The Company Campaign - Kilo Company goes in

On the night of the 5th of June 1944 K-Company "Kilo" of the III Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division took to the air in nine C-47s, the group included a platoon from the 307th Airborne Engineers.  The group flew south and crossed the England coast just east of Weymouth.  The planes then flew to a waypoint to the NW of the Channel Islands and then turned for France.

Kilo Company had been given the following orders.

Landing at Drop Zone N proceed to:
Seize and destroy the crossings of the DOUVE RIVER at BEUZEVILLE-LA-BASTILLE and ETIENVILLE (PONT L'ABBE).
Seize, organize and defend the area along the general line CR (261938) - RENOUF (incl.).
Clear and secure the Divisional area within its sector, including the prominent Hill 30 overlooking the Chef-du-Pont causeway.
Assemble one Battalion without delay in area indicated as Force Reserve.
Patrol aggressively to the line indicated.
Be prepared on Divisional order to advance to the West to the line of the DOUVE RIVER.

The flight was uneventful, then they crossed the Cotentin coast at Baubigny.  Ahead lay a cloud bank, the fleet of planes flew into the cloud, the formation fragmented.  Some of the pilots fearing collision changed altitude or tried to edge away from their now invisible neighboring planes.

The planes of Kilo Company cross the French coast.  In the lead plane, plane #73, is Captain McNair and his company HQ.

The clouds had also knocked the formation off course, the flight was now south of where it should have been and flew over the FLAK at Etienville/Pont L'Abbe and Picauville.  The heavy FLAK around these two towns sent up a wall of explosions.  The fragmented formations final cohesion failed.

Two planes panicked, #76 and #78 immediately hit the green light and dropped its men.  These men were dropped in the dense bocage and orchards just to the south of Pont L'Abbe.  Once the men landed they soon realised Etienville/Pont L'Abbe was heavily garrisoned.  If they were to survive they would need to head east.  The heavy FLAK rising from Picauville to the NE pointed to another area best avoided.

2:08AM 6th of June 1944
Plane #76 (Lt Lawton, 2nd Platoon HQ and 2nd Platoon Squad 1)
Even though they were dropped well short and south of their DZ the stick left the plane in good order.  As the men descended they watched the FLAK rise up into the formations of planes to the north.   Soon they were on the ground, amongst dense bocage and orchards.  Just to the south was the small hamlet of Clainville.

GROUP 5 [3 men]
Lt Lawson quickly came across two of his HQ, Sergeant Gillem and his messenger Private Hodges, the three men waited, listening, but could not see or hear any of their comrades.   Not sure where they were they headed to Clainville.  They roused a scared French farmer out of bed, he told them where they were and that they should not to go to Etienville or Picauville as there were "many bosch...hundreds".

GROUP 6 [6 men]
1st Squad Sergeant Sutherland landed on the hill above Clainville.  Within minutes he had found 5 of his squad, including his machine-gunner.  Unfortunately, with no machine-gun.  They realised that they had not seen many other planes drop their loads and decided the best plan was to follow their planes that were disappearing into the eastern sky.  They started through the fields, heading away from Lt Lawton.

Plane #78 (Lt Bolling, 3rd Platoon HQ and 3rd Platoon Squad 1)
GROUP 7 [11 men]
Lt Bolling landed hard, hitting a tree in the orchard, breaking both of his legs.  The platoon sergeant Bull found his Lt and cut him loose.  The lieutenant was in terrible pain so Bull injected him with morphine.  Soon, eleven of the men congregated in the corner of an orchard.  Two of the men had bought in the badly injured and unconscious Private Short.  It looked like he had taken a piece of shrapnel.  Bolling ordered his men to carry him and the private to the nearest road and leave them their, then he ordered that the remaining men go and find Captain McNair and get their job done.  Reluctantly they left Lieutenant Bolling and heading in a direction that would take them south of Picauville.

2:10AM 6th of June 1944 - East of Picauville
Plane #80 (307th Airborne Engineer Platoon and 4 men from Kilo Company HQ)
Plane #80 flew straight through the FLAK storm above Picauville.  Luckily no one in a plane was hit as the shrapnel peppered the plane.  The pilot immediately hit the green light and the men left the plane.

