Bil Hardenberger

The Thirty Fourth Minute - Part 2 While Dollinger's Tiger dueled with the Firefly one of my Pz-IVs who was area firing into the buildings in the Triangle Compound spotted this driving into the compound attempting to hit one of my far left Pz-IVs... ...his first shot hits and penetrates... ...the Sherman then buttoned and started to reverse, however, it failed to reverse far enough and my Pz-IV got another shot in brewing up the tank. The Blood Board.. note that I have not added the Firefly kill yet.. I need to confirm that kill before adding it to the board.

The Thirty Fourth Minute - Part 1 Tiger vs Firefly For the following Tiger versus Firefly exchange I am going to let the images tell the story... only the Tiger is hull down but both are behind a lot of vegetation. It is interesting how many misses there were in this exchange. Both tanks were firing over the wall, I think the firing solution was more difficult for the Firefly. After this first hit the Firefly buttoned up, popped smoke and started to reverse. It did not fire again.. the Tiger fired between this first hit and the following but missed high So the turn ends with me losing sight of the Firefly through the smoke.. I suspect it is dead, but I will have to wait to find out for sure.

The current Blood Board:

The Twenty Seventh - the Thirty Third Minute On the main road I have pushed a pair of Pz-IVs as far as they can go.. I lose one to tank fire from across the map.. guess Warren can see on this road better than I thought from over there. Gaumesnil On the objective there is quite a little fight going on over a section I call the Triangle Compound.. we are both short of infantry (at least on this side of the map) so the action here is between crews and my recon units and a few enemy crews... I have the Pz-IVs in this area as well in case he does something with that Sherman V sitting on the road next to the compound. Meanwhile I have pushed my Tigers and a recon team into the main walled compound of the Gaumesnil objective. The current situation at the end of the 33rd minute shows my Tigers well into the Gaumesnil compound. There does not seem to be any enemy within the walls at this point. Note Dollinger's Tiger... ...he actually has spots on both the Firefly at the edge of the objective and a Sherman III down range on what I suspect is Warren's third line. This line contains at least two Fireflies, so with this information I would say that he has at least one platoon near the Gaumesnil objective, of which I have identified two tanks, and he has at least two more on the line with the Sherman III and the two Fireflies. I expect to see two or three more tanks near Gaumesnil to flush out the forward platoon. Looks like we have a face-off brewing as the Firefly spots Dollinger's Tiger right at the end of the turn... they are both within spitting range. Also at the end of the turn Dollinger fires and hits the Sherman III... no penetration was noted and the tank buttoned up after hit.. so I suspect no damage.

The Sixty-First Minute 2nd Platoon The enemy teams in front of 2nd Platoon are in full flight up the hill towards S. Maria Infante and I am pursuing them the entire way. Meanwhile 2nd platoon infantry advance under the covering fire of halftracks... ...and the Pz-IV and Brummbar. 1st Platoon 1st Platoon also advances on S. Maria Infante under the cover fire from their Platoon leader's 251/10. Note the infantry team next to the corner of the church (bottom image)... they are trying to surrender... I got them too far ahead of the rest of the Platoon.. even though there are no enemy units in the near vicinity they became too fragile. I am moving as many friendly units as possible close to them so they can begin to recover their senses. But I think this is important as it illustrates how important C2 is in this game. Ignore it at your peril. S. Maria Infante S. Maria Infante has become the recipient of a steady flow of fleeing enemy infantry (in this case an MMG team) over the past several turns. These are the remnants of the infantry force that was in the valley. Hill 172 On Hill 172 GaJ's M10 was heard moving back towards the front side and appears to have taken up a hulldown position (or getting ready to move into one) facing my advancing infantry in the valley. This should leave his flank and rear open to attack... but we'll see. I doubt he will dash the M10 into the open space between Hill 172 and S. Maria Infante, unless he is feeling desperate and suicidal.

Tell me about it Michael. I'm ready for it to be over, and turns from GaJ are averaging two days now. I offered him a cease fire several turns ago as I sensed he was losing interest but he wanted to continue.

The Twenty-Sixth Minute I really need to learn to not line my halftracks up so they can't both be knocked out with one round.. damn. At least my foremost halftrack was able to drop off its passengers who became my lead scouts, and spotted this... --a Firefly and a UI tank (probably a Sherman V).. this is bad news. The third Firefly on this side means Warren has three platoons at least arrayed in front of me. The current situation shows how far I have advanced.. I am in the treeline just outside of Gaumesnil now. The Jpz section is also on the line and on the right end protecting the flank. Two more Tigers (including Wittmanns) are moving up behind these three. Blood Board The latest Blood Board.. I need to start catching up soon.

Heh. Even the infantry deserve some love Scott.

