Theatre of Operations AAR: The battle of St. Andre de l’Epine

[A Canadian Cat]

Good question. He definitely did not deploy forward. It took 15 minutes to make contact, I shortened the narrative to catch up to the time when I took the first casualties. As for if the initial units are outposts or not: I'll wait and not spoil the next few turns.

Edited January 19, 2017 by IanL
Grammer fix

[A Canadian Cat]

The summary of the progress 2 Battalion 116th has made so far.
 

E Company is blocked by the mines and road blocks. Instead of pressing forward they will bring up the engineers and cut the bocage so they can head to the left

 

F Company has taken casualties but will continue to move forward. With one platoon following the farm track to protect the right flank and the other platoon going through the field.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[IICptMillerII]

Your "Approx Line of Contact" seems like it was bang on. Score one for military intelligence. 

[Christian Knudsen]

IRL the Germans defended this sector in two areas.  The first was the infamous "Kraut Corner", which was a hedgehog defense of the large wheatfield by where IanL has placed his 2 Platoon E Coy in his most recent post.  This was manned by about a platoon.  The rest of the defense was anchored around the hamlet of Cloville and stretched East along the main E/W road up to where the road bends around to the north, with a bit of a refused flank guarding the pathway pointing south toward the summit of the hill.  The sector just to the east was based around a hedgehog defense of six connected fields between the road and the forest near the hill summit. 

The American attack pulverized the German defense, inflicting over 50% casualties on forward German companies.  A great resource for this battle is a monograph by the commander of 1 Bn, 38 IR, LCol Frank Mildren, available at http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cdm/ref/collection/p124201coll2/id/429

 

[Heinrich505]

IanL,

  Great action.  I get the creeps every time I see guys easing down the lanes and hugging the hedgerows to either side of the roads.  It is terrible anticipating the sudden shots that will ring out, knowing all along that they are going to happen but not knowing when.  I was thinking that I didn't want to be any of those guys in the jeeps.  Then, when it seemed okay, they "found" the mines.

  Geez I hate mines.

  Your screen shots are putting us right there with the men.  Nicely done.

Heinrich505

[A Canadian Cat]

Thanks. Yes using those farm tracks is dangerous for sure. And the shots feel clostraphobic too.

[Hardradi]

Agreed nice action reports, screenshots and maps. The ambush on E company reminded my brutal days of learning in the Road to Montebourg campaign.

Also the map as a whole looks really nice.

You appear to be keeping both companies quite tightly bunched or is the map just that big?

[choppinlt]

@IanL it's fun to watch the battle unfold. I appreciate the effort of putting all these pictures up. The screenshots are great, but I love the map view visuals! As stated earlier, it does make me feel I am right there.

Oh, and I hope @Mad Mike is taking good notes on what is going on with his forces so he can had some of the German perspective at the end of the battle!

On ‎1‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 3:21 PM, Heinrich505 said:

  Geez I hate mines.

AGREED!! I don't know if there is anything that frustrates me quicker!

@Christian Knudsen you talked earlier about the prongs vs the hedgerow cutters. That is a subtle detail that I never really caught, but it is quite significant! You are correct that in my reference material they make explicit mention of the prongs in great detail during 2/116's attack on 11Jul. The amount of detail leaves little doubt about the accuracy of the report. Interestingly, I seem to recall some reference material for a different unit, and they mentioned using cutters on the same day. Makes me curious if some units used them on 11Jul OR the other unit just didn't put much effort for accuracy in their reporting. I have to go back and find the material... Oh and thanks for the LtCol Mildren report, you are correct that is a great resource I had not come across!

Edited January 23, 2017 by choppinlt
Additonal comment

[Christian Knudsen]

13 minutes ago, choppinlt said:

you talked earlier about the prongs vs the hedgerow cutters. That is a subtle detail that I never really caught, but it is quite significant! You are correct that in my reference material they make explicit mention of the prongs in great detail during 2/116's attack on 11Jul. The amount of detail leaves little doubt about the accuracy of the report. Interestingly, I seem to recall some reference material for a different unit, and they mentioned using cutters on the same day. Makes me curious if some units used them on 11Jul OR the other unit just didn't put much effort for accuracy in their reporting. I have to go back and find the material... Oh and thanks for the LtCol Mildren report, you are correct that is a great resource I had not come across!