GROUP 307-1 [5+3men]
The four men from Kilo Company in the plane were the four bazooka men from the company HQ: Privates Clarke, O'Connell, DeWitt and Williams.  DeWitt was unlucky to land close to a German billet and was captured.  The other three men soon joined up with members of the 307th.  Clarke landed with a two-piece bazooka.  However, his assistant rocketeer O'Connell, had lost his rockets during the landing, but Williams still had a bag of rockets.  The three men and a small group from the 307th were about 50 yards from the gate to a chateaux.  Possible mission: AMBUSH, a car approaches the chateaux.

2:12AM 6th of June 1944 - West of Pont-du-Chef.
Plane #73 and Plane #74 kept together through the cloud bank and the FLAK, the pilot soon realised he was off course and south of the DZ, but seeing the Moon light glint off the Merderet River to his front and the Douve River to his south he realised he would soon be on the wrong side of the Merderet River.  He hit the green light and both planes dropped their men.

GROUP 1 [12 men]
The company commander had a good jump, but was uncertain where he had landed.  He could see no landmarks.  Soon he found some of his men, and in the next ten minutes he had accumulated a fair sized unit.  His priority was to find where he was.  By 3:00AM he had found 6 men from his plane, including three of the bazooka men, though with only one bazooka.  He also found Lt MacNider, the lieutenant from 1st Platoon and five of 1st Platoon's men.  He thought he heard his bugler a few times, but could only guess from which direction the forlorn bugle blew.

GROUP 2 [14 men]
The company commanders bugler had at first been too afraind to use his bugle, but when 1st Platoon's Tech. Sergeant Cannon found him he was convinced to use it while the sergeant kept guard.  Soon the bugle had drawn several members, including the Company's XO, Lt Hoge.  Within 20 minutes the group had swelled to 14 men.

2:13AM 6th of June 1944 - West of La Fiere causeway.
Plane #82
GROUP 307-2 [unknown]
Eighteen men from the 307th Airborne Engineers left the plane west of Canquigny.  They landed in a wide field and soon formed up.  Off to the east they could see the FLAK rising from positions around St Mere Eglise.  The unit tasked to help Kilo Company blow the bridge over the Douve Rivers knew they were no where near their DZ.

2:20AM 6th of June 1944 - NW of Sainte Mere-Eglise
Plane #77
GROUP 9 [13 men]
The pilot of plane #77 got disoriented in the clouds and veered completely out of sight of the main formation, he soon spotted some other aircraft and followed them and thereby dropped his men on the Dropzone of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment instead of the the dropzone of the 508th PIR.  The men of Platoon 2's Squad 2 and the Mortar Platoon landed amongst the well dropped 505 in the open fields NW of Sainte Mere-Eglise.  It took a while but Sergeant Patch soon had found 12 of his Stick's 18 men.  A lieutenant from a 505th found him and ordered him to join him and head to Sainte Mere Eglise.  He had first thought to try find his own company, but when the Lt told him where he had landed he decided it may be best to stick with the 505 until daybreak.  His MG man had located the squads machine-gun, so they headed towards the steeple of the Sainte Mere Eglise church.

2:22AM 6th of June 1944 - SE of Sainte Mere-Eglise
Plane #79
Group 8 [9 men]
The pilot of #79 thought he was still east of the Merderet when in the distance he saw the glitter of Moon light on the sea.  He then ran into heavy FLAK.   He decided he would fly out to sea and then turn around and try find the DZ.  He asked his co-pilot to head back into the plane and ask the jump master if he wanted to try that or return to England.  Just about then the starboard engine exploded into flame and shrapnel peppered the plane.  Private Daniel Noce fell forward with a grievous back wound.  The pilot realised the plane would not make it and immediately hit the green light, the paras did not need a second invitation and all but one (and Noce) escaped the burning craft before it crashed in a ball of flame to the east.  The crew went down with their plane.

