Designer Notes. Why Salerno 43?

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1 Designer Notes Why Salerno 43? The title question Why Salerno 43? - has traditionally been established as the way we have been structuring our Designer Notes for Panzer Campaigns titles. We seek to answer this question and explain a little about how the game came into being. However, in this title, we are actually presenting three battles in one game by including Anzio and Crete, in the Notes we deal with specific information on each battle separately. The short answer is that John Tiller has had a working model of the Salerno part of this game virtually playable since the time of Panzer Campaign #2: Normandy 44, but the time to publish this game never seemed quite right. As it turned out, much of 2004 saw the developer, John Tiller, heavily engaged in developing A/I Programming for the Department of Defense, as a result, he just didn t have the time to add many new features to the Panzer Campaign s engine. So the Scenario Designers worked on other projects that had started and the result was that fewer new titles were published. Games such as Alamein 42 and France 40 were developed, and while France 40 was published in 2005, the design period, creation, and testing were largely 2004 projects. In addition to these titles, a number of other projects were moved forward, such that when 2005 rolled around we could pick from a number of game titles in development, and finish them in the order we wanted. Around the same time, Early American and American Civil War Scenario Designer Rich Hamilton, (no relation to Scott Hamilton president of the publisher, HPS Simulations), decided to organize the first ever "Tillercon" an event where fans of all John Tillers HPS Titles could gather in Richmond, Virginia in June 2005 to meet and play games live in network play. We decided right away that we wanted to have a new title released for this event, it fitted that the main Campaign Battle be smaller in map size, number of units, and time. And so was born Salerno 43, including Anzio and Crete. I provide this background information so that players understand that this is NOT a new trend in John Tiller titles, rather it is an anomaly, where we saw an opportunity to present these smaller battles of particular interest to gamers. The fact that we called the game Salerno 43, and not Anzio 44, is merely because John had already created the Prototype CD called Salerno 43, so it simply made sense to use Page 1

2 this previously created Key CD rather than build a new one. At this point, the Notes will discuss each of the three parts of the game separately covering: A) Situation B) Design Notes C) Order-of-Battle D) Map A) Situation Salerno 43 September 9th 1943, was the cool autumn morning that the Allies began Operation Avalanche, the riskiest amphibious operation of the entire Second World War. The landing craft approached a little known seaside town south of Naples named Salerno. Before the assault craft were even in shallow water, German firepower began to rain down on them heavily. The landings came as no surprise to the German Wehrmacht and Field Marshal Kesselring as this area was perfect for an amphibious landing. It was also ideal for defending against an attacker with broad, flat land, bordered with hills giving perfect observation of the whole area. Salerno was probably the best of a few possible landing sites, and it was by no mistake that the 26th Panzer Division was deployed in the vicinity to defend the Salerno coast. German defensive fire was particularly effective. In the American half of the landings, the target was a flat area close to the ancient ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Paestum. This assault force consisted of the green, but well-trained, 36th Texas National Guard Infantry Page 2

3 Division. The initial assault waves met extremely heavy fire. So heavy, that some landing craft had to abandon their coordinated landing spots for safer areas to land their infantry. Axis air power had made its most spectacular appearance since North Africa and, in their strafing, had claimed heavy damage or sinking of at least 3 Allied ships. Allied air power was indecisive because it was at the edge of its range. It was being flown from air bases in Sicily and had only some 30 minutes flight, or loiter, time over the beachhead. The 36th Infantry sustained heavy losses from fighting an enemy firing from dominating elevated terrain. Regardless, the 36th Infantry Division managed to clear some enemy positions to create a small enclave for follow-on forces. The problem would come later, in the next few days, in the form of armored counterattacks. The Panzers wreaked havoc among the 36th, taking a serious toll in American lives. The U.S. Army Bazookas could not penetrate the Panzer IV s 80mm frontal armor, and the infantry were paying for it dearly. The Wehrmacht Counterblow - Salerno, 1943 The American forces were able to establish a foothold in the first couple of days. Though Day Ones objectives were far from reached, American infantry continued to fight inland. Casualties were mounting, particularly from German artillery and mortars possessing perfect observation. Supplies and artillery were able to get ashore and were deploying, along with the reinforcing 45th Infantry Division. The beachhead was expanded, the 36th on the right, and 45th on the left. It seemed they would achieve their mission and advance into the mountains surrounding the flat landing areas, but the enemy had other ideas. On September 13th, the American sector was hit by a concentrated combined arms assault focused on the town of Altavilla, and adjacent Hill 424, defended by the 36th Inf. Div. Despite a brave attempt to endure the enemy fire, accurate German artillery pounded and disorganized the defending infantry. The Germans attacked with tanks and panzergrenadiers, and after a sharp and bloody fight, the Americans were routed, fleeing for their lives. The retreating groups of men were rallied at the rear and dug in. Naval 6-inch gunfire from the U.S. Navy s cruisers Savannah, Philadelphia, and Boise, rained in and stopped the lethal advance. A town in the northern British sector, named Battipaglia, was the scene of what may have been the battle s most intense street fighting. Here both sides used their mass artillery to devastating effect. The town changed hands several times a day, with great loss of life, finally becoming a German possession. On September 15th, the most intense counter attack came in the center of the beachhead parallel to the Sele River. This was the seam between the American VI Corps in the south, and the British X Corps to the north. Due to the attrition of the battle, neither of the Allies could afford to stretch their battalions for the security of this critical area. The commanding German General, Vietinghoff, saw this weak point and concentrated his panzers and infantry directly into the vulnerable opening. The veteran 45th Infantry Division defended the sector. The division had a regiment defending the town of Persano, which was straight in the path of the most powerful Wehrmacht assault of the entire battle. For the American infantry battalions at Persano, it was a desperate struggle. This was a fully coordinated, powerful, and speedy tactical maneuver of combined arms forces. Multiple battalions of German armored vehicles and tanks came streaming into the perimeter letting loose with devastating fire preceded by a relentless German artillery bombardment. The American infantry were stunned and shattered. General Clark saw this pending disaster and made a great effort to scrape together any troops to hold the breach. In fact, the line at Persano had been broken, and the only thing between the panzers and the beach were two American artillery battalions, the 189th, and the 158th. They lowered their barrels and fired direct fire missions at the tanks and their supporting infantry. Round after Page 3

