As promised back in June when I shared the Invasion of Germany information, attached are a spreadsheet and maps showing the locations and units from the scenarios in Battle of the Bulge, Elsenborn Ridge and Winter Soldiers.
The maps are modern Michelin 1:200,000 scale.
The map markers carry the scenario numbers of each game.
The markers’ colours are: Orange (BoB), Red (ElR) and Yellow (WS).
Photos:
P1040106 cropped – overall view of the whole battlefield.
P1040109 cropped – northern area. Note that the left hand marker is Orange 33, not Red 33.
P1040112 cropped – southern area. Note that the left hand marker is Red 33, not Orange 33.
(reduced versions of these versions are attached to this post so that they can be viewed on this webpage but if you save them and zoom in the details are too blurred to read; the full size versions will be attached to my next post).
Where several scenarios are in the same location, the markers overlap slightly in a line away from that location e.g. Krinkelt-Rocherath, Dom Butgenbach and Marnach.
To help me to identify the locations I referred to the superb “Battle of the Bulge Then and Now” by Jean Paul Pallud, published by After the Battle magazine in 1984 (still available from on-line booksellers). If you are interested in the Bulge, I highly recommend this exhaustively researched tome. Its 532 A4 sized pages are printed on high quality gloss paper and are jam packed with photos, detailed descriptions and first hand accounts. Also included are many black and white reproductions of 1:25000 scale, 1:100,000 scale and 1:200,000 scale maps, all marked up with unit dispositions and movements. The 11 page index lists all units and formations mentioned in the photographs and text. If the book has a drawback it is very heavy at 7 lb, and is difficult to read except when sitting at a table!
The main difficulty I had with my research was the spelling of place names: some of those in the scenario books are Anglicised and are not readily identifiable on the maps in the above book or on modern maps. However, trying some variations of names in Google maps and using a search engine to find links to battle reports filled in most of the gaps.
One anomaly I identified was with Winter Soldiers #22: the date should be 22/23 December, not 27 December.
I considered sorting the spreadsheet by date, dividing it into northern and southern areas, and then numbering the markers in date order for each area. In the end I decided to leave the scenarios in published number sequence in order to show on the map how the 3 games are interlinked. It is quite complicated!
The spreadsheet and maps could be used for a mini campaign following the battles in one area, or to follow the progress of a particular unit or formation.
At the very least, I hope that they may help you to understand where a particular scenario fits into the bigger picture of the Bulge.
If you identify any corrections, please let me know and I will modify and re-post.
Somewhere down in the woods the Tigers stirred.....enjoy!
