Allied AAR: A Route to Ribera or "A Bridge Too Far" (CMPzC)

[Fizou]

The 39th minute..

Its hard to talk about a fighting withdrawal when the enemy get this close.. It will be next to impossible to get any of the 7 or 8 men that are up close and personal with the Germans back to safety.

So close.. just as they are about to enter the woods another Rangers is shot by German small arms.

The Germans keep moving forward, pushing any opposition aside..

A pinned group of Rangers, not able to get out decide to refuse surrender and go out fighting. Hopefully saving some of their fellow platoon members.

From close range the Rangers revile them selves and open up on the Germans. At least one enemy casualty is confirmed.

Facing overwhelming odds.. two Rangers are soon cut down. The squad leader throws a grenade just as the minute comes to a close.

Behind the immediate front the Rangers moving off map are surprised by a stray 150 mm round. It also seems like the Germans have a spotter on station.. 81 mm mortar fire is dropping spotting rounds in this area.

Two more casualties suffered as the enemy send yet more HE the Rangers way.

[Fizou]

The 39th minute continues..

On my left is also sustain more casualties.. artillery and long range MG fire is bleeding my force away.

Deadly MG fire open up as the Rangers dash between cover.

Overview after 39 minutes of combat:

9 casualties sustained this last minute.. more a sure to follow during the next turn. Will I be able to exit a still combat capable force?

One thing is clear, and that is that if I let the Germans get in to close, more Rangers will die. I have to keep the distance.

------------------------

The 40th minute:

The dust generated by the grenade thrown in the end of last turn can be seen here. No confirmed casualty as a result. Its also apparent that these two Rangers wont make it for long.

A final rush towards safety, bullets flying all around them..

Seconds later..

Away on the left.. a MG from 2nd Platoon G Coy targets a command team in a Kübelwagen as well as ha HMG 34. It scores a confirmed casualty and disrupts the enemy MG.

[Fizou]

The 40th minute continues..

Overviewing the carnage..

This BAR team puts out long range support fire towards the Grenadiers advancing on my right. It lacks the sustains fire capability of the MG.

Overview after 40 minutes of combat:

I have suffered heavy casualties over the last minutes.. my total now close to 30 men. With a starting force (well including my reinforcements) of 140 men I have now hit 20% casualties. The distance to the enemy is again a bit longer on my right. I will have to utilize this, making good use of cover and get out ASAP.

Blue arrows: Allied movement

Blue bulge: Allied defensive position / Observation post

Red arrow: Axis advance

Red bulge: Axis base of fire

[Fizou]

The 41st minute..

On my right.. the forward Bazooka team is all but ready to pull back. Waiting for its smoke grenade to develop. Then a golden opportunity presents itself. The team dash forward trough the smoke. A Grille SPA is almost a point blank range..

Killing another Grille this early in the days action would be a great achievement. If you look closely you can see the rocket in flight against the dry grass.

Mere feets away.. the rockets impacts bushes and branches. Saving the Grille..

The Grille fires of a round before it starts to reverse to safety. A team of PzGren puts down suppression fire on the Rangers and one man is hit. The Rangers then start to withdraw through the smoke and dust.

Along with the fallen man from the Bazooka team, two men from the MG putting down covering fire are also taken out this turn. Orders are issued to get everyone out now. I wont try and hold the Germans on my right anymore. Distance, defilade and speed is all that matters now.

The silhouette of the Grille can be seen through the smoke. The Rangers are ordered to get out.

On my left.. after several turns of long range fire, the Grenadiers are moving up more troops. This time in trucks. If the Germans are allowed to get to close I will be in serious trouble.

Two MGs are ready to great the new Grenadier reinforcements.

Overview after 41 minutes of combat:

Blue arrows: Allied movement

Blue bulge: Allied defensive position / Observation post

Red arrow: Axis advance

Red bulge: Axis base of fire

Red circle: Axis artillery targets. Various weapon types (81 mm mortar, 150 mm SPA).

[Fizou]

42nd to 44th minutes..

The 2nd section / B team of 2nd Platoon H Coy, 3rd Rangers Bn try to make it out alive. The close proximity of the Germans, heavy fire, leads to suppression and that slows the eventual move towards safety. The smoke screen is gone and the Rangers are easy target.

Private Jarett is downed.. leaving Corporal Ballew to fend for himself.

Corporal Ballew lets lose on the Germans in a last desperate attempt to halt them. Seconds later he falls victim to a 150 mm round from one of the Grille SPA.

