Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt

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German Movies for Turns 7-9

German Commander - Fionn Kelly

German AAR: Turns 7 to 9

Turn 7

Orders Phase:

Wollak, push forward. Be sure to place some men on your right flank to ambush any American soldiers which the enemy commander tries to move laterally through the woods on the hilltop. Lummer’s KoenigsTiger and Frick are moving up behind you but it will be a couple of minutes before they can enter the woods atop the hill to fully support you. To help you out I’m giving you artillery priority for the whole front. The Amis on the reverse slope are going to be on the receiving end of some materialschlacht for once in their lives.

Scoch, continue scouting forward  on the right of the central hill until you meet resistance. I am bringing up a reserve platoon to scout up the left side of the hill and conduct an attack into the flanks of any Amis units you encounter. I’ve also decided to fire a battery of 81s onto the hilltop to interdict any possible Amis movement towards the areas I want you to occupy

Haupsturmfuehrer Hartig.. I want you to take up position in the house so as to provide a pivot ( and firebase) for my wheel left maneuvre. In addition you will hold the house against any enemy counter-attacks. Utilize the half-squad near your position to aid the defence if the situation becomes desperate.

Action Phase: 

By the end of the seventh turn movie it is clear that Wollak has achieved the bridgehead ordered. 18 of his men survive and are still capable of carrying on the fight and face only 8 US infantrymen. The severity of the fighting and the bombardments from both the Amis and German artillery batteries can be demonstrated in the picture below. 

Note. This picture shows 5 artillery shells exploding at virtually the same instant in this small area. Only the most intense of bombardments could yield such an effect. One other item of note is that one of the “airbursts” is NOT occurring in a wooded area and, as such, cannot be a conventional shell simply hitting the tree canopy and exploding early. I take this airburst in open ground to, irrevocably, point to the employment of VT-fuzed Amis artillery. If I’m correct in this assumption then I’ve been lucky not to lose the entire platoon. VT-fuzed shells are deadly.

Scoch’s advance continues with relatively little to remark upon. The picture below shows just how widely flung his units are and how little cohesive resistance they could put up if a concentrated enemy thrust hit any part of their line. On the other hand it also shows a commendable efficiency of effort. 1 platoon is scouting and clearing close to half a kilometre of terrain. Every platoon I can free from scouting duties is another platoon for my reserve and another fresh platoon which I can commit to the main battle at the decisive time.

 The two red arrows mark the paths of attack taken by Amis forces. It would appear that  Gary had no forces pre-positioned to guard against such a turning of his flanks and is now scrambling forces forward to halt my reconnaissance forces. Unfortunately for him this sort of thing only plays into my hand. Wherever he attacks with a half a platoon and destroys one of my half-squads I’ll cut off the retreat of the half-platoon and destroy it. The exchange rate will be three or four to one in my favour and, if this occurs to any great extent, this exchange rate will simply doom Gary.

Well, well, well. Gary seems to have launched a half-platoon towards the location Hartig previously occupied. It would appear that Gary is underestimating the speed with which I can advance however as, by the end of the turn, Hartig is in a completely new location ( the house) and is actually just about to bring a murderous fire to bear on this local counter-attack 

Hartig is badly outnumbered ( at least three to one) but his group are Crack soldiers and have significant morale and combat bonuses. I pity the Amis who try to close-assault this house. I predict that it’ll be far more difficult to take than Gary will, so far, have imagined.

Turn 8

Orders Phase:

Wollak… Keep up the good work. You only need to clear the hilltop by the time Frick arrives so you have two or three minutes. You don’t need to rush and accept higher casualties in return for speed so just keep things steady and low-cost.

Achtung Panzer! Clear across the entire field of battle a Sherman 76 hovers into view of a Panther keeping overwatch on my right flank. What is interesting is that this Sherman has been immobilized for some time so it’s a bit of a mystery as to how it moved. My guess is that it must be being pushed by the other Sherman Gary has on that flank. That’s a pretty smart ad hoc measure actually. In any case  it is ordered to be destroyed. Seeing as its flank armour faces me any hit should be a kill and I’m confident of ridding myself of this annoyance. Even if I don’t Lummer is advancing to the location steadily and will destroy it in due time.

Wichterig’s reserve platoon is activated and begins to move forward on my right flank. By the time it reaches the front I’ll have annihilated the Amis forces used in the local counter-attacks and it can continue the assault without interrupting its own momentum. (This is why I like large battles. I get to consider issues like momentum and moral effect instead of focusing on exactly where to place each individual squad.

Action Phase:

Wollak’s men move up as expertly as usual and pour such a volume of fire into the Amis that one remnant runs for the rear while the other seems to panic and hug the ground. At the end of the turn it is quite clear that the wooded hilltop is under my control. Excellent, this will allow me to pass Frick’s platoon through the survivors of Wollak’s and mount the attack with no break in momentum. They’ll have to kill the MG team to Wollack’s left but that can be done at little cost in terms of speed.

