Liberation 1944:
Scenario Preview, Part Five
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
October 2024

Panzer Grenadier is a game about combined arms: the coordination of infantry, armor, and artillery on the battlefield. With thousands of published scenarios (3,383 according to Panzer Grenadier Headquarters, but I’m not sure how they’re counting), there are plenty that highlight either tanks or infantry (not many for artillery). But the system’s designed for the blend of all three elements, and that’s where it shines.

Panzer Grenadier: Liberation 1944 is based on the campaign that gave rise to decades of combined-arms doctrine in armies around the world. An armor-heaving attacking force met an armor-heavy defender, who held on for a little more than two months before utterly collapsing. All three of the combined arms played a major role in both attack and defense, as did air power for the attackers. It was the dawn of modern mechanized warfare, that for the most part would remain confined to wargame tables both personal and professional.

Let’s have a look at how combined-arms warfare plays out in Liberation 1944, in the first of two large chapters dedicated to the British offensive known as Operation Bluecoat:

Chapter Five
Operation Bluecoat: The First Two Days
By the last days of July, many changes had come to the British front in Normandy. More troops had poured ashore over the beaches, including the headquarters of the First Canadian Army. This allowed British Second Army to shift westwards as the Canadian staff took over operations south and east of Caen, including the VIII Corps headquarters and all three armoured divisions.

A Sherman tank and infantry of 11th Armoured Division in St. Martin des Besaces, soon after the village’s fall.

Secondly, the Americans launched their very successful Operation Cobra on 25 July, shattering the German front and forcing the withdrawal of troops facing the British, including 2nd Panzer Division. Intelligence intercepts indicated that the 21st Panzer Division would soon follow.

And finally, the crapulent weather finally eased, allowing the Allies to again deploy their massive advantage in air power.

The attack plan called for six divisions - three armoured and three infantry - to advance southward, with their objective the vital railway junction at Vire. They would be preceded by another heavy carpet bombing, but only a moderate artillery barrage as the quickly-devised plan had not allowed for the necessary stocks of ammunition to be shifted into place. And while the weather had improved, the skies remained overcast and the bombing had less effect than hoped.

The assault went forward, regardless.

Scenario Twenty-Six
Sept Vents
30 July 1944
The Grenadier Guards and their Churchill heavy tanks would aid the Scottish infantry tasked with securing Point 309, also known as Quarry Hill, followed by its area-dominating sibling Hill 361. To get to the hills, the Scots would first have to take the village of Sept Vents and the small Lutian Woods to the east. The attack got off to a sobering start when a German sniper killed 25-year-old Capt. George Grey, commanding the squadron assigned to support the attack on Lutian Woods and at the time the youngest Member of Britain’s Parliament.

Conclusion
Once again, the heavy bombers failed to have the expected impact, and without thorough artillery preparation, the German positions remained in fairly good shape. They began firing on the attackers as soon as the attack jumped off, killing Grey and another tank company commander and forcing the Guards armor to button up very early in the advance. Thick minefields around Sept Vents cost the Grenadier Guards a good deal of time in addition to five Churchill tanks. It took until 1500 and a “…very good shoot in the village” by the antiaircraft tanks to secure the buildings. According to The Buffs’ War Diary they cleared the Lutian Woods in “a very successful operation.” The time required to accomplish all these tasks exceeded the plan, leaving the whole operation well behind schedule and causing follow-up formations to have to fight just to reach their start lines.

Notes
This is a big scenario, with a good German Army division on the defense with plenty of heavy weapons and minefields. They get plastered by bombs to start off, and then have to face the Brits, who make up for their roughly equal numbers with scads of tanks including Crocodiles and AVRE bomb-tossers, lots of artillery, soaring morale, and staggering initiative. And clouds of airplanes overhead. It’s not going to be easy for the British Army, thanks to a relative shortage of infantry, but they do get to play with all of the toys.

Scenario Twenty-Seven
Counterattack at St. Martin des Besaces
30 July 1944
On the first day of Operation Bluecoat the 11th Armoured Division attempted to secure St. Martin des Besaces and cut the road from there to Hill 309. On the right flank of the British advance, they would strike directly southward for the objective of Vire. As elsewhere along the front, the carpet bombing had failed to deeply disrupt the defenders, and before reaching St. Jean des Essartiers the 3rd Monmouths suffered a counterattack by a mixed German force.

Conclusion
The German counterattack failed to drive back the British but stopped all forward progress. This left the right flank of the 15th “Scottish” Division exposed but the Germans lacked the strength to take advantage of the situation. By the next morning British armored cars began probing for a way around the enemy strongpoint at St. Martin des Besarers.

