Bucha, Ukraine - 27 Feb 2022 - 15mm
H-Hour +36 minutes. It's Getting Worse!
Turns 2 and 3 are now complete, putting us at about 36 minutes past H-Hour. The American second wave is ashore … sort of. Losses continue to be hideous. American losses now stand at 48 platoons of various types rendered combat ineffective (1680 men, so roughly 560 killed and 1120 wounded).
Although some cracks may just be starting to spread in the Atlantic Wall, casualties and equipment losses are reaching the point where I honestly don’t know if the Americans will succeed in opening the four major draws off Omaha.
The Vierville Draw at the end of Turn 2. The remnants of A/116th and C/2nd Rangers have made the horrific dash across the sand and have now reached the shingle, represented by the darker brown band that lines the beach at the foot of the bluffs. Engineers have to either blow a hole in the shingle on a successful demolitions roll, or Sherman Dozers have to clear a path. Again, despite the "historically horrible" losses suffered by the assault infantry, one positive change remains the larger presence of surviving American tanks (seriously, almost half of them actually made it to the beach IN OUR GAME, a shockingly high number). Note the "Open" markers, showing where engineers have already cleared gaps in German minefields or cleared paths through the shingle. NO VEHICLE is allowed to pass through the shingle hex until it is cleared. So opening these cuts is vital.
On the opposite end of the beach, the 16th RCT / 1st Infantry Division has really caught a break here. A volley from the battleship USS Texas has scored some amazing hits and positively EMPTIED Wiederstandnester 62, while a P-47 airstrike and even some tanks have pummeled the Germans in Wiederstandnester 61. Resistance here is not broken, but it has been very badly weakened through some frankly VERY lucky dice rolls. Not so lucky are the Americans still struggling shore, being positively liquified by consistent German artillery firing from further inland. Making the artillery doubly effective is the "pre-sited" special rule. Because the Germans have the beach pre-sited, indirect fire artillery missions on a BEACH hex do not have to be called in a turn in advance like normal.
The center remains in doubt. While German artillery and infantry guns are positively mauling survivors still hung up and pinned down in the beach obstacles, not enough engineers and dozers have made it across the beach to both open gaps in the shingle, and more importantly ... blow the blocks that are barring exit via the draws and roads. This is the crucial shortfall, as of course these are the objective hexes that determine victory in the game.
Finally on Turn 3, German artillery starts to slacken a LITTLE. This is because P-47s that dropped their ordinance are allowed to linger on the table for strafing attacks, or conduct spotting missions if a German unit fires from under cover within ten hexes. Well, the first planes bombed on Turn 1, spot on Turn 2, which means they can direct third-wave air strikes on Turn 3 to hit at least some of these 10.5cm howitzer positions. Of course every howitzer battery has at least a 2.0cm FlaK protecting it ... But at last at least a third of the German artillery is silenced. The problem is the Americans only have SO MANY air strikes ... 
The second major wave (second echelon of life rifle companies) makes it ashore in the 16 RCT / 1st Infantry Division sector to the east. No gaps have been opened in the beach obstacles yet (every beach landing hex is assumed to have obstacles in it) so every American unit still has to make a survival roll as it lands. Note at lower left, two Sherman platoons (10 tanks) have snuck through a gap in the shingle opened by dozers to actually take one objective hex. It's still behind that block, though, I need to get engineers to it to blow it before the draw is considered open and I get the points for the objective (only engineers can blow a block counter, Sherman dozers cannot do this).
Is it possible that things in the west are getting even worse? All the luck in getting the Shermans ashore and landing a few naval gunfire salvoes on German bunkers has deserted the Americans here. Losses in the second wave are almost worse than in the first wave. Also, German artillery in the west is more intact after Turn 3 air strikes. So yes, Dog Green and Dog White absolute tornadoes of carnage.remain 
The good and bad news on the American right (west). Note that survivors of C Company / 2nd Ranger Battalion are now off the beach and climbing the bluffs. I anticipate the first actual American close assault on Turn 4. However, Brigadier General Cota seems to be out of the battle! Note that the HQ Company of the 116th Regimental Combat Team has been blown up trying to come ashore (bright green counter, upper left)! Oddly, this reverses history, where "Captain Miller" and the Rangers did NOT lead the way off the beach as depicted in the movie, Vierville Draw was only opened around midday by Brigadier General Cota (Robert Mitchum, The Longest Day) leading a flanking attack from the east pretty much where we see the breach being made here. But Cota won't be leading that effort in this game, it looks like it's coming down to the Rangers after all. So this game is turning out more like the movie than the history, at least in this local sector.
The overall situation at the end of Turn 3 (H-Hour + 36 minutes). FLASH: OUTCOME OF INVASION STILL IN DOUBT!
WOW, that last photo really puts it into prospect just how massive and bloody the carnage is on Omaha Beech!
Yeah, its a nasty one @templar007 . But Turn 4 is seeing just a couple of cracks finally starting to open up. Two close assaults on German improved positions and 2 overruns. Some successful, some now. I still don’t have any BLOCKS blown open on the draws, however. Getting closer.
Is it possible, historically, to reinforce success @oriskany ? Can you change the landing zones for subsequent waves of reinforcements? It would be far more fun than just queueing up to be slaughtered every turn on the same ground. I don’t know that I could actually enjoy a game like that! I once did a 10-game campaign in SPWAW of a Canadian battle group coming ashore at Juno Beach (roughly where the Royal Winnipeg Rifles landed), and went to great pains to get the terrain and defending forces right (using photocopies of original maps), so I know how much work… Read more »
Thanks @cpauls1 – Okay, to answer your questions … Is it possible, historically, to reinforce success? Sort of. In fact this happened historically. The first big group of waves to go in at Omaha was 116th RCT/29th Infantry Division in the west, and 16th RCT/1st Infantry Division in the east. Both assaults were a nightmare, but the 16RCT/1st ID in the east definitely went better. Therefore, in the early afternoon, 18th Regiment went in behind the 16th RCT/1st ID as planned. However, 115th RCT was sent in along with them, through the EASTERN assault zone, rather than the western assault… Read more »