Rain. Throughout the campaign for St. Lo in July of 1944, rain plagued both American and German forces fighting amongst the Norman bocage. Though already adding to supply and planning problems for both sides, the weather conditions on the onset of the St. Lo campaign would especially wreck its havoc on American units.

Prior to the campaign, the torrential rains limited the "eyes" of the American First Army under the command of Gen. Omar Bradley. The rain was so bad that attempts at getting aerial photography of German defensive positions were unsuccessful from June 25th to July 8th. The result meant that American forces would begin the campaign with very little intelligence on locations and strengths of German positions around St. Lo. Gen. Bradley is claimed to have halfjokingly remarked that he would court-martial the army's chaplain if the rain did not let up!

As the rains continued throughout the campaign, addidonal problems arose. Rain and overcast skies kept American air assets on the ground. The result was an absence of American fighter-bomber attacks upon key German rear areas and defensive posidons. The condidons likewise kept American aerial artillery spotters on the ground and rendered American artillery units ineffective or even dangerous to GIs in the front lines. Numerous accounts of American fratricide caused by errant American shelling were reported. The lack of proper and effective observation both in the air and on the ground due to the rains no doubt added to this problem. The anti-hero found in Normandy Nightmare, the fictional Lt. Witter III helps to capture a bit of this. Lt Witter III unfortunately loves to call in artillery missions at any sign of the enemy; sadly though, American artillery shells always seem to land on the Lt.'s men and not the Germans. As one can imagine, the GIs under the Lt.'s command aren't too fond of him!

Finally, the rains created a giant muddy, slogging mess. For the average Joe or Jerry in the bocage, this made the hell of combat even worse. Flooding, water- filled foxholes and gobs of mud ensured a miserable exisfence between firefights for the men in the front lines.

In Easy Eight's new Scenario Pack, Normandy Nightmare, some of the scenarios specify rules for Rain. For a more historic representation of the campaign, all of the scenarios can have Rain added to them. In addition the rules for Mud and Deep Mud can also be added at the GM or players, discretion. The rules for Falling Rain and Mud can be found in Easy Eight's Panthers East! Scenario Pack where they are discussed in detail. Adding these two special terrain rules will dramatically reduce the effects of sighting on the game table and will generally slow things down; in other words, helping to further create the overall mess of rain and mud in the tangled bocage around St. Lo.