4 round was fired, causing the enemy to halt their advance, and back away. Soon after, Clark ordered the parachute drop of over 2,000 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division inside the beachhead. The paratroopers went into the combat line immediately bringing a new energy and strength to the fight. Kesselring knew he needed a victory fast, or the Allied naval and air power would eventually grind his forces to dust. In the American XI Corps sector the situation became precarious, especially on the September 15th. General Mark Clark drew up contingency plans for the evacuation of VI Corps and its redeployment to the British X Corps perimeter, but the arrival of the British battleships Warspite and Valiant, with immense firepower, made all the difference. By now, Allied firepower was making itself felt, it was decimating the German units. Allied air and naval power allowed no further penetrations of the enemy and, on September 17th, Field Marshall Kesselring called off all further attacks. The Allied beachhead was saved, and the Germans began withdrawing north to the Volturno river line. The British and Americans had held the beachhead and now began moving reinforcing divisions inland. They had taken over 13,700 casualties in 11 days of brutal combat. They lost 3 cruisers and a number of transports. The intensity of the Salerno battle is often overlooked, and that it was a monumental victory often unappreciated. Special Thanks to Charlie Cassano who provided us with this brief historical overview of the Battle of Salerno from his website at: B) Design Notes As stated in the introduction, the prototype of the Salerno 43 battle was created prior to the release of Wig Graves and Jim Dunnam s Normandy 44 game. These next few paragraphs in italics explain certain points. They first appeared in the Normandy 44 Notes: "From our standpoint, NORMANDY 44 started by chance. Ever since its release, in the late 1970 s, SPI s Highway To The Reich has been one of our favorites. The game s appeal comes not only from its topic, but in particular its unit, time and ground scales which give players a sense of both the tactical as well as operational aspect of the battle. In the mid 1990 s with the advent of computers, desktop publishing permitted us to work up a four-map monster game using a modified HTTR system covering the Operation Avalanche landings at Salerno. Although SALERNO reached a stage of development that was about ready for submission to a publisher, it remained in mothballs for a number of years due to things such as work and family and money. Enter John Tiller. Jim stumbled upon John by accident while attempting to do a home brewed Computer Murfreesboro, which ultimately resulted in Jim s design of the Murfreesboro component to Talonsoft s Battleground 9: Chickamauga. After the completion of that project, Jim mentioned to John SALERNO and his desire to see a computer WWII game along the lines of HTTR. Coincidently John was working on SMOLENSK 41 for a new Panzer Campaigns series and suggested we look into converting over SALERNO to that system. Since we had all the original OOB and map sources still around, conversion was pretty quick. Wig knocked out the map, and Jim converted the OOB. At that point we knew that SMOLENSK 41 was on the front burner, so at John s suggestion we began to look at other Page 4

5 possible western front topics than Salerno. We started roughing out ideas and rounding up sources a number of options such as Crete, Sicily and Crusader, and John finally decided upon NORMANDY 44 as the initial western front release. P Rating was determined as follows based on caliber: " After Normandy was released, we actually had one of the current Playtesters of the new game, try the Salerno prototype game, but the project didn t quite have the feel that was personally favored for the Panzer Campaign Series. At this point, there were now two titles in the Series, Smolensk 41 and Normandy 44, with Kharkov 42 in the works. But already with these two titles there were wide variations in design ideas of how to structure the game specifically, the difference between the games was in the Order of Battle style. C) Order-of-Battle In Smolensk 41 Greg "Sturmer" Smith, who together with John Tiller designed the game engine, had set out to make a battalion level operational game. To illustrate differences in the game style, I will discuss German Division sizes, as it is a common item in each game. In Smolensk 41, Sturmer had designed his OOB around German Divisions with 15 to 17 unit counters per division. This worked perfectly for a wide-open, mobile battle in Russia. For S 41 he needed four Armies, making up part of Army Group Center, and a full 13 Corps. After doing this, his German OOB numbered only a total 750 units. But it meant Page 5

