Invasion 1944:
Scenario Preview, Part One
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
April 2021

Panzer Grenadier: Invasion 1944 is our introductory game for the Panzer Grenadier series. The scenario set is designed to allow you to incorporate more and more rules as you continue to play, but those same scenarios are designed to the same standard as any other in the series. If you already know how to play Panzer Grenadier (and it’s not hard to learn), you still have a lot of fun awaiting you in this game.

There are 21 scenarios, all of them taking place in Normandy in the days after the American invasion. The terrain’s pretty nasty, and so are the Germans. But the Americans prevail over evil, after some hard fighting. You can play still more scenarios in this setting in our Dishonor Before Death expansion book (30 of them, with 165 additional die-cut playing pieces).

So let’s have a look at the first of the Invasion scenarios.

SCENARIO INTRO-ONE
St. Laurent Again
6 June 1944
In the afternoon, the American 115th Infantry Regiment had landed and the 29th Division staff assigned the 116th to advance on the western end of the lodgment and Vierville-sur-Mer. The 115th Infantry Regiment was given the task of securing St.-Laurent-sur-Mer. The 116th’s attack had shown that the stone houses in St. Laurent could not be harmed by any weapons possessed by the infantry so a few stray tanks that had survived the hellish two-mile “float” into shore were rounded up to lend support. Even with their help things looked dicey so Captain Thomas Cadwaladar had been sent to round up more help.   

Conclusion
Captain Cadwalader’s mission proved profitable as the firepower of the 58th Armored Field Artillery (the off-board artillery) destroyed the stone houses the Germans were using for cover one by one. When darkness forced the Americans to suspend operations they controlled all but a small enclave on the west side of the village. The use of high volumes of artillery fire to achieve tactical gains would become a hallmark of American attacks in 1944-45.

Notes
It’s a small scenario, with just infantry on each side and a fairly short playing time. In the book, the scenario description annotates every item and every step you need to take.

SCENARIO INTRO-TWO
An Ominous Sign
13 June 1944
Constant advances had led the 29th to cross the River L’Elle towards St. Lo. The next Norman town awaiting was Couvains. The Stonewallers (the 116th Infantry traced its lineage to the Army of Northern Virginia’s Stonewall Brigade) awoke to an eerily silent world shrouded in fog. Veterans patiently explained to the green troops that it was so quiet because the fighting yesterday had frightened off the birds while officers worried that navigation would be virtually impossible while communications were out again. Into this ghostly world they started on their way to Couvains to discover that the Germans had added a new element to the equation.

Conclusion
Officers successfully overcame the problems of navigating through the fog-shrouded bocage, resulting in the liberation of Couvains. During the fighting some Germans who had been captured were wearing different uniforms and helmets than the ordinary Wehrmacht soldier. Careful questioning gained the information that these men were from the 3rd Parachute Division who had been sent here to drive the Allies back into the sea or die trying. To these men that was no idle statement as their division was virtually destroyed in Normandy.

Notes
We get a little larger here, with the Americans once again on the attack. This time they have tanks, so you can try out the armor rules and play around with how to use them in battle.

SCENARIO INTRO-THREE
A Costly Mistake
16 June 1944
Company E of the 115th Infantry Regiment, assigned to relieve the 116th Infantry Regiment, had deployed slowly at Saint-Clair-sur-l’Elle during the morning of 16 June. Some quick-thinking Germans spotted the oversight and occupied the village far in the rear of the thrust toward St. Lo. Company E was unable to dislodge the Germans, and more and more American had to be committed to the effort to re-take the village.

Conclusion
The whole 2nd Battalion was eventually needed to clear the stubborn fallschirmjägers from the village. One especially troublesome paratrooper in a church steeple shot Captain Frank O’Connor who commanded Company E. The company’s mistake had not only cost the regiment a company commander but they were unable to use the rest of the battalion to exploit their morning success as planned. The ability of the German forces to use the broken terrain and the anonymity of night to reoccupy areas behind the American front resulted in the need to fight for the same objectives more than once.

Notes
Once again, the Americans are attacking, in a very small scenario. Their enemies are paratroopers, who are very determined to hold their ground. The Americans have artillery and a tank, and they’re going to need them both.

More Notes
The three intro scenarios show up twice in Invasion 1944 (which leads to some confusion over the scenario total; there are 24 of them total, but three of those appear twice so we usually call it 21). In the intro versions, the terrain rules are greatly simplified to get you playing faster. In the “real” scenarios, the battleground gets considerably more difficult.
 
