Pride of the Luftwaffe - AAR

[Lt Bull]

If you are reading this you fall into one of two categories.

1) Someone who has played this battle

2) Someone who WILL play this battle

If you fall into category 2) go here and download the scenario, find an opponent and play it. When you are done, come back here and join the discussion following the SPOILER BUFFER below. Category 1) punters, read below and discuss your own battle story.

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SPOILERS BELOW

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OK. You must be category 1) guys. I just played this battle PBEM and absolutely got creamed as the Russians. I was so far away from even coming close to winning I can't remember the last time I had my ass handed to me like that. It was like smashing your head against a brick wall trying to go up against the AT guns.

AXIS ALLIED

Men OK: 262 338

Total Cas: 172 263

Men Killed: 54 68

Men Captured: 4

Mortar Dest: 1

Guns Dest: 4

Pillboxes Dest: 3

Vehicles Dest: 7 39

Flags Held: 1300 300

Enemy Cas: 5754 2908

Prisoners: 30

Final Score: 69% 31%

TACTICAL AXIS VICTORY

Basically, the long map, with the wide river and single long bridge running across it is a funnel of death for the attacking Russians. The German 75mm pillboxes and PAK 75mm and 88mm guns are absolutely devastating. Once the Panthers turn up, it just gets worse

I have identified several decsions that I made that made it all the more difficult for me to win and I think are KEY to any chance of Russian success. Believe it or not, I think it lies with the 82mm (?) mortar FO. He MUST be used to KO all the 75mm and 88mm AT guns in the foxholes. However, keep in mind that the Russian player has NO IDEA exactly how many AT guns the Germans have or where they are. Therefore, he can only find that out by basically sacrificing several platoons of tanks in the hope that someone SPOTS the AT guns. Keep in mind that a cunning German opponent (like the one I faced, Londoner) will also know this and will be very careful about opening up with the dug in AT guns.

The crest of the road on the ridge that cut through the scattered trees ended up as a massive scrap heap. I tried to fight it out with Shoot n' Scoot tactics in hill down positions on the road with the assortment of AT guns, pillboxes and tanks bit failed miserably. Little did I know but my crafty opponent had placed a TRP right at that spot. By games end there were 9 tank wrecks and 2 AC cars destroyed right on that ridge. All the tanks had basically died while executing a Shoot n' Scoot command.

My main line of advance with my infantry was a few platoons down the main road through the scattered trees flanking the road but the majority went through the wheatfield on the right in a manner which was out of LOS of the German units on the other side of the river. I managed to get a few T34s to scoot down the main road and park behind some of the buildings and used this leapfrog type of apprach to advance. The remainder that made it to the town went with the infantry through the wheatfield on the right.

Thats all I want to say right now. I will add more later. I would really like to hear your AAR on this battle and how youy faired.

Lt Bull

[Admiral Keth]

I played this battle as the Germans, and thoroughly loved it.

Spoiler!

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The crest of the road that cuts through the forest became, as Lt. Bull put it, a scrap heap. If you are playing the Russians, find a different path. It was almost too easy from the German perspective.

The real joy came when several Luftwaffe squads double-timed up the right side of the map, discovered several Russian tanks making their way through the forest, and promptly close assaulted them. The Luftwaffe destroyed 4 tanks and SPA's, only taking light casualties in return. Iron Crosses and Close Assault badges all around, if you please!

[Lt Bull]

Seems I was so keen to start a thread on this scenario that I failed to see that Londoner had already started one already . Anyways, we have decided to merge the Pride of the Luftwaffe AAR threads into this one.

Below are the AARs we sent to each other originally posted by Londoner in his thread:

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Bulls AAR:

Now that was a brutal game. I was miles away from even thinking about crossing that bridge. Your bloody AT guns (one of the 88s and the remaining 75mm AT gun pillbox) ripped right through me. One of your Stugs got many kills as well. I would be really interested to see how others would fair in this battle (of course if they play it double blind).

Looking at the loads of infantry you had on the other side of the bridge at the end of the battle, I had absolutely no idea that there were that many. Most of the foxholes werent even spotted.

Thinking back, perhaps I should have reasoned that any reinforcements to your bridge head would have trouble getting there (mainly the soft targets) so maybe I should have concentrated my rocket fire to literally blast the "invisible bridgehead" section rather than the more scattered bombardment I had. Still, was tough with the wide river there to "waste" arty/rocket shells landing in the water if the arty was targetted near the actual bridge. My main concern was AT guns and you had enough to be a real problem. Nothing could duel it out with them. Even groups of like 6 tanks appearing at once. My use of smoke with the 82mm mortars gained little. What I needed to do was to use that mortar fire to kill the 88s on the hill. However, those 88s remained hidden for a long time.

I definitely was surprised by how tough your pillboxs and 88s were going to be to KO.

I had all this infantry but what for? They werent going ANYWHERE unless I basically cleared every MG and long range firing unit from across the river. What a freakn disaster for the Soviets

You can bask in your Luftwaffe Pride

I had 2 spotters of 122mm (??) rockets FOs at the start. I chose not to preplan any arty. The delay was 14mins! This was important. I had another 122mm rocket spotter come on later.

To win this battle, I believe the Soviets need to literally realise that they MUST sacrifice platoons of T34s and IS-76s in the hope of spotting any (but ultimately ALL) of the 88s and the 75mm pillboxes BEFORE the Panthers turn up and them pound them with the mortar battery and the pillboxes by literally duelling it out in a costly fight. The Ba armoured cars are USELESS unless they reveal the location of the units that kill them. In your case your freakn 37mm AA guns X(. remained hidden for a long time.

