Heinrich505

RockinHarry, I posted another short story of this battle in the screenshots thread. A number of pictures that I am sure you'll enjoy. They don't show off the nice looking pillboxes you've put together for this battle, but that might come later if I ever get my counter-attack going. The US artillery is devastating. This is one beast of a battle. I got punched out with a total defeat the first time, so I'm taking the challenge and going at it again. Heinrich505

Into Germany Lt. Williams’ tank is burning, the victim of a shot from somewhere near the town ahead. He and his crew dash to safety as their part of this battle is over. Sgt. Rogers sees this, and calls to his crew, asking if anyone has seen who let off the killing shot. All reply in the negative. Sgt. Rogers can see Big Joe’s tank just beyond the burning wreck of Williams’ tank. He is still okay. Rogers is impatient. He doesn’t like to be back in the pack. He is used to leading the column. His tank was the first into Germany behind that crazy flail thing, which hardly qualifies as a tank, in his mind. Their progress got held up a little as they pushed towards a series of bunkers and pillboxes. His gunner, Mikey, punched round after round into the pillbox slit, until the Krauts fled out the back and were cut down by Cleveland on the front machine gun. They saw the ground pounders get chewed up a bit by enemy mortar fire. They left them behind, cowering in ditches for cover. Tanks up front; that is Rogers’ creed. Let the others duck and run. He is supremely confident in his armored beauty. While he worked over the pillboxes, other tanks edged ahead of his, so now he is behind everyone else. Rogers has had enough. “We ain’t cowering around waiting for the Krauts to cut us up. Cry-Baby, gun this puppy up and take us into the lead.” “You got it, Sarge,” yells the driver. He is the youngest of the crew and he is constantly complaining about something, anything, so Rogers started calling him Cry-Baby. The tank lurches forward as Cry-Baby works the clutch and they motor past Big Joe’s tank and into the lead. There is an explosion off to the left, and Cry-Baby yells out a warning on the intercom. Rogers yells “GO GO GO” and Cry-Baby punches the gas. The tank lurches forward, everyone on high alert to try and spot the immediate threat. Rogers hears the scream of a shell that rips over the top of his tank. A miss, he thinks to himself. Even with the engine roaring wide open, the sickening claaannggg of shell hitting steel is heard in the distance to their rear. No one sees this though, as it happens behind them and they can’t afford the luxury of sightseeing. The shell has missed Rogers’ tank and hit Big Joe’s. A bright spot in the distance, around 10 o’clock but no one spots it. The focus is elsewhere. “Sarge, left left left,” shouts Slick, the loader. No one beats him at cards, so they call him Slick. He has seen figures through the vision slits on his side and believes they are the threat that caused the earlier explosion. “Gunner, 9 o’clock personnel,” shouts Rogers. Slick is already shoving a HE shell into the breach as Big Mike smoothly rotates the turret left at full speed, then backs off with practiced efficiency as the turret markings show he is almost at 9 0’clock. Big Mike hears the slam of the breech and doesn’t need any signal from the loader. He is in command when the Sarge is not around, so everyone has taken to calling him Big Mike, even though he is rather short in stature. Cry-Baby had just rocked the tank through a shallow ditch and he is hitting the brakes when Big Mike trips the arming switch and slams his foot on the pedal that fires the cannon. It is a snap shot, one that is not aimed but fired quickly in the hope that the enemy will duck for cover, giving the tank crew time to line up for an aimed shot next. There was no time to wait for the Sarge to give the command to fire. Big Mike took the initiative. The gun roars as the shell rips from the barrel. Rogers smiles with approval – he’s discussed this with Big Mike in the past, telling him that he has permission to punch off a snap shot if he deems it necessary for the safety of the tank. The tank lurches to a halt and Cry-Baby drops the gear levers into first while clutching in to idle, anticipating a rapid start forward. Slick is already slamming the breech shut, having loaded another HE round in anticipation of more action against enemy personnel. “Gunner, three degrees to the left. Kraut bazooka. Just fired. Get on him NOW!” shouts Rogers. He has spotted the enemy gunner at the moment he fired his weapon. It was the jet of smoky exhaust streaming from the enemy gun tube that catches his eye. Rogers sees the enemy rocket is not heading towards them. This means they are still targeting Big