Losses this turn were so light that I'm not about to waste everyone. everyone's time in reproducing strength reports when only one tank out of my entire force was damaged and no infantry at all were killed.
Kampfgruppe Backe continues to probe ahead whilst re-organising
Lieutenant Janz's green Volksgrenadier platoon and Obersturmfuhrer Frich's veteran Panzergrenadier platoon in the cover provided by the hill. Still no artillery have fallen there but after the American display and the close call last turn I don. don't think I. ll leave my men as concentrated and vulnerable as they presently are.
Unteroffizier Geiser and Unteroffizier Stein. Stein's squads from GA platoon continue to probe onwards under enemy fire.
My plan is to rush Obersturmfuhrer Kanther forward to lend some command and
control to the two squads and then proceed to clear the house to my front and
then advance through the scattered trees and close assault their machinegun and
bazooka teams. Close action maximizes the effectiveness of my Panzergrenadiers
against machineguns and bazooka teams. The longer I delay this fight the more
chance that long-range American fire will intervene and sap G platoon of even
more of its strength. I estimate the enemy comprises at least one heavy weapons
platoon and this would be quite a prize if captured relatively intact.
Obersturmfuhrer Kanther, the 120mm mortar spotter and an MG 42 team rush forward in two more SPW 251/1s to lend their weight to the assault as seen above.
I estimate that by within two more minutes my troops will be re-organised and platoon G will, once again, be able to push forward as a cohesive force. I'm going to miss my initial Turn 20 deadline for clearing the eastern portion of the river but feel that by Turn 25 I should have cleared it and, largely, be in position to continue the advance. A five minute slippage isn't all that bad given the terrible setbacks Martin's artillery has dealt me.
Lieutenant Janz and Obersturmfuhrer Frich spread their platoons out more and bring the American prisoners (who had panicked when fired on by American artillery) back under control again.
Kampfgruppe Backe's advance is proceeding well and I think I can neutralize the nearby American heavy weapons platoon without more severe loss if I proceed cautiously and reinforce platoon G as quickly as possible.
The only significant occurrences on Kampfgruppe Vossen's northern sector are the continuing advance of its infantry towards the hilltop towards which the American soldiers who had escaped the wall line were running and the mopping up of the majority of this group.
In this shot we can see the remnants of the wall line survivors and the MG team holding out in this location surrendering. The only holdout is the American company commander team of which only one out of six men still survives.
The following Americans have surrendered to me this turn:
M1919 team commanded by Corporal Murphy, 5 surrendered.
Crew (from a Sherman) commanded by Sergeant Luben, 4 surrendered, 1 dead.
G1 (Rifle Squad) commanded by Sergeant Redfield, 5 surrendered, 7 dead.
Total: 14 prisoners surrendered. 8 men dead in those units previously.
I think I'd surrender too if I saw a Panther advancing on me from a distance of five or ten metres and had no more than a pistol or rifle in my hands.
DAMN !!! American reinforcements have arrived. I don't know how many tanks there are but I've got to assume that I'm facing a platoon's worth. Fortunately for me the placement of these reinforcements is poor. They MUST pass down streets through which I have LOS and, presumably, can get the first shot. I hope that is enough. I only have three anti-tank capable tanks since my StuG shot of all its AP rounds due to a minor bug (which has since been fixed so it won't happen to all the rest of you hehe) and I refuse to count my Puma as one of my prime anti-tank weapons. I will only use it in its anti-tank role if I'm absolutely desperate.
This shot is taken from Unteroffizier Heubaum's Pz IV J as it squares off with a Sherman at long range. I have hit the "tab" key whilst having my Pz IV selected to "lock" my view to the tank's turret. This is a great way to follow all the action as the camera follows the facing of the turret and you get to see exactly what is happening.
BOTH our first shots miss. Here you can see the American's first shot going wide.
Both of our tanks exchange fire instantly and miss. The race is on to reload. With my experienced crew I am hopeful of getting the next shot off before the American can fire and thus gaining a crucial advantage in this long-range gun duel.
The following series of shots follows the track of the second shell fired by Heubaum's Pz IV J at the enemy Sherman. ALL the following shots are taken at maximum zoom since the Sherman is so far away so, as I continually state, perspective is skewed a little. This series of shots is purely to show the fact that shells follow an accurate ballistic path to target.
The red circle denotes the location of my shell. Take great care to note its vertical height above the ground ok? (Also remember that the enemy Sherman is at a higher elevation than my Pz IV so the shell must be super elevated even more at its apogee (I hope its apogee and not perigee. I always mix those two up ;-) )
This shot shows that the shell has increased its height above the terrain in the split second between this shot and the previous one.
The shell reaches its highest point at this stage. As you can see the shell is now at a higher level than the Sherman.
As the shell passes the Sherman we can see that its height has decreased. If the shell had passed only 1 or 2 metres to my left it would have impacted and destroyed the Sherman.
