Operation Lüttich

7/8/44

v1.1

Operation Lüttich was the codename given to the German counter-attack which took place against the American positions around the French town of Martian stating on the 7 August. Lüttich is the German name for the city of Liège in Belgium, where the Germans had won a victory in the early days of August 1914 during World War I. The offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of Normandy as the Mortain counter-offensive.

The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany.

The main German striking force was the XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer Divisions and two Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions. Standing against them was U.S. VII Corps though the US 30th Infantry Division was to take the brunt of the attack.

(Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_L%C3%BCttich )

US 100K wartime map of the battle area

Map and Order of Battle

US Deployment

US forces deploy first, However the 1/39 Inf Battalion, 1/117th Infantry Battalion and the 3/9 Recon Troop are the US units that have the most affect on German deployment. The US player(s) should deploy these units first, then the Germans may deploy at the same time as the rest of the US units are deployed.

2/8th Infantry Battalion is deployed north of the See River at least 6" from both Le Mesnil-Gilbert and Cherence le Roussel.

3/8th Infantry Battalion is deployed north of the See River within 6" of Le Mesnil-Gilbert

3/9th Recon Troop is deployed within 6" of point W

1/33rd Armored Battalion is deployed anywhere touching the road from Le Mesnil-Adelee to Le Mesnil-Toye

113th Field Artillery Battalion and 142nd Field Artillery Group are deployed with 6" of Point X

RHQ 117th Infantry is deployed within 6" of one of its subordinate battalions

1/117th Infantry Battalion is deployed within 6" of St Barthelemy

2/117th Infantry Battalion is deployed touching ridgeline UV but it must be north of the 1/120th Infantry Battalion

3/117th Infantry Battalion is deployed south of point W but within 6" of it

RHQ 119th Infantry is deployed within 6" of one of its subordinate battalions

1/119th Infantry Battalion is deployed within 6" of T junction Z

3/119th Infantry Battalion is deployed within 6" of point Y where the road crosses the ridgeline

RHQ 120th Infantry is deployed within 6" of Romagny

1/120th Infantry Battalion is deployed touching ridgeline UV but it must be south of 2/117th Infantry Battalion

2/120th Infantry Battalion is deployed within 6" of Mortain

197th Field Artillery Battalion is deployed to the west of Romagny and within 6" of it.

2/82 Recon Troop and 3/67th Armoured Battalion (-) are both reinforcements. They enter on the north side of the battlefield within 6" of  road G on turn 4

Logistics units are placed anywhere on table touching a road

German Deployment

The Germans deploy second, but see the note under the US deployment section

III Panzer Grenadier Bataillon der Fuhrer starts within 12" of St Barthelemy but not within the ZOC of a US unit

II/60 Panzer Grenadier Bataillon starts within 12" of Cherence le Roussel but not within 6" of a US unit

Units of Gruppe Nord, Gruppe Sud and 3SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Der Fuhrer start in the areas delineated by the pink dashed lines on the map. Although these units start on table they may not move or fire IDF until the turn they are first activated (see OB). The 406 Artillery Abteilung, in addition to being in its deployment zone must be touching the table edge.

The units of 4SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Deutschland enter the table when activated between points A & M.

Logistics units are placed anywhere on table, in a German deployment zone, touching a road

Terrain

The table is 6ft x 4ft.There ground scale has been compressed by a factor of 1.2

The "open" terrain is not open and is covered in bocage hedges

The brown and yellow areas show level 2 and level 3 hills respectively. Level 1 hills are not marked as the hedgerows make it pointless. The light brown and dark brown dashed line represent level 2 and level 3 ridgelines respectively. Remember the game is designed to use either hills or ridgelines.

The green areas are managed woods

The grey square is a Suburban BUA

The grey circles are villages. They are just markers and are too small to have any game effect

The See River is a steep river

Aircraft

Once the fog cleared the RAF with some help from the USAAF dominated the sky. Starting on turn 5 the US player can roll each turn for air support. On a 4-6 (d6) they get a pair of Typhoons or a Typhoon and a Thunderbolt

However there were a great many friendly fire incidents. In each German turn from turn 5 onwards roll 1d6, on a 1 they get air support. Roll again on a 1-5 a Typhoon arrives and attacks a US unit, on a 6 two Fw-190s arrive.

If the Typhoons arrive in the German turn they must attack a US unit within 6" of a German unit. The US unit counts has having no AA factor. If there is no US unit in proximity to a German unit the aircraft attack a German unit of the US player's choosing.

Special Rules

The game is 12 turns long.

Turn 5 is special. Before turn 5 its either dark or foggy. ZOCs are cluttered and LOS extends no further than a unit's ZOC. Some GS artillery units cannot conduct IDF before turn 5

Turn 5 onwards all German logistics units are removed from the table as they would not travel with the enemy airpower overhead.

Turn 5 onwards all GS artillery units can conduct IDF

1/33rd Armor is undergoing maintenance at the start of the game and most of its AFVs are in bits. It starts on 2 SP. It gains one SP at the end of each US turn, until it reaches full strength, or it moves, or it shoots, or it is shot at (not by aircraft or IDF only) or it is involved in a close combat,. Once any of the previous criteria is triggered it may no longer accrue strength points except by rolling a high activation score.

3/67 Armored, 2/8th and 3/8th Infantry cannot be moved south of the See River. 3/67 Armored withdraws from the game (is removed) at the end of turn 8.

Victory Conditions

Victory locations are road exits H, I, J, K & L

For each road exit H, I, J & K, the Germans score a victory point if they have an non-spent big based unit within 9". If a single unit is within 9" of two road exits it scores only the closest. To score road exit H the scoring unit must be north of the See River

If the US gets the 1/33 Armoured battalion off table via road L by the end of turn 10 the Germans lose one victory point.

Its a US win if the Germans get no VPs, a draw if they get one VP and a German win if the Germans get 2 or more VPs

References

9th Recce Troop: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GE3WEuKhrKaXBGZ3JfdGZkYkk/view 

142nd Field Artillery Group: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bR1VS7tRJvwJ:www.ww2f.com/topic/30106-980th-fa-bn-ss-soldier-photos-found/page-2+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b

Fire Brigades, Kamen Neverkin

Gotz von Berlichingen, JC Perrigault & R Meister

Victory at Mortain, Mark J Rearson (this is the primary reference for the scenario)