If anyone's interested, I've posted up my photo-album of the Grimbosq Bridgehead in Normandy, which is a completely unspoiled battlefield on the east bank of the Orne River, some 10 miles south of Caen.
In the first week of August 1944, the 59th (Staffordshire) Division managed to establish a bridgehead here, outflanking the German defence line between Caen and Falaise. They were soon across with three infantry battalions and two squadrons of Churchills and easily beat off a weak counter-attack by the 271. Infanterie-Division. However, the extremely powerful Kampfgruppe 'Wunsche' of the 12. SS-Panzer-Division 'Hitlerjuegend', with PzIVs, Panthers and Tigers, plus armoured panzer-grenadiers, was soon dispatched to thrown the bridgehead back into the Orne.
The 59th Division held out follwing an intense two-day battle, during which one of the six Normandy VCs; that of Captain David Jamieson of the 7th Norfolks, was won.
My friend Paddy Green has written a scenario for the battle, which will also be up on the site (www.fireandfury.com) soon. It will also be our game at 'Battlegroup South', at Bovington Tank Museum, in July.
Please note that this is a big download – 10Mb.
PDF link
opens the box on a Battlefield in a Box house.
