8th June 1944, just outside Caen the fierce fighting between the allied forces and the German defenders raged on. German counterattacks were prepared in an attempt to throw the allies back into the sea. 12th SS Hitlerjugend supported by SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 12 (reconnaissance battalion) launch an attack on elements of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division.
This battle represents a determined counter attack by elements of 12th SS, Hitlerjugend against the Canadian 3rd Division during the battle for Caen.
The Scenario
With the scene set it was now time to pick a mission, look at the platoon lists and select a suitable force. The Hold the Line mission was selected with the German forces as the attacker and Canadians as the defenders.
Orders of Battle
SS Force
After reading a lot about the fighting around Caen I was particularly interested in doing a force of 12th SS Panzergrenadiers, supported by elements of the Reconnaissance battalion; with this in mind I began to look at the Orders of battle.
I had already considered that with an SS force numbers of men are always an issue. My tactics would be simple, get my force towards the objective as fast as possible so to reduce the Canadians’ strength in numbers. If I could concentrate the majority of my force in one area the quality of my troops would show and I could hopefully punch a hole in the Canadian lines. I had a combat effectiveness of 25 and started by looking at the basic Panzergrenadier platoon.
The way that an SS force is constructed is slightly different to that of other forces. You initially pick whether they will be grenadiers or panzergrenadiers, and use the same platoon organisation as for the standard Heer. The combat effectiveness for the platoon is the same as for the standard Heer plus 3 for the troops being SS. With this in mind I then had a starting force of the Platoon Command and 2 rifle squads, a combat effectiveness of 16. I decided that mobility would be the key to achieving my objective, with this in mind I chose to mount both grenadier squads in halftracks. In addition to this I took an Sdkfz 222 armoured car to represent an element of the reconnaissance battalion.
My force now had a combat effectiveness of 20. I needed to add something with a bit more punch as I already knew that there would be a lot more Canadians facing my meagre numbers. Continuing the mobility theme I selected an anti-tank gun team and mounted it in a halftrack; once mounted the anti tank team may exchanges the towed PaK 40 for a fitted 75 mm KwK L/24 - this is more of an infantry gun and suits my needs perfectly. For my final choice I selected an understrength panzergrenadier squad as this would support my platoon command which I intended to use as a holding force.
With this final choice my force’s combat effectiveness was 25. I used the requisition points to distribute additional weaponry amongst the platoon, concentrating on StG 44’s, these earlier assault rifle have a high fire rate at close range and good stopping power and could be a key factor in swinging any fire fights my way.
12th SS Hitlerjugend
Platoon HQ – Leutnant plus 5 men including an Unteroffizier and medic.
Panzergrenadier squad – 10 men led by an Unteroffizier including 2 MG 42’s, mounted in Sdkfz 251/1 Halftrack.
Panzergrenadier squad – 10 men led by an Unteroffizier including 2 MG 42’s, mounted in Sdkfz 251/1 Halftrack.
Panzergrenadier squad – 6 men led by an Unteroffizier including 1 MG 42.
Company support -
1 Sdkfz 251/9 Halftrack, armed with 75 mm KwK L/24.
Divisional support -
1 Sdkfz 222.
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