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The Battle for Hamel Vallee - an AAR


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The artillery storm continues while the Germans start shuttling units to support 1st Company.

t18hunkeringdown.jpg

I would end up setting up a shuttle service with transfer points as there was no path for vehicles across the map. It was a bit of effort, but

the result was MG teams showing up still in good shape. These would add a level of resilience to 1st Company that was badly needed.

t18transitsystem.jpg

3rd Platoon had been effectively removed from control and would continue to fight from 3rd Company's AO. 2nd Platoon was being mauled

and would only suffer more. 1st platoon was mostly intact but rattled. Once again units from the PJ Bn would prove crucial to stabilizing

the line and allowing significant numbers of units to break contact. 1st Company would eventually be fighting from their HKL.

t18overview.jpg

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Thanks for the AAR. With such a large battle I am wondering if you are breaking up your squads into teams? Seems yes for some of the forward units. But you mentioned the shelling hitting a squad so I am wondering if you only did splitting for your picket line?

Thanks,

Gerry

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3rd Company 1st Platoon now begin the third part of the mission, force the enemy to deploy and stall on Hwy 91. Here you see units in a

firefight the width of a road. This is not a fight they can be expected to win, they will need to break contact again soon.

t19HatfieldsandtheMcCoys.jpg

More American armor is moving up

t19timetobugout.jpg

Stager meanwhile has shifted back to his original position and is about to warn the Americans that direct fire support from the

hotel is a dangerous game.

t19Sherman.jpg

t19targetacquisition.jpg

3rd Platoon 3rd Company is showing the effects of the bombardment. Though still mostly intact, it is becoming questionable how effective

this unit will be as a reserve. This will have unforeseen and tragic consequences for 1st platoon 2nd Company.

t19batteredreserve.jpg

Next up, The American view

I am going to pause here as shortly after this the s**t really hits the fan. I want to give Broadsword the opportunity to comment on the

American perspective of events so far, how they may or may not have affected American planning and what the Americans are

thinking to do next.

For you Monday morning quarterbacks it is important to note one item you can not see in this. Broadsword and I have had a number of

games together and have begun to have a sense of the other's style. I prefer an active defense, I don't like sitting still and waiting to

react to enemy moves. I prefer to try to keep them off balance (one reason to not play against the AI. It could care less what I am

thinking). Broadsword on the other hand generally likes to keep me guessing about where the attack is going to fall. This battle saw both

of us moving slightly different. The state of my units makes my usual tactics difficult to use. These troops tire fast and cower relatively

quickly. I have been extremely dependent on my StuG units to carry the load. My ambush by the OP unit would generally be the exception,

my infantry would not be able to employ fire and movement tactics reliably.

Broadsword on the other hand moved a lot faster than I expected. We had deliberately kicked the clock on this game out to 4 hours.

I was expecting the Americans to spend more time trying to recon my positions. That the attack would develop as fast as it did was

unexpected. I was still unsure 20 minutes into the game that everything on my left wasn't a diversion. The relative lack of activity by the

Shermans was weighing on my mind. Again an item that Broadsword deliberately included in the plan that achieved it's intended effect.

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Amazing amazing AAR. Well thought out. I also just downloaded and installed Mord's unit patches. This game is awesome!

BTW, how long did this take to play by pbem?

I had to step away for a work trip that lasted almost a month, so in actual time I had access to the game about a month. Figure about 2 turns a day and the battle ran for around 75 minutes.

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Notice I got my portraits sorted out Mord. In case it doesn't show from my Sig, I have a particular affinity for 352nd ID.

That's the exact reason I wanted to get those German portraits on par with the US stuff when I first did the mod. Everybody has that one unit that really gets them so it's cool that you now have that to play with. It really adds to the atmosphere having that little picture tell you precisely what formation the units are portraying. And I hope that it'll inspire scenario makers to be specific about the formations in their battles even when they are fictional.

Great job on the AAR thus far...I haven't read all of it yet but was scanning through and caught your statement. Glad you are enjoying the mod. And I always love when you do screenies...you have a flair for vignettes that speaks to my imagination.

Look forward to Broadsword's side of the story.

Mord.

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Thanks for the AAR. With such a large battle I am wondering if you are breaking up your squads into teams? Seems yes for some of the forward units. But you mentioned the shelling hitting a squad so I am wondering if you only did splitting for your picket line?

