TURN: 22 OF 60	SCENARIO NAME: Going to Town

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Fionn Kelly - Germans vs. Americans - Martin Turewicz

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My artillery starts to hit the town in earnest this turn. It’s not quite as devastating as I would like but that is simply because only my 105mm rounds are landing so far. Next turn my 210mm Nebelwerfers are due to arrive and I’m really looking forward to that.

Here we can see a direct hit on the American-held multi-story building overlooking the bridge. This was actually the second of three direct hits on this building this turn. A few shells were near misses also so I am quite confident that the inside of the house, whilst not a charnel house yet, will still have its fair share of casualties which can be built upon with direct fire to degrade this fighting position’s offensive ability when the time comes for me to storm across the river.

With its last HE rounds my 81mm mortar and a few wide 105mm shells cause some disturbance to the enemy holding the far bank of the river. I have been able to observe some casualties being caused to this enemy platoon from my mortar fire. It is being slowly attrited in preparation for the arrival of my infantry and AFVs.

Kampfgruppe Vossen:

My green volksgrenadiers continue to trudge slowly through the woods. I don’t want to hurry them through the woods too quickly since they might get fatigued if I do this and then would be even less useful in a fight (if that is possible). If my attempts to destroy the northern Sherman using armoured fighting vehicles fail then a close-range Panzerfaust shot from infantry in the woods should do the trick.

The Puma takes up shelter behind a house where it cannot be shot at by either of the surviving American Shermans and concentrates on killing Martin’s machinegun teams as they attempt to withdraw across the river. They are far too slow and were ordered back far too late.

Very little action involves Kampfgruppe Vossen this turn as the infantry continue to slowly push forwards. I’m very conscious that it is better to get there a little late than never. With any luck, the fact that my southern assault will go in ahead of my northern assault can be utilised to confuse Martin and cause re-deployments of forces as his threat assessment changes and changes again.

Kampfgruppe von Kelly:

I have three SPW 251/1s left along this axis of advance and I have ordered 2 volksgrenadier squads, 1 platoon HQ and 1 HMG 42 team to board these SPWs. These men will form my "party" which will attempt to advance with the Panzer IV once the Sherman is destroyed and convince Martin that I am making my way towards the bridge and am attempting to take it with a mounted assault. In the meantime I am hiding each SPW just to the east of the houses near the wall line to keep them out of LOS of the remaining Sherman I have spotted in the north of the village.

If you look at the location of the northern Sherman in this shot you can see it is almost totally obscured by trees. In fact, it has retreated fully out of LOS and I will have to move forward once again to engage it with all the risks attendant to that course of action.

I order Wiesenhofer’s Pz IV J to advance slowly hoping that it will regain LOS to the enemy Sherman and re-engage it.

This TC’s eye view (achieved by simply pressing the Tab key) follows the Panzers turret facing and is a great way of following the action to see what it is aiming at. In this shot you will note that the Pz IV J is not shooting at anything at the moment.

While it would be incorrect to say that nothing is happening this shot is indicative of the extent to which Martin’s forces have gone to ground. He has two platoons or so in the southern forest which have disappeared from view (although US markers remain at their last known locations), one on the western bank of the river and 3 squads located in discrete multi-story buildings. I must also presume he has scattered a few other squads around individually in the houses. Thus I am being opposed by remnants of 8 platoons (perhaps only 6 platoons of effectives though) and don’t have anything to fire at.

Obviously Martin is looking to preserve his force from long-range direct fire which he knows I will call down if I spot any units in the houses. This is good for me since with the number of machineguns he still probably has available he’d do far more damage to me than I could do to him.

DAMN ! The American Jabo comes in again and strafes an SPW 251/1 destroying it utterly and causing heavy casualties to the crew, platoon hq andHMG42 team which were travelling in the SPW 251/1. An instant later another flurry of rounds strikes home and&133;

The last survivors of the HMG42 team and the crew are killed. Altogether I lose two crewmen, six members of the HMG 42 team and three of the four platoon hq team members. Out of a total of twelve men on board that half-track only one survives. Worse than that, I’ve lost one of my only two HMGs which I really needed to suppress enemy positions during my assault on the village.

I’m going to order the other two half-tracks (laden with volksgrenadiers) to advance quickly and decisively. The Jabo is destroying anything which is stationary or slow-moving. It has wreaked terrible havoc on my plans. I’d rather Martin received another company of reinforcements than that he received this Jabo.

Kampfgruppe Backe:

The ten survivors of Kanther’s panzergrenadier platoon continue to press their assault home relentlessly. I’m very impressed by these panzergrenadiers. Every time they have been committed they have broken the enemy’s line. True, they have sometimes suffered greatly to do so but the enemy has always suffered more than they. I’m beginning to grow really fond of Geiser and Altschuler’s Panzergrenadier squads (they are the two squads from different platoons which were reduced to only two men each whilst breaking through the enemy’s lines. In both cases the surviving two men were instrumental in the total destruction of the enemy position.

As Kanther’s forces close in on the remaining American units Leutnant Frich’s Volksgrenadiers re-organise in the little capture house beside the river and prepare to dash across it towards the scattered trees on the far side. I will hold them here until I have destroyed the nearby American position but will then rush the survivors of these three platoons across to create a potent "threat in being" to the American southern flank. I also think I’ll hit the two platoons there with the last of my 105mm artillery (I estimate I have only one minutes worth of ammunition left for the 105s but against troops in the open that should be enough to cause great carnage.)

In the rear other forces are moving upwards to help support the advance and continue pushing onwards. I daren’t sit still with this Jabo circling above me and the spectre of American artillery urges me forward also.

Conclusion:

Well, whilst nothing is finalised as of yet I am firming up my plans for the river crossing at this stage. It seems to me that Martin has, unaccountably, left his platoon on the far bank of the river without ANY bazooka teams in close attendance and has moved roughly two platoons into the forests to the south of the village AGAIN without any visible bazooka team accompaniment.

USE your enemy’s oversights. They are the key to victory… Martin has 6 to 7 platoons left. He has placed 3 of them in scattered trees, separated from the village by at least 200 metres and without organic bazooka support. This is the perfect opportunity to utilise the frightening firepower of my AFVs against virtually unprotected enemy infantry.

I’m more Soviet in my outlook when designing defensive positions. My primary aim is to set up a line capable of destroying the enemy’s tanks. Once the enemy’s tanks are destroyed it is a much simpler thing to repulse the enemy’s infantry. Hopefully Martin’s oversight with respect to this will allow me to exploit this and offset his numerical advantage in infantry.

At least, it will if I actually get any AFVs to the river. Martin’s airplane has, by now, destroyed two tanks and a half-track. I am defenceless against it since I have no AAA protection at all and just have to sit here quietly and take it ;-( .