We are in position. Eberbach and
Carius have both confirmed they are ready to strike and
Student has confirmed the posting of lookouts in all
possible vantage points in the village. I have even
managed to establish direct radio contact with some of
his sharpshooters and have tasked them with spying out
and reporting any tank ambushes to me before I fall into
them and am destroyed.
All is quiet so I order the advance to begin with a
single word uttered into my radio. My Maybach growls into
life and I can hear the re-assuring sound of my little
SPW-251s stirring behind me. To my right a platoon of
Volksgrenadiers is shouted at and harrased by its
sergeants as they urge the platoon to board the spare SPW-251s
as quickly as possible.
I order my driver forwards at the HUNT... What this means
in Combat Mission is that the driver will advance until
an enemy is spotted. Then he will stop and the enemy will
be engaged until it is destroyed. Ordering a HUNT advance
is my way of trying to engage the enemy defences
piecemeal. As I look back over my shoulder I can see SPW-251s
scattering in a herringbone formation as a precaution
against aerial or artillery attack. They certainly won't
shoot any planes down but at least this should minimise
losses.
Click in image to enlarge
The blue movement lines indicate
the routes I have ordered my SPW 251s to take as they
spread out to avoid excessive casualties if attacked by
aircraft. The purple lines are orientation lines which
show which way I want the half-tracks to face. In the
distance you can see some infantry with white lines
joining them to a line of four half-tracks. I've just
ordered these Volksgrenadiers to board these half-tracks.
Soon they'll travel to battle in style.
Click in image to enlarge
Here is a great shot showing the
data for the Stug III, a good side-view of the Stug and
also the movement paths of the various units which make
up Kampfrguppe Carius.
To my right I hear the crack of the Puma's cannon along
with a hurried contact report. It seems he has spotted a
poorly placed enemy machinegun on a hill near the town.
He is engaging it at a range of over 1.5 Km. Surely this
is a good omen. I can barely believe he can spot it at
that range and thank whichever gods conspired to allow
him to see the MG. While I doubt his fire will be
particularly effective it will definitely convince the
enemy that there is a major advance proceeding down the
right flank. This is exactly what I want.
Mere seconds later I receive a report from the StuG III
commanded by Carius. It appears he has spotted a hull-down
Sherman on the extreme left flank.
Click on Image to Enlarge
As can be seen in this shot the
hull-down Sherman has targetted my Stug III at a range of
740 metres. At this range its almost impossible to make
out the StuG III but within seconds one or other of the
combatants will be dead. Personally I'm hexing the
Sherman for all I',m worth.
He is in a flanking position and has opened fire. He
fails to destroy it and as he and the Sherman trade shots
he gives me a quick report of its precise position.
Click in image to enlarge
It is settled in a perfect hull-down
position and would have been able to decimate Eberbach's
forces as they emerged from the forest trail (the
location of which is highlighted by my cursor). The
benefits of the 3D nature of CM show up in shots like
this. LOS is a matter of a metre or two either way and
not entire 100 metre wide hexes...
I know lots of people have wondered about how difficult
it will be to select hull-down positions in Combat
Mission. Answer: It's very simple. Pick a hill, park a
guy so that he is behind the crest but ensure that the
turret pokes up above the crest. If you're not able to do
this by instinct (which is really simple after only a few
tries) then you can simply move the tank up into full
defillade (fully hidden by the hill) and order it to HUNT
forwards. It will advance slowly up the reverse slope of
the hill until its gun can engage an enemy and then stop.
Hey presto, you've just moved a tank into a hull-down
position without endless fiddling.
Click in image to enlarge
From a position just a 50 metres or
so in front of the US position it is easy to see that the
tank is hull-down to all intents and purpose. Sure a
little hull is showing but that's only because the
Sherman is such a tall tank that getting it totally hull-down
is often impossible.. I LOVE Panthers for their ability
to really go hull-down easily.
From the town I hear the crackle of submachinegun and
machinegun fire. It's quite easy to identify the weapons
firing actually and it looks like one of my ambushes has
worked since I hear very little US return fire. I moved
the camera to the town to see what had happened and found
the following:
Click in image to enlarge
On the southern flank (my left) my
defensive line comprising one Fallschirmjaeger platoon
backed by a HMG with excellent fields of fire is still in
place and has its ambush locations plotted. (The ambush
locations are the red circles with black lines around.
