Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt

Riesberg

German – Riesberg
Turn 11

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ORDERS FOR ELEVENTH MINUTE

  Bahr is now to make his move across the lane of open ground toward the trees that line the right side of the road. Crawling will hopefully keep them low enough to avoid detection. The trees that are their goal are raised slightly in relation to the ground around, and this long berm should offer concealment if they can reach it. To cover them, Machen will fire smoke between their path and the town; Bahr is to wait until the smoke shell is making smoke.

I don’t think that Thieser can cross the road between his current location and Meister. Instead he is told to move to the next building to the right of the road, and from there fire on the US infantry on the left of town as the latter move closer to the town’s rear and center.

Meister’s men, for their part, are to skirt the rear edge of the church and also fire at the enemy as they move closer. Hopefully the building will shield them from the brunt of the tanks’ HE shelling.

Eymer is to open fire again as soon as he can, targeting the US squad that is now closest to Ploebsch; Ploebsch is still awaiting an opportunity to shoot.

Hermanns, in the patch of woods with Schafer, is to crawl only a little farther forward, and then wait for one of the US tanks to show itself.

ACTION IN ELEVENTH MINUTE 

Artillery continues to hammer the ground around Beerbauer and Machen, but still they are unharmed. Beerbauer shells US infantry moving further to the right of the road, toward Thieser. Machen fires smoke shells, and then continues scanning for targets.

Despite the smokescreen, the only unit of Bahr’s platoon to begin crossing the open area is Bahr’s HQ section; the rest of the men stand still. Bahr is fired upon by the US infantry on the forward right of the town, but takes no casualties yet.

 
“Only Bahr’s HQ section is moving!”

Thieser moves into his new building, but is not able to see any targets. I had thought the US infantry would move toward the center of town, but instead they moved right. They were still able to kill Ploebsch.

Ploebsch’s death hurts me very greatly because of its sheer futility; the US tanks, rather than moving toward the road, move parallel, and the brave soldier dies without even an opportunity for a shot. By the minute’s end, the 2 US tanks on the forward part of town are parked among the buildings, probably waiting for the infantry ahead of them to make certain the buildings in the right center of town are empty of anti tank infantry.

This infantry force continues to the town’s rear, exchanging fire with Schafer’s men. As they near, my men can tell that they are facing seasoned troops; this must be the American commander’s schwerpunkt, and it shows as they storm toward Schafer. Schafer’s first squad, along with Eymer’s machine gun and Meister’s heavy squad, fire on the American platoon, and cause casualties. By the end of the minute, two of the enemy squads are at half strength, while one man of their HQ section is not to be seen. Still, they are pouring fire into Schafer’s position. His second squad suffers another casualty.

“Despite the heavy casualties they’ve already taken (about 50%) the American infantry continue to close with Schafer.”

Despite the whirlwind of battle going on around him, Hermanns crawls further forward and spot an enemy tank. Before he can fire, the tank moves behind the trees to the left. The second tank, however, is not so lucky. After misjudging its speed and firing a rocket ahead of the Sherman, Hermanns hits the tank squarely in the turret, and knocks it out! If only that had happened sooner!

 
“Hermanns has just killed an enemy tank!”

The other American tank, together with the infantry that had been to Schafer’s immediate right, are moving farther to my rear, obviously attempting to catch Schafer in a vice with the US veteran infantry as the opposite jaw. If Schafer can keep from being squeezed into oblivion, we may well stand firm.

At the end of the minute, though, more enemy infantry are spotted down the road from town. Are the Americans receiving reinforcements? If there are tanks with them, they may well sweep forward and obliterate Bahr, and then carry through the town using the current US positions as a jumping off point. Now Bahr’s men have a mission of paramount importance: get to the road first, and block these reinforcements from contributing.