All the material I was able to find for 2 ID indicated that the prongs were not as effective as the cutters, because they tended to snap off or bend.  There were a bunch of different stopgap solutions that were being tried in different units, although 29 and 2 IDs seem to be going with the prongs/pipes.  I don't think it was until Operation Cobra kicked off that the actual Culin (and the Rhino) were used in any great number. 

If there were some way to make the Culin fail to breach, or damage it, I would consider it appropriate for this action, but as it is now I think it gives the Amis a bit of an advantage that they did not necessarily possess historically.

Of course, it's only a game, so while I enjoy this sort of research (It's fun to put my degree to use for once), it's more of a "nice to know".

 

[A Canadian Cat]

I'm going to stick with charges to breach going forward. I should point out I am actually playing turns many minutes a head of where my write up is so there will be a few more Rhino breaches before they stop.

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:43: Orders

The lead platoon of F Co will push further into the field with lots of fire support to keep them safe. The tanks will keep more than 250m and keep up the direct fire on the opposite side of the field.

 

The road advance has stalled out. There is no way to continue along the road. Behind the scenes some engineers are being brought forward but in the meantime the recon troops have satchel charges and they will pull back and start the bocage cutting process.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:43-3:42:

E Co’s lead platoon stay in place at the point of contact and keep up some kind of fire since they have spotted enemy contacts ahead.

 

 

Meanwhile F Co is advancing across the field by using the farm track on the right side of the field…

…and hugging the left edge while the tanks spend their ammo on the opposite hedge row.

 

Minute 3:42: Orders

E Co’s push to their left needs fire support so I move up more tanks – lead by a Rhino tank to cut onto the road from the fields where the tanks were moving up (remember I played this turn before the discussion above about how the Rhinos were not available yet – I figure we can pretend this unit had some of the experimental cutters and pipes and they helped some so we can see the use of Rhinos and demo charges that I’m going to use  as the combination of partially working cutters and explosive that were actually used – that’s how I am sleeping at night anyway).

 

Similarly F Co is bringing up more tanks to help maintain fire superiority while the lead platoon’s flank the field.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:42-3:41:

One of the supporting tanks firing on the suspected enemy locations.

 
 

The recon elements leading E Co cut their first bocage row.

 

Minute 3:41: Orders

E Co brings up its reserve platoon to push to the left as lead while the lead platoon will stay where they are engaging the enemy for a while.

 

 

F Co and their support move forward into the field as well.

 

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:41-3:40:

Things are pretty quiet for E Co. They continue to reorient themselves to move into the field to the left of the road.

 

F Co continues its advance at the edges of the field. They are also making sure they have firepower in position to watch the field to their left and continue to supress the location where the enemy first opened fire on them from in front.

 

 

Minute 3:40: Orders

For E Co more of the same shifting behind contact.

For F Co the advance continues along the farm track and the left edge of the field.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:40-3:39:

The engineers cut the first section of bocage for E Company’s shift to the left.

 

 

F Co continues its cautious advance but all is quite at the moment.

 

Minute 3:39: Orders

The lead elements of E Co continue to take pot shots at the enemy they have spotted along the road.

 

 

Meanwhile F Co will continue its advance across the field.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[Rinaldi]

Things are developing; I wonder when you'll hit the next nest of resistance. F. Co. got hit fairly hard in that field, I wonder if the HE fire got anything or if your opponent (wisely) made his way out of there after the initial ambush.

Edited January 25, 2017 by Rinaldi

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:39-3:38:

Members of 1^st platoon E Co exchange fire with the enemy while other members of E Co move to the left to bypass the fortified location.

 

 

F Co makes contact with the enemy. The members of 1^st Platoon hunting along the farm track are ambushed. The Germans wait long enough for the lead squad to be fully in their sights before opening up. In the end four members of the squad go down.

