The longest day - Airborne variant

On the 6th of June 1944, the American and British armies staged the greatest amphibious landing in history to begin Operation Overlord, the battle for the liberation of Europe.

This is a modified what-if scenario with additional Allied Airborne Forces, and German units. In addition, the OOB and TOE for both sides has been modified to take advantage of the features offered in CoW. The assumption (a big one) is being made that the Allies have available enough lift to drop a total of 4 Airborne Divisions and one Brigade in an attempt to seal off the landing Beaches from counterattack, using the Airborne as a screen. Further, 52nd British Div, and a USMC Brigade are added to the initial seaborne assault force. The Germans are compensated with a large and very elite unit that is "visiting" from the East Front. In addition, 42nd Jaeger Div is located on map, having transferred from Italy, and both I SS Panzer Korps, 1 SS Pz Div, and 12 SS Pz Div will arrive earlier than in the historical scenario.

All colors are revisions of the originals.

German units suffer shock effects for the first two turns to simulate the suprise and general disorder for the first day of the invasion.

All four Allied Airborne Divisions will be withdrawn on 15 July 1944 (turn 82). There will be several news events to remind the players.

German rail will drop to 100 on turn 30, this represents the collapse of rail transport in the invasion area due to massive allied air attacks on the rail net that occurred during the campaign.

Minor ports add 1 or 2 points of supply when the allies repair them, they are:

The ports are set to a 10 turn delay with a 12 turn variance after that to become operational once occupied. Allied supply is set to 20 until turn 24 when it drops by 9 points. Early capture of as many minor ports as possible is vital to keep allied supply at an acceptable level.

Cherbourg will add 10 points of supply gradually as it is repaired over time. It will also double allied replacements once repairs are finished. All repairs are set to a variable number of turns for each repair step, so there is no set schedule for when a repair step will occur.

If storms occur on 19 June, they will last 6 turns and may damage or destroy either or both Mulberries. This will effect naval transport points for the rest of the game.

Allied naval units will withdraw the majority of their ships on turn 4. This simulates the constant need to return to England to rearm. The remaining ships on station simulate the average fire support available at any one time during the campaign.

There is a 40% chance that Hitler will release the 319th Infantry division from garrison duty on the Channel Islands if Cherbourg is threatened. If this does occur, the division will appear at the Port of Cherbourg.

The Royal Marine Support Rgt. will withdraw on turn 4.

U.S. heavy bombers are available for one turn only on turn 98. British heavy bombers are available for one turn only on turns 65 and 86. These formations are set to internal support and should be used alone in carpet-bombing missions to break open the enemy front lines. Players should only use U.S. bombers against enemy units adjacent to U.S. units. British bombers should only support British units.

With over 1700 units this is a huge scenario, and players should realise they will spend quite some time with this undertaking before reaching a decisive level of victory or defeat.. just as it was in history.

The Le Havre unit is not meant to represent historical units, rather it represents area coastal guns/mines/motor torpedo boats/etc. that kept the allies from effectively operating in the area east of the invasion beaches. Be warned the unit is powerful and sits on a diamond symbol.

Please do not airdrop or land units in the first 4 turns in locations that do not match their exact hex names in Europe (click the remove units button to view hex names clearly before you move). The PO has not been programmed to play against a non-historic invasion. After the first 4 turns you may land troops at any beach you wish given transport limits (except Pointe-du-hoc). If players wish to alter this rule, you must seek approval from your opponent before play begins.

If a specific invasion beach is not taken and additional units arrive to land at that beach, a player has the option to assault the beach from sea with those units, or leave them in England until turn 5 at which point they can land wherever they want. This simulates the backlog that would have occured if the allies failed to take a specific beach. Landing schedules were so full for the first 24-48 hours that there would not have been room to unload at any of the adjacent beaches until all the scheduled build up units were ashore.

Additional airdrops are not intended to be part of this scenario. With the huge map an unrealistic drop in the rear will basically cause a huge portion of the defending units to evacuate the front due to the limits of the objective placement routine used to program the PO. Of course if you are playing a human opponent you can decide whatever you want to do when you begin the campaign as long as your opponent agrees beforehand.

All units start the game as veteran units. This is not meant to imply units were experienced in combat prior to the landings but the 25% jump up or down in proficiency makes the game play extremely difficult to predict/control. Normandy was a slow grinding battle of attrition that lasted for over 2 months. If even one early-arriving German division rolls poor proficiency for most of its units, it will evaporate too easily during combat and destroy the accuracy of the scenario. Making units veterans stops them from evaporating too easily, and helps simulate the slow grinding battle.

I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable assistance with this scenario; Pete Abrams, Jon Martina, Tom Porto and Ray Wolfe. Without their help this scenario would have a very long way to go to get to its current level.

Additionally I would like to thank Randall C. Reed, who's extensive past research on this subject made the creation of this scenario much easier.

Scenario Revised 6/2000 by: Tom Porto, used with Author's permission. Thanks, Jim!