During the second battle for the Australian taskforce the experienced German troops were there to stop them form capturing the terrain. Again lots of hills and lots of forests, making both advancing, fighting and spotting the enemy difficult.
Support units came from Great Britain and consisted of 4 "Archer" tank destroyers, 4 Thunderbolt II and 3 B-25 Mitchell (38 men).
It was clear from the very beginning that this was gonna be a both difficult and hard battle. As excepted the Germans made good use of their able Panther tanks, although it proved possible to destroy these with some ease with the 17-pounder guns of the AC4 Sentinel tanks. However, with the Sentinel tanks lacking the same level of armour protection as the Panther tanks, losses proved relative high - 6 Sentinel tanks were lost to the German tanks alone and a further 4 lost to other causes. Also, the 67th Anti-Aircraft Regiment was able to get its first "kill", shooting down one of the Messerschmitt Bf 109s.
The battles for the south and centre flag groups were over pretty quickly, but the north flag group proved to be more challenging, A company of the 23rd/21st Infantry Regiment losing about two thirds of its total manpower. But with the artillery support and attacks made by the RAF, the enemy was also finally defeated here as well, giving the Austrailian taskforce a marginal victory.
Losses:
-Germany: 52 tanks and armoured vehicles, 2 120 mm mortar positions, 1 Messerschmitt Bf 109 & a little more than 650 men in total
-Great Britain: 1 Archer & 4 men
-Austraila:
--2/7th AR: 9 AC4 Sentinel, 1 AC3 Sentinel & 43 men in total
--23rd/21st IR: 142 men in total
The Archer was destroyed by artillery, 3 AC4 by the Messerschmitt Bf 109, 1 AC4 by a German Pak and the other 6 Australian tanks lost by German tanks.
Captured equipment:
-2 120 mm mortar positions could be captured intact by the Australian troops.
Replacements:
-2/7th AR: The arrival of the cargo and troop transport ships from Australia both the destroyed Sentinel tanks and the tank soldiers could be fully replaced. It also made the build up of a small combat losses reserve - 8 AC4 and 4 AC3 strong - possible.
-23rd/21st IR: With the arrival of the cargo and troop transport ships from Australia the 142 men killed in combat could be fully replaced.
Cheers, Taskforce