Invasion 1944 includes four “Battle Games,” which link together a chapter of scenarios so you can play them all and see if you’ve met your overall goals. Now let’s have a look at the first of those.

Omaha
Omaha Beach was a four-mile stretch of sand, shingle and bluffs with five draws through the bluffs which led to three towns further inland. The towns were, from west to east, Vierville-sur-Mer, St.-Laurent-sur-Mer and Coleville-sur-Mer. The initial landings were to be conducted by the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division and the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. A second wave of the 115th Infantry Regiment and the 18th Infantry Regiment would permit exploitation after the first wave had secured the beach.

If you’re familiar with the story of Omaha Beach, you know that it was almost abandoned mid-morning on 6 June, the first day of the landings, due to the first wave’s inability to gain any purchase on top of the bluffs. All five draws were heavily defended and the Germans seemed stronger than had been expected. The terrain made the actual landings difficult and the timetable had not permitted the beach obstacles to be effectively cleared. In addition, very few units landed within a mile of their intended target, most landing considerably to the east, and nearly all units were intermingled.

Success first required getting onto the bluffs and away from the beach. While the draws had been expected to be the main avenues of the advance and would be necessary for the highly motorized American Army to bring its vehicles into France, the initial inland penetrations occurred directly up the bluffs. The 29th and 1st Infantry Divisions then took up the task of capturing the three towns to the rear. The draws would be cleared after the fact and most defenders withdrew when the fighting flared behind their positions. It would not be the last time that Norman terrain required that plans be thrown away if victory was to be won.

SCENARIO ONE
Major Bingham Takes Charge
6 June 1944
Omaha Beach was the scene of the toughest landings on 6 June, however not all units landing there had the same disastrous experience. The 1st Battalion of the 116th Infantry Regiment landed relatively intact on Dog Red Beach. Major Sidney Bingham was one of the few senior commanders to come off the beaches unscathed, despite personally climbing the bluffs with five soldiers to seek out a deadly German machine-gun position. After the machine gunners had been dealt with – an action that would bring Bingha the Distinguished Service Cross – the major organized his men and turned his attention to the Germans in St.-Laurent-sur-Mer.

Conclusion
The only fire support for Major Bingham’s battalion was a battery of 4.2” mortars whose fire was unable to damage the stone houses in St. Laurent the enemy used for cover. Lacking the men to drive the Germans from their shelter the decision was made to halt the attack until more men could be located. The Stonewallers had been stopped by the stone houses.

Notes
This is another small scenario, requiring the American player to solve the problem of unwilling German defenders ensconced behind stout stone walls.

SCENARIO TWO
St. Laurent Again                         
Yeah, it’s the same scenario as Intro-One.

SCENARIO THREE
To the Rescue
7 June 1944
The landing and subsequent fighting on 6 June had taken a heavy toll on the first battalion of the Stonewallers and they desperately needed to reorganize themselves. Earlier plans had called for just such a scenario but with 200 U.S. Army Rangers trapped at Point Du Hoc there would be no time to regroup. Good progress was made until they were within a mile of the trapped Rangers.

Conclusion
The relief force pushed through the resistance until they were within half a mile of the rangers at which point the advance stalled. Unwilling to let the situation stand, the Americans regrouped and tried again without success. Worn down and disorganized, the 29’ers needed to halt for the evening. Such failure to meet the expectations of planners and commanders would result in reassessments of what was possible in the tortured terrain.

Notes
The Americans have a much tougher assignment here, having to fight their way down a long, narrow corridor. German opposition is sparse, but the Americans have to achieve a lot in order to win and though they have a full company of Sherman tanks this time, the Germans have a battery of 88mm guns that will torch them if it gets the chance.

Postscript
As night fell on the 7th of June, V Corps, including the 29th and 1st Infantry Divisions had overcome a near-disastrous beginning and stood poised to advance into the heart of the Cotentin Peninsula. The expansion of Omaha Beachhead had two primary objectives: a link up with the beachheads to both their east (quickly achieved as the linkage with the British 2nd Army was virtually unopposed) and west (the capture of Carentan was necessary which led to a vicious urban assault against elite German paratroopers) and the advance inland towards the crossroads town of St. Lo.

Notes
The first chapter has moved out of the purely introductory realm, but they’re still relatively small scenarios focused on infantry fights.

You can order Invasion 1944 right here.

Sign up for our newsletter right here. Your info will never be sold or transferred; we'll just use it to update you on new games and new offers.

Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published vast numbers of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog, Leopold. Leopold actually wrote most of those.