Joe’s tank, so that earlier hit must not have been fatal. “They’re after Big Joe,” he shouts. “We can’t let them fire again.” At that moment the sound of one thousand sledgehammers pounds the front of the tank, just as a roar erupts from behind them. The panzer schreck gunner has scored on Big Joe’s tank, but no one in Rogers’ crew is aware of that. Cry-Baby is screaming something and then yelling for someone to tell him he is okay. If they were outside of their tank, they would see the gouge in the tank skin where a shell hit and ricocheted off their tank, just missing the driver’s vision port by scant inches. Somewhere inside his head, Rogers sees numbers counting down and he feels cold sweat running down the center of his back. The tank shudders as the turret machine gun opens fire on the enemy gunner. Deadly rounds stream towards the man, tearing up the earth around him. Rogers is trying to get a handle on everything that is happening at once. There is a German bazooka threat to their flank and they’ve just taken a round off the front glacis and his friend’s tanks are burning behind him…too fast, things are happening too fast… Cry-Baby is still screaming but now it is a torrent of obscenities. He has dropping the gear levers into reverse as his first instinct is to back away from the threat. He has not waited for the Sarge to call out this command, as they’ve done exactly the same maneuver time and time before, saving their bacon many times in the past. Big Mike slams his foot on the gunner’s pedal once more, again not waiting for Rogers to give an order. Let him yell at me later, thinks Big Mike. “Yeah!” shouts Big Mike, seeing the enemy gunner disappear in a satisfying gout of smoke, flame, and dirt. He knew he had the range and distance dialed in to a Tee. Suddenly the tank screams in agony as an enemy shell slams into her side. Rogers is stunned as it seemed the whole tank, all 33 tons of her seemed to shove to the right. He must have hit his head on something. He can’t hear anything, and his vision is blurred, or is that from smoke billowing through the tank interior? A clean shell hole has ripped into the tank interior, just behind Cry-Baby and right where Slick was standing. Rogers hears a high-pitched whistle in his head, and then his hearing starts to come back. He doesn’t hear Cry-Baby screaming anything, but there is a curious gurgling sound coming from the driver’s position. Rogers sees shiny metal strewn about the tank interior, and the gun has a curious cant to it. His mind is having trouble processing all the horror that is splattered around him and he struggles to control himself and take command of his crew. A second explosion rips his tank. He can’t see for all the smoke in the tank interior. He can’t hear anyone calling for help and he feels wet and sticky, all at the same time. Have I been hit? he wonders. Are the others okay? An overwhelming, primeval urge to survive comes over him now. Clumsily he slips to a standing position and slams the hatches open on the top of the tank. He hardly realizes he did this, as his training has turned him into an automaton. “OUT, EVERYONE OUT!” he screams as he rips the headphones off his head and starts to climb out of the tank. At this point it is everyone for themselves, to hell with the women and children, abandon the ship. They’ve taken three hits, one of which bounced off. Someone has their number. Again Rogers sees numbers running through his head, and they are counting down very fast. From inside the tank Rogers can’t see the deadly German Stürmgeschutz, just to the left of the tree line. Rogers sees the numbers hit zero and he hesitates for a moment. There are no sounds in his tank, and now he sees the bloody rags that used to be his friends, most of their presence smeared like paste around the tank interior, and covering his hands and legs as well. He has not been hit, he discovers, with great relief. A brilliant flash of light blooms from the enemy tank’s gun… …The explosion rips through the stricken tank’s interior, shrapnel tearing through the tank, breaking both of Rogers’ legs and dropping him to the floor of the turret basket. Flames erupt all around him now. The tank is burning. There is no one to pull him from the Hell that he now resides. There is nothing left to do but scream for as long as his tortured lungs will allow before the flames consume him. His last thought is I was so close… There are three puncture wounds in the side of the burning tank. The enemy gunner put the second shot through almost the same hole as the first. Flames billow from the tank interior. The march into Germany will not be an easy one. Rogers won the race to be the tank that was the furthest into Germany this day, but it is a Pyrrhic victory. The war goes on… Heinrich505