The Sixtieth Minute Hill 153 - Hill 172 Ridge GaJ tried to sneak a bazooka team up on my Jpz.. however I have way too many eyes on this ground now and it was spotted moving into position, the Brummbar spotted it as well and as the bazooka team took aim the Brummbar round hits... S. Maria Infante As you can see my foremost units from 1st and 2nd platoons are very close to getting a toe hold in the town. This is all I want.. I doubt I can actually force GaJ from this town in the 10 minutes that remain, however I do want to deny him control of the objective. Movement into this area is why I have been shelling the backside of S. Maria Infante, if GaJ hasn't abandoned these buildings, any units he might have in them should at least be suppressed or fragile. SITMAP The situation as it sits now... --1st and 2nd Platoons push towards the rear of S. Maria Infante --3rd Platoon and the Pioneer Platoon, in really what is a side show relentlessly push any defenders back towards the town. This platoon has a Pz-IV to back them up and provide some firepower --The Screen (made up of ammo bearers) is slowly advancing and along with 3rd platoon are simply there to push the defenders back towards the town. --The Pioneer Platoon is slowly working to clear the Hill 153-Hill 172 ridge of enemy forces.. they now have 3 pieces of armor to help... a Brummbar, the Jpz, and the Elefant. Their role is to solidify their position and kill that M10 if it sticks its nose over the parapet once more. I want the defenders in the town so when my Brummbars open up on it they have a high chance of causing some damage to GaJ's force. I have spotted a few teams running past the bunkers and towards the buildings, so this is already happening. The M10 did back off and head back to the rear slope of Hill 172. What are his options with this TD? Perhaps an attempt to get it back into S. Maria Infante? Perhaps a mad rush over the top to see if it can bag anything on Hill 153? This is his last major asset, and I think his options are limited. My Elefant is now coming up the back side of Hill 153, and with only AT rounds left it will go Destroyer hunting.

I'm pretty sure it was HEAT... I'll check that file out again when I get a chance to be sure. Edit: Yes, it was HEAT

Its part of my Period Icon mod (on the repository)... I have a new version coming out shortly that will be updated to CMFI-GL standards. Also my hex bases mod has the same design for casualty bases. Bil

The Twenty Fifth Minute Skipping ahead a few minutes my Pz-IV section and a couple of halftracks are on the outskirts of the first objective. My lead halftrack spots two Fireflies lurking across the fields... ...this is both good and bad.. its good because they are buttoned, haven't spotted me yet, and are not on the objective... its bad because.. well two Fireflies means at least two platoons are waiting for me on the next defensive line and I had a hell of a time with just the one platoon. I doubt Warren is willing to give me Gaumesnil without a fight. It appears that Warren is using his Fireflies as a support by fire asset while he will probably be maneuvering in close with his Sherman Vs... keeping them at arms length is the right way to use them in my opinion. In the center, 7 Ko. (x6 Pz-IV) comes in... I am sending two of these tanks to the infantry for support, while 6 Ko. is now freed to join the assault on objective 1 and 7 Ko. will make up my reserve. On the right side I am starting to get a loose picture of what is in the woods ahead of 3rd Ko... there is one UI tank in the wood line straight ahead.. while a Sherman III was spotted on the periphery... how many tanks Warren has over here is anybody's guess at this point. With this information all I can say for sure is that there is at least 2 separate platoons, and I do not doubt that there could be a full squadron in those woods and the town beyond... or more.

Here are a few bonus images from the M10 kill sequence... 1. I got his attention with my Pz-IV movement and area fire.. I had a lot of movement in the immediate area around the Pz-IV in the hopes that he would think I had a major move occuring on that side of Tame. 2. I moved the Brummbar up as quickly as possible to the exact spot my infantry team spotted the M10.. I had plotted an area fire with this vehicle on the M10's position.. just in case he didn't move it I at least wanted him buttoned up. He did in fact move his M10 along the route shown... ...when my Brummbar spotted the M10 it diverted its target from the area fire location to the TD. ...the M10 presented its flank to my hulldown Brummbar and the result from 154m was inevitable.

The Twenty-First & Twenty Second Minute This is the tank that has been shooting up my 6 Ko. Pz-IVs.. they have now pulled back into a reserve position. Dollinger's Tiger gets his first kill in turn 22... this Sherman V was trying to escape from the doomed first line of defense. My planned moves now are composed of the Tigers moving (in stages) up as illustrated. I have a Pz-IV section moving on the far left. Note the halftrack that is scouting the way for the Pz-IVs.. they are manned by the Marder crew.. I abandoned that vehicle as the gun was out and it was useless. The Jpz section is the anchor on the right side of the line. Blood Board The latest Blood Board including the latest kill...