6 you had infantry battalions with 600 men and panzer battalions of over 80 tanks. Sturmer s 17 unit counters per Division just wouldn t work for Normandy. Here the battle was not like the wide-open, mobile warfare in the early days of the war in Russia. The divisions were broken up into penny sized fighting groups. You just didn t run into a full German infantry battalion in a 1 km area, as depicted by the game scale. The units were widely dispersed in the Normandy bocage. So for N 44, Dunnam and Graves used an OOB where there were units in a German Infantry Division, where the basic building block was a Company of around a 140 man, with additional unit counters for added firepower, such as two guns in a support battery. A Panzer Division, on the other hand, could easily have over 100 units often with platoon sized units. Neither approach was right or wrong they were unique for the situation being depicted, this is one of the strengths of the game engine. Kharkov 42 was different again, John Tiller advised me to try and steer that game toward a more middle of the road approach. As such here we had Infantry Divisions with units and Panzer Divisions slightly bigger, at around 40 units. This allowed us to offer Company sized units that could be combined into single Battalion units, thereby giving the scenario designer, as well as the player, a choice of how to setup the game or play any situation. It is this middle approach, which we used more in later games of the Panzer Campaign Series, that is the key in understanding the fundamental difference in the Salerno prototype game and the game being released in this title. The basic difference is in restructuring the OOB, I reduced the size by 30% by cutting 387 units from the OOB. The German infantry is in company units, but the firepower for the supporting AT guns and 2-gun field batteries is factored within the strength of the existing infantry units they are supporting. For the Panzers, the original OOB had very small platoon sized units, with 2-5 tanks in each, while in the release game OOB the Panzer units are structured much the same way as they are in the Alamein 42 and France 40, with around 11 tanks per unit. The basic layout of the OOB, that is, the Divisions, Regiments and in the German s case, the flexible KG organizations the Axis units fought in, were established by Dunnam and Graves in the early prototype. Therefore, while Saunders and Blackie have collected, read, and made notes on the battle from a number of books, as seen in the Bibliography, we sure got a head start on this battle from the prototype. Thanks a lot Wig and Jim! D) Map As mentioned in the outset, Wig Graves created the map for the prototype game and while ground changes are less subjective than the OOB design, we learned from our Sicily game that we needed a new Broken terrain to depict the rougher ground. Additionally, we used anecdotal evidence in the text to color in additional fields and brush terrain, so that the ground was less open than the original map. A) Situation Anzio 44 Page 6

7 The decision to make Anzio part of the game for some smaller, but interesting battles, using the Panzer Campaigns system was not difficult to make. This operation, to make an amphibious landing on the Italian coast below Rome and establish a beachhead far behind the enemy lines, was one of the most audacious of the war. Unfortunately, it was beset with difficulties from the day the plan was envisaged, with decisions being made by politicians and high-level staff officers with no access to the real situation. This resulted in one of the most courageous and bloody dramas of the war. "Operation Shingle", as it was code-named, was in the minds of planners as early as October The Italian winter that year had turned out to be one of the coldest and wettest on record. The Germans had shown their intention of delaying the Allied advance with all of the resources available, and this was proving to be very costly, in both men and material. The idea was hatched to make an amphibious assault, using just 1 division, to outflank the German defenses anchored on the "Gustav Line". The landing was to be in conjunction with offensives launched by the US 5th Army, primarily up the Liri valley, and the British 8th Army on the Adriatic side of Italy. The painfully slow progress of these attacks led to the planning of a landing at Anzio, this time with a force of 2 divisions. The idea was that while the enemy was fully occupied in defending the Gustav Line, a surprise landing would be made in his rear at the twin resort towns of Anzio and Nettuno, about thirty miles south of Rome. Once established, the assault force was to thrust inland toward the volcanic heights of Colli Laziali. The capture of Colli Laziali would block vital enemy supply routes and threaten to cut off the German troops holding the Gustav Line to the south. Page 7

8 The U.S. VI Corps, employing British, as well as American forces, was selected by General Clark to make the amphibious landing. It was under the command of Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas, a careful man, who had misgivings about the operation from its inception. The assault force was to be dispatched from Naples, and was to consist of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, veteran of landings in Sicily and North Africa, the British 1st Infantry Division from the Eighth Army front, the 46th Royal Tank Regiment, the 751st Tank Battalion, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, Commandos, Rangers, and other supporting troops. The date was set for January 22nd 1944, using all the landing craft available at the time, 2 divisions was the maximum number of troops that could be transported to the beaches. The intention was to reinforce the landings as soon as possible, using the same vessels, after a quick turn round, with the U.S. 45th Division and the U. S. 1st Armored Division (less Combat Command B), sent as reinforcements. The assault plan assumed the possibility of initial heavy resistance on the beaches, and the certainty of heavy counterattacks once the enemy was fully aware of the extent of the landing. Consequently, VI Corps held out a strong reserve and placed great emphasis on digging in early at initial objectives to repel armored counterattacks. This fact was to plague Gen Lucas for the duration of his time in command at Anzio. B) Design Notes The three battles that we decided to do for this Panzer Campaign game all had their own design difficulties, but it seemed to us that there were many players who wished us to tackle them. Anzio was a full 4 month campaign, with sporadic, bloody actions interspersed with times where no significant action took place. It was decided that to depict the full 4 months would not be practical, but the initial landing period and the first month, followed by the final offensive was doable. The actions were among the most brutal and bloody of the war, so to try and show the relative strengths and fatigue for both sides, with the information available, was nigh impossible. As a result of this, in most of the scenarios, the units are at full strength and no fatigue. The rationale for this was that the strength and fatigue would be offsetting, so adding them would be pointless. Indeed, such was the nature of the battle that you will find, in some scenarios, the relative losses are more than you have ever seen in a Panzer Campaign game. The historical Campaign Game was set up to try to show the initial period as faithfully as possible, using all the designer s skill and John Tiller s Panzer Campaign system to its fullest. In the initial landing, which came as a complete surprise to the Germans, and the first few days, we tried to show the indecision of the Allied commander. Gen. Lucas was given a revised set of objectives for the landing, which led him to move with great caution. Lucas had felt misgivings about this operation from the beginning and, as time went by, they rapidly got the better of him. He has been held out as the "scapegoat" for Anzio, but with the limited force available to him, he could have over-extended his line quite easily, as can the Allied player in the game. The Germans reacted extremely quickly to the landing considering it came as a total surprise. Field Marshall Kesselring had several contingency plans in place to counter Allied amphibious landings, including Anzio. It took little time to implement "Case Richard", which was the codename for an Anzio area landing, but it was touch and go for a while leading to great concern in the German High Command. In the early days of the landing, it may have been possible for the Allies to advance and take the two Page 8

