Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt

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German Movies for turns 1-3

German Commander - Fionn Kelly

German Turns 1-3

Might Makes Right

A study in conducting an attack over open terrain.

Open terrain can be among the most dreaded types of ground for a modern commander to attack over. His lines of advance are uncovered, open to enemy observation and fire. What little chance he had of masking his main effort is obliterated the instant any of his forces begin moving and, generally speaking, an attack over open terrain generally results in a heap of dead Panzergrenadiers and Panzers marking the furthest extent of your advance.

The very simple way to get around this problem is to rely on Soviet doctrine and let those wonderful minds exterminated in the Great Purges of the thirties guide your hand when selecting forces and creating a general plan of attack.

Firstly:
 Any attack is primarily an attack against the enemy’s anti-tank defences, secondly the beginning of a deep penetration into the depths of his defence, specifically his artillery parks, and only lastly an attack against the enemy’s infantry formations. Without a viable forward anti-tank screen and with his artillery parks lying in ruin or retreating as quickly as they can his infantry will collapse quite quickly.

Secondly:
 Any attack into the enemy’s operative depth must comprise four distinct tank formations and, by extension, types of tank. We must deploy reconnaissance panzers, assault tanks( or, as I prefer to call them, sperrbrecher panzers), medium battle tanks and lastly, infantry support tanks.

Thirdly: 
 ALL enemy manoeuvre in the zone to be attacked will be pinned by friendly artillery fire until such time as infantry forces can be brought into action to pin said enemy manoeuvre elements.

Fourthly:
 Once the enemy is localised, attrited by artillery and pinned by infantry the suitable tank type will be brought forth to destroy the enemy.

Now, let us look at the scenario terrain, my purchases and my initial force setup.

The scenario features several prominences which make ideal positions for my Sperrbrecher panzers to take up position and dominate the terrain. I will utilise said prominences to reduce my enemy’s ability to shift forces from flank to flank and control the centre of his position.

 The right flank features a wonderful covered route of advance comprising a small valley running directly into the enemy’s rear. My medium tanks, gifted with greater speed than the sperrbrecher panzers will advance down this gorge and, once clear, wheel left and roll up the enemy flank.

Three hills dominate the terrain. Initially I will push one company down the map. Each hill will be visited or observed by one platoon from this company. This company will be split into half-squads as much as possible as it is only a reconnaissance force. Upon achieving contact with the enemy the platoon which makes contact will coalesce, form its half-squads into full squads and, in concert with my artillery and tanks continue to push forward until it is annihilated. Once it is eliminated I will move a fresh platoon through its position and continue the attack. This will keep the pace of my attack up as high as possible and allow me to maintain a reserve for as long as possible.

The battle will be decided on the leftmost and central hills. The rightmost hill will fall to me easily but I can expect bloody struggles to occur on each of the other hills. This suits me perfectly however.

My purchases….

I received no response to my email enquiring as to whether we would enforce a Panther vs 76mm limit and so I have assumed that Gary will buy as many Sherman Jumbo 76s, Pershings and Jacksons as he can possibly manage. Therefore I will buy a few King Tigers.

Recon Screen:

3 Pz II Lynxs

2 x  SS Motorised Panzergrenadier Platoons

Sperrbrecher Element:

4 x Elite King Tigers.

Manoeuvre Element:

3 x Veteran Panther G (late)

Infantry and AT gun Suppression Element.

4 x Crack SS Motorised Panzergrenadier Platoons.

12 x Regular StuH42s

Artillery Element for the support of the Manoeuvre and Infantry Suppression Elements:

3 x Veteran 150mm FOs

6 x Regular 81mm FOs

I felt that purchasing Pz IVs for the Infantry Suppression Element would be a bit of a cheat as they have considerable anti-tank firepower and I wanted this game to feature a clear division between my elements. To this end I designed each element to be virtually useless at anything beyond its assigned task.

My front comprised of my recon screen forward, my Sperrbrecher elements forward so as to immediately begin denying the enemy room to manoeuvre and my Manoeuvre and Infantry Suppression Elements in reverse slope positions waiting for the proper time of committal.

Turn 1

Turn 1 began with an altogether predictable enemy effort to rush the hill on my extreme left. I identified one T8 reconnaissance car and two Shermans on this flank. They had passengers so, obviously, at least a platoon was being pushed forward into position on that hilltop. Where I can see a platoon I can bet there’s probably a company. This makes this hilltop a target worthy of my artillery. I will give the necessary orders next turn.

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My central reconnaissance Pz II L is destroyed by one of the enemy Shermans. It is a pity it could not push forward farther and be destroyed by something less obvious but it’s loss has been accepted in battle planning and thus it, in no way, affects my plan.

On my right the Pz II L encounters two enemy Greyhound vehicles rushing forward along the covered route I intend to push my Manoeuvre Element along. The Pz II L survives this turn but will die next.

Turn 2

I decide to push the King Tiger and Panthers on my right flank forward. I do not wish to allow the Greyhounds to conduct in-depth reconnaissance.

