Fantasy Lehr Scenario

[MengJiao]

So given a few constraints (eg only units available on June 9 in the area SSE of Bayeux), if we change the focus a bit, give Pz Lehr a bit more room...what if KG Gerhardt teetotalled its sassifrass schnoeps just 4 hours earlier, could they have even more nearly reached Bayeux?

  This time, no DD fire and only six cruisers and they can only hit as far south as the bottom of the Bayeux map.  Also maybe I won't foul up quite so much this time:

[MengJiao]

So given a few constraints (eg only units available on June 9 in the area SSE of Bayeux), if we change the focus a bit, give Pz Lehr a bit more room...what if KG Gerhardt teetotalled its sassifrass schnoeps just 4 hours earlier, could they have even more nearly reached Bayeux?

  Which led (inadvertently) to what Chester Wilmot recalled in horror in an unpublished interview with Rundstadt, "the most gigantic, unmitigated, head-on bicycle combat of WWII" or indeed any war.
   As Edgar Rice Burroughs had so perceptively forseen just before he sat down to write Tarzan of the Apes (in one sitting) in early 1914, in a letter to HG. Wells, "there is no answer to the bicycle, but the bicycle"
  So we suppose that (non-historically) Krug hung up his phone, left the bunker and gathered his fit and faithful bicycle troops and moved due west almost clear across the the front of the Hitler Youth, mysteriously shadowed (non-historically) by one of the war's greatest sets of Enigma intercepts which succeeded in dispatching (note game terminology) virtually in real time, the 6th Commando (bicycle) from the Orne bridgehead clear across the fronts of the 6th airborne, and the two third divisons to block Krug's equally-well-cycled KG, KG Krug.
   As seen below, at 7:00 the cyclists find themselves face-to-face with their respective nemisises: cyclists.
   Which reminds me: I hate nemises to pieces:

[MengJiao]

   As seen below, at 7:00 the cyclists find themselves face-to-face with their respective nemisises: cyclists.
 

   Other than the (perhaps ominous, when you think about it) presence of a commando battalion of cyclists, everything was going well for Panzer Lehr: they got up early, they found all of KG Gerhardt and so on -- and then the 50th Div chit was the first pull.  And as you can see they turned up and took 4 out of 7 red towns.  Only the nachhut (rearguards) of KG Krug saved the hauty elitepanzertruupen from total disasskerfunken.  Well, we will see.  Maybe 50 div and its two attached armoured brigades and the commando cyclists are over-extended.

[MengJiao]

   As seen below, at 7:00 the cyclists find themselves face-to-face with their respective nemisises: cyclists.
 

   Other than the (perhaps ominous, when you think about it) presence of a commando battalion of cyclists, everything was going well for Panzer Lehr: they got up early, they found all of KG Gerhardt and so on -- and then the 50th Div chit was the first pull.  And as you can see they turned up and took 4 out of 7 red towns.  Only the nachhut (rearguards) of KG Krug saved the hauty elitepanzertruupen from total disasskerfunken.  Well, we will see.  Maybe 50 div and its two attached armoured brigades and the commando cyclists are over-extended.

But during the tense, early morning hours, all that happens is that Krug's AT guns get lost (near Le Guiberon) and the 22nd Armored chit leads to an over-enthusiastic attack on a nachut and some gratiuitous consolidation:

[MengJiao]

   As seen below, at 7:00 the cyclists find themselves face-to-face with their respective nemisises: cyclists.
 

   Other than the (perhaps ominous, when you think about it) presence of a commando battalion of cyclists, everything was going well for Panzer Lehr: they got up early, they found all of KG Gerhardt and so on -- and then the 50th Div chit was the first pull.  And as you can see they turned up and took 4 out of 7 red towns.  Only the nachhut (rearguards) of KG Krug saved the hauty elitepanzertruupen from total disasskerfunken.  Well, we will see.  Maybe 50 div and its two attached armoured brigades and the commando cyclists are over-extended.

But during the tense, early morning hours, all that happens is that Krug's AT guns get lost (near Le Guiberon) ....

Naturally, I wondered what a Guiberon might be but all I could find was this from Naval Hygiene magazine's 1894 annual edition:

1894 - ‎Naval hygiene
... stated that the wool had been disinfected in a room "by no means air-tight. ... Poulinice, Ploermel, Pontivy, Guiberon, Auray, Belty, Sables d'Olonne, Cette, ...

