Juno Beach - Normandy
Nan (eastern) Sector - 6th June 1944
I was inspired by the work of "Alcal" on the "GentlemansWargameParlour" forum http://xsorbit30.com/users5/wargamesroom/index.php and his "huuuuuuuge" project to recreate both 8' x 6' tables from the Colin Rumford D-Day supplement for Rapid Fire. I am more of a wargamer than a modeller and so the prospect of spending months producing something purpose built was a bit daunting so I knocked up this mockup of the same table based on the excellent map provided provided on the forum using Geo-Hex and existing D-Day bits and pieces in my collection. I will need to build some additional pieces but essentially (including packing away our last game) this was finished in under two hours and IMHO looks reasonably good.
How I built my "sea-wall" casemates
This oblique shot looks from west to east along the beach. St-Aubin is on the middle left and Bernieres in the top middle.
WN 27 is closest with WN 28 visible in the "bend" in the beach at the back.
Opposite view taken from the German side. Bernieres in the foreground, St-Aubin in the back
and the Douvres Radar Station at the top right on the high ground.
Closeup of WN 28 in front of Bernieres. I have left the flat edge of my Geo-hex
and plan to make lengths of sea wall and beach to butt up against it. The yellow card is to approximate
the beach which was fairly narrow at Juno due to a delayed landing and rising tide.
Another "oddly" oblique photo of the table. The pilot of the recon aircraft
that took this must have been avoiding German flak at the time. The three large landing craft (2 x LST and 1 X LSI) are scratchbuilt. The LCAs are based on card models from the internet and the LCMs are the Dragon pre-painted diecast models. DD tanks are from Britannia. Beach obstacles are from various sources.
Closeup of WN 27 with Bernieres in the background and the Douvres Radar Station on the high ground at the rear. The oversized (too allow placement of troops MG positions are based on pieces of agricultural pipes (one of the advantages of living on an old farm). Buildings are mostly from the Conflix or scenix ranges of pre-painted buildings.
Closeup of the Douvres Radar Station (based on the Airfix Gun Emplacement kit - cut up and
moved apart to make the trenches wider. This piece needs some sort of radar tower as well.
