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AAR - Wittmann's Demise - The German Perspective


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The Fifty Fourth Minute

I have now started to push my Tigers and Panthers forward to put some pressure on Warren's firing line. There are precious few hull down positions along this route, or anywhere really on this map, so it is brute force and trust to my thick armor and the quality of the crews. The initial goal is to engage and destroy the left most of Warren's platoons. These tanks will be my blocking force supporting the Pz-IVs.

The Pz-IV reserve is moving forward with the intent of taking Warren's line in the flank and rolling him up. They will be joined by the Jpz section mentioned last turn when they finally arrive.

I try not to have all of my tanks in the same unit moving at the same time.. but in my haste to move forward I did not follow this procedure for the Pz-IVs.

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One of my two surviving Panthers (Wittmann is in the background of this image) fires on and takes out the left most Firefly. Everytime one of these bastards fall I give a little shout of joy.

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Three of the tanks belonging to the left side platoon fall this turn, the Firefly already noted fell to the Panther, and the two Sherman IIIs fell to Tigers. It has to be getting a little tense on the British side of the fence now.

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I find it interesting that over the last three turns I have knocked out 10 British tanks for the loss of one Pz-IV.

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Bill....mostly long time lurker really enjoying your 'aar'....your descriptions along with the Pics are well done and add a lot. Look forward to see how things turn out! Thanks again!

RevJack, I appreciate your comments. It is comments from lurkers like you that keep me motivated to do these AARs.

Bil

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It is comments from lurkers like you that keep me motivated to do these AARs.

Bil

Bil, as another lurker, I too, really appreciate all of the time you put into your AARs. As an amateur photographer, I understand the effort that you put forth in Photoshop.

I'm somewhat fluent in PS and, while I enjoy using it in my hobby, I realize that it can eat up a lot of time... particularly when I get into layer styles, text boxes, etc. I try to set up as many actions as I can to speed up the processes, but it's still a time hog.

I normally don't play scenarios this large, but I might just give this one a whirl. Even after reading the AAR, I fully expect the AI to hand me my hat in this one. Any chance you might still have the game files and would release them? I'd love to follow this blow-by blow :D Even if your not willing to release them, or no longer have them, I really do thank you for all the work you do for the community. :)

Rake

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A wee shout of joy :) Well Put Sir George. Playing both sides is a quick witted way to really learn the nuance.

Many of us appreciate all of the time you put into your AARs Bill. Rake's query about game files, along with your excellent AARs, could help players see how veterans do it.

A wee shout out for 0 of 5 Tigers :)

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The Fifty Fifth Minute

As the Pz-IV reserve (I really need to get a better name for this formation... perhaps Ken Force ;) ) begins to pass through the wreckage of Warren's counter-attack, one of the lead tanks (commanded by the Reg. Commander Prinz) gets hit by fire from a Firefly. Though the Pz-IV is not knocked out (yet) it does take damage to the main gun and the optics so is out of the fight regardless of what happens next.

The presence of a tank in that location took me by surprise.. so Warren has tanks to spare it seems. Two platoons on the treeline (well one + after last turn), now at least one more on the left flank (from his perspective) of the treeline, and at least one more facing off against my southern kampfgruppe. How many more can there be?

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Southern Kampfgruppe

In the south, one of my advancing Jpz's falls to the Firefly in the treeline up ahead.. damn. I really need some hulldown positions for these guys.

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One of the overwatching Pz-IVs takes revenge however and destroys the Firefly before it can do any more damage.

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Rake and Buzz, let me think about the game files.. this game really doesn't have as much to teach as say either of the games I played with GaJ, or even the BETA AAR game I played against ND.

Storage space would be an issue for these files.

Let me think about it.

Bil

Bil, understand completely. I'm mostly interested because, while I love armored warfare, it's probably the weakest part of my game. I really stunk at the steppe battles in CMBB:o

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Man, I don't know how you do it. Killing Fireflies with PzIV's ! :eek:

I stopped buying PzIV's altogether because : anything can kill them(even a Stuart)/they seldom kill anything bigger than a Stuart.

It's looking even more likely that my guess is out by a factor of five ! lol

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Man, I don't know how you do it. Killing Fireflies with PzIV's ! :eek:

I stopped buying PzIV's altogether because : anything can kill them(even a Stuart)/they seldom kill anything bigger than a Stuart.

