AXIS AAR--CMPzC Campaign: The Road to Eindhoven--Dommelen Counterattack

[kohlenklau]

But it is a rather hot fall day there in Holland so the Jagdpanther crews rolled the windows down!

[Heinrich505]

Well, that is only because their commander mjkerner is such a stickler for fuel economy.  With the air conditioner on they get abysmal fuel mileage, so from time to time he makes them turn off the A/C and then they have to roll down the windows.  

 

Heinrich505

[mjkerner]

Minutes 51 - 49

Yes, Heinrich, a-trembling in their boots they must be!  I just hope they don't run off before we've had a chance to spar.

Looks like they are definitely looking to shore up their hold on Deelshurk.  Infantry in carriers are headed that way.

 

Meanwhile, in answer to your question Phil, I believe those shells falling between the RA and Kromme Straat area are something on the order of 25 pounders.  They are preceded by the roar of artillery...

 

...as opposed to these mortar rounds falling around my flakwagons--no casualties taken. They have since retreated to covered areas. One will stay in the vicinity to assist the push on Dommelen, the other will head to the RA to assist in the attack on Deelshurk. (Curious onlookers might wonder where my 4th flakwagon went...it wandered off the battlefield!  No doubt lacking in spirit, or searching for some of the liquid kind, the AI decided it had a better route through the RA than my movement commands, at off it went!)

Edited October 24, 2015 by mjkerner

[kohlenklau]

Hey Mark,

2 cents suggestion for your consideration, here is a trick I always like to try...

Place your infantry guns or Pak40's somewhere back behind a big wall that blocks what would be good LOS to a likely enemy approach and then when the clear LOS is needed...blow the wall with a demo charge to get a key hole effect.

Oh, another thing with infantry guns. You can place them way back in the safe north-east corner and use an FO to call in their fire.

Edited October 24, 2015 by kohlenklau

[mjkerner]

LOL, yes, I've used that trick many a time, especially in urban fights with my FJ infantry/engineers.  And that is exactly the plan for the AT guns and flakwagon at the southern wall of the RA, where they are now either headed or have already arrived.  I was going to locate the IGs in the cemetery in the Kromme Straat, but but I don't want to wait for call in and have to time their TOT, etc.,  but for other reasons--fear of a counterattack into the RA*--I unloaded them where they are.   But I might have to move them yet again.  OTOH, I don't think his armor can get a bead on them where they are at.  LOS on this map can be deceptive...we'll see.

 

*edit:  Almost forgot, I needed the trucks to move the reinforcement FJ Kp.  It would take them forever to reach the action areas without transport.

Edited October 24, 2015 by mjkerner

[kohlenklau]

Chappy usually hunkers down with his mama-cita on the weekends so I guess we'll all be in suspense til Monday!

I wish we had tank riders in this CMBN. So messed up that they cannot do that for us. At least some vehicles, like shermans and uhhhh...Jagdpanthers!

[kohlenklau]

Be careful: You better not let Guyver get nailed in his flamethrower half-track by some lame arse mortar round!

..or the morale of the student kompanie will go to crap for follow on battles.

He is like a papa to the young fallschirmjagers.

[mjkerner]

LOL, I know.  I forgot I even parked it there until I did the photoshop thing!

[kohlenklau]

Your photo hosting site seems to deadlink your older posts fairly quickly unless you on purpose delete them. I am seeing many of your posts turn to kitty cats.

I have mine set to last 1000 years. "Ozymandias mode"

[mjkerner]

Mistakenly thought I had to clean it out when nothing was loading the other day--all day--and I got a notice that i was running out of space. Turns out the site was just down or overloaded...

[kohlenklau]

 

After being ejected from Dommelen, Oberst Kerner (no relation, lol), with some...

• Hey! I seem to recall a certain footlocker full of one of your old relative's war photos and a US Army report about the battle....  

[mjkerner]

I forget my own bull****, there's so much of it.

Chappy tore himself away from his better half and we are battling again.  More reporting tomorrow.

[kohlenklau]

I think a Sherman crewman just evacuated his bowels when you bounced a Pak40 round off the gun mount on one of the Murderer's row tanks!

[mjkerner]

Minutes 50 - 46

These turns saw his barrages fall mostly on empty space, while I started to move troops across the bridge toward Dommelen, and move troops to the south side of the RA for the eventual push to Deelshurk.

Still a ways to go to Dommelen, though.

 

I am preparing to blow gaps in the wall on the south side of the RA in order to advance troops and vehicles to the southern-most buildings inorder to provide as much of a covered approach as possible on the way to Deelshurk.