GeorgeMC, Really great shots. Nice preview, eh? We hope. Your maps always have a very expansive look to them, depending on the area you are depicting, which is quite evocative for the eastern front in many ways. Heinrich505

Sgt Joch, Amazing scenarios. So well done. Did anyone guess your initial question about the German OOB in Part 2? I'm going to suggest it was the Jagdpanzers. They performed very nicely from ridgeline positions, although I did lose one with a gun hit that destroyed it's main weapon. I posted some pictures of that battle in the screenshots thread. The map was stunning. Rocketman is correct. The battle is great, even versus AI. Highly recommended. From Part 1. Death takes its measure at the twilight's last gleaming... From Part 2. Heinrich505

Warts 'n' all, Thanks. Glad you like them. I'm trying out RockinHarry's latest 4.0 scenario. It is turning into quite the challenge. I couldn't resist the shot at the Flail Sherman. That rear turret was too inviting. Heinrich505

Erwin, I just logged on and couldn't see any pics either. I closed out the site and re-opened it and they all appeared. Heinrich505

Knappe rides the front of the column. Intel from the CO is that the Amis are pouring through the Siegfried Line. They've used some of those English contraptions to beat their way through minefields. They have an attachment on the front that slings around chains and beats the ground, setting off the mines. The front line is breaking open and he and his comrades are being thrown in to stop the flood. He sees what he thinks is one of those English contraptions and orders a halt. His gunner sees it too. The driver adjusts the hull slightly, like he's done hundreds of times before and the gunner drops the sights right on target, anticipating the hull movement as if reading the driver's mind. Knappe didn't have to give any orders. The crew is working like a perfectly balanced watch. He smiles to himself. "Sir?" calls out the gunner. "Fire," he says gently, almost reluctantly, into the microphone. The gun roars and smoke fogs the interior in an instant. The clang of the empty casing, the slam of the breech, the burned powder smell, all so familiar, so well rehearsed, a deadly ballet to his eyes and ears. Knappe can barely see the explosion, but he is sure it is a hit. "Treffer!" roars the driver. He has seen the flames of the hit. As the smoke inside his assault gun vents, Knappe can now see the deadly results. He sees blackened shadows climbing out of the flames and falling to the sides of the burning tank. He shakes the horrifying vision from his eyes. He has seen too many friend and foe alike burned in the flames of war. "First shot hit, clean through the rear of the turret. Excellent shooting," he compliments his gunner. The crew momentarily basks in the praise from their commander. "Eyes sharp, there are more out there," he cautions. The men instantly return to their deadly craft. The war goes on... Heinrich505

RockinHarry, Playing through your battle now. Probably won't finish it tonight. Thought I would toss in some screenshots. Interesting battle so far. Getting kicked in the teeth, but Metzler's column is arriving now. There might be hope for the Fatherland yet. Knappe knows how desperate things are. The Amis are entering Germany now, and rolling over the pillboxes. He spots an enemy tank. One of those flail things that beat the ground and detonate mines. His gunner lays the sights on. The gun roars... ..."Treffer!" roars the driver. He has seen it first. Knappe sees some survivors climb through the flames. He shakes the horrifying vision from his mind. He's seen too many friend and foe alike, burned by the flames of war. "First shot, clean through the back of the turret. Excellent shooting! Now, watch for more," he warns. The war goes on... Heinrich505

