Squad Battles Eagles Strike: The Second Omaha Beach 9/44 - Steel Panthers: World War 2

Squad Battles Eagles Strike: The Second Omaha Beach*
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Date: September 20, 1944*
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Battle Type: US Assault vs German Defend*
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Original Squad Battles Designer: James Rapkins. Converted to Steel Panthers format by keif149*
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Best played as PBEM. Solo player should play as the Americans*
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September 20th,1944, Waal River.
1 Mile from Nijmegen, Holland, 1500 hours.*
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Original Squad Battles Description:
This scenario depicts the crossing of the Waal River.
As such expect to take a lot of casualties, but remember your
mission is to preserve your troops so the town of Nijmegen can
be taken.*
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During Operation Market Garden, the goal of the
three airborne divisions was to secure the bridges at Eindhoven,
Nijmegen and Arnhem for the rapid advance of XXX Corps to the
northern end of the Rhine River. In the 82nd Airborne's sector,
The idea to cross the Waal river appeared when it became apparent
that the 505th Regiment, was unable to seize the bridge that
spanned the Waal River. The bridge needed to be taken to allow
the beleaguered British forces to link up on the drive to Arnhem.
Early in the morning on 20th, the men of C Company, 307th Engineers,
met with Colonel Tucker, CO of the 504th RCT, and Major Cook,
the CO of the 3rd Battalion. It was Cook's force assigned to
cross the river. The Place for the crossing was an abandoned
factory that sat a mile downriver from the main span of the Nijmegen
Bridge. From here, the approximately 600 men off the 3rd Battalion
and C Company would cross the river on British supplied canvas
assault boats.Two Typhoons operating out of France strafed
the far bank and came around for a second pass, only to have
one of them shot down. At 1500 hrs, British artillery and Sherman
tanks sited closer to the bridges laid down a smoke barrage and
cover fire for the assault. After German counterfire, only 6
of the 10 Shermans were operational."I don't think that any
man that went across that river that day in a boat and were fortunate
enough to make the other side will ever in his life forget it.
There is no way you can visualize what the devil it was like."
At 1530 hrs the men that made it started their assault on the
dug-in German forces, showing once more, in true heroic style,
why the men of the 82nd Airborne were called "All American".
JR*
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Steel Panthers design notes: The American player needs to take advantage of his ample smoke and HE reserves.
You will suffer heavily in the water if you do not.
You have the option to take the larger victory flags directly across the river, or, to go downstream and try for the smaller flags.
Be warned, the river bank is heavily mined.
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It was my intention to convert the original Squad Battles scenario to the SPWW2 format. I was not attempting to recreate the actual battle itself.