After watching my shell miss by such a small margin you can imagine how I felt when I saw&
My Pz IV takes a hit directly to the gun mantlet (and I could localise the beginning of this explosion to the gun mantlet so visually this was correct also) which knocks out its main gun. This Pz IV J is now nothing more than a mobile, armoured machinegun post
At the end of the turn my StuG III and the other Pz IV J are moving up the road towards the damaged Pz IV. It looks a picture of strength but it isn't.
I know some people have been wondering why I've spent so long going on about prisoners in various reports. Well, there is one main reason why and it is that counting up the number of prisoners I&'ve taken is about the only thing keeping my morale up in the face of massive artillery barrages, tanks running out of AP and having my AT-capable force reduced to a Panther with only seven AT shells and one Panzer IV which is vulnerable to everything the Americans have and is probably facing up to five American Shermans.
Anyways, on with the report:
Previous prisoner total:
41 prisoners, 35 men killed in those units prior to capture.
Prisoners taken this turn:
M1919 crew commanded by Corporal Murphy,
5 survivors, no dead.
Crew commanded by Sergeant Luben,
4 survivors, 1 dead
G1 (Rifle Squad) commanded by Sergeant Redfield,
5 survivors, 7 dead.
Total this turn: 14 prisoners, 8 previously killed in those units.
Total of prisoners: 55 POWs, 43 men dead in those units prior to capture.
BLUE outlined circles indicate the positions of platoon-sized American units. Note: These are the locations I THINK they are at so they may be a little off. To retain FOW don't tell me where I've made mistakes please ok? I happen to think my best job in a war would be analysis of enemy intentions etc since usually I'm pretty good at estimating the locations and strengths of enemy forces so it. ll be interesting to see how I've done this game.
Coloured in blue circles denote the locations of enemy tanks. Coloured in red circles denote the locations of German tanks and red outlines denote the locations of German forces. A red circle does NOT necessarily denote a platoon-sized unit as so many of my units have taken heavy losses that this would be meaningless. Red circles do denote the presence of a combat-capable maneuver unit though.
Yellow circles denote the locations of POWs. I've just about managed to herd them all together in little groups and am sending them back to the clearing to be guarded now.
Black strikes show the location of plotted artillery strikes. Around the beginning of turn 22 or so Martin should get a nasty surprise. I bet he doesn't even have any inkling that I have more than a few on-map 81mm mortars at hand. I'm really looking forward to seeing his reaction when my shells hit ;-).
AT firepower: I have 1 Panther with 7 AT shells and one Pz IV J with plentiful shells as the sum total of my long-range AT firepower. My Puma can just about kill a Sherman from in front at 100 metres with a lucky shot and can pretty reliably kill it if I hit a Sherman from the flank at close range but it is not going to kill any tanks in the town in a long-range gun duel.
With any luck Kampfgruppe Backe will be able to take out the heavy weapons platoon in the south with little loss and I'll come up with some brilliant stratagem which kills the Sherman in the north.
In the
meantime, as my tanks attempt to kill the Shermans I'm advancing on the house in the centre of the map since I think Martin has probably put a bazooka team in there. I remember when my "Dash O. Death" SPW 251/1 drove past that house that it seemed as though more than one bazooka team was firing at it so I. d rather be safe than sorry and have ordered the shattered remnants of the nearby Panzergrenadier platoon which took the wall line to clear the house.
In other important news I've finally called in my artillery. I've called down 210mm rockets on the forces in the church. I've noticed that Martin has placed an entire platoon in there and I want to hit them hard. Given Martin. s deployments any attack I make in the south will have to traverse open ground exposed to fire from platoon Y..
However, if I take out the troops guarding the bridge (in the multi-story house there) which are targetted with my 105mm arty AND take out the troops in the church (using my 210mm mortars) AND take out the platoon in the scattered trees on the west bank of the river than I will be in an extremely strong position to push a platoon (made up from the remnants of the two platoons which were ambushed) of my green Volksgrenadiers across the river and into the woods there.
My Volksgrenadiers are so shattered by their previous fire and of such low quality that I don. t want to expose them to cityfighting BUT they might cause the enemy to redeploy his southern blocking platoon and/or re-organise his troops in the village. Either option will open new gaps in his defence and allow me to slaughter his troops while redeploying and, hopefully, give me sufficient openings to move my main, company-size, attack up on the south of the map. Just as Martin chose to launch a general assault when I redeployed to meet a smaller but closer threat so will I present Martin with a nearby feint. If he doesn't respond to it then I can use those Volksgrenadiers to make his life extremely difficult and facilitate my main assault by moving them so as to bring fire to bear on the flanks and rears of his defending troops.
At the very least it will use up even more of the Americans. ammunition supplies. A lot of long-range firing went on which I estimate must have reduced American ammunition supplies to perhaps half of their level. If I can reduce them even further then the Americans will begin to fire far less often so as to conserve ammunition (this is modelled by the AI in Combat Mission) and this consequent reduction in suppressive fires will, all by itself, give me major opportunities for pushing my assault.
It's not all over so long as I can seriously attrit Martin. s newly arrived tank force. The entire battle hinges on that. I've played ahead and I think I can confidently state that the next two turns have greatly affected our force structures. Losses have been heavy in terms of tanks. Extremely heavy and desperate action has been needed.
