The "Private Nigle" scenario covers June 6 operations for 6th Airborne and the Sword, Juno and Gold beaches. In the screenshot above, the 1st Canadian Para Bn is making a mad dash for the Dives sur Mer objective.

"Windy" Gale

06:00hrs the 6th Airborne is meeting it's timetable for the most part, despite some hard landings and heavy casualties.

Richard "Windy" Gale planned thoroughly for the 6th Airborne Division's parachute and glider deployment in the early morning hours of D-Day. No British airborne division had ever fully deployed by air into a combat zone and Gale wasn't about to make a mess of it.For his pre-jump efforts, Windy was awarded the Distinguished Service Order a few months later as his division fought under the First Canadian Army in France (Part of British I Corps).An understrength division prior to Normandy, the 6th would receive the 1st Canadian Parachute Bn and place them under the command of 3rd Brigade. In the screenshot above, they are footing it down the causeway bridge over the Divette for the Cabourg objective.Within Operation Tonga (codename for 6th Airborne's drop), a much smaller and more famous Operation named "Deadstick" took place during the earliest of hours as John Howard's "D" company 2nd Ox and Bucks battalion landed near the Benouville (Pegasus) bridge.Howard's men were the best in the division and deliberately placed into a difficult situation by Gale for the bridge over the Orne was critical to the men landing at Sword beach 7km away.John Tiller Software does a good job of simulating Howard's unit quality. His "D" company has the highest rating on the battlefield with an "A". The rest of the division is rated middling at best with C's and D's.In the zoomed out view of the battlefield below, you can see how important the 6th Airborne's position is relative to the beaches and Howard's in particular. Failure to seize the bridges at Benouville and Ranville and the main highway between Caen and the coast, would result in the bottling up of the British landing forces there.Gale had four hours to seize these objectives before the landings commenced. This "Private Nigle" scenario covers his first day and the rest of British I Corps and does a good job highlighting the operational worries the Allied and German commanders faced.: The British Sector, left flank of the invasion area: With four assault Divisions landing against the 2nd rate German 716th Infantry Division, the British I and XXX Corps had an even chance of scoring a major D-Day coupe by capturing the city of Caen. Only the positioning of elements of the 21st Panzer Division near the landing areas and their savage counterattack late in the day prevented this. As a result, the British and Canadians would bleed for weeks to come in the long, drawn-out fight for the city. This 1 day scenario combines the D-Day actions in the British sector. For a 2 day version covering this same battle area, see #10 "Race to Caen". [Size: medium; Length: 10 turns]andare re-releasing this classic simulation of the D-Day landings in their updated "Gold" version. For existing owners, the upgrade is FREE. If you don't own it, and want to take command of the landings, jumps and the fighting in June 1944 France, this game is highly recommended.Stay tuned for release details. I hear though it will happen BEFORE CHRISTMAS!