[MengJiao]

But during the tense, early morning hours, all that happens is that Krug's AT guns get lost (near Le Guiberon) and the 22nd Armored chit leads to an over-enthusiastic attack on a nachut and some gratiuitous consolidation:

  But, after some more bizzare lucky rolls for the British ( they even got 4 command points for a special initiative special event), at 9am, Panzer Lehr is finally all on the map:

[MengJiao]

  But, after some more bizzare lucky rolls for the British ( they even got 4 command points for a special initiative special event), at 9am, Panzer Lehr is finally all on the map:

  Things get rolling at 9am.  The British 50th div chit goes first.  The Division pulls back and digs in.  KG Schnozle is next and they move against the 22nd Armoured, which is holding the western half of the front while 3 brigades hold the east.  To do that, KG Schnozzle, moves a lot of independent units in column across some bridges and deploys them, following with another set of units all in column to cross the bridges.
  But next, the 8th Armoured Bde chit is drawn and they take the course shown as column markers below to take Tilly-sur-Seulles since they can see most of KG Gerhard is deployed and they would have to enter column to get very close while KG Schoz is busy moving the other way:

[MengJiao]

  But next, the 8th Armoured Bde chit is drawn and they take the course shown as column markers below to take Tilly-sur-Seulles since they can see most of KG Gerhard is deployed and they would have to enter column to get very close while KG Schoz is busy moving the other way:

However a lot happens and by 10am Oberst Krug finds a telephone that works.  Mental giant on a tiny battlefield, he grasps a large slice of what is going on and orders his bicycle troops to dig in.  They do not.  Yet with his tremendous command range and huge attachment number, he literally commandeers a lot of recon and flak units to  back up his part of the line:

[MengJiao]

  But next, the 8th Armoured Bde chit is drawn and they take the course shown as column markers below to take Tilly-sur-Seulles since they can see most of KG Gerhard is deployed and they would have to enter column to get very close while KG Schoz is busy moving the other way:

However a lot happens and by 10am Oberst Krug finds a telephone that works.  Mental giant on a tiny battlefield, he grasps a large slice of what is going on and orders his bicycle troops to dig in.  They do not.  Yet with his tremendous command range and huge attachment number, he literally commandeers a lot of recon and flak units to  back up his part of the line:

So its 11am and Pz Lehr has recaptured Tilly-Sur-Seulles and seems well-positioned to shove the Brits back a few miles, maybe.  It's hard to say.  Pz Lehr is a little low on command points and has a lot less in the way of tanks and artillery than 50 Div has at its disposal.  Plus 50 Div still has a good level of command and is getting dug in pretty fast with different sorts of formations sporting 17 pdrs all across its front.  And it has those bicycle commandos too.  Pz Lehr, of course, does have Krug and good AA coverage and plenty of bicycles.

[MengJiao]

So its 11am and Pz Lehr has recaptured Tilly-Sur-Seulles and seems well-positioned to shove the Brits back a few miles, maybe.  It's hard to say.  Pz Lehr is a little low on command points and has a lot less in the way of tanks and artillery than 50 Div has at its disposal.  Plus 50 Div still has a good level of command and is getting dug in pretty fast with different sorts of formations sporting 17 pdrs all across its front.  And it has those bicycle commandos too.  Pz Lehr, of course, does have Krug and good AA coverage and plenty of bicycles.

  With a lot of luck and some traffic control at Juvigny-sur-Seulles, Panzer Lehr hangs on to Tilly-sur-Seulles and only takes slightly heavier losses than 50 Div and its supporting armor.  Even more tellingly, the British loses are in their Fireflies and bicycle commandos.  And that's the situation around Noon, but 50 Div still has almost all of its chits left to pull.

[MengJiao]

  With a lot of luck and some traffic control at Juvigny-sur-Seulles, Panzer Lehr hangs on to Tilly-sur-Seulles and only takes slightly heavier losses than 50 Div and its supporting armor.  Even more tellingly, the British loses are in their Fireflies and bicycle commandos.  And that's the situation around Noon, but 50 Div still has almost all of its chits left to pull.

Yes, and by late afternoon, things don't look so good for Panzer Lehr's fantasy drive on Bayeux.  Their loses are almost three times higher than those of 50 Div.  Where the bicycle troops and panzergrenadiers have been able to get into the bocage, things are stabilizing, but overall, the attack seems to have reached its limit.