Dog Green is not, I repeat not, open….

Early morning, June 07, 1944.

At the moment, while the overall landing of Normandy is considered a success, there are several concerns for Allied leadership, as not all the initially planned objectives have been reached. On Omaha Beach, the situation for the 1st and 29th American Infantry Divisions and their attached Ranger regiments is now crtiical. The defense of the Dog Sector near Point du Hoc has been resolute, causing heavy losses among the invasion force. Additional reinforcements are needed if the Allies intend on moving inland sooner, rather than later.

This is the situation the players found themselves in playing a scenario created by Rick using the Cruel Seas ruleset. Two tables of 4 players (2 German, 2 Allied) played simultaneously side-by-side trying to get 12 LCMs full of Rangers and infantry ashore at Dog Beach, escorted by an armed supply ship. The Germans each had two S-boats, and one side also had a Kriegsmarine minesweeper. For the Allies, each player had 2-3 British Vospers, whose goal was to intercept the German torpedo boats and get the LCMs to the beachhead!

Due to the shallow draft of most of the vessels, torpedoes would be virtually useless, and combined with the obscured visibility of the pre-dawn conditions this quickly became a race to close and engage at point blank range with guns. The Germans to the south were able to gain an early advantage with intiative dice pulls, and raced ahead from the south, to get near the plodding LCMs. Despite near impossible odds, they also inflicted serous damage early on and were able to decimate the tiny reinforcement flotilla. The German force to the north, while not as quick as the southern group, still managed to eliminate the LCMs on their side, though it came with the cost of a torpedoed and sinking Kriegsmarine minesweeper!

In the end, Captain Miller would have to wait to go save Private Ryan, because the reinforcements didn’t arrive on Dog Green…. It came at a serious cost to the Kriegsmarine, however, and was but a speedbump in Eisenhower’s Great Crusade. A great time had by all, as we get more and more familiar with the Cruel Seas rules!!!!