9 cornerstones for defense in this area, that is, the towns of Cisterna and Campoleone. However, for VI Corps to hold this extended line would have been extremely difficult unless more men had been available. German units flocked to the area and, within a matter of days, there was no way out of the beachhead, indeed, it took all of the available units to prevent the Germans from pushing them back into the sea. The battle then turned into a near a replica of the trench warfare of World War 1 with artillery the "King of the Battlefield" and small unit actions occurring throughout the campaign. Both sides tried to break the stalemate with major offensives, but both were repelled with bloody and staggering losses. For the breakout, "Operation Buffalo", a further 5 divisions were needed. To quote from a famous author writing about this battle: "To the Americans, the maneuver up the coast behind enemy lines was called an "end run"; to the British, it was a "cat s claw". And, in the end, the latter description seems more appropriate, for the Allies would soon find themselves desperately hanging on to the beachhead by their fingernails." C) Order-of-Battle The OOB was started using Appendix F from Carlo D Estes excellent book "Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome". I cannot say enough about this author s books, in addition to being excellent reference material, they are extremely well written and easy to read. In addition to the OOB, there is an approximate arrival of the German units, day by day, as reinforcements for the first 10 days. Once the basic OOB was in place, other references were found to cross check, examples being found at the Center of Military History, US Army, and "The Rock of Anzio" by Flint Whitlock, with others. I am sure there may be some shouts of "Foul" when the morale of the Herman Goering and 4th Fallschirmjager Divisions is seen as C quality. The rationale for this was that the HG division is described as, "in the area reforming from a nucleus of experienced officers Page 9

10 and NCOs". In fact the HG had been so badly mauled that it was almost a completely new formation. The 4 FJ Division was exactly that, a new formation, so it was decided to give them C status. Most of the experienced German units are B quality, with a smattering of Cs, the pool for replacements was becoming very shallow by this time in the war. For the Allies, the 2 divisions picked for the landing were superb, battle-tested forces, with excellent leaders, so they were allocated a B morale, the majority of other VI Corps units are Cs, but the Airborne, Rangers, and Commandos were all given As. It is really difficult to be objective when allocating these qualities, and I have seen many instances on the Forums of a player saying they are "elite", therefore they have to be an A. As you can see from the HG and 4 FJ Divisions all may not be as it seems, and the old axiom of reading a book by its cover comes to mind. The only SS formation is the 16th SS PG Division, again players generally, as soon as the SS is seen, cry for an A rating. In fact this unit was lucky to get a B, as it too was just formed, but in view of the fact that the SS were better equipped, they were given a B. All of the Anzio units were similarly "looked at" and awarded what the designers thought they deserved. This was their view after looking at all their references and, of course, as in any of the Panzer Campaign games, there is the OOB editor for players who wish to respectfully disagree and change them. D) Map The map is one of the smallest to ever be seen in a Panzer Campaign game, I think the Malta one is smaller, but not by much. It was made using official maps from the Center of Military History maps as the basis of the overlays. One point, which was noticed by one of the designers who shall remain nameless, was that the map looked "awful dark" compared to other maps from the Mediterranean theater. This is because of the terrible winter weather experienced in Italy that year, as such, most all of the game is in soft conditions. A) Situation Crete 41 The Battle for Crete, "Operation Mercury", has long been on the list of "to do" games for the Panzer Campaign designers, but because of its size and short duration it was difficult to see how it could actually be "fit in" to a game. It was decided to include it with Salerno and Anzio operations, as it fell into the Mediterranean theater, and was the first real Airborne assault of the Second World War. A few facts regarding the island of Crete. It is approximately 160 miles long and varies in width from 8 to 35 miles. The interior of the island is barren and covered by eroded mountains, which in the western part, rise to an elevation of 8,100 feet. There are few roads and water is scarce. The south coast descends abruptly toward the sea; the only usable port along this part of the coast is the small harbor of Sphakia and perhaps Sougia. There are hardly any north-south communications, and the only road to Sphakia that can be used for motor transportation ends abruptly 1,300 feet above the town. The sole major traffic artery runs close to the north coast and connects Suda Bay with the Page 10