Thanks,

Gerry

Genrallly I did split all of them up. I had some issues as this is a depleted battlion and occasionally I had squads that could not split up. My intent with those was to try and designate them for tasks that required some serious firepower. As long as they didn't take a direct arty round that plan would seem to make sense. :P

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The US perspective thus far:

HamelValleeUSviewturn20.jpg

Turn 20 -- Everything going close to plan so far, with the diversionary probe on my right reaching the D91 highway under supporting fire from a Sherman platoon on the hilltop at HOTEL AU HEUP.

In the center, you can see a thick line of troops waiting in their foxholes for the jumpoff. Scout and recon teams form a thin screen, feeling their way toward the highway and trying to spot/flush out any lurking snipers, outposts and AT teams. The rolling barrage has just lifted and it's time to make the first bound with my main force.

But there's a problem: German outposts and snipers are raising hell with my scouts in the center. Of the 9 or 10 icons you can see in my recon screen, at least two are pinned, another is suppressed, and another is shaken. I can't really support them with covering fire from my foxhole line (no LOS) and I don't want to expose my main body of troops or feed them into the battle piecemeal.

I need that diversionary attack on my right to gain a position across the D-91 highway, capture the orchard at the far right, and then angle through the the wheatfields. That's where they can threaten to enfilade the German center positions at the same time as my main body attacks from the front. Otherwise it's just a predictable frontal assault in the center, and too easy for the Germans to defend against.

Turn 28 -- About 3 minutes now until my rolling barrage starts to fall and my 2-company attack in the center jumps off. But thinga are falling behind schedule -- the scouts in the advance screen should have cleared past the D-91 highway by now up to the twin orchards. Instead they remain bogged down and picked off by sniping and mortaring and haven't even cleared the highway yet. So it looks like I'll have to fight my way to was was supposed to be my start line. By the time I get there, the rolling barrage will have lifted and the Germans under it will have recovered.

HamelValleeUSreachingtherightorchardturn28.jpg

The diversionary attack force on my right have reached their orchard. But the minute they breach the orchard hedgerow and start to move in, they hit a withering fire from Germans and StuGs on the far side of the orchard's rear hedgerows...

HamelValleeUSpinnedinrightorchardturn28.jpg

The GIs are almost all pinned or suppressed, and it's too late to fall back. So they hide, pop smoke, and make a 911 call to their supporting Stuarts (who are making their way down from Hill 108 behind them).

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So we head into the critical phase of the battle. The Germans are still unsure where the hammer will fall or even that it is coming soon

and the Americans have fallen behind the pace of the scheduled bombardment. Is that not unlike most major battles you have read about?

The staff planning that goes into an attack and trying to figure out how long anything will actually take is a major leap of faith. One has

to accept that you plan without actually knowing how anything will play out.

The first Sherman down.Hopefully this will reduce some of the fire coming off hill 108.

t201stSherman.jpg

The Reich ball express continues troop movements. The unit portrayed is not the unit in the vehicle.

t20taxi.jpg

The mass of a large attacking force is noted heading directly for Hwy 91 between the left and center crossroads. The call goes out for

artillery in a linear strike to blunt the attack. It's time for 2nd and 3rd platoons to withdrawal. Unfortunately for those 2nd platoon

units in the wheatfield it is likely already too late. For now they may just have to fight to make time for everyone else.

t20ovrview.jpg

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Stager has now withdrawn from the wheatfield. 2nd platoon is left hanging to slow the American drive with very little chance of surviving

the battle. Note the first pair of MG units on the far left slowly making their way forward to join 1st Company.

t21overview.jpg

3rd platoon 1st Company breaks contact. The leader of this platoon should receive a commendation, they have fulfilled their role perfectly

and with hardly any loss.

1sq3rdpltnbreakscontact.jpg

3rd Platoon 1st Company sets up in their fallback position. 2nd platoon is effectively cut off. American units have occupied the left flank

orchard and the hazards of trying to cross the Wheatfield are no better than staying put.

t221sq3rdplnewdefenseline.jpg

`

Friberg, having taken over point defense lies in wait in the center crossroads. In discussing this battle beforehand, the general feeling

was the German position was really awful. However as the battle went on I began to realize the Germans were essentially defending in

the central position from a reverse slope and it extended for quite a bit. This meant the Americans would have a really difficult time

providing fire support to the advance units.

t22ambushlocation.jpg

2nd Platoon has been flanked, but it would be some time before the Americans would be able to take advantage of that. Concealment in the

wheatfield made it very difficult to target units as we would both discover.