The stick landed amongst enemy troops and some were killed, wounded or captured while trying to escape their 'chutes. The rest escaped into the nearby orchard and fields.  Sergeant Collins was soon able to get some of his men together, he could hear German machine-gun fire, and decided he needed to rescue the fallen men, ordering his few comrades to use grenades and knives he led them towards the sound of the guns.

2:24AM 6th of June 1944 - Blosville
Plane #75
Group 3 [6 men]
Group 4 [2 men]
The pilot of #75 changed direction a few times trying to find landmarks, eventually he made out the sea to the east of Cotentin Peninsula, he could see the FLAK, probably aimed at the 101st aircraft, he decided he would not find the DZ, and had likely missed it, so he hit the green light switch.  The men of 1st Platoon's 2nd Squad and Mortar squad exited into a nightmare.

The stick landed amongst trees and the enemy, and onto buildings in Blosville.  Unarmed paratroopers were shot down while trying to escape their 'chutes.  The men ran to cover, escaping into the nearby fields, and slowly but surely found each other.  The Mortar Sergeant found his gunner, but no one else, they found a ditch and hid.  Sergeant Trudeau managed to find five of his men, they knocked on the backdoor of a house, he told them they were near Blosville.  He told them that "German paratroopers had billeted in the town earlier in the evening".

SUMMARY
Kilo Company had truly been spread miles from their Dropzone.  Their story was no different to the rest of the 508th Regiment.  The 507th landed in a fairly compact area, but to the east of their DZ, and most landed in the flooded fields around the Merderet River, many drowning or losing their equipment to escape drowning.  The 505th however landed smack on their DZ (mostly).  The expected objectives of D-Day were looking to be more difficult to obtain than first envisaged.

Kilo company had lost several killed, had a few injuries and lost a few men as POWs.

Each number represent one stick (plane load) of paratroopers, with GREEN for the 508, Blue for the 507 and Orange for the 505.  

The objectives of the 82nd Airborne, secure bridge, destroy bridges, create a blocking front, and wait for the forces from UTAH BEACH and throw back any German attempt at attack.

The Map showing the areas:

The Unit Roster (U/C=Under Command, N/UC=Not Under Command, the number is the group number)

Excuse any missing W's, my keyboard has been killed by First Person Shooters :)

NEW CAMPAIGN: The Company - A WW2 Force on Force campaign

With the present rise of nationalism, isolationism and appeasement it is looking like we should return to the halcyon days of the last time these policies ruled the roost: June 1944.  So we are leaving the dust of Malikastan and the streets of Grand Brexitia and heading to the fields of Normandy.

"The Company" campaign will follow K Company of the 508 Parachute Infantry Battalion 82nd Airborne Division through the Normandy Campaign.  Kilo Company is led by Captain McNair, born in Minnesota.

Each man in the company will have a name and will be on a roster.  The campaign will start with the miss-drop of the 82nd Airborne into Normandy, and will then follow the men as they group up and eventually fight as a unit.  The campaign will probably stop when we get bored or the 17th SS Division is pushed back.

The campaign will be both played in 15mm (Brisbane) and 28mm (Bunbury) using the Force on Force rules.  We are also thinking of using the Pulp Alley rules for some of the initial games where paratroopers are trying to group up and find weapons, and stay alive.

The Roster

The roster is an Excel worksheet that contains each man's name, if he is a sharpshooter or not, is he KIA, WIA, MIA, Under Commander (UC) or Not Under Commander (N/UC).  The players will not know the condition of men who go MIA/KIA/WIA away from the unit, they will merely remain N/UC.  N/UC men who are alive and hale will have a hidden dice which marks the probability they will join up with one of the companies cores.

A portion of the company roster (Excel worksheet)

The 1944 Normandy US Airborne Platoon OOB that will be used for Force on Force.

As Force on Force has not yet produced a WW2 supplement we have designed the vehicles using AP penetration at 100m and the armor of the various vehicles.  Here is a sub-list containing the vehicles that will be used in the campaign (no King Tigers or Tigers :( ).

The vehicles and guns for the campaign.  No special ammo given.  We may add other rules in time.