11 towns of Maleme, Canea, Retimo, and Heraklion. Possession of the north coast is vital for an invader approaching from Greece, if only because of terrain conditions. Its people are warlike and proud, and ferocious fighters, their character built from centuries of warfare defending such a strategically placed island The disastrous withdrawal from Greece in April 1941, was skillfully carried out, which led to there being a substantial number of British, Commonwealth and Greek troops on the island of Crete, albeit without most of their heavy weapons although a few tanks and guns were available. A notable addition to these evacuees was King George of Greece and the royal family who were later departed reluctantly for Egypt on a flying boat. But the King stayed on to be taken off with the survivors much later. Airfields had been constructed at Maleme and Retimo to support the aerodrome at Heraklion, but only limited forces were available to operate from them, and they were soon fighting heroically against overwhelming odds when the Luftwaffe began to operate in strength over the island. The remnants of the air force units would be withdrawn just before the invasion but, because of hopes in Cairo that air forces would be available later, the Allied commander, Maj. Gen. Freyberg, was forbidden to render the airfields inoperable a crucially important omission. For the Germans, the capture of Crete would complete the Greek Campaign. Its seizure might have opened the way for German assaults on other key British possessions in the Middle East (though the conquest of Malta would have been more important in this regard). But in fact German intentions were essentially defensive rather than offensive. Crete was to be secured in order to buttress the flank of the massive offensive Germany was preparing to launch against Russia in June In particular, German possession of Crete would prevent the British using it to mount long-range bombing raids on the Rumanian oilfields, so vital to the German war effort. It would also make it more difficult for the British to penetrate the Balkans. For twelve days, British, New Zealand, Australian and Greek troops, assisted by Cretan civilians, battled to repel airborne assault on a scale never before attempted. They almost succeeded. There was a very narrow margin between success and failure for both sides, especially in the first two days. Ultimately the battle ended in defeat for the Allies, but its impact was lessened by the successful evacuation of many of the non-greek defenders. The Battle for Crete was a German triumph but a costly one, certainly a "Pyyhric Victory" to all concerned. The numbers are difficult to work out exactly as men used fishing boats and other small vessels to eventually return to Egypt. But taking the average view, out of an assault force of just over 22,000 men, the Germans suffered some 5,500 casualties, of which 3,600 were killed or missing in action. Almost a third of the Ju52s used in the operation were damaged or destroyed. The Allies suffered almost 3,500 casualties (of which just over 1,700 were killed) and almost 12,000 were taken prisoner. The Royal Navy suffered 1 aircraft carrier, two battleships, six cruisers and seven destroyers badly damaged, and another three cruisers and six destroyers sunk, with the loss of over 2,000 men. The RAF lost some forty-seven aircraft in the battle. Exactly how many Greek soldiers and Cretan civilians died during the fighting will never be known. As a result of the huge losses suffered by the Fallschirmjäger in Crete, it was forbidden by Hitler to mount any large-scale operations in the future and, apart from a few small-scale Page 11

12 operations, mainly served as elite infantry for the rest of the war. While many considered this a typical Hitler mistake, one must consider the heavy casualties suffered by the Allied airborne forces in Normandy and the failure of Operation Market Garden in September Large airborne forces are no longer seen in Western military forces and those that remain tend to be focused towards intervention and rapid deployment operations, so one wonders if Hitler s decision has not some merit after all. B) Design Notes As mentioned above in the excerpt from the Normandy 44 Notes, Crete 41 was an early candidate for a Panzer Campaign title on its own. A Map was started and got no further than outlining part of the island before the project was abandoned. Just not enough ground to warrant a full game on it s own. But that didn t stop people on the various forums for continuing to express interest in this as a title. Each time it came up we replied the same way: "Neat Battle too small to make it a Panzer Campaign though." And so it sat until last year. At that time, during the creation of the Alamein 42 game, we got the idea to add Malta to the North Africa Campaign and we really liked how that turned out. So much so that while we had time again really that John Tiller was busy with his contract work we dusted off the idea of making a Crete battle with the idea to include it with another title. We had no idea where this battle could fit, but we knew we had a really neat concept for a bunch of scenarios that people would enjoy. It wasn t long after that when we found out about "The Tillercon" Game Convention, planned for June of 2005, and we figured that would be a perfect venue to showcase a small set of interesting battles. Depending on which reference you take, there were as many as five German plans for Operation Mercury, but the generally accepted view is of two key ones which were sort of blended. The first of General der Flieger Alexander Löhr, Commander, Luftflotte IV, who wanted a single concentrated drop to seize the airfield at Máleme, followed by a build up of additional infantry and heavy weapons. The second plan was put forward by Generalmajor Kurt Student, Commander, Fleigerkorps XI, who wanted to make no less than seven separate drops. In the end, Goering imposed a compromise solution between these two different approaches. There would be three main drops, one in the morning around Canea and the airfield at Máleme, the other in the afternoon against the airfields at Heraklion and Rethymnon. What we decided to do was focus first on the main historical plan. This gave us the #410520_01 and _01a scenarios. People who own previous titles will be familiar with this method of providing two variations of the same scenario. In this instance, the #410520_01 scenario represents the German historical plan if the axis drops arrived at the scheduled time. However, people familiar with the battle will know that this was not a typical German operation that was carried out with clockwork timing. The follow-up drops were late very late. And so in the #410520_01a scenario, the Axis units arrive with a variable percentage, making it uncertain when follow-up Axis Airborne units will become available in the game. This makes this second copy of the scenario much harder for the Axis player. The second, third, and fourth scenarios are smaller pieces of the larger campaign. The fifth scenario is a variant of the first scenario, but this time we ve mixed up the drop zones and provided a number of Strategy/Operations, so the Allied player will not know where, or when, the Germans will drop. Finally, we felt we needed to provide a single smaller Page 12

