A Stroll Through The Fields of Normandy (1/300 WWII BGC)

Scenario: July 1944 British Normandy Breakout German Counterattack

The British under Montgomery have used one of their armoured divisions to push hard at the Germans near Caen and have obtained a limited success, a dent rather than breaking through the German lines. The British RTR retires and three battalions of British Infantry (two up and one back) move in and "hold the line". The Germans meanwhile scratch together a armoured SS Kampf Gruppe and a motorised (though everybody seems to walk in Normandy these days) normal infantry regiment for a hasty counterattack. As with the "haste" the vital reconnaissance roll for the Germans (down to "yours truly") is lousy and the attack has to go in "blind".

The Germans line up, the left hand side is the armoured Kampf Gruppe (with one company of Panthers and one company of Stug IV's), backed up with a battalion of Panzer IVH's and no sadly not my toys, they did not make it to the table, yet (see below). The formations had to "hog" terrain (AFV's in reverse slope positions and in cover) to fit within the deployment zone without being spotted:

On the German right hand side the German infantry forms up. Being 'foot-sloggers' and much harder to see they manage to get much closer to the British Infantry positions without being seen (see below). The light brown strip at the top of both pictures is a swollen river marking the extent of the British "push" at the Germans.

With the Germans deployed the British Infantry form two cauldrons of death in front of the German advance (see the defensive position in front of the German armoured formation below). Such is the penalty for fixing the positions of no enemy units with your reconnaissance patrols. Each British Infantry battalion has a company of 17pdr attached and is on-line to the Divisional Artillery and has been "promised" service from the RAF Normandy Typhoon 'taxi-rank' circling the battlefield.   

The German infantry faces a similar situation on the right of the battlefield as the German sees it (see below):

Next: The German artillery opens up, but on what?