It's looking even more likely that my guess is out by a factor of five ! lol

Yes the Pz-IV is definitely out of its league at this time period, as evidenced by the loss ratio in this game. It needs to be used as you would a TD, from hide positions, carefully hulldown (when possible), etc. It still has a good gun.. not a great gun, but certainly capable of killing Shermans, Fireflies, etc. if it connects in the right spot... even from the front.

Don't try to go toe to toe at closer range with it though.

For a good examination and demonstration of the proper way to use Pz-IVs read my CMBN BETA AAR (top link of my AAR links below).

Oh, and Baneman.. yep, your guess was not correct. ;)

Bil

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Rake and Buzz, let me think about the game files.. this game really doesn't have as much to teach as say either of the games I played with GaJ, or even the BETA AAR game I played against ND.

Storage space would be an issue for these files.

Let me think about it.

Bil

Thanks for the consideration Bill. Storage space is an issue. Your AAR are very entertaining. I suspect having the "minute movies" along with the The ## Minute AARs could be instructive as well as interesting.

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The Fifty Sixth Minute - Part I

Prinz tried to reverse out of danger but was spotted by a Sherman III that appeared in the same woodline the Firefly was sitting in.. one round killed the commander and knocked out the tank.

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Note that there was a Pz-IV to Prinz's left, and another to his right... the left side Pz-IV spots the Firefly and knocks it out...

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... while the right side Pz-IV spots and destroys the Sherman III.

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This Panther was not moving together with the Tiger Platoon to its left.. and it paid for it. A Firefly on Warren's firing line takes it out as it advances. Lone tanks are dead tanks.

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On the North edge of the map I have a Jpz moving with a halftrack, the halftrack has driven through the first touch objective (objective 2) and is on its way to objective 3. The Jpz is tasked with protecting it.

It does its job this turn as it spots a Sherman III in the village up ahead and knocks it out with one shot.

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Hi Bil

I've just finished reading Ken Tout's book 'Tank' which although a composite account covers the period of this action. It's worth a read as it does an excellent job of conveying the chaos and fear of armoured combat - specifically this very action. His companion book - 'A fine night for tanks' is very much fact based and again covers the very same action albeit with more eye witness accounts. Either way it was as bloody an action as your blood board reflects.

Congrats on your AAR mate - brings the whole scenario to life.

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"...facing around 44 enemy tanks, having killed 31 so far...."

Not bad Bil. Not bad at all!

Tout's book sound interesting for sure. I have never been in combat but I have wondered about the "chaos and fear of armoured combat" many times when maneuvering armor in CM. Even just getting a non penetrating round pounding your vehicle has got to be an adrenaline moment of magnitude.

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The Fifty Seventh & Fifty Eighth Minutes

The environment is not friendly to Pz-IVs or Shermans... one of my Pz-IVs fires on and kills a Sherman III that came up behind an already burning Firefly...

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...and immediately falls to a different Sherman III in the trees.

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A friend, a serving armor officer, told me recently that you want to stay away from dead friendly tanks... I wish I had that piece of advice back when I was playing this game.. I moved this Pz-IV next to Prinz's dead Panzer... he fires at a Sherman III, and simultaneously another Sherman III fires at him...

...the panzer is destroyed, but so is the other Sherman III which erupts into a huge fireball creating a large crater.

My Pz-IV Reserve force has been whittled down to next to nothing.. I think two tanks survive. It was foolish of me to press this advance when I saw that Warren had this area so well defended.

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Elsewhere, Dollinger's tiger takes out one of the remaining Fireflies. Warren had two in position on the edge of the treeline... now one remains, and that one is withdrawing under fire from my Pz-IVs near Gaumesnil. Two of those have a spot on him at turn end, so hopefully he doesn't have long to live.

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At post number 55 I thought I had logic-ed out an unexpected answer to your game, you must have lost them all, since you were still playing and if you hadn't lot em all then you wouldn't yet know how many end up being killed. But Baneman was wrong so you must have finished up the battle pretty fast after you started the AAR. Great battle and as always a superb AAR! Thanks!

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At post number 55 I thought I had logic-ed out an unexpected answer to your game, you must have lost them all, since you were still playing and if you hadn't lot em all then you wouldn't yet know how many end up being killed. But Baneman was wrong so you must have finished up the battle pretty fast after you started the AAR. Great battle and as always a superb AAR! Thanks!

cool breeze, this game had already been completed by the time I started pulling together the AAR.

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