MarkEzra, Just finished playing out your V4.0 for this battle. Played it on Elite. I...er...didn't check the designer notes and played it as Allied vs. AI. Sorry about that. Got a major victory after the German's surrendered with around 25 minutes left to play. However, let me say that it was very enjoyable and I had to play smart. There was an ebb and flow to the battle, and at several points I was not sure I'd be able to hold in some of my positions. SPOILERS********************************************* Some of you can mask the text for spoilers - not sure how that is done, so if you want to play it first, don't read any further. Mark, the difference between the original map and your 4.0 version is stunning. After finishing the 4.0 battle, I went and looked at the first version and it looked nice...but your 4.0 map was really sharp. During setup I kind of sat there looking at how nice the map looked for a while before figuring out where I wanted my troops. Your map changes really enhanced the whole appearance of the battle. Don't get me wrong - your first map was nice too, but this one was...WOW!!! The Allied troop mix was good. It felt right. I left everyone pretty much where they were on the map. I altered the guys on the right flank a bit, but not much. Then I started the battle. The AI started right out at me, in several locations. The right flank was a problem straight away. The enemy started cutting up my guys and I had to fall back deeper into the woods. The Assault Gun was relentless, area firing in all sorts of possible locations, some which I had even considered putting troops in at the beginning of the battle, but had a bad feeling about and kept the men further back. I had a bazooka team in what I thought was a good spot, but seeing the AI starting to pick and choose spots to area fire, I pulled them back fast. Shortly after I had pulled them out of the "really good spot," the Assault Gun blew it up big time. If I'd left them there, they would have been killed. The AI was aggressive, but I got the drop on them and hit them with some flanking fire. That slowed them a lot, and they relied on the Assault Gun to keep ripping the woods up. They made another push and this time were hit so hard that they had to pull back and this ended their attack on my right flank. The other telling event was that the Hellcats had arrived by then, and they knocked out the two StuGs on that side, but not before one Hellcat was knocked out. I used mortars to torment the old French gun halftrack until it finally moved forwards and a Hellcat torched it. My forward positions had been mauled a bit in the center, so there were a lot of guys running for their lives. I took quite a few casualties to the MG in the woods. The AI figured out where my mortars were and they got plastered badly. An interesting gun duel took place between the two Hellcats I had in the center and right flank on the ridge. They took on the Tiger. I used the Hull-down command to get them up on the ridge, and the center one took a position that I could barely tell was hull-down to the Tiger - it was that good. The Tiger missed because there was so little to shoot at, but the Hellcats kept punching rounds onto the front gun area of the Tiger. I believe that one finally got a round through the barrel of the Tiger, but it still showed it was in action, so a penetrating round into the upper turret finally put the Tiger out of the fight. That was a major coup, as the Tiger was going to be able to mess up everything I had pretty handily. The AI pushed up the center next, and made it to some of the houses halfway to the village. The crossfire from the MGs was so heavy that they weren't able to get any further than that. My forward guys on the left center had been hugging the wall, hiding after being cut up a bit by halftracks aggressively attacking, but with the Tiger out of the fight, the remaining two Hellcats on the ridge were able to knock out the halftracks as they charged. My guys behind the wall took a lot of casualties but held on, and then were able to fire into the flank of the center push, which helped to end that threat. On the left flank, I got sound alerts fairly early on for vehicles. I decided to push an assault team into the woods on the left flank, hoping I could ambush some halftracks that might be coming front that area. They rushed forward from the wall and made it to the woods just as a halftrack with a 20mm gun pushed out, attacking the guys on that forward wall. The halftrack took so much fire that they turned and rushed into the woods for cover, coming in contact with the assault team that had pushed forwards. There were some grenades thrown, and casualties in the halftrack, but then the gunner swung the 20mm around and started shredding the vegetation as well as my guys. They all went down. Not being one to give up yet on a good idea - ha ha - I then rushed an AT team around to the same area, while keeping the halftrack boys ducking from MG fire way off on the right flank. But, my AT boys only had rifle grenades. They got off the two grenades and hit the halftrack, but didn't kill it, and the guy with the regular rifle threw all his grenades to no effect. The damn thing was still active, but now fairly quiet. I watched as the lone rifleman fired off his last rounds and now he had no ammo, nothing. I had him crawl up to barely 10 meters from the halftrack and strip ammo off the bodies of the first team, so now he had rifle rounds again, but still no grenades. After a while, the Hellcat on the far right got the drop on the StuG supporting the push on my right, and knocked it and the supporting 20mm halftrack near the woods out. Now that all that distraction was over, the Hellcat in the center finally got a spot on the 20mm halftrack in the woods and punched a round through it's side, setting it on fire and ending the lone rifleman's vigil watching over it. The AI rushed it's last halftrack down my left flank in homage to the Last Ride of the Valkyries, took a storm of MG fire, and then started backing up only to be blown up by one of the Hellcats. The AI then surrendered. I thought the battle played out very nicely, even though you didn't recommend Allies vs. AI. My force felt a bit brittle at times, so I had to be very careful on how I used them or exposed them to enemy fire. The AI was very good at area firing into possible locations where threats might exist. I'll have to try it again as Germans to see how things go, but I still had fun and things played out nicely. The real key was my placement of the Hellcats. That was a big factor in my being victorious. I'll have to see how the AI uses the Hellcats when I play Axis. This played out very nicely, and I enjoyed it. I'm sure Axis vs. AI will be more of a challenge, but I play for the enjoyment and don't always need a tough challenge. I'll reiterate just how nice your 4.0 version map was. Amazing. Thanks for all your hard work on this and for up-dating it to 4.0. It was lots of fun. Heinrich505

