Grumble Jones July Scenario GJ-149 This is the BBC

Heading into the second half of 2025, I turned to some new source material that I have acquired over the past couple years. Casemate Illustrated and Heimdal are two publishers that should definitely find their way into your book collection. July's scenario would utilize two separate books. Heimdal's Hell on Hill 112 and Casemate Illustrated's The Waffen-SS in Normandy July 1944, Operations Goodwood and Cobra. I utilized them for separate reasons during the course of my scenario investigation/creation process. The scenario event is taken directly from Hell on Hill 112, while I utilized the Casemate book in order to confirm the type of MKIV Tanks utilized by the 10th SS Panzer Division. Casemate's books are chock full of excellent photographs and color plates.

The author of Hell on Hill 112, George Bernage is an expert on the fighting in Normandy. His books are extremely detailed and well written. I highly recommend anything that he has authored.

So, what does a Hill 112 scenario have to do with the BBC?? Quite a bit actually! Pictured above is BBC War Correspondent Chester Wilmot. Wilmot was an extraordinary Australian combat reporter who saw action at Tobruk, the Kokoda Trail, Normandy, NW Germany and was able to interview ranking German officers at the end of the war.

This month's scenario covers the fighting for Maltot. Situated in a slit trench behind British positions, Wilmot records his nightly broadcast as the 10th SS forces the British to retreat from Maltot amidst Nebelwerfer fire. That evening's 7:00pm BBC broadcast would bring the screech of Nebelwerfer rockets into thousands of English living rooms and provide a terrifying reminder of war's horror.

This is a meaty scenario (at least for Grumble Jones). The British player receives CVP and EVP for select squads, which exit. The German player receives CVP and VP for buildings controlled. The German force, while numerically not as large is still quite powerful and might actually be too powerful. Rocket OBA makes an appearance and the German player gets to secretly record what turn it lands. I tried to stay faithful to events as described, but sometimes that can also inherently unbalance the scenario. As always, here's hoping the scenario captures the moment and is broadcast clearly by the BBC.

One quick note - for the past 15 years, my scenarios have been drafted in Microsoft Publisher. As of May 2025, Publisher is essentially gone. So, after much effort, the template has been recreated in Microsoft Power Point. This is the first scenario done in the new template and heralds a new era in my scenario publishing. With any luck, you will not see much difference.

As always, these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

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All Grumble Jones scenarios are available from the ASL Archive website. 

               (Just search on Grumble Jones)