t22overview.jpg

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Another TC taken out by an mg team. American armor continues to have difficulty contributing to the fight. One item we found in this battle

caught us both by surprise. There has been a lot of discussion of uber spotting by tanks on the forum. I fully expected I would have some

difficulty taking on American armor. What we found instead was American armor was exceedingly vulnerable. I got to the point of

checking every tank I could see to verify if the TC was exposed. I gave no explicit orders, I didn't need to. If a TC popped his head

up, his life expectancy could be measured in turns. As to AT teams, well we will get to that.

t23takingaim.jpg

t23anotherTCdown.jpg

German vehicles put to work ferrying reinforcements to the beleagured 1st Company.

t23publictransportation.jpg

The Americans have broken out into 2nd platoons flank while at the same time a concerted push seems to be organizing for the left crossroads.

t23overview.jpg

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The Americans have broken out into 2nd platoons flank while at the same time a concerted push seems to be organizing for the left crossroads.

t23overview.jpg

As you can see from sburke's last image, the US main attack has now jumped off and is heading for the highway.

Note the hatchet-shaped wheatfield complex just below the German front line: From the explosion debris, you can see the US rolling barrage is hitting the rear of those wheatfields. But it really needs to be hitting the FRONT of the wheatfields, where the Germans are lying in wait. That's the cost of delay -- the barrage has moved on according to schedule, but the GIs don't realize they're about to make an unsupported frontal attack into the teeth of a prepared defensive line.

The diversionary attack on the far left has been a smashing success. But the US force committed to it -- a Stuart platoon and two platoons of L Company -- aren't enough to do much more than penetrate into the wheatfields and threaten from that area. As it happened nearly all the infantry in that sector were "broken" by this time, as a result of the battles for the orchard and the inevitable retaliatory German post-withdrawal mortaring. Also, a number of the Stuarts (at least 3 by now, including an important Rhino) that rushed to the doggies' assistance have been destroyed by StuGs. The surviving Stuarts in that sector have pulled into defensive and safer positions, while the infantry tries to reorganize and proceed with combing those cut-off Germans out of the wheat.

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a 1st platoon team that had been stranded with 2nd platoon is breaking now. Gotta love the behavior in CMx2. The team breaks and heads

out across the wheatfield.

t24escapethroughthewheatfield.jpg

They come under fire and one of the team is clearly trailing

t24underfire.jpg

Here one guy stops and turns to check on his buddy

t24turnbacktohelp.jpg

and proceeds to try to give covering fire and it's the one injured guy!

t24coveringfire.jpg

The face of the enemy

t24tradingfire.jpg

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Just to show the first...and second weren't just flukes

never miss an opportunity

t24nevermissanopportunity.jpg

it just might

t24itjustmight.jpg

payoff

t24payoff.jpg

Rush hour on the back roads

t24transit.jpg

The artillery barrage continues. We will post all the turns, screenshots do it no justice. The chaos of this battle was just incredible.

And no that kubelwagen did not survive this. Fortunately that taxi was not carrying a fare.

t24panoramaofdestruction.jpg

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As the Americans forge across the hwy, their armor support moves up to give covering fire.

t24intothelineoffire.jpg

The German PJ Bn however has had time to deploy.

t24hwyofdeath.jpg

And it turns out the hwy is a very exposed position. Yes that is a rear turret hit. The Stuart was apparently focusing on the threat

presented by my MG teams.

t24fireworks.jpg

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2nd Pltn 3rd Company is battered by the barrage

t252ndpltn3rdcounderfir3.jpg

But it is not all one sided. A Stuart is immobilized in the Wheatfield by German artillery

t25GermanartilleryimmobilizesStuart.jpg

American infantry deploys onto the highway

t25intothekillzone.jpg

and the German artillery is unleashed on hwy 91 as an engineer team is blowing a gap in the hedgerow

t25engineerteam.jpg

The team I believe actually survived this, but it is a great shot

t25thehwyunderfire.jpg

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Meanwhile a full assault seems to be pushing into the orchard next to the left crossroads.

t25overview.jpg

The Americans rush into the orchard perhaps thinking it has to be better than staying on the exposed roadway

t25intotheorchard.jpg

3rd platoon 1st company's fallback position just happens to cover the flank of the orchard.

t25viewfrom3rdplatoon1stcompany.jpg

At the far end an MG is deployed

t25viewfrommgposition.jpg

3rd platoon takes the American under fire

t25flankingfire.jpg

vKleist if you are reading this, this is about what my guys are feeling right about now in our battle. LOL