The Pz II kills one Greyhound but succumbs to its companion. After ridding itself of my Pz II L the Greyhound concentrates on the squad I had charging past its positions. It cuts down seven of my men in mere seconds. Of course, little does it realise that, by the end of next turn it will be a heap of smoking debris.

This picture clearly shows my reconnaissance doctrine. When a platoon is assigned to reconnaissance it forfeits all combat ability. Half-squads are to be flung into every nearby house or copse of trees. Combat cohesion is subjugated to the necessity to physically check EVERY house and copse which the platoon passes within 100 metres ( and sometimes even more than 100 metres) of.

Let’s examine the apparent confusion in a bit more detail and begin to understand the underlying doctrine being followed faithfully when only chaos is apparent.

1.      A reconnaissance vehicle and an infantry squad are in the vanguard. One inflexible component of my reconnaissance doctrine is to always put a dedicated reconnaissance vehicle “up front” with an escorting squad if at all possible. ( The squad is, of course, split into two half-squads as befits its reconnaissance duties).

2.      One half-squad is off reconning the flank, level with the platoon HQ.

3.      One half-squad is in a covered position covering the advance of the forward elements.

4.      At least one half-squad stays with the platoon HQ in a “safe location”. This half-squad provides local security for the platoon HQ in case an enemy squad, which will have been missed by the forward recon elements, has been missed. The “safe location” in this instance is provided by a house half-hidden by a sudden incline. As you can see, the platoon HQ, in its lower floor location is safe from enemy direct fire.

5.      Usually I would have a half-squad conducting reconnaissance on the left flank also but, at this time, the left flank comprises the map edge so I have elected to keep that half-squad with the platoon HQ.

6.      NOTE: Two 81mm FOs accompany the Platoon HQ. These FOs can bring artillery fire down on any enemy positions which fire on the forward half-squads within 2 minutes. By following the forward elements so closely, but still staying behind them, I ensure that the 81mm FOs remain safe AND have good LOS to whatever fires on the reconning half-squads. No AT gun or HMG team or enemy platoon can displace quickly enough to get away from the artillery I will put down if they fire on my reconnaissance elements. This, generally, ensures a highly unequal exchange rate and allows my reconnaissance platoons to advance far more deeply into the enemy’s defences than one would imagine given their size and combat strength.

Turn 3

Orders Phase:

Time to move my units forward to their next phase line… I will move the platoon up to the branch of trees directly in front of the hilltop and roughly 60 metres from it. The enemy is evidently trying to occupy the wooded hilltop so it is time to gather, call my artillery down and have an entire platoon coiled and ready to move forward once I feel the enemy is sufficiently attrited.

The three red circles in this picture show targeting locations for my 105s. I won’t hit them all at once but, probably utilising two of my three 105 batteries, I will, eventually, work over all three locations. A few good artillery concentrations in those areas should yield good results.

On my right I order the Panthers to take out the Greyhound and then, preceded by a squad from the reconnaissance platoon on that flank, continue pushing forward along the gorge.

Elsewhere I order my King Tigers to continue their “ houses at the Victory Locations” demolition fun. I don’t like buildings being co-located by Victory Locations and so, if nothing else is pressing, I order them destroyed. There’s no real reason behind it, I just don’t like building being co-located with VLs. It’s one of my quirks and leads me to do some very unexpected things in PBEMs when I see a certain terrain feature or enemy vehicle I don’t like ;). Sometimes I feel it gives me the playing style of a mad hatter BUT it also makes me as unpredictable as hell so I don’t mind the quirks and don’t eradicate the harmless ones like this.

Lastly, I order three of the StuH-mounted reserve platoons forward into staging positions ready for committal. I will definitely have to commit the left-most platoon quickly and want the others in position should they be needed quickly on my other flank also.

Action Phase:

Well, the Amis have teeth after all. My leftmost Lynx is destroyed by a long-range shot from an enemy tank on the central hill. I never see its killer but I do notice a sound contact a few seconds later which proves some enemy tanks are present. Of course, it could have been an AT gun merely co-located with an enemy tank but I don’t think Gary is sneaky enough to come up with such a maskirovka.

The movement of the platoon on my left into its tree-line positions occurs with little interference. Admittedly it is not fully completed by turn’s end but no enemy platoons have sprung up to push me back and it seems that apart from fire from two enemy 81mm mortar Fos my move will be uncontested. The two 81mm batteries are bad news however. I can expect to lose at least half the platoon while waiting for my artillery to chew the enemy up sufficiently. This means that, next turn or the turn after, I will have to commit my leftmost reserve platoon. My reconnaissance platoon here will have sufficient strength to push into the wooded hilltop but it will not have sufficient strength left to push beyond it. For that I need to commit the reserve platoon. Still, all of this is well within the bounds of my doctrine and plan and isn’t at all worrying. Losing 1 platoon ( the reconnaissance platoon) for an entire enemy company is an exchange I’m willing to make.

On my right the Greyhound has been destroyed, its crew have surrendered and my infantry are valiantly chasing the other Greyhound crew ( and the Lynx crew who were captured earlier).