[WARNING: The boring rules commences here!  This is a Work in Progress and will be edited over time until we begin play]

The Drop

These are the rules to simulate a disrupted drop that portions of the 82nd Airborne experienced on D-Day.  Only the game master need know these rules, but they are presented here in case you are interested.  The Company is divided between eight C-47 Skytrain's.  The planes begin in groups of three.  A disruption dice is then rolled for each group of planes, the three groups are: [123] [456] [789*]

* Plane 9 contains a platoon from the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion.  These men may land in similar areas to Kilo Company and join up.

Disruption D12:
1-2 [123]
3-4 [1][23]
5-6 [12][3]
7-8 [13][2]
9-12 [1][2][3]
The proposed campaign we are playing is for a bad drop, but we can decide to make it a better drop, by modifying the above dice type used to either a D8 or D10 instead of a D12.

Each group of planes is then given a drop accuracy probability, this denotes how close to the planes designated dropzone the plane starts to drop it's men.  The dropzone is a 2-digit number using a D6-D6, so 1-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-6 etc.  The drop locations are indicated on the map.  The 1-1 is the actual dropzone of this particular company, west of Gueutteville and NE of Château de Bernaville (the HQ of the German 91st Luftlande Division).

The dropzone of the regiment - Not many of the regiment landed on or even close to this dropzone.

FLAK 2D6
There is a small chance each plane will be hit by FLAK.  Roll a 2D6 for each plane, on a result of 1 or 2 the plane is hit.  Planes with a dropzone starting with a 6-X (i.e. within one space of St. Mere Eglise) have a -1DRM. The plane may still drop paratroopers, roll a 3D6 to see how many men survive and exit the plane before it crashes.

Drop Accuracy D6.   The drop accuracy is how far from the designated dropzone the plane drops its men.  This is the first digit in the two digit location.   The die is modified as follows: a group of 2 planes gets -1drm and a group of 3 planes gets -2drm, +2drm if hit by FLAK.  The logic behind this is that if the planes remain in their V formation they have more eyes to find the correct DZ.

A modified result of below 1 is counted as a 1.

Drop Precision D6.  This is the second digit of the drop location, for example the Drop Accuracy rolled for a plane is 5, now roll the Drop Precision, say a 3 is rolled, this plane therefore drops its men in location 5-3.

A small area of the map.  The map is an area movement style map overlaid on the May 1944 BIGOT map of the area.  The map includes all the German positions that air reconnaissance identified.  I may make a VASSAL module for the campaign, will make it easier in the beginning, but once the company has formed up it will be less needed.  Though...if we played more than one company...

Smooth Exit D10
Each plane gets a Smooth Exit D10 (this is automatically rolled in Excel).  This represents how scattered the plane drops its men in the drop location.  A low number means the man has a low probability of finding his company.  This number denotes the Grouping Up dice for each man.

Roll D10:
1 Very Slow Exit - drop is spread out each man gets a Grouping Up dice of D6
2-3 Slow Exit - drop is somewhat spread out, roll a D6 for each man: 4+ the men get a Grouping Up D8, otherwise they are assigned a Grouping Up D6
4-6 Below Average Exit - roll a D6, on a 1-2 D6, 3-4 D8, 5-6 D10
7-9 Average Exit - roll a D6, on a 1 D6, 2-3 D8, 4-5 D10, 6 D12
10 Perfect Exit - roll a D6 for each man: 1 D8, 2-3 D10, 4-6 D12

The Excel worksheet does all this and is hidden from the players.

Grouping Up D6/D8/D10/D12
After all the planes have dropped their men then each man is assigned a dice, a Grouping Up D6, D8, D10 or D12 (see above(.  The players will not know which dice is assigned to each man.  This dice roll is automatically assigned in the Excel worksheet and is hidden from the players.  Each turn the dice is rolled for each man until he joins a CORE unit of the company, if successful the man finds one of his companies core (becomes Under Command), if not he is considered Not Under Command until the next turn.   If he rolls a 1 he has either been killed, captured or seriously wounded.  Again, players will not know this.  If the roll is successful then he finds the nearest group from his company.  He will automatically move to his own platoon when he is in the area of the platoon or is equally close to it.  The target for grouping up changes per turn.  For example, on turn 1 the target to group up is 7+, on turn 2 it is 6+ until it reaches 4+.

