Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt

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German Commander - Fionn Kelly

German Turns 16-20

On the left flank the continual writing down of enemy forces continues. My SPW 250-9 continued to occupy Chris’ attention as I hurled it around close to his advancing infantry units. Eventually though it was close-assaulted and destroyed by an infantry squad but I estimate that the platoon which was subject to its tender attentions has suffered at least 25% casualties. The most important thing of all though is that this writing down is also upsetting the timing of Chris’ advance and disrupting its co-ordination.

In the centre of our area of operations my SMG platoon does well. I push it relentlessly forward accepting the exhaustion of my men in return for ensuring that the FO's can’t possible escape. I quickly eliminate two FO teams before swinging the SMG platoon rightwards and into the flank of  a US infantry platoon only 100 metres or so from the Fo's. The lack of action on the part of this platoon confuses me though. Why didn’t it move to aid the Fos when Chris realised they were bound to come under attack? Admittedly he was correct not to commit them since I had an SMG squad waiting in some trees nearby to ambush them from close-range if they moved to protect the Fo's but I can’t understand why they didn’t move and I don’t like to see anything I can’t understand on a battlefield. Seeing an opponent do something one does not understand means that you can no longer be certain that your estimate of his future actions is practicable.

Anyways, the Priest which was committed to shell Hochstader’s platoon into oblivion is quickly dispatched by my 2cm FlaKVierling firing over open sights at a range of only about 200 metres. The 2cm FlaK then proves its worth in the ground role by pouring volley after volley into the enemy infantry platoon mentioned above. By turn twenty I can see that the 2cm FlaK must have accounted for roughly a dozen enemy troops although its kill box shows only 1 confirmed casualty caused.

On my right flank things get very exciting. I continue to pour artillery into the wooded plateau for several turns. I can spot several heavily attrited squads and, at one stage, a dead bazooka team appears right in the middle of the shelling. Chris doesn’t seem all that  bothered by the shelling though and insists it isn’t doing very much damage. Ever on the lookout for a good counter-attacking opportunity I decide to re-deploy Hochstader’s platoon rightwards and into prospective “jumping off” positions for an attack into the woods. I send one half-squad forward just to check the positions of the enemy infantry in the woods and also to gain a little intel on whether or not a counter-attack into the woods is possible. If the enemy troops had been all panicked and broken then I would have ordered a quick, sharp counter-attack. I would then have forced Chris to re-deploy, re-organise and would have withdrawn before his own counter-attack could hit the woods. Doing this would have given my tanks and HMGs even more time to whittle his forces down plus it would have severely rattled Chris ( I hoped ). When the infantry half-squad makes it into the woods it is taken under fire by some of Chris’s squads and I decide that he isn’t badly hurt enough to succumb to a platoon-sized counter-attack. I therefore decide to use the artillery fire and general damage inflicted over the past few turns to cover the withdrawal of my two infantry platoons.

My tanks do some sterling service over the course of these turns. The undamaged Panther pumps HE shell after HE shell into the advancing enemy infantry. The casualties caused by the Panther are welcome but what is more important is that it is thoroughly slowing down and destroying the co-ordination of Chris’ advance. Every time a squad breaks and runs to the rear I delay his assault for a turn or two as the rest of that platoon must wait for the broken squad to recover and make its way back up to the front with them. Of course Chris could simply leave the broken squad behind but he is too much of a professional to throw away his numerical advantage due to sheer impatience.

On the extreme right the survivors of the company HQ and single surviving half-squad continue to pull back. Eventually I’m going to link them up with Scheer and Hochstader. For now though they are providing the eyes I need to keep abreast of Chris’ advance.

My plan over the next few turns is to deploy Scheer and Hochstader’s platoons on the reverse slope of the ridge facing rightwards. Chris KNOWS that to attack an enemy on a reverse slope is simply inviting an infantry blood-fest. He also knows that his best chance of conducting a breach through the sort of terrain I’m deploying on is to bring all his tanks up to provide fire support and pin me frontally while he brings a couple of platoons around to attack into the flank of my reverse slope defence. With a view to preventing this I’m taking the following precautions:

1.      Continued artillery barrages on the wooded plateau from which his flanking forces must be launched. If I can weaken them enough then I can prevent the flanking attempt (or at least weaken it enough so that it won’t succeed).

2.      Keep my Jagdpanzer IV in its current location. It can prevent any of Chris’ tanks working forward unless they take the most roundabout route possible ( around the wheat field). IF his tanks take that route then this will delay his advance for many turns as that route is quite slow. If he tries to simply bull forward and take out the Jpz IV then I’m confident that my Jpz IV can hold and destroy whatever he tries to advance across the wheat field.

3.      I’m redeploying my 2cm FlaKvierling so that it can bring fire to bear on any enemy infantry which try to attack the flank of my reverse slope positions.

4.      After a little more sparring I’m going to withdraw my SMG platoon and use it as my reserve proper.

5.      To shore up my left flank I intend to withdraw the Panther from its current forward position and race it to my left. I can see one enemy tank or tank destroyer on that flank and I need the Panther to destroy it AND back up the solitary infantry platoon. 1 infantry platoon can’t withstand a company but 1 infantry platoon backed by a Panther and 2 HMG42s can.