Ouch, that really hurt!!!

IanL, E Company sending two scouts to the bar, eh? Hope they aren't overly thirsty. Really enjoying your presentation. I, too, enjoy seeing your movement commands. You use Fast a lot more than I do. I probably should as well, but I hate to tire the men when Quick usually works. Too bad about F Co. 2nd platoon. I've had to use survivors for just that purpose - buddy aid as the rest of the troops move forward. Heinrich505

MOS:96B2P, Glad you liked it. Just seemed too dramatic to pass up. The sun was going down during the battle and those poor burning Shermans were still cooking off on the ridge. Heinrich505

Death takes its measure at the twilight's last gleaming.... 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

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

Oh yes, and it knocked out the Sturmpanzer.

MOS, The unlucky Sturmpanzer was about 15 meters away from the one that had the ammo cook-off. There was only 1 survivor out of the crew of 5. Hinrichsen, the driver, was the only one to get out, and he went out the top hatch, I gather, as that is the one open. He would have been the furthest from the blast and had the most armor between him and the other Sturmpanzer. The crater is truly impressive. I've only seen bigger craters from Stuka attacks. The Elephant just shrugged it off and drove around the carnage. Heinrich505

In the battle Forest of Wild Beasts, the demise of a Sturmpanzer IV is recorded. The vehicle was hit by heavy US artillery on the top, and then proceeded to "cook off," killing the crew of another Sturmpanzer IV nearby in the largest explosion I've seen so far. I venture to say this exceeds the explosion of a burning Priest that has their ammo go off. An Elephant is nearby to show scale. Amazing. Heinrich505

Macisle, Really nicely done. Love the screenshots. Glad you got CMFB gifted to ya. See what you've been missing? Heinrich505

Ultradave, Thanks so much for this posting. I've always thought it important for us to remember who the figures represent when we move them around on the maps while playing the battles in this game. Mr. Hughes is one of all those men responsible for making possible the great lives we can live today in this amazing country. I've seen that picture too, and never knew who the man was until now. It means that much more now that I know of him and can remember him to others. We keep alive the people we know, love, and respect by the telling of their stories to others, and in that way, they never really leave us. Heinrich505

Ach, sorry IanL, I didn't realize what had happened until several turns later. I've no save for when it happened, just Hans and the boys stumping around inside the building, "allegedly" trying to free the gun, but we all know it is just an act to keep the Leutnant from shooting them for dereliction of duty. I'm pretty sure Hans convinced the others to drag the gun into the house, hoping it would become stuck and then they'd be out of the fight and he'd volunteer to head to the rear and get another one. Jerk!!! Heinrich505

StieliAlpha, Had this happen in RT. Unloaded the 75mm AT gun too close to a building and Voila, gun limbered inside the building. Have tried to move them out of the building for a while now and no success. I'm getting the feeling I'll have to try and bail the crew just to get the men away from the gun, but end up losing the gun. Heinrich505

RepsolCBR, Looks very nice. Looking forward to it. Heinrich505

BFawlty, You are very welcome. John Cleese fan? Heinrich505

John, Good for you. At least you cracked the wall and got published in The General. That has to count for a major personal achievement. I entered all the contests trying to get an ASL squad leader counter named after me. Now THAT would have been the pinnacle of achievement, heh heh. Knowing my luck I might have ended up as a 6+1 Major in the Hungarian Gamette. Heinrich505