The purple lines indicate orientation as I ordered some
units to change facing to cover different appproaches.
Most of the platoon is hiding with only the HMG and one
squad exposed and ready to return fire. My plan is to
sucker the Americans into advancing and trying to rush
the houses only to be met with massive volumes of
submachinegun fire as they close. Submachineguns are most
effective at close range so I have tried to draw the
Americans in here.
This line has not been tested yet although I have seen
elements of a US platoon advancing down the wooded hill
to their south. I have ordered a sharpshooter to begin
picking some of them off. Maybe taking a few casualties
from a sharpshooter will cause him to advance more
quickly. The quicker the Americans get into maximally
effective range (about 40 metres) the better for me as my
platoon could easily wipe out an American platoon in
seconds if I can ambush them at pointblank range. At
longer range things will take a lot longer and I want to
try to give the Americans short sharp shocks if at all
possible to:
- Conserve my ammunition
- Force him to commit more and more
infantry into this battle.
On the northern flank things have not
been so quiet.
Click in image to enlarge
As you can see I've seen at least a
platoon of American infantry crossing the river on foot.
It appears that I have underestimated the audaciousness
of my foe. Still, these troops are appearing on the flank
and my flank defences are quite strong. If, however, he
has crossed troops near the bridge and the centre of the
town where my defences are weak I may have to consider a
re-deployment of my reserve platoon to protect the
riverfront.
Kampfgruppe Eberbach has also been busy. Tracers and tank
rounds rip through the clearing as SPW 251s and the StuG
III almost anihilate an enemy heavy machinegun position.
So, the clearing is defended eh? I quickly get on the
radio to order Eberbach to burst into the clearing as
previously discussed. He orders his men to stop walking
slowly and start running quickly into position as his SPW
251s accelerate and rev their engines ready for a dash
into the clearing.
Click in image to enlarge
This picture shows the routes of
advance of my infantry, half-tracks and StuG III.
Mindful of maintaining co-ordination I
order Eberbach's vehicles to pause for thirty seconds to
allow his infantry to get into position before they dash
into the clearing. In the initial dash it is planned to
pass 3 SPW251s and the StuG III G into the clearing. They
should suppress the enemy enough to allow me to rush my
infantry forward and root them out at the point of the
bayonet. I have growing confidence that my southern flank
is in good hands with Eberbach's forces.
As my tank hunts slowly forwards my tension mounts but we
spot no enemy. We are, however approaching a bend in the
road. I tense and order a SPW-251 forward to race around
the bend first and attempt to drop an infantry squad
behind another wooded area to my front. With any luck I
can establish an observation post which will allow me to
advance in more safety. If they are not lucky then, at
least, my fears of an ambush will be confirmed and I will
not lose my tank to the enemy ambush.
Click in image to enlarge
At the very end of the turn my
sharpshooter/spotters report that they have spotted at
least 5 enemy vehicles between my relief force and the
river. As I expected they are arrayed mainly to cover the
"killzone" I had previously identified. Here is
a shot of the northern portion of the enemy's line. You
can see three silhouettes of enemy tanks in this picture
since, whilst they are spotted, they are not identified
properly yet and may turn out to be anything from M3
halftracks, Stuarts all the way up to Sherman Jumbo 76s.
Click in image to enlarge
From just a cursory look at the enemy
dispositions it seems clear that I guessed right when
estimating his position. It also seems that I was
especially fortunate in my calling of artillery. It looks
like I'm going to saturate the central area in which two
tanks and, doubtless, numerous infantry are positioned.
Click in image to enlarge
As an extra "cool thing" I've
included a shot of a great field of fire which the
American commander has arranged. By lodging a tank
between two houses he has ensured that it would remain
invisible to any frontal assault until it could begin
killing the attackers as they passed by the road on its
right. Also, this tank is positioned to give an
absolutely perfect LOS to the road along which my Puma
must travel to exit the forest. I think any advance down
that route would have been doomed to failure. This
Sherman would surely have despatched the tanks with flank
shots one by one. An excellent position, assuming that I
am coming down the northern road. Unfortunately for
Martin I am not and when he manoeuvres this tank for a
shooting position versus my other forces it should become
somewhat easier prey.
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