13 scenario, which was loosely based on the Lohr Plan. In this scenario, the Axis total focus is directed on the western side of the island, Allied troops from Heraklion and Rethymnon will arrive on the map edge as reinforcements. C) Order-of-Battle The order of battle for Crete on the outset promised to be a challenging item to build, largely because of the mixture of British and Commonwealth units, some in much inferior fighting condition. Neither of our sources had firm info on the strength of the Greek nor Cretan forces that garrisoned the island. At the start, I compared two older boardgames one by Avalon Hill, and the other by SPI - and these didn t match. So if players own one of these and compare them to our game OOB, they will certainly identity differences. I wasn t quite sure what to do until, on another trip to yet another library, I discovered a book published in 2001 George Forty The Battle of Crete. In the appendix, this book had what can only be described as the most complete OOB of any battle I have every worked on. This appendix, which provides details on every single unit on both sides, provides details right down to almost the individual man. Truly an amazing find and a critical piece of bringing you the most accurate OOB possible. D) Map Page 13

14 The map posed quite a problem, as the very rugged terrain of Crete was extremely difficult to map out on the 1Km per hex system used in Panzer Campaign. The map was originally started a few years ago by Wig Graves, another Panzer Campaign designer, using an old black and white topographical map as our source. Therefore, after a great deal of patience, eventually it was ready, although it took much longer than similar sized maps in other games. We opted to provide the whole island, even though it was not really necessary for the action that took place. On the up side, this does provide more map for the potential scenario designers to use in their own creations. The Scenarios The scenarios are listed below in the order they are presented in the game with the STARTED Scn the scenario which is used to teach the basic using the Started.HLP file first. After this the scenarios follow in numeric order where the numbers represent YYMMDD_xx where xx= the scenario number on that day. The Scenario List #00_Started.scn Getting Started: Anzio - A Diversion at Littoria #410520_01_Crete_Invasion.scn #410520_01a_Crete_Invasion.scn #410520_02_Crete_Maleme.scn #410520_03_Crete_Rethymnon.scn #410520_04_Crete_Heraklion.scn #410520_05_Crete_Alt_DZs.scn #410520_06_Crete_Lohr_Plan.scn _01: Crete - The Invasion of Crete _01a: Crete - The Invasion of Crete [HTH] _02: Crete - The Descent on Crete _03: Crete - Mission Impossible at Rethymnon _04: Crete - Heraklion: A Fine Opportunity for Killing! _05: Crete Rock, Paper, Fallschirmjager _06: Crete The Lohr Plan Objective Maleme #430909_01_Salerno_Historical.scn _01: Salerno - The Highw ay to Naples #430909_02_Salerno_Strategy_Ops.scn _02: Salerno - Campaign w ith Strategy Operations #430909_03_Salerno_Alt_1.scn _03: Salerno Salerno Campaign Alternative #1 #430909_04_Salerno_Alt_2.scn _04: Salerno Campaign - Alternative #2 #430910_01a_Salerno_Capacio.scn _01: Salerno The Texans Move Out #430910_01_Salerno_Capacio.scn _01a: Salerno The Texans Move Out [HTH] #430912_01a_Salerno_Persano.scn _01: Salerno The Tobacco Factory Page 14

15 #430912_01_Salerno_Persano.scn #430913_01_Salerno_Counterattack.scn _01a: Salerno The Tobacco Factory [HTH] _01: Salerno The German Counterattack #440122_ 01a_Anzio_Landing.scn #440122_ 01_Anzio_Landing.scn #440122_ 02_Anzio_Colli_Laziali.scn #440126_ 01_Anzio_Expanding_Beachhead.scn #440129_01a_Anzio_Campoleone.scn #440129_01_Anzio_Campoleone.scn #440207_01_Anzio_KG_Graser.scn #440216_01_Anzio_Axis_Offensive.scn #440523_01_Anzio_Buffalo.scn _01: Anzio Operation Shingle The Anzio Invasion _01a: Anzio Operation Shingle The Anzio Invasion [HTH] _02: Anzio Colli Laziala _01: Anzio Expanding the Beachhead _01: Anzio - Campoleone Station _01a: Anzio - Campoleone Station [HTH] _01: Anzio KG Graser _01: Anzio Axis Offensive _01: Anzio Operation Buffalo The Scenario Overviews Getting Started: Anzio - A Diversion at Littoria Eastern edge, Anzio Beachhead, January 26th 1944: During the first week of the landing, several attempts were made to expand the beachhead, but they were not part of an all out offensive, more probes at the German line. General Lucas would have liked to have taken Cisterna, but was not prepared to take any risks, so, on January 26th, the 504th Parachute Infantry were ordered to create a diversion on the right flank, to distract the Hermann Goering Division, while the US 3rd Infantry Division renewed its attempt to take Cisterna. [Size, small] _01: Crete - The Invasion of Crete Crete, May 20th 1941: In the desert, Tobruk was surrounded and Rommel stood on the Egyptian frontier facing the British, who, a few days previously, had halted Operation Brevity to relieve Tobruk. Operation Seelowe, the invasion of Britain, had been cancelled and all eyes were now looking east. Six weeks had passed since the Germans had invaded Yugoslavia and Greece to bail out their Italian partners. Now their attention was focused on the Soviet Union and Hitler had massed his army on the Russian border for Operation Barbarossa. Thus, in the big picture, Crete was a small sideshow where the Allies clung by their fingernails to southern Europe, the Germans having far greater issues pressuring them. It was at this time, the Germans, at the pinnacle of their airborne power, decided to invade Crete using Generalmajor Kurt Student's crack force of Fallschirmjäger. There were several plans proposed, ranging from one major Drop Zone, to others where troops would arrive scattered in 7 locations. The final plan for "Operation Merkur", or "Mercury", represented a compromise imposed by Reichsmarshall Goering calling for a morning assault in the Maleme\Canea sector, followed up with two afternoon drops in the vicinity of Rethymnon and Heraklion. [Size, large] Designer Note: The Strategy Operations option has been used for the late arriving Allied units in this scenario as some units planned for arrival were cancelled and others arrived. Their arrival was late enough that the historical arrival location may be overrun. To investigate alternative Axis Drop Zones, see scenario #410520_ _01a: Crete - The Invasion of Crete [HTH] Page 15