Notes
Once again, the British are on the attack, with a strong force backed by lots of Shermans including some awesome Fireflies (awesome when shooting up German armor, anyway). While the Germans do get a counter-attack force, it’s not very large (some infantry backed by two platoons of assault guns). The German player is going to have to identify a key point and strike carefully.

Scenario Twenty-Eight
Saint-Germain-d'Ectot
30 July 1944
The 56th Independent Infantry Brigade had been attached to the 50th “Northumbrian” Division, as infantry losses vastly exceeded projections, and all of the Allied armies scrambled to find replacements. For Operation Bluecoat, the brigade would force the enemy from Saint-Germain-d'Ectot and some hills to the west, with the 2nd Gloucesters taking the heights and the 2nd South Wales Borderers the town. Once they had the enemy's attention, the 2nd Essex would occupy as much of the Launay Ridge as possible. They would have only minimal tank support, as the armored brigades had suffered as badly as the infantry.

Conclusion
Lacking much in the way of armor support, the attack faltered along its entire front and the British incurred heavy casualties without seriously threatening any of the objectives. According to the commander of the 13th/18th Hussars tank squadron tasked with assisting the infantry, the attack "lacked artillery support" and required his tanks to be committed in penny-packets, denying them the chance to influence the battle.

Notes
Another huge scenario, with a brigade’s worth of Brits on the attack with armor support and artillery. Maybe not as much as the British player would like, but a good array all the same. The Germans are almost lavishly supplied with heavy weapons and hold strong positions, so it’s not going to be easy to winkle them out.

Scenario Twenty-Nine
Renewed Assault on St. Martin des Besaces  
31 July 1941
The stubborn German defense of St. Martin des Besaces exposed the entire left flank of the otherwise-successful advance by Guards Armored Division to a potentially devastating German counter-attack. The small Norman town could not be bypassed, as it lay too close to the British route of advance. Early on the morning after their first failure, 11th Armoured Division opened a renewed assault.

Conclusion
German defensive doctrine demanded that the “shoulders” of an enemy penetration be held at all costs, to allow a counter-attack to cut off and destroy the attackers. The garrison troops of 326th Infantry Division did that for a solid day under heavy attack, but this time the British assault manage to eject the defenders from St. Martin des Besaces.
The 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry raced southward to cut the vital Vire-to-Caen road before dark. The British had found the boundary between two German armies and made the most of their opportunity.

Notes
The British have to fight their way down a long, narrow battlefield. While the Germans only have to defend a relatively short front, they’re not very mobile, so if the British get past them it’s going to be a long day for the Herrenvolk.

Scenario Thirty
Dickie’s Bridge
31 July 1944
The rapid advance of the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry left a key objective, the bridge over the Souleuvre River, still in German hands behind them. Acting Major General Philip “Pip” Roberts of the 11th Armoured Division, at 37 the youngest division commander in the British Army, took the news calmly and re-directed the fast-moving battalion, which had just reached the rest of his spearhead at Le Beny Bocage, to reverse directions and take the bridge from the south. Few German troops were situated to oppose them but others rapidly approached from the east.

Conclusion
The British pushed through the opposition and secured the bridge (just off the map to the north). This greatly compromised the region's defenses as the Vire-Caen road served as the major logistics artery for the Germans. Operation Bluecoat began well, the British unknowingly missed the chance for a major coup when they didn't continue their penetration of the German rear as the 21st Panzer Division Headquarters lay just past the bridge, virtually undefended.

Notes
This one’s going to be tough for the Germans, who face waves of Cromwell tanks well-supported by infantry and artillery. They have a tank force of their own, which they’ll have to use to blunt the British armored advance.

Scenario Thirty-One
La Ferronniere
31 July 1944
While the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry swung back north to drive the Germans from the Souleuvre River bridge, other elements of the 11th Armoured Division pressed on to secure the crossroads village of La Ferronniere. The tiny walled village controlled the main road between Caen and the offensive’s ultimate objective of Vire. But the Germans could also read a map.

Conclusion
The British attack drove the defenders from the village. In response, the Germans feigned a counterattack but did not have enough remaining force to be effective. Meanwhile, the British brought up a tank destroyer platoon to bolster their forward defenses. They now had severed the German road connection between Caen and Vire.

Notes
This scenario stands out from the others, with relatively small forces trying to seize and hold objectives. The British player is going to have to use maneuver rather than blunt force this time.

And that’s all for Chapter Five. Next time, it’s Chapter Six.

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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 a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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