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The orchard ends up being a trap. A German MG moves into position directly ahead of the advancing infantry.

t26MGmovingintopositionatorchard.jpg

While they are setting up, the MG HQ sect takes the GIs under fire

t26HQcoveringformgteam.jpg

The German infantry in the wheatfield goes to ground, but playing possum rarely works on a battlefield

t26pinnedintheorchard.jpg

The American artillery retaliates for the hit on the Stuart immobilizing Schwimmer's StuG

t26immobilized.jpg

The main American attack force now seems to be in position on hwy 91 with advance forces moving into the orchard.

t26overview.jpg

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The Americans are now squarely into the kill zone and German artillery fire is hitting home. The units in the orchard are cutoff and under fire.

Follow on units are breaking and falling back

t27Americansfallingbackfromtheorchard.jpg

Their exit path takes them right back through the German minefield

t27retreatthroughaminefield.jpg

Other units are pinned down in what turns out to be an exposed position that provides no cover from incoming rounds

t27pinnedonthehwy.jpg

Some rounds actually detonate in the orchard itself

t27thekillzone.jpg

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At the same time GIs are attempting to push past the center crossroads

t27thepushonthehwy.jpg

The linear barrage crosses through here as well

t27germanartilleryhitsthehwy.jpg

The orchard directly in front of the crossroads would see repeated attempts by the GIs to force their way through, however once again the

terrain would dictate how much supporting fire they would get.

t27struggleforthecrossroads.jpg

The hwy would become a scene of complete chaos

t27chaosonthehwy.jpg

The battle for a pair of fields on hwy 91 is now in full swing. The Americans have placed some armor into a position where they can provide

covering fire from over near the hotel into the positions of 3rd Platoon 1st Company and will drive the unit off pretty quickly, but too late for

the GIs in the orchard.

t27overview.jpg

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3rd Pltn 1st Company is under heavy fire from American armor and is pretty much fought out. It is time it moved further back

into the defenses to recover. The unit though exhausted and rattled has more than accomplished it's mission and

without the severe losses it's sister platoon is suffering. t283rdpltn1stcopullingback.jpg

Before leaving though they contribute one more time to pinning the Americans along hwy 91.

t281stCoAtdefense.jpg

I am not sure if this is the tank that previously lost it's TC or not.

t28armorrebuffed.jpg

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3rd Company AT units are not idle either

t283rdcompanyATdefense.jpg

First shot misses and the unit calmly reloads, no reaction from the tank at under 100 meters

t28reload.jpg

second round hits home

t282ndSherman.jpg

Meanwhile surviving units from 2nd Platoon continue their suicidal defense near the left crossroads.

Their sacrifice would ensure the units caught in the orchard could only retreat back through the artillery.

t281stCoHKL.jpg

Though 3rd Platoon 1st Company will pull back. 3rd Company units will continue to contest the center crossroads.

t28overview.jpg

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Normally I wouldn't butt in and tell people what to do, but reading this makes me think it was a pretty realistic and compelling battle.

THB i don't know what drop box is, but I do know what youtube is. Youtube is free advertisement. I bought this game thanks to that mockumentory, just think if your aar or "lets play w/ commentary" were to be watched by a enthusiast he would hear your commentary about how important your tactical flexibility and awareness is because this game is so realistic. He would then see your plan in action and think about what he would do differntly, thus interesting him in the game. Earning Battlefront a sale and giving yourselves some fame in the process.

Personally I love watching people play and see how they need to evolve tactics to meet certain situations, so i'm biased about "lets play" videos, but I hope you will give it some more thought. Thanks.

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Normally I wouldn't butt in and tell people what to do, but reading this makes me think it was a pretty realistic and compelling battle.

THB i don't know what drop box is, but I do know what youtube is. Youtube is free advertisement. I bought this game thanks to that mockumentory, just think if your aar or "lets play w/ commentary" were to be watched by a enthusiast he would hear your commentary about how important your tactical flexibility and awareness is because this game is so realistic. He would then see your plan in action and think about what he would do differntly, thus interesting him in the game. Earning Battlefront a sale and giving yourselves some fame in the process.

Personally I love watching people play and see how they need to evolve tactics to meet certain situations, so i'm biased about "lets play" videos, but I hope you will give it some more thought. Thanks.

LOL not a chance. I am not willing to lose the playing time for that. We will however post the game turns so anyone is free to watch all the action from all angles. The mockumentary already does what you'd suggested and more. Leave that to the professionals. ;-)

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