Intelligence Handbook on Allied Airborne Forces in Normandy

From the Publisher's website:

5 June 1944, D-1, 2300 hours:

At airfields all across Southern England plane engines roar to life. The first, heavily laden aircraft lumber down the runway and into the air. On board are the brave young men of three airborne divisions, one British and two American. These highly skilled soldiers are trained to drop by parachute and glider deep behind enemy lines.

On this night they will spearhead Operation Neptune, the amphibious and airborne invasion of German-occupied France.

As the commander of an airborne company you have been specially selected because of your leadership ability and initiative. You’ll be leading your men into a battle where you know you’ll be isolated, surrounded and fighting a larger, more heavily equipped and well supported enemy force.

Just to survive, your men will have to rely on their excellent fitness, training, discipline and field craft. To be victorious they’ll need all of your skill, aggression and daring to make the best use of the limited resources. On your shoulders rests the fate of the liberation of Europe. Go to it!

Inside D minus 1 you will find:

• Histories of he British 6th and the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. These cover their preparations and forces used in Normandy, the role in D-Day and subsequent operations.

• Complete organizations for British Parachute and Airlanding Companies, and US Parachute Rifle and Glider Rifle Companies. It includes all Combat, Weapons, Support and Divisional Support options; no additional handbook is required to field any of these airborne forces.

• Exploits and Warrior rules for British Lieutenant-Colonel R. G. Pine-Coffin and US Lieutenant Turner Turnbull. Pine-Coffin commanded the 7th Parachute Battalion, 6th Airborne Division, and co-ordinated the defense of the bridges across the River Orne and Caen Canal after his unit dropped to re-enforce the glider borne force who had taken the bridges.

• Turner Turnbull 82nd Airborne, veteran of Sicily, commanded a platoon tasked with the defense of Neuville-au-Plein on 6 June 1944, he and his men held off German counterattacks for eight hours, before finally being forced to withdraw due to a lack of ammunition.

• New airborne assault rules including rules for pathfinders, parachute landing and coup-de-main glider assaults.

• New airborne mission: Seize and Hold. Seize and Hold represents the Allied Airborne forces forming up after landing and making for their objective. They know their target and converge on it from their various landing zones on foot, though sometimes British glider troops make straight for the objective.

• Extensive uniform painting guides covering the troops of the Allied airborne divisions.

• And of course inspirational color photographs of painted Battlefront Miniatures, color and back and white artwork, and historic black and white photographs of the real thing.

Flames of War current rulebook range

Publishers Home Page for the Game and Preview: http://www.battlefront.co.nz/Article.asp?ArticleID=1256

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