If you are a wargamer, you know about D-Day. We aren’t going to wargame the most famous invasion in world history. We will wargame a special operation, the assault on the Merville gun battery by the 9th British Parachute Battalion.

Wargame

Rules Bolt Action or Command Decision
Players: 2
Models Needed: (bolt action) 1,000 points of British Infantry. No tanks or other vehicles are allowed, but they do get their free artillery observer.
650 points of Germans, again, no tanks, only 2 MMGs are permitted, no mortars.
Table 4×4
Terrain, a German bunker with trenches surrounding it, barbed wire, and an antitank ditch

Objective: The Germans must hold the gun battery inside the bunker, while the British must capture and destroy it. The game should last 6 turns. After turn 6, roll a D6 on a 4+, and we play a 7th turn.

Set Up: The British forces should be randomly distributed using a dice. This signifies the scattered nature of the parachute drop. For each unit, roll a D6. On a 1, remove one model at random from that unit.

The German forces should be dug into the trenches and prepared for battle.

The terrain should have the bunker surrounded by trenches, barbed wire, and an antitank ditch, then open ground with small bits of scattered cover, such as a shed, a small hedge, some rocks, etc. The bunker should face one edge with a semicircle of trenches surrounding it.

If you are struggling as the British player, add more troops or subtract a few Germans. Historically, the British could never capture this battery, and the Germans occupied it until they withdrew from France.