 

The 75mm Pak remaining in position finally gets a few rounds off at Murderer's Row, but shoots too high.

Jagd commanders Dahm, in the RA, and Kramer, along the Dommel River north of the bridge area, move into position.  Dahm is maneuvering to get sights on Murderer's Row and possibly the Firefly in Dommelen, or the destroyed bridge west of Deelshruk. Kramer is moving to a hull down position behind the destroyed building near the bridge.

 

 

[mjkerner]

Minute 45

Things start to heat up!

The Pak scores a hit, but it bounces off the front of the Sherman.

 

Meanwhile, Dahm gets a bead and starts firing at the same Sherman. The first two rounds are too high...

 

...and the Sherman fires back, hitting the pavement under the Jagd!

 

As the turn ends, Dahm fires again. It looks lower and might just score....

 

[mjkerner]

Minute 45 continued

I will pull Dahm back a little so that all five Shermans of Murderer's Row can't all get LOS/LOF to him.  I did some testing before this battle, Jagds against Sherman 75s and 76s at various ranges from 800 yds to 1400 yds.  The Jagd's gun mantle is a tank projectile magnet, and the gun and optics can get damaged or destroyed fairly easily, even by the 75s.  The Firefly can, of course be deadly.  So I want to be as cautious as possible. The Pak should also help distract some of those Shermans...

 

As my 1052 start falling at the destroyed bridge area, I targeted a carrier full of troops easr of Deelshurk with a small linear barrage from the IGs, which will arrive in 4 (or 5..I forgot) minutes.

 

His barrage in front of the RA hit one of the members of the 10th Kp HQ group.  They are rested, and will make a run for it back into the RA next turn. (At the end of the turn, rounds were falling more to the north of their position.  It's a risk, but the rest of the  platoon in the RA is heading toward the assembly area for the Deelshurk attack, so they need to get moving.)

 

The Firefly in Dommelen is something of a mystery at this point.  I didn't think Chappy would leave it in town on defense without a few other Shermans, but that is surely the case. He no doubt has nearly a company of infantry in town with it, because I have yet to spot any retreating out of town and they were certainly investing the place at the end of the last battle.  But why not leave a 75mm Sherman or two in town, and pull the Firefly back and let him support the defenders from in range?? So, maybe it was immobilized last battle??? I hope so because that will make it easier to take out, either by a Jagd or my panzerschreck team or other infantry when they get into Dommelen. Another reason I think it may be immobilized is that it just  turned its turret toward the infantry crossing the bridge, but the hull didn't turn...

 

[kohlenklau]

Beautiful modded screenshots and very nice descriptions of how you are contemplating this! Thanks Mark.

 

 

 

[Bulletpoint]

Is the battle overcast, or are you playing with shadows and shaders off?

[Bil Hardenberger]

My only concern at this stage is that you are operating your JagdPanthers individually.. that is usually a recipe for disaster.  Better to use them in two-vehicle sections.  You only getting the two in this game?

[mjkerner]

@Bulletpoint, yes, shadows off...I'll have to check whether the shaders are too, usually I have them on. Shadows seem to give a performance hit on big maps like this. Thanks for mentioning it, though...I should turn them on for screenshot purposes.

 

@Bil hey, glad to see you're checking this out. The Jagds came on piecemeal,their entry points separated quite a bit. But the last two (4 total) are moving up together to join Dahm in the Residential Area. It's risky having Kramer out there by himself by the bridge near Dommelen, but I'm trying to be careful and will use him to harass the Murderers Row troop and the troop near the destroyed bridge, while the 3 Jagds in the RA gang up on each enemy troop in succession. Chappy has conveniently split his armor troops  ( by necessity due to starting positions) and they aren't in very good mutual support distance from each other. I hope to exploit that.

In conjunction with my PAK's, I want to keep his armor occupied...and hopefully destroy it...so that he leaves my infantry alone as they move across open ground to their objectives at Dommelen, and now Deelshurk, too. So far, so good.

[mjkerner]

Minute 44 - Review/Overview

Recapping where we are (as much for my benefit as yours)...

My original plan, based on where I thought Chappy's forces would likely be, was to move as many infantry units across Ford #1 and the (northern) bridge towards Dommelen as feasible, then attack along the road into town and the woods to the north. I was going to leave a very small covering force in Valkenswaard's residential area, mostly just FO's, the Paks, some random small units, and maybe a platoon from the 10th Kp.  From an Operational perspective, I wanted to take back Dommelen (hex 1, 6) to give more breathing room to defend the heart of Valkenswaard, the 30 point Victory hex (2, 5).  Of course that plan had to be changed from the first minute of battle, when I discovered that his troops were set up basically in the positions where they ended up at the conclusion of first battle for Dommelen.