John, next time I'm in the game I'll check but couldn't have been more than 200m.

The Fifty Ninth Minute Although I did not have a spot on the M10 between Hill 153 and Hill 172 I area fired with my Brummbar on the spot about where I suspected it was sitting. If nothing else this buttoned the tank up.. you might notice that the rounds were falling well short. I expect GaJ will pull this tank back out of harms way next turn. My plan for this M10 was to area fire with my Brummbar and mortar (which failed to fire this turn) and reposition my Jpz on the M10s flank.. however as you can see my Jpz appears to be too shallow and never got a spot. Tame My plan for the M10 near Tame was to reposition one Pz-IV and a halftrack around the flank.. this (I hoped) would force GaJ to move his M10 to another spot... in the meantime I pushed my Brummbar that was in Tame up to the position where my infantry team was when it spotted the M10... It looks like GaJ was moving his M10 to try and get a spot on my Pz-IV.. I was very happy to see it drive right in front of the Brummbar... Surprisingly, there were a few survivors. The route from Tame to S. Maria Infante just got a lot clearer.

Quite entertaining commentary Ken.

The Fifty Eighth Minute Had a bit of fratricide this turn... my Brummbar near Tame fired on S. Maria Infante once again... however... ...the round impacted directly in front of my lead halftrack, knocking it out and killing the occupants. Oops On Hill 172 GaJ's M10 was spotted driving around the base of the hill.. I had evacuated my units from this hill last turn, and this turn there was only two one man teams left on 172. They both fall, but not before wathcing the M10's route of advance. I actually expected this once I bought my Jpz over the top of the ridge, so this turn I moved it back to the top with a view on the area the M10 must drive into. I however do not like these short range duels with a non turreted tank so will probably pull it off again.. or will I?

The Twentieth Minute Damn.. I was in the process of pulling 6 Ko. back from their exposed position and I lose another Pz-IV to the hidden tanks near Objective 1. 1st Ko. comes in, however without transport it is highly unlikely they will contribute much in the battle, especially as I don't have any real objectives on this side of the map. 3rd Ko. also arrives, I will be scouting forward with a couple teams to see, well, what I can see.

Thanks George. Freyberg, coming right up.

I miss you man! <sniff> Seriously I'm very happy you have found yourself a good place Fionn. Hope you are allowed to stay around and contribute again. Cheers, Bil

The Nineteenth Minute The turn started with Warren repositioning his Firefly, this time he did have my Tigers in his crosshairs. He gets the first shot off at 01:30:40 (20 seconds into the turn) which hit and penetrated Dollinger's Tiger. No damage however... whew. Several seconds later Wittmann's tank got a bead on the Firefly and let one fly. Penetration! However seeing as the Firefly fired (and missed) a few seconds later I don't think there was any damage. This round did force the Firefly to button and back off the line so it at least shook him up. Next there was a simultaneous event.. both Dollinger's and Wittmann's Tigers fire at the same time. It was good fun to watch the two rounds go downrange.. however, Dollinger's round went high while Wittmann's connected again, and penetrated again. Wittmann fires a final time and again hits the Firefly. This round's impact actually pushes the Firefly back about a meter... and this is the round that knocks the bastard out. Dollinger's tank got one more round off that hit and penetrated after this one, but the fat lady had already sung, unfortunately for him. His boss will get the credit for the kill. Here is the current Blood Board... note that I had miscounted dead Sherman V's and this one has the correct count.. there are 3 dead Sherman V's now along with the one dead Firefly.

Seedorf81, am I boring you in the other AAR?

The Fifty Seventh Minute Tame Brummbar Area Fire: before and after My lead team from Tame scouting the approaches to S. Maria Infante gets a spot on the M10 that killed my Pz-IV a few turns ago. Now at least I know exactly where to plot my area fire. Ridge Road On the Ridge Road both my Elefant and, less impressively, my Pz-IV take a few shots at the enemy infantry grouping on Hill 172. With the M10 in the Hill 172 area (and not moving this turn) I brought both the Jpz and the Brummbar over the top of the ridge to finally clear out whatever GaJ still has on this slope. They are well interspersed with Pioneers to suppress any Bazooka teams. Note the enemy mortar team in the foreground. The enemy mortar team gets up close and personal with my Brummbar.. not normally where you would want to be.

The Eighteenth Minute I was happy to note that the first kill by a Tiger in the game goes to Wittmann himself. However the jubilation was cut short as I lose one Pz IV that was rushing the left side of the map to hopefully move up to the area where the Marder was earlier... And evidently it was a mistake to bring 6 Ko. out so early.. I lose the 2d Platoon HQ tank to an unseen shooter near the first objective. Updated: