Jump to content

AAR - A Lesson in Defense


Recommended Posts

SPOILING ATTACK

AXIS ORANGE:

I have enough information now to know for certain that the enemy units on Axis Orange are a support by fire position.  My philosophy is to attack weakness, so I am going to concentrate at least a third of my available force against this formation in a spoiling attack. 

This will be led by 3rd Platoon and will also contain some of the 1st Platoon elements that have been, up to now, manning OPs and LPs forward of my main line.   

009A.PNG

To prepare for this action my mortars and MGs are stepping up their fire to pin or attrit any enemy teams he has on the line.  For example in the following image my mortars converged fire to eliminate this (MG) team (not fully identified) on his extreme right flank.

009B.PNG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like your aggressive tactics, Bil. I’m too often overly passive on defence. There’s a lesson in this. 

If you were to put yourself in your opponent’s shoes, and you realized your enemy was making a spoiling attack, what would you do? Press eve pin harder in the main axis of attack? Divert forces to deal with this? Something else?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Bud Backer said:

I like your aggressive tactics, Bil. I’m too often overly passive on defence. There’s a lesson in this. 

If you were to put yourself in your opponent’s shoes, and you realized your enemy was making a spoiling attack, what would you do? Press eve pin harder in the main axis of attack? Divert forces to deal with this? Something else?

Well, the intent of a spoiling attack is twofold:  One:  Take the initiative away from the attacker and Two:  Force him to react and divert combat power from the main attack..  Whether I will be successful in either has yet to be seen.  I do think he is too committed to Axis Red at this point to be able to provide much help to his Support by Fire troops... so number two is a forlorn hope, but still a possibility.

I could have stayed where I was, soaked up the fire from the SBF position and had another platoon to throw in the way of what is coming up Axis Red, but that isn't how I roll usually.. if I see a potential weakness I will try to do something about it, hopefully weakening his ultimate available combat power in the main attack.  That is my main goal here.

I don't want to get into what I would have done in his shoes at this point.. maybe towards the end we can have a discussion about those what-ifs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, I would never have thought to do something like that. Presumably a risk is for the attacking force to get cut off and destroyed - but in this terrain your support could presumably interdict any attempt to do this, given the dip between your forces and his support location. 

You presumably also needed to decide between fast movement - before he can react, and while his forces are hunkering down, vs slow, with less chance of detection. How did you approach this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bil Hardenberger said:

I don't want to get into what I would have done in his shoes at this point.. maybe towards the end we can have a discussion about those what-ifs.

Very well, I look forward to that. Thanks for the explanation of your own actions. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 8:26 AM, Bil Hardenberger said:

I'll get into my approach to the objective in the next installment.

Umm, that next installment? C'mon, man! We're on the edge of our seats waiting for your counter-attack to develop! Only 1/3 of your force going into the "sickle cut"? Bah. Put 'em ALL in there and SWEEP the enemy from the field. It would be gloooooorious!.   :)

More postings are needed. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, c3k said:

Umm, that next installment? C'mon, man! We're on the edge of our seats waiting for your counter-attack to develop! Only 1/3 of your force going into the "sickle cut"? Bah. Put 'em ALL in there and SWEEP the enemy from the field. It would be gloooooorious!.   :)

More postings are needed. ;)

Patience grasshopper... I have more than one iron in the fire these days.  :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I am genuinely intrigued to see what happens here.  B)

Something like an unexpected engineer platoon camped out in those farm buildings in reserve could ruin your whole day, but if it's all teams & ammo bearers you might be in.....Then it's a StuG hunt!

I apologize for the delay on this AAR.. when I started this project I had nothing else going on, but now I am suddenly swamped with a few other projects so I have to fit this in when I can and it is the lower priority right now.  I will get an update posted this week I can promise you that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Bil Hardenberger said:

I apologize for the delay on this AAR.. when I started this project I had nothing else going on, but now I am suddenly swamped with a few other projects so I have to fit this in when I can and it is the lower priority right now.  I will get an update posted this week I can promise you that.

Thanks for keeping us posted, Bil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/25/2018 at 2:38 PM, Bil Hardenberger said:

I apologize for the delay on this AAR.. when I started this project I had nothing else going on, but now I am suddenly swamped with a few other projects so I have to fit this in when I can and it is the lower priority right now.  I will get an update posted this week I can promise you that.

Every week I hope this will be the week...  ;-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...