On my left the two MGs are able to slow the Germans down. Several trucks are hit and at least two casualties are confirmed.

Yet the Germans send in even more reserves. At least two platoons are committed to the attack on my left. I hope long range MG fire will have the Axis CO slow down.

Overview after 44 minutes of combat:

The Rangers are now in full retreat.

Blue arrows: Allied movement

Red arrows: Axis advance

Red bulge: Axis base of fire

Red circle: Axis artillery fire (81 mm mortar and 150 mm SPA)

Grey circle: Axis smoke screen laid down by Grille SPA.

[Fizou]

The 49th minute..

The reminder of the battle is not very exciting even though I was on my toes trying to get out with no further casualties.

On my left the MMG from 2nd Platoon I Coy has burned through all but 150 rounds. It is now finally spotted (?), at least the area is under suppression fire from MG, and heavier guns.

Suppressed but they do make it out alive.

A telling image.. as the Rangers continue their retreat, man after man is falling as a result of enemy mortar and artillery fire. My force is slowly bleeding out..

Overview after 49 minutes of combat:

Every turn more and more Rangers are able to exit the map.. but at the same time we suffer a steady stream of casualties from the enemy mortars and artillery.

The Germans make one final push but is not able to catch the reminding Rangers. After some 55 minutes of combat a ceasefire is declared.

Nine Rangers remain on map, but well on their way to get out.

Red line: Indication of Axis forward units.

End results:

I must say I'm pretty happy with the end result. My force has suffered heavy casualties and is reduced by 30%. But under the circumstances I think that's fairly OK. Of the 19 wounded i receive 25% back.. and that's four men. Total casualties after this calculation is 42 men which now will be removed from the PzC OOB.

I'm surprised and happy to see that the Rangers dealt some damage to the Grenadiers as well. Down side is that the enemy has more wounded than dead and gets a higher yield on their 25% return. 7 men returned and total casualties for the Axis are after this calculation: 40 men (to be removed from the PzC OOB). The Axis also lost a Kübelwagen but this is not tracked in the OOB (only vehicles with weapons are).

The initiative will now shift over to the Allies once more..

[Kuderian]

Down side is that the enemy has more wounded than dead....

I thought the Swede's invented chivalry

[Kuderian]

Great shots!

[mjkerner]

Great screen shots throughout! By the way, Fizpu, what skin mod are you using?

[Fizou]

Down side is that the enemy has more wounded than dead....

I thought the Swede's invented chivalry

Next year is our 200 year anniversary since last being in a war (some kind of record?! And not counting UN Peace keeping operations). Might have lost touch with the reality of war

Great shots!

Great screen shots throughout! By the way, Fizpu, what skin mod are you using?

Thanks guys! I will put together a list once I get home so I can check my Z folder.

[Fizou]

Great screen shots throughout! By the way, Fizpu, what skin mod are you using?

Im using Aris/Fusers fantastic mod: http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4799/details

And if Im not misstaken I have edited the two sets included to use all of them, to give even greater variety.

To have it work for US, CW and Italians as well, all you have to do is rename the .bmp files (really quick with the ctrl+c and ctrl+v commands).

[Erwin]

And Aris' face mods are good in either CMBN or CMFI.

Mord also has done a set of "war-ravaged/wounded" face mods for US/Allied and Axis. Not sure what the observable difference is.

[kohlenklau]

So, how is the allied campaign progressing? I know you've got to crunch the PzC numbers and then it is someone's move and maybe we get some more battles soon?

[kohlenklau]

How goes the Sicily campaign?

I feel like the GHQ back in Washington DC with so many different battles going on around the world. I guess that was why they called it a World War!!

Fighting in Italy, Belgium (by mod), France, Holland & soon on the East Front.

[Fizou]

How goes the Sicily campaign?

I feel like the GHQ back in Washington DC with so many different battles going on around the world. I guess that was why they called it a World War!!

Fighting in Italy, Belgium (by mod), France, Holland & soon on the East Front.

Sorry for the late reply kohlenklau. Its been a busy time over the holidays. I have had time to create/expand the maps we are going to use for this turns allied assaults though so we are about to start the action. Are you still up for your spot in our team?

If so I have decided to keep you in command of all forces in the Allied northern AO (I will do the same for the southern AO. I think this will keeps us more engaged with our pixel truppen as we follow the same units over the duration of the campaign).

Time is 1000 hours 20 July 1943. Below is a map of your AO.

Your forces will attack the VPL at hex 18.7 (shown by red box). This is a river crossing and the last major natural obstacle to the city Ribera. In Ribera there is a further 200 VPL location that is your force final objective (this can also be seen in the map above. Note that the paras in your last battle perished just north east of this VPL).

