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Battle ONE - SPOILERS

SPOILERS---Battle ONE---SPOILERS---Battle ONE---SPOILERS

Just completed Battle 1

Oberstleutnant Weber's initial objective was the main wooded hill that sits centrally between all three objectives. Weber's main force bypassed Objekt Gruen in order to establish a firm hold of the wooded hill.

Weber also sent Oberlt Krause's PanzerGren platoon in the far north, supported by Leutnant Kramer's Panzer IV platoon. They were to penetrate west and then attack objekt Rot from the north.

The central wooded hill was 'captured' without resistance. Oberlt Scherrer's MMGs set up on the hill, supported by Oberlt Schneider's Panther platoon.

Oberlt Kessler's PanzerGren platoon ran into a US infantry platoon in a field just south of wooded hill. The unsupported US platoon was routed and mostly destroyed without losses.
Kessler then continued his advance towards objekt Gelb.

It appeared objekt Gruen just northeast of wooded hill was unoccupied. Hauptmann Taeuber's HQ platoon captured the village without incident.

After a brief engagement with a US infantry platoon in the far north, Oberlt Krause's PanzerGren platoon, made it to the paved road that heads south towards object Rot. Half of Leutnant Kramer's Panzer IV platoon were with Krause and half had hung back on a hill to provide overwatch support.
At this point some things went wrong. Both Krause and Kramer had AFVs immobilized by an unseen obstacle in the road.

Note to campaign designer: There’s an invisible hedge on the road at hex 24,7 that you may want to edit on the map.
Don’t feel bad, I put this sort of thing down to “c’est le guerre”.
There’s also a couple of hedge graphics at 30,31 and 30,33 that are not hedges.
And should hedges ever have 0 density? Like 30,32 and 31,31?

The north road was now blocked by an obstacle, and two immobilized German AFVs. With his platoon on the road, Krause pondered his next move. Suddenly they found a whole US infantry platoon, with supporting Sherman tank, right behind them on the road. Krause assumed they were reinforcements coming from the north. At ranges as close as 50m a messy firefight began. The US infantry were soon joined by another 4 Sherman tanks and additional infantry, including Bazookas, perhaps a whole infantry company.
Krause’s losses mounted, but he put up a stubborn fight.

Meanwhile, Weber directed his battle from the central wooded hill.

In the far south, Oberlt Kessler's PanzerGren platoon had just about taken objekt Gelb, but dealing with ATk gun and HMG defenses proved time consuming.

US 105mm artillery was mostly hitting where German platoons had been, rather than where they were. The once or twice they got too close to German AFVs, so the armour shifted positions.
The US 60mm mortars were more accurate, but mostly a nuisance, with the exception of a lucky hit that KO’d a halftrack.

More and more US infantry started to appear in the defense of the centrally located objekt Rot village.
Artillery Observer Oberlt Heinelt focused his mortars on the object Rot village, trying to locate and flush out ATk guns in particular; he obtained accurate fire by hiding within 300m of the village.
German MMGs and the Panthers continued to pound the village, while the PanzerGren held back, as an assault would be impossible until the defenders were subdued.

Back in the north Krause was barely surviving. Some of Krause’s infantry routed into US guns and were wiped out; But Krause made the US pay a heavy price. One after another the 5 Sherman tanks were KO’d, one with a Panzerfaust, the other 4 by Lt Kramer’s Panzer IV platoon; however Kramer’s tank was KO’d and another Panzer IV was immobilized. Eventually the US in the north were beaten, but not before Oberlt Krause had lost his life.

The remnants of Krause’s and Kramer’s platoons headed for the object Rot village, the only uncaptured objective.

P-38 Jabos and Corsair fighters started to show up over the battlefield, mainly targeting the central wooded hill. But the Corsairs also targeted Oberlt Kessler's PanzerGren platoon, which had by now captured objective Gelb in the south with support from some of Oberlt Schneider's Panther platoon.

The Corsairs didn’t have much luck, and even engaged a US 60mm mortar section, but the P-38 Lightning’s did better. The P-38s made several runs, dropping bombs and firing rockets at units on the wooded hill. They KO’d two MMG sections, damaged Schneider’s Panther, and knocked out a halftrack or two, and made two runs targeting Weber’s command vehicle with rockets, that he miraculously survived.
I don’t think German AA fire got a single hit. And the Moebelwagen was out of 3.7cm ammo at this point, having used it all against infantry.

In the lull after the air attacks, and with the US defenders in retreat, Weber pushed his units to capture the last objectives Rot. Oberlt Kessler in the south was able to send a few units north towards Rot; as Hauptmann Taeuber pushed from the east, and Krause’s and Kramer’s platoons from the north. Attacking Rot from three directions, Weber succeeded in capturing the last objectives with only minutes to spare.

German losses were 75 men
US losses 302 men
US also lost 5 tanks and 5 artillery pieces (4 ATk guns)
Weber lost 5 APCs, one Panzer IV and another AFV.

US: 437
Ger: 2125
Marginal Victory

Good scenario. I’ll look forward to the rest of the campaign.


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