 

Minute 3:38: Orders

Nothing much different for E Co – continue the sift to the left.

 

The ambushed squad pull back firing while other members of the platoon move up to fire on the new enemy contact.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:38-3:37:

E Co is not seeing much excitement just moving into the field.

Members of 1^st Planoon of F Co start firing on the new enemy contact that so badly hurt their platoon mates.

 

 

On the other side of the field members of F Co come under fire as they reach the far edge and look out over the road. They take casualties too.

 

 

Minute 3:37: Orders

Now that some infantry are in position in the next field E Co calls up the tanks to enter the field behind them.

 

F Co brings up support – infantry and tanks to pile fire power on to their two new enemy contacts.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:37-3:36:

Tanks supporting E Co stay behind the mine field and engage the contacts on the other side of the road block.

 
 

Meanwhile the lead members of F Co that took casualties last turn get some HE support.

 

 

Minute 3:36: Orders

Now that some infantry have moved to the left through the breach tanks follow.

 

Infantry move up to deliver supporting fire for the squad caught in the farm track. There seems to be a single enemy team near the barn at the end of the track.

 

 

On the other side of the field tanks and infantry move up to engage the enemy we know is there behind the bocage.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:36-3:35:

The tanks roll into the first breach in support of E Co. In front of them are more mines, wire and hedge hogs. The plan is to breach the next bocage and head further left.

 

 

The ambushed squad in the farm track manages to return fire.

 

 

The teams moving up to support them find they are surprised by another unseen enemy team.

 

 

They take casualties too. Thankfully only two. With of some luck they overwhelmed the enemy before more men are hit.

 

On the other side of the field members of F Co rush forward.

 

Minute 3:35: Orders

Bring up the engineers to make the next breach for E Co and their supporting tanks.

 

 

F Co is having trouble on both sides of the field. On the left they only have an idea of where the enemy is but there is lots of support. On the right they have a much better idea of where the enemy is.

 

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[Heinrich505]

IanL,

  Great action and very nice explanations of your movements.  Screenshots are very good, as always.

  I'm having flashbacks from all my previous hedgerow battles.  Ambushes galore.

Heinrich505

[A Canadian Cat]

Yeah it has been a while since I had to fight hedge row to hedge row. It's tough.

[Rinaldi]

Hedgerow fighting is one of those situations where you always learn some new tip or trick. I'm taking notes and enjoying learning at another's expense this time around.

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:35-3:34:

Along the road the tanks supporting E Co continue to fire on their one contact and source of incoming fire. All this while they reposition for the move to the left through the bocage.

 

 

Over by F Co’s fields suppressive fire continues along with attempts to flank and get better shooing positions.

 

 

Minute 3:34: Orders

F Co now has a solid contact on their left. They now have a target to setup to deal with. They are ordered to reposition their suppressive fire and then get a team across the road to deal with the resistance.

 

To F Co’s right with the ambush teams dealt with they need to setup to cover the next field and deal with the wounded.

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 3:34-3:33:

The engineers reach the next bocage that E Co needs breached. 

 

F Co deals with the threat on their left with the application of just the right amount of HE.

 

However in the field in front F Co some HE from the enemy lands. The first spotting round of a mortar hidden in the bocage on the opposite side of the field. Not good!

 

 

Minute 3:33: Orders

As engineers set their charges more engineers come forward to mark mines. With the mines marked it will be safer to pull back the lead platoon of E Co. Remember a platoon of troops and several teams of recon are on the forward side of those mines. Right not they are keeping the enemy engaged but eventually they need to pull back.

 

In the meantime for 1 platoon F Co it is panic stations. Everyone near the spotting round runs. Everyone else opens fire. You can even see another round coming in. Spoiler: closer inspection from my god’s eye view shows some troops are not going to be able to run fast enough.

 

 

Over on the left 2 Platoon has started taking fire from another location further along the boacage. After eliminating one threat another pops up.

 

Edited November 17, 2017 by IanL