Your attack will start at 1025 hours and will be made from two directions as shown above. Your force is made up of Paras from 2nd Bn 504th Para Regt (82nd Airborne Div) and light tanks from 82nd Armored Recon Bn (2nd Armored Div).

Note that one of the Tank units are low on ammo. Also note that one of the Para units coming in from the north have a high fatigue (weakened in CM terms).

Your off map support is made up by 3x 75 mm pack howitzers as well as the guns of destroyer USS Buck.

The enemy force is made up of Italian pioneers and blackshirts/bersaglieri. Both these units are estimated at Coy strength. Note that the pioneers are disrupted (this effects their CM leadership with -1 reducing their combat efficiency. This is in addition to the Italians lower morale/combat efficiency when compared to their German allies.) Intelligence also suggests that the Italians have a coy of 47 mm AT guns. These guns are able to penetrate the frontal armor of the Stuart light tank at medium to long combat ranges.

The Italian force is well dug in. They have dug an extensive trench system and deployed a lot of barbed wire. They have also 4 TRPs on our approaches. On the bright side they only have their light brixia mortars in support (to the south paras from the 1st Bn have disrupted Italian 75 mm guns that where intending to shell your attack).

Its also worth to mention that these Italian units have been attacked by P-38s during the last hours so they have been softened up (this has also caused the pioneers to become disrupted as mentioned earlier).

Below is the setup zones and the axis potential retreat route. Note that the bridges are the only way for your force to cross the river. A natural choking point.

Mission: You must take this hex from the enemy and put it firmly in our control. Its a VPL and thus very important for the overall outcome of the campaign. In addition to this, this hex will provide us with a jump off point for our further attacks on Ribera (its the only bridge in the north that allows tanks to cross). Your force is outnumbered and the enemy is well dug in, but your men are of better quality and with better motivation. You have tanks and a lot of artillery to aid your attack. Its also important that you keep our casualties low. Below is a picture of follow on forces to give you an idea of what is available to capture Ribera in the coming turns. Your secondary objective is to destroy as much of the Italian force as possible.

You will have 1:30 Hours to complete your mission.

Allied follow on forces for the northern AO. Note that several of these units are some distance from the front as well as in off road terrain. It will take them some time to move forward. This makes it imperative that the Paras don't take to heavy casualties until they can be relived by the infantry.

Check our DB folder.. there is a folder named hex 18.7. There you will find the files to start the action (axis setup is done.). Allied password is the same as before.

View from the SE approach.. note the twin bridge over the Maggazola river.

View from the N approach.

[Fizou]

Some more information on whats going on in the southern AO. The thin black line is indicating this AO. The yellow line the northern AO.

There are two assaults this turn (time frame 10:00-12:00). The northern one is for a 300 VPL, and here a combined force of Rangers and Paras are attacking a Italian 75 mm gun battery. They are also attacking over bridges and the river here has no fording points either. We are sure to see axis counterattacks in this area.

Further to the south a small unit of paras are trying to take out another Italian 75 mm gun battery. This battery was intent on firing on our bridge/river crossing attack in the north but have been stopped by the paras of 1st Bn. If they can silence these guns we will have a smoother ride for the operations reminding 12 hours.

Also note the massing of units to the south east. Here we are all but ready to force a crossing of the Maggazola river in the southern AO. We will then move forces up to the 300 VPL ASAP.

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Id also like to go over some rules that concern CM combat that we are using in this campaign so you are aware of them.

First.. when it comes to artillery.

1. Only the attacker is allowed to preplaned artillery strikes.

2. Linear missions are only allowed for preplaned strikes and for smoke.

3. All other fire must use the circle fire mission.

4. The size of the area that is put under fire is decided by the number of guns used. Every tube targets a area of 35 m (55 m for naval guns), this can be differed by +/- 10%. This means that a 3 gun battery that uses all tubes must cover a circle area of 94-114 m. It can not be bigger or smaller. A smaller area can be targeted if less tubes are used. It can however not be bigger than the 114 m circle area.

For USS Buck that has two turrets. The circle area can be 99-121 m (if a linear mission during preplan it can be between 99 and 121 meters long). The reasons for these rules are to make things a bit more interesting and to keep artillery a bit less effective.

Secondly.. after last turns last stand battle we have decided to make some rules so that not battles turn out to last stands. So depending on a force morale (at the start of the battle, global morale is established. In this case if your force is reduced to below 20% of its starting strength it must surrender. Your men make up 178 in headcount and every tank is counted as 10 so that is another 60. Total headcount is 238. If your force drops below 47 men it must auto surrender.)