Those shrecks in the town werent fun (and you had plenty waiting on the other side as well )

The single road access made things very difficult as tanks had to go through scattered trees otherwise to get in the fight. That took time in itself. Once in those trees they were basically static units committed to that section. There were few positions for my tanks to support fire the infantry attack on the town without getting KOed by your AT guns. This was very tough. One burst of MG fire and it was hit the dirt infantry.

I don't think the Soviets have much chance to "reorganise" their plans (scattered trees) once committed. I think the Soviets need to think super carefully, and have definite objectives for all their actions and followup plans should those fail. Again, FOW makes knowing exactly what to plan for difficult in itself. I dont know, perhaps one all mighty all or nothing attack by EVERY unit is what is needed.

I will definitely keep my eyes open for other AARs on this battle.

GG once again. You defence was superb (though I think you were being just greedy and leerising at the end ther with those "attacking" Panthers )

Londoner's AAR:

A very fair and sober assessment my friend. The battle is obviously an attackers nightmare, the map is almost one big beautiful kill sack. When I initially started planning, I gave some thought to your plan, and what I would do in your place. My primary concern was with range. You just can't duke it out with German armour and ATGs at anything over 750-800m, even a Stug. I'm a gambler by nature so closing the range rapidly in a all or nothing assault like you suggested was my kind of plan. Still I wasn't all that confident that it would work.

With hindsight a rush to the factory and village seems like the best course of action, and you get the added bonus of getting to grips with the Stugs, pillboxes and 75mm ATGs before the Panthers turn up. Obviously this is just conjecture, a rush might simply get the bulk of your armour KOed VERY quickly. ( Did you get your armour drip fed or did you have it all at the start btw?) However as you say the key is to neutralise the pillboxes and towed 75s early, before even those Stugs turn up with any luck. And at least tempt those 88s into revealing their position.

The road was just to much of a tempting attack approach. You could get your armour into the relative safety of the village in no time, I had to cover it. The PBs didn't have LOS(they are padlocked btw, you can rotate them however). The only things that could interdict fast moving armour down that road were the 88s. I didn't mind the odd tank getting through but I couldn't let a significant force move down that road, it would be into the village, in cover, dangerously close to the bridge and nearer my 88s before I could throw a decent amount of AP at it. So I placed a TRP on the crest of the road, all that armour that got chewed up on that hill was boresighted! I was getting like 40percent first shot hit chances at 1600m with those 88s!!

With regard to the 88s, you hit the nail on the head with the comment about your 82mm mortars. That was the only thing I dreaded, light stuff that could pinpoint them, in those scattered trees they were dead. I told myself, whatever happened I had to keep them hidden until you had used all up all your light-medium ordnance, unless the bridge was actually threatened. So many times I un-hid them and setup an arc, only to cancel it in an indecisive panic just before I saved the turn!

So the Stug charge over the bridge was meant to achieve three objectives, keep you occupied in an early fight on your side of the bridge -- buy time, relieve the garrison, and bait all that armour that I was sure was lurking over the crest of the road. Even if it meant losing the Stug platoon. With hindsight, I think it was worth it, it didn't help the boys in the factory but it kept the heat off the pillboxes for those critical few rounds.

My briefing said I had to defend the bridge at all costs and blow it if its capture became imminent. I made a decision to put everything forward with the object of repulsing everything that tried to cross, simple . I did toy with the idea of placing my MLR (including the towed 75s, Stugs and Panthers as and when they showed) on the hill with the 88s. In hindsight I'm glad I didn't, we saw what happened to one of those 88s when a T34 got too close, and once you got over the bridge the flood-gates would've opened and bang goes my bottleneck. Besides, as I said I needed to force you into using your mortars early, so I had to give you a fight early on.

As for your heavy assets, your comments were spot on I think. Your rockets, you spread their use out in space and time, with hindsight a concentrated barrage on either the 88 ridge-line or the MLR and rear PBs would've been the best option I reckon. Rockets did land dangerously close to the 88s, "pinning" one during your second flurry. I thought they were both goners at the time, 30 more secs of that and I reckon they would've been. And agreed, your armour, even grouped couldn't go toe to toe with even a portion of my AT assets. Again with hindsight, a phased advance, moving and engaging 1-2 of the German ATGs/PBs at a time, from multiple keyhole postions (ie behind the factory complex and from postions in the village) is the only realistic course of action IMO.

To be honest the battle was much closer when you look carefully. At certain points my position was critical, but you didn't and couldn't know it at the time. Until you'd thrown down that rather extravagant smoke barrage my 88s were hamstrung, I dared not use them. You KOed one 75mm ATG in transit(with blast fragments from a rocket that landed 100-150 metres away!). then you KOed the first 75mm pillbox (shortly before the Panthers showed up). I had one operational stug, the rear 75mm PB and that towed 75mm ATG that finally got into position. Only three effective AT weapons. Luckily the Panthers made their presence felt shortly after, the smoke lifted, and I could let lose my 88s. If those initial sequence of events happened say 5 rounds earlier, things would've been very different. Yea all those dug in infantry were nice, (some painfully laboured into position under your underhanded rocketry:]) but they would've counted for sweet FA if their AT support melted away.

Under the circumstances well played my friend, and thankyou for a great game, one of the best. Against a competent opponent this battle looks to be well nigh impossible for the Soviet commander. I too would be very interested to hear other AARs from this.

Hehe yea I claim ignorance for the Panther assault at the end. It was greedy, reckless and probably outside the intended mandate for the motley German force, but heck a young Panther TC is surely entitled to a rush of blood when he sees victory in sight!!

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Lt Bull

[ January 16, 2003, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: Lt Bull ]

[Lt Bull]

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