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TURN: 25 OF 60 |
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Fionn Kelly - Germans vs. Americans - Martin Turewicz |
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TURN: 25 OF 60 |
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Fionn Kelly - Germans vs. Americans - Martin Turewicz |
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Taking advantage of the distraction of the enemy Sherman my Puma roars out of its full defilade position and attempts to get behind the enemy Sherman. The Sherman takes a little time to spot it as the Sherman is buttoned up and so suffers from a spotting penalty but when it does it rotates its turret at maximum speed and immediately fires at the impudent Puma
The shell strikes home and yet another armoured vehicle is destroyed in this bitter battle for the village. As soon as the Puma is destroyed the Sherman rotates its turret to point forward once again and fires smoke to block the LOS of my Panzer IV which is creeping forwards in an attempt to engage the Sherman from a hull-down position.
In retrospect it was a mistake to order the Puma to advance at full speed. I should have ordered it to "hunt" forward so that it would stop the instant it spotted the enemy Sherman and would, thus, have been firing from a hull-down position.
As this battle rages my volksgrenadiers push onwards through the woods. With the destruction of my Puma it appears that I may need to call on the two scouting half-squads to defeat the Sherman in close-range combat.
Wiesenhofer’s Pz IV J continues to shell the American positions on the western bank and to the south of the village. I know he is causing some casualties as Obersturmfuhrer Gojowy’s three-man scout team has been able to hear the cries of wounded and dying men as his forces have neared the house just across the river from the American position.
In Combat Mission you hear whatever sounds would be possible to hear from wherever the camera is located. Obviously there are safeguards in place to prevent you placing the camera down and hearing things when you don’t have nearby troops but basically it means that once your men and the enemy’s are relatively close you start to, not only, hear the rip of submachinegun bullets and the crack of rifles but also to but also to hear German language and English language shouts and commands fill the air.
Martin’s position on the west bank is a flurry of "Argh. I’m hit" cries and he and I have been privately taunting each other about the ratio of "Argh. I’m hit!" cries compared to "Ah. Ich bin verwundert." (Yep I know it is spelled incorrectly. I can’t write German worth a damn unfortunately. )
In other news on this front my 105mm FO has confirmed the targeting of the enemy in the southern woods. It is estimated that the first shells will land in three minutes on turn 28. This will use up all of my remaining artillery so I hope it is a successful strike as I will have difficulty breaking the southern defences if this barrage is unsuccessful.
The platoons of Kanther and Janz are racing across the river under heavy but long-range enemy fire. It appears that this entire flank has only suffered one casualty from this fire during the crossing which is encouraging as I want to utilise these battered platoons to destroy the southern forest defence platoons and then lay down a base of fire to support the movement of Obersturmfuhrer Frick’s veteran panzergrenadier platoon into the houses near the south-eastern corner of the village overlooking the bridge.
All in all things are going relatively well and as soon as I destroy the Sherman to the north of the main road I will be free to continue advancing and pressurising the enemy.
Whilst I know that my infantry will not be in place to immediately follow up my artillery barrage with a quick assault on the enemy positions since my artillery is falling in only three minutes which is too soon for them to reach the necessary jumping off points I want to hit his platoons before he decides to re-deploy them in response to my movements on the southern flank.
I’m beginning to think more and more seriously about racing Wiesenhofer’s Panzer IV J across the bridge and into the middle of the isolated enemy platoon-sized positions as I really feel such action is going to be the key to minimising my infantry losses and allow me to assault the village houses as quickly as possible with the largest forces possible.
We’ll see how it turns out but it certainly is beginning to look as though the next five turns are going to be MY turns in the same way that the last five were most definitely Martin’s turns.