Invasion of Germany – Player aids and historical background

[vince hughes]

BTW _ Your tag "Bluebell" ............... not from near Maidstone are you ?

Vince,
Thanks for the info about the books, I will look at getting them.

Have you played DG's "Aachen - first to fall"? It gives a good overview of the encirclement and capture of the city. I posted a review/AAR of it on CSW and BGG recently.

I live in North Yorkshire. The background to my tag isn't a plant, if that's what you were thinking. Any more guesses?

Tim

Tim,

I asked about Bluebell as there is an area just outside Maidstone and Medway called Bluebell Hill. I was suspecting that..... Wrong ! Would have been useful as I now live near Rochester :-)

Mmmm ? The In-Laws are in North Yorkshire, can not think of any links there (white rose etc), ... I KNOW !... You were the lead singer on 'The Bluebells' song "Young At Heart" lol

ON the Aachen game, no I have not seen it but will look. I'd certainly like to play a strategic battle around the Eifel and Aachen etc. The map would probably be useful if it is any good ?

Although tempted, I stayed away from the Wacht Am Rhein Series offering "Hurtgen-Hells Forest" as the series simply has far too many erratas and errors according to some postings and being such a big, involved and expensive game, I'm shy of investing the time in such big rule books, only to find lots of errors ?

I'm going to have a look at the Aachen game you mention.

Linking that game to the book offerings I made to you. Where I have mentioned Charles Whiting, look at his "Bloody Aachen" book. Its very short, and as I said, more useful for commuter travel as his books are never heavy. But if ever a historical book could be transposed to a Movie, its this one. He gives some splendid battle descriptions in the town, especially around the park, and gets you involved with some of the personalities. Mind you, Charles Whiting is also the famous 'Leo Kessler' of 70's War books fame. So that would explain it. You could probably pick it up for pence from amazon or ebay rather than pay normal book prices from a shop. Just get the paperback.

On Hurtgen, I quite enjoyed the little known film "When Trumpets Fade" made in 1998 featuring The Bloody Bucket in Hurtgen. Yeah, it could have been better, but I thought it was brave and cool to select a subject matter less glamorous to American audiences depicting a battle they should not have got so embroiled in and coming out of it severely mauled. The film tried to depict this 'Hell', but probably not quite enough. Trouble is, the film was released the same year as Private Ryan, so it kind of got trumped ! Bit like Wizard releasing "I wish it Could be Christmas Everyday" a week before Slades "So Here It Is-Merry Christmas" .... bad timing as both were No.1 material at the time