of this article, we’re shining a spotlight on the second volume; D-Day: British & Canadian Sectors campaign book focuses on some of the key clashes fought in Normandy in the summer of 1944 as British, Canadian, Polish, and other Allied forces engaged in desperate battles against a dedicated and determined German opposition. As well as summarising the history, this book also details a number of scenarios inspired by the engagements within the Normandy campaign, and the special rules required to play them.
A Third volume, D-Day: US Sector, focuses on the United States’ contributions to pushing through the Atlantic Wall and beyond towards Germany.
Pushing Inland
So focused have we become on the heroic deeds committed on June 6th 1944, commemorated across silver screen, television and near countless writings, it is easy to misunderstand the true focus of Operation Overlord. D-Day was just one day. It secured beachhead, but nothing more. The true task was to liberate France and push over 2,000,000 Allied soldiers east for the invasion of Germany itself, and the final assault to defeat Adolf Hitler and end the war in Europe.
This book tells the story of the British and Canadian contribution to this monumental task, and the stoic German resistance they faced. It guides Bolt Action players from the latter stages of D-Day, beginning with the fierce fighting in the coastal towns off the beaches at Gold, Juno and Sword, through the violent clashes around the strategically vital city of Caen, and to the march against Germany itself.
Scenarios
Inside, you’ll find thirteen diverse scenarios, covering the action from the first pushes inland, to the dramatic climax of the campaign in the British & Canadian sectors during Operation Tractable:
- Scenario 1: Riva Bella – Fighting in Coastal Villages
- Scenario 2: La Bruyere Woods
- Scenario 3: Villers-Bocage
- Scenario 4: Battle of Douvres Radar Station
- Scenario 5: V Weapon Raid
- Scenario 6: Operation Epsom
- Scenario 7: Operation Windsor
- Scenario 8: Operation Charnwood – The Outskirts of Caen
- Scenario 9: Operation Jupiter – The Second Attack on Hill 112
- Scenario 10: Operation Goodwood/Atlantic – 18-20 July
- Scenario 11: Operation Totalize
- Scenario 12: The Death of the Black Baron
- Scenario 13: Operation Tractable
Additional Rules & Units
To aid in replicating these battles, also included are additional army lists for four of the campaign’s most important forces, to use in conjunction with the exiting Armies of… books lists – the Canadian Army, the battle-hardened Commandos, the fanatical 12th SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’, and the Luftwaffe Field Division. These new army lists add a whole new dimension of play, allowing you to create themed forces for your campaigns in Normandy!
We’ve also included a whole stable of new special characters, including the VC-winning medic Corporal Frederick Topham, who put life and limb on the line to rescue wounded men, and the fanatical Kurt ‘Panzer’ Meyer, who earned his Iron Cross leading the Liebstandarte division’s reconnaissance battalion in Russia. These special characters are the perfect opportunity to theme your force further and make for amazing conversion opportunities.
Order Your Copy Today
Order D-Day: British & Canadian Sectors from the Warlord Games webstore and you’ll also receive a free special edition figure – CSM Stanley Hollis, VC.
By D-Day, Stan Hollis had already fought in Dunkirk, North Africa and Sicily, and had been promoted to Company Sergeant Major in the 4th Battalion, Green Howards. He and his men were part of the attack on Gold Beach, and it was in the fighting there that he would become the only soldier on D-Day to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour in the face of the enemy. As his unit came across a pair of enemy pillboxes, he charged the first. Using his Sten gun and grenades, he cleared both of them, single-handedly taking 26 prisoners. Later that day, after taking a house that had been sheltering enemy artillery, he realized that two of his men had been trapped in there and left behind. Turning to his commander, he said ‘I took them in, I will try to get them out’. Again, using grenades and gunfire, he was able to distract the enemy long enough for the trapped men to escape.
Prepare Your Forces
British & Canadian Starter Army (1943-45)
German D-Day Defenders
Hitler pinned his hopes on the defences of the Atlantic Wall to defeat any Allied landing. When Rommel took command of Army Group B in December 1943 he was ordered by Hitler to make a full inspection of the defences of the Atlantic Wall. With an Allied invasion now imminent, he concluded that Allied superiority in numbers of men and equipment and supremacy in the air meant that the invasion had to be defeated on the beaches and in the fields where airborne forces could land. He went about expanding and deepening the defences, especially on the beaches, laying millions of mines, constructing new fortifications, and designing and implementing new obstacles to stymie any Allied landing. This included obstacles that could snag and destroy landing craft, and tank traps to stop tanks dead.
Though the quality of some of the static divisions defending the Atlantic Wall was questionable, it made the amphibious landings no less daunting for the Allies. This bundle gives you 30 Grenadiers as well as supporting weapons teams with which to drive back the Allied invasion on the tabletop. Not only will they have to contend with defensive firepower but an assortment of tank traps and beach defences, enough to keep away all but the most determined men.