16 Crete, May 20th 1941: In the desert, Tobruk was surrounded and Rommel stood on the Egyptian frontier facing the British, who, a few days previously, had halted Operation Brevity to relieve Tobruk. Operation Seelowe, the invasion of Britain, had been cancelled and all eyes were now looking east. Six weeks had passed since the Germans had invaded Yugoslavia and Greece to bail out their Italians partners. Now their attention was focused on the Soviet Union, and Hitler had massed his army on the Russian border for Operation Barbarossa. Thus, in the big picture, Crete was a small sideshow where the Allies clung by their fingernails to southern Europe, the Germans having far greater issues pressuring them. It was at this time, the Germans, at the pinnacle of their airborne power, decided to invade Crete using Generalmajor Kurt Student's crack force of Fallschirmjäger. There were several plans proposed, ranging from one major Drop Zone, to others where troops would arrive scattered in 7 locations. The final plan for "Operation Merkur", or "Mercury", represented a compromise imposed by Reichsmarshall Goering called for a morning assault in the Maleme\Canea sector, followed up with two afternoon drops in the vicinity of Rethymnon and Heraklion. [Size, large] Designer Note: The Strategy Operations option has been used for the late arriving Allied units in this scenario as some units planned for arrival were cancelled and others arrived but late enough that the historical arrival location may be overrun. Also **note** - historically the axis troops were delayed from their planned operational schedule and, in this scenario, the Axis units arrive with a variable percentage making it uncertain when follow up Axis Airborne units will arrive. To investigate alternative Axis Drop Zones with variable arrival, see scenario #410520_ _02: Crete - The Descent on Crete Maleme\Canea, May 20th 1941: By this date, the defenders dug-in around Maleme were getting used to the ritual of the morning air raids, so on this morning, it was a surprise to them that after the attacking aircraft withdrew, there came another wave of Ju-52 transport aircraft, many towing gliders. This first phase of "Operation Merkur" called for two separate drop zones. First, the Luftlande Sturmregiment, (the heroes of the 1940 assault on Eben Emael the impregnable Belgium forts that held the gateway to Low Countries), arriving by both glider and parachute, landed west of Maleme airstrip. There they quickly assembled with the mission to secure the landing strip for follow on air transport reinforcement by the 5th Gebirgsjager Division. Simultaneously, Colonel Heidrich's 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regt, with divisional troops and headquarters, were to drop in the Prison Valley. Their mission was to secure the village of Galatas, and also to block Allied units in the Canea and Suda Bay sector from reinforcing the Maleme Airfield, the key to the invasion plan. [Size, medium] _03: Crete - Mission Impossible at Rethymnon Rethymnon, May 20th 1941: Colonel Sturm, commander of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Regiment, was noticeably upset that his unit, the one that had held the Corinth Isthmus the previous month, had been relegated to a secondary objective. He further resented losing one of his battalions, which had been seconded to the Heraklion part of the operation. He retained two tough veteran battalions and was tasked with capturing the town of Rethymnon, as well as the airstrip to the east. It seemed that intelligence estimates on the expected strength of the enemy were grossly incorrect. The town was held by over 800 Cretan gendarmeries and, for the protection of the airfield, there were two battalions of Australian Infantry supported by more than 2000 Greek soldiers. If the odds were not bad enough, the force was delayed leaving their own airfields in Greece and were late arriving Page 16