Finding his way Dice results, a 1 he is killed/captured/wounded, on a 2 his assigned dice drops one level (example D10 to D8), if he drops below D6 he is lost.  On a result of 3 his assigned Group Up dice shifts up one level to a maximum of D12 for the next turn.


The CORES
Each Captain, Lieutenant and Company/Platoon Sergeant is a CORE, on landing they will be marked on the map.  They will slowly grow with men as the men successfully roll to become Under Command.  The players can move their Cores towards their mission objectives by any route.  If a Lieutenant is killed is subordinate becomes the new CORE.

Turns
The length of a turn changes through the campaign.  The dice roll score required to group up also becomes easier over time, starting at 7+ and reducing to 4+.
June 6 0200-0300 Grouping Up 7+
June 6 0300-0500 Grouping Up 7+
June 6 0500-0700 Grouping Up 7+
June 6 0700-0900 Grouping Up 6+
June 6 0900-1200 Grouping Up 6+
June 6 1200-1600 Grouping Up 6+
June 6 1600-2400 Grouping Up 5+
June 7 AM Grouping Up 5+
June 7 PM Grouping Up 4+
June 8 AM Grouping Up 4+
June 8 PM Grouping Up 4+
June 9 AM Grouping Up 4+
June 9 PM Grouping Up 4+
June 10 AM Grouping Up 4+
June 10 PM Grouping Up 4+
June 11 Grouping Up 4+
June 12 Grouping Up 4+
etc..

At interesting points we will stop and play missions.  There may be more than one mission per turn, depending on our dispersed the Company is at that time.

Other units.
The Company is not alone in D-Day, so other units will appear on the map, other than protecting flanks or giving support or allowing supplies to arrive they have no influence on the company.  Though other units may fight and soften up enemy before an attack for example.

Some units will join the company, like AT Guns (Glider) or tanks and armored cars.  This will occur as these units make contact.

The Enemy
The enemy will move as well.  We may get a player to move them (maybe the game master), and therefore they will not necessarily appear where they did historically.  The enemy must make approach marches, which can be interdicted etc.

Ammunition
A critical factor on both sides, at least for the Americans in the early part of the invasion, is ammunition.  Often attacks halted on lack of ammunition, and often ground had to be given up due to the lack of ammunition.  The enemy ammunition condition will be hidden from the players.

A units available ammunition is scaled from 2  to 12, the level of ammunition corresponds to the Force on Force ammunition supply as follows:
2-3 Untenable Ammunition - Cannot fight due to low ammunition, unit will retreat to adjacent area if clear of enemy or surrender if not.  If the area contains a supplied unit it may remain in the area.
4-5 Low Ammunition, -1D
6-8 Normal Ammunition, -
9-12 High Ammunition, +1D
At the end of each turn in which a unit shared a location with an enemy, or artillery adjacent to an area containing friends and foe the unit loses D3-1 ammunition.

All German Units start the campaign at Level 7.  US Paratroopers start with 1D6+2 (3 to 8)

Resupply Routes

• US Paratrooper Units can scrounge for ammunition, during the Campaign Maintenance Phase roll the troop quality D8, on a 4+ the unit finds 1 Ammunition.  During the Combat phase a unit not involved in combat can Scrounge a second time.
• US Units with a Line of Communication to the Utah Beach Exit locations may roll a D3.  Paratroopers with LOC to a Glider Landing Zone (Les Forges) from 0700 on D-Day may use this Supply route instead of Utah Beach Exits.
• German Units with a Line of Communication to the Grey Exit Locations may roll a D2.
• A Line of Communication is defined as a contiguous set of location not crossing a red-dashed boundary that is clear of enemy units.

German Units


Well, enough for now...time for Battlefield 1 :)

I will update this post as the rules are written.