This presented an opportunity to seize two Operational hexes, Dommelen and Deelshurk (hex 1, 7, the scene of my Penal Kompanie's trouncing at the hands of Chappy's troops in the first full battle of this campaign). If successful, the Allies will have to re-fight to take back these hexes, or at least one of them, to be able to attack into Valkenswaard. Even without the wrench this throws into the to the Allies' tight timetable, making your enemy fight twice for ground already bought in blood is always a good thing!

This opportunity meant I had to drastically alter the original plan...glad I kept it simple, lol!  Now, I am sending men and vehicles to the residential area in southwestern Valkenswaard, and unfortunately in a helter skelter fashion.  So I have one platoon of the 10th Fliegerhorst Kp there, while the remainder are crossing the bridge to Dommelen; same for bits of the FJ Schule Kp, the FJ Flak platoon and, due in part to the diverse entry areas of my reinforcements, one Jagd off by itself over Dommelen way.  I sent Oberst Kerner himself to the RA area so that he can help in steady and control those units that are out of command range of their CO's.  Although it is time consuming, I'm keeping the FJ Kp Abt. Kerner together and sending them all to the RA to partake in the Deelshurk attack.  I'm borrowing trucks, kubelwagons,  and HTs from other units to do this, but as of Minute 44, most will be in or near jump-off positions in 5 or 6 more minutes.

(I don't think in the context of the Market Garden campaign, immediately following on the heels of the Germans' disastrous flight from France, and their use of disparate commands from all points of the compass hastily being sent to stop the Allied drive to Arnhem, that stealing trucks from my Paks and infantry guns is too gamey.  I see this all as Oberst Kerner being given a hodge-podge scratch force, ordered to hold Valkenswaard and its surrounds, and counterattack when and where necessary to stop and/or delay the Allies. What do you guys think?)  

Regardless, so far the battle is going well.  I'm getting the bulk of my forces designated to the Dommelen attack across the bridge without having to worry about timing a smoke barrage--so far at least; a mortar round hit near the bridge this turn. Troops are assembling for the jump off to Deelshurk (again, with some mortars falling around the area), and his two main barrages are hitting empty ground and so far have only caused 1 casualty--to one of the 10th Kp hQ unit. Better yet, his troops are separated into pennypackets over a wide area, and mostly are not in very good mutually supporting positions.  I hope to overwhelm his Firefly and the two 75mm Shermans at the destroyed bridge by overwhelming him with 3 Jagds and two AT guns; the five 75mms of Murderer's Row have temporarily taken themselves out of the battle with a smoke screen, allowing me to make a few moves, especially Dahm's Jagd and an AT gun, that could otherwise have been at a greater risk.  And his lone Firefly in Dommelen is virtually unsupported by any other armor.  I need to uncover his infantry positions in and around Dommelen, but once identified, I plan to lay in a barrage to help soften them up.  I believe I have sufficient infantry and firepower, with the addition of Kramer's Jagd and a flakwagon, to deal with what I think is approximately a company of infantry there.

 

 

 

 

[kohlenklau]

I think the battle taxis system is appropriate!

[mjkerner]

Remember the Marne!

 

[kohlenklau]

IMHO this modern shot shows the clear LOS around this area in case anyone is worried we are way off of reality...

The real deal went down right here...

[mjkerner]

Minutes 44 - 43

Dahm's Jagd misses the shot that looked like it was headed for the Sherman's across the way:

 

The Shermans' reaction from all the unwanted attention.  This will at least take them out of the action for a few turns and allow me to make some adjustments: 

 

Meanwhile, he is dropping mortars on the southern edge of the RA where my men are assembling for the attack on Deelshurk:

 

 

10th Kp MG HQ, lead by Unterfeldwebel Meissner--without machine guns but with a pair of binoculars--is adapting to his new role as a scout and leads his team down the Dommel Dommel River to get another set of eyes the enemy at the Destroyed Bridge:

 

The rest of my reinforcements arrive in and around Geenhoven, and start moving toward the action, including the last two Jagds (Yeah!):

 

Grim-faced, determined Jaegers move out in trucks borrowed from their IG battery:

Edited October 29, 2015 by mjkerner