17 for their own drop that took place late in the afternoon. The already disrupted operation got worse as the aircraft were brought under fire as they approached the drop zones. Aircraft were shot down and some aircraft sent their men out the door while over water. Those who did land were vigorously counterattacked. Colonel Sturm was captured, as was a staff officer, who had in his possession a complete copy of the "Mercury" operational orders. It was indeed a "mission impossible" situation and, that some paratroopers fought on for several days blocking the road at Pervolia and holding an olive oil factory near the airfield, was nothing short of a miracle. [Size, small] Designer Note: This historical scenario may be unwinnable as the attacking Germans are hopelessly outnumbered. Its inclusion in the game is merely telling part of the story of this battle, as such, the victory conditions are set to give the German side a chance to win, while not being successful in their assigned mission _04: Crete - Heraklion: A Fine Opportunity for Killing! Heraklion, May 20th 1941: For the assault on Heraklion, Student picked the reinforced 1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment led by Colonel Bruno Bauer. This was not Bauer's first airfield assault, his unit had captured Dordrecht in Holland during the Attack on the West in May As at Rethymnon, his force too was late and most of his men had not even embarked in their assigned aircraft by 1400hrs, the projected time they were supposed to be over the target. Bauer was not only furious at not getting away on time, but also that he had to make do with two less companies because of a shortage of aircraft caused by lost and damaged aircraft in the morning drop at Maleme. Over the target, the story was much the same as that at Rethymnon, with the Fallschirmjäger being brought under fire even before they exited the aircraft. Unlike Maleme, here the drop zones were wide open, and FJs were brought under fire before they could recover their weapons. There were plans to follow up the invasion force with air landings, like those at Maleme, in addition, a battalion of Gebirgsjager were to be sent by water to arrive at Heraklion the next day. However, the High Command back in Greece heard nothing from the operations in the east part of the island, as all wireless sets were out, and as the Germans never made a habit of reinforcing failure. These additional troops bound for Heraklion were recalled, and the original force was on their own, facing a much larger than expect defending force. [Size, medium] Designer Note: This historical scenario may be unwinnable, as the attacking Germans are hopelessly outnumbered. Its inclusion in the game is merely telling part of the story of this battle, as such, the victory conditions are set to give the German side a chance to win, while not being successful in their assigned mission _05: Crete Rock, Paper, Fallschirmjager Crete, May 20th 1941: There were several plans proposed for the Invasion of Crete, ranging from one major Drop Zone, to others where troops would arrive scattered in 7 locations. The final plan for "Operation Merkur", or "Mercury", represented a compromise imposed by Reichsmarshall Goering calling for a morning assault in the Maleme\Canea sector, followed up with two afternoon drops in the vicinity of Rethymnon and Heraklion. [Size, large] Designer Note: This scenario features an historical, yet variable, Axis Airborne arrival. It starts with the drops around the Eastern Maleme-Canea Sector, then it features Axis Strategy Operations for the follow on Axis reinforcements. The German Player can pick from 1) The historical plan as defined in the _01 Scenario. 2) A reverse order where a small force drops at Heraklion, before the Rethymnon drops, followed by later drops at both Heraklion and Rethymnon. 3) All follow on drops in the Maleme Sector. Page 17

18 410520_06: Crete The Lohr Plan Objective Maleme Crete, May 20th 1941: This scenario is loosely based on the plan that was put forward by General der Flieger Alexander Lohr, Commander, Luftflotte IV, who wanted a single concentrated drop to seize the airfield at Maleme, followed by a build up of additional infantry and heavy weapons. Such an approach might risk enabling the British to reinforce the island thus sustaining its defense. While the Axis air drops will concentrate on Maleme, units that historically dropped at Rethymnon and Heraklion will reinforce the Prison Valley DZ, as well as attempting to block Allied troops from moving from the east side of the island. [Size, medium] Designer Note: This scenario has the eastern DZs moved and a choice of Strategy/Operations for the Allies _01: Salerno - The Highway to Naples Salerno, September 9th 1943: Historical Campaign Scenario: Operation Avalanche was an Allied attempt to outflank the German positions in southern Italy and quickly gain control of the strategic port of Naples. Coinciding with the announcement of Italy's formal surrender, the operation involved one of the largest amphibious operations to date, and the first use of a combined Anglo-American army. The Allied 5th Army began landing near Salerno, south of Naples, before dawn on September 9th This game covers those initial landings, through the German counterattacks, until September 16th, at that time the Germans began to plan their withdrawal from the area as Monty's 8th Army started to arrive from the south. This scenario has all of the historical setup and reinforcements. It begins at 0200 September 9th 1943 and ends on September 16th [Size, large] _02: Salerno - Salerno Campaign with Strategy Operations Salerno, September 9th 1943: Historical Campaign Scenario: Operation Avalanche was an Allied attempt to outflank the German positions in southern Italy and quickly gain control of the strategic port of Naples. Coinciding with the announcement of Italy's formal surrender, the operation involved one of the largest amphibious operations to date, and the first use of a combined Anglo-American army. The Allied 5th Army began landing near Salerno, south of Naples, before dawn on September 9th This game covers those initial landings, through the German counterattacks, until September 16th, at which time the Germans began to plan their withdrawal from the area as Monty's 8th Army began to arrive from the south. This scenario has all of the historical setup and reinforcements. It begins at 0200 September 9th 1943 and ends on September 16th [Size, large] _03: Salerno Salerno Campaign Alternative #1 Salerno, September 9th 1943: Alternative Historical Campaign Scenario: Operation Avalanche was an Allied attempt to outflank the German positions in southern Italy and quickly gain control of the strategic port of Naples. The Italian 22nd Coastal Division was present and could have fought had the Government in Rome not surrendered. This unit has been added, as a result, this scn will be a bit harder for the Allied player. In addition, this scenario includes some additional German reinforcements in the form of units made available from 10 AOK Reserves. These include an additional Jagdpanzer battalion from Page 18