A unit that has been on map for the first 30 minutes is also allowed to surrender. If it does 25% of its survivors may escape and join the closest applicable friendly unit (the rest are treated as casualties). Both of these new rules are to try and get a more realistic feel to the action and when units decide to throw in the towel (also more interesting decisions for the player to try and make the best of very situation.

[kohlenklau]

Wow. It is a huge map. Thanks for all your hard work.

I am too busy right now with some RL issues to do a full-fledged AAR in its own thread. Please forgive me.

I started off with some pre-planned arty fire but suspect I am just churning up the soil. I think I have eyes on the area but so far cannot see any trenches or troops. So far it is very quiet. Too quiet.

I do see some trucks and have adjusted fire to try and wipe them out.

GO ALLIES!!!!

[Fizou]

kohlenklau,

No need to do a AAR/DAR. My AAR "project" was just for turn 5 off the operation and as we are on turn 6 now, its over and done. I'll keep using this thread to keep you up to date on the situation though.

Good luck in the current battle! A lot is riding on your attack!

[kohlenklau]

OK.

Finally I see 1 trench section! I guess the more turns that go by with some of my teams (equipped with binoculars) with LOS to the enemy areas, slowly things get revealed.

Maybe I need some US Civil War hot air balloons!

EDIT: I saw all the artillery rules and promise to fully comply.

GO ALLIES!

[kohlenklau]

As I said, the trenches and barbed wire are being revealed as the turns go by.

I have 3 small teams over the bridge.

One had some demo charges and was told to blow the barbed wire but the soldier carrying the charges was killed by a fairly large explosion. Maybe an HE round from his 47mmATG's?

Another soldier was killed by MG fire. None of them are panicking YET. Good news: there seems to be some room to skirt around the barbed wire. We'll soon see. I have more troops headed to cross the bridge and will follow the skirt around route vice trying to blow the wire.

I am using the Stuarts as long range direct fire on any spotted enemy troops. They each have anywhere from 60-80 rounds of 37mm HE so I might as well see what damage I can cause. No apparent KIA yet.

I have spotted a 47mmATG in a small villa surrounded by trenches. It had already been targeted for a fire mission. He had indeed fired the fatal round to the teams crossing the bridge.

I think I have destroyed 3 or 4 of his Fiat trucks. A few others turned tail and are hiding behind a stone wall.

I am flanking his exit zone with a platoon of paratroopers.

[kohlenklau]

I am pushing a Stuart over the bridge. If I can get some more firepower over there, it could be a Turkey shoot.

I am also re-positioning an FO team to a better vantage point and call in some naval gun fire support.

I am suppressing one of the enemy trenches and in a few turns should be able to assault it.

[kohlenklau]

I've taken about 9 KIA so far.

4 guys KIA when an HE round hit right in the center of the bridge. They forgot their training and were bunched up.

3 or so earlier on the edge of the other side of the bridge before I figured out I could skirt around the barbed-wire.

Now a 2-man 30 cal MMG team is KIA and I never saw what wiped them out!

What does anybody think? Is it gamey to lay down long range fire withe the Stuarts?

I have some teams who have eyes on the end zone and thus I know where his troops are running away and area fire with everything I've got.

The same with any new trenches that pop up. I rake them over the coals for a while and at least suppress whatever is in the trench. I can see a 47mm ATG and it is not destroyed but seems to have no crew. I am peppering it constantly with 30 cal fire.

More screenshots on this next turn. A Stuart should be across the bridge here in this next turn.

Oh shoot, at 30 minutes elapsed he can start exiting....

I must get down there and start the wholesale slaughter ASAP.

[sburke]

More screenshots on this next turn. A Stuart should be across the bridge here in this next turn.

send in the paparazzi storm troopers!!

[kohlenklau]

The first Stuart made it safely across.

All enemy trenches are under heavy area fire.

Like this 47mm ATG that I have some 30 cals laying into.

Haven't heard a peep out of him so far.

There is a newly spotted trench complex very near the bridge. I moved a 2 man team towards it. One guy just got shot but when his buddy grabbed his wallet and watch he also grabbed the binoculars. The trench is under heavy area fire to suppress whatever might be hiding there.

[kohlenklau]

I lost ANOTHER 30 cal team. This time I saw it was a 47mm ATG.

I've got it targeted for revenge fire. He's got his troops headed towards the exit.