The immobilized Sherman doesn’t last long and a single 75mm AP shell destroys it.

What ends up confusing me though is that, even though the second Sherman isn’t fired upon, it also becomes abandoned around the 37^th second. The only explanation I can come up with is that a couple of artillery shells must have immobilized it and damaged its main gun so the crew decided to bail. After discussing this with Gary later I find that this is exactly what happened. Excellent !

The local counter-attacks achieve some success. One of my forward half-squads is captured after being over-run by over 20 enemy soldiers. I find something objectionable in having soldiers taken prisoner when I’m attacking, ( It just doesn’t seem right. ), so I’m determined to re-capture the two survivors. Poor Gary probably thinks he can just sit in this, exposed, clump of scattered trees. Sadly, this isn’t going to work for him.

Ah, Hartig.. Well done man, well done! Hartig shoots the dozen Amis infantry approaching his position like the dogs they are. Gary made a major error when attacking the house. He ordered his men to attack UPHILL. Unfortunately this slowed them down  just as they appeared in Hartig’s LOS AND, consequently, kept them exposed to close-range SMG fire longer than was necessary. The results were, predictably, hideous for Gary’s men.

I still have to take care of the other infantry contact ( probably a platoon or company HQ I guess) before continuing to push inwards but that’s just a formality really. It’ll be accomplished.

Turn 9

Orders Phase:

Wollack is ordered to finally clear the wooded hilltop. He’ll halt there and wait for Frick to pass his left flank and continue on forward down the reverse slope. I’ve ordered Lummer’s KoenigsTiger over the crest of the hill so as to prevent Gary from having a moments respite which he could use to re-organise.

Elsewhere there really is no action of worth. Schoch’s platoon is just taking up positions as far forward as possible without becoming decisively engaged in preparation for Wichterig to pass through it and onto the attack.

It’s actually pretty amazing to think that I’ve pushed this far with only two infantry platoons. Still, I think that is is the correct course since there is no need to risk 6 platoons when 2 are all that is really necessary for the reconnaissance role in terrain such as this.

Action Phase:

Well, my first major setback occurred this turn. As Wollak and his men established a line running along the top of the wooded hilltop some concentrated 81mm and 105mm artillery fire hit them. In mere seconds what was a 15-strong group of survivors was reduced to 9. Worst of all Wollak’s platoon HQ group was destroyed and 2 of the survivors are nothing more than panicked, gibbering wrecks. 

Still, if I HAD had a second platoon forward with Wollak’s in an unnecessary commitment of combat power my losses would have been at least twice as bad. This sort of inevitable loss ( I feel losses to artillery are inevitable and as such are simply to be accepted and minimised as far as is possible contingent with the terrain and role one is seeking to perform.) is why I believe in committing the smallest force possible to any mission. The larger the force committed the larger the “inevitable losses” will be.

At this stage I’d like to draw some attention to some movements and supporting actions which you may not realize as being related whilst watching the movie for the first time. The above picture shows the route of advance of  the StuH42s carrying Frick’s platoon. As you can see I’ve taken great care to keep the StuHs hidden until now. Even at this late stage they won’t have been spotted. Gary probably thinks that Wollak’s platoon was my main attack. In reality Wollak’s platoon was only my reconnaissance force. The sudden appearance of a fresh platoon not only has an effect insofar as it increases my on-the-scene firepower I believe it also has a moral effect on Gary’s thinking. I believe it represents an incidence of shock effect.

Schoch and his men have pretty much reached the farthest point they can before hitting some serious resistance. Thus, as befits my doctrinal beliefs they will move forward only slowly and cautiously now, find the enemy, fix them and then await the “heavy mechanised force” to attack. I feel this is quite analogous to the doctrinal employment of BTR regiments and BMP regiments in the 1970s and 80s Soviet Army in both character and conduct.

 A comment:

I know this attack is unfolding quite slowly and, indeed, most of my attacks are over by the tenth turn but I wanted this demonstration to feature a more “deliberate” type of attack and not one in which I simply stormed enemy positions with mounted and dismounted infantry intermingled with tanks, supported by StuHs and enemy positions blanketed by artillery. One day I might put up one of those . It’ll be MUCH shorter than this though since the entire battle is, generally, decided within 2 turns.

Anyways, I think that this type of slow, deliberate and easy to employ attack is more suited for demonstration purposes. I think this because I am constantly reminded that many people try to put the lessons and doctrines related in AARs into practice.

So, I apologize to those who would like to see a proper, fangs-out, quick and decisive attack but, for right now, I’d like to concentrate on simple drills and doctrine which is easy to put into practice.