PzC Ortona 43 - German San Leonardo ARR

[Odin]

I know the Allied team are posting AAR updates for the Ortona 43 PzC-CM campaign here on the BF forum, so I thought I'd make the trip over from  the The Few Good Men, where the German command resides, to post my part of the San Leonardo AAR. 

The AAR posts below are copied and pasted from the German command's conversation thread on The FGM, and run the course of the whole battle. The first few ware made 'in battle'. The final post covers 50 minutes+ and was made post battle.

 

I'm not sure whether the Allied players are allowed to read this thread or not? Personally I don't feel as though I'm giving important campaign intel away as the Canadian players probably have a good idea of what they were facing now that the battle has concluded. But maybe @kohlenklau would be a better judge of that and should read through the posts below first, before granting the Allied players permission to view (or not).

Comments welcome!

 

PS sorry for the black background to the text. Without first copying and pasting the paragraphs into Word, and editing each of them, I don't think I can get rid of it (and I'm a lazy SOAB).

Edited November 15, 2015 by Odin

[Odin]

Two turns in and it looks like the Shermies have made it to the battlefield 

*Edit it appears at this point only one immobilised Sherman was on the battlefield. The rest were to arrive later.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Odin

[Odin]

A quick update. The action is starting to pick up, and it looks like the Canadians are attacking my right flank, with infantry moving slowly towards the stragglers' new positions in a fambuilding. Mortar fire has been called in to drop just in front of the farm.



On the left flank, the Sherman spotted earlier is firing at one of the PzIVs. It has penetrated the panzer twice, but caused no damage. Annoyingly a number of the Panzers have LOS on the Sherman's position, but only the Panzer which has been struck has spotted it. The other panzers need to spot the Sherman next turn or things could get messy.



A bren gun carrier has advanced at full speed to the patch of trees in my centre. A scout team have mown the bren crew down. I'm debating whther to pull these men back, as I think this position will become a target now their presence is known.



I thought I had taken an overhead shot, but it seems not. So I'll post a birds-eye view of the battlefield soon.

[Odin]

A quick update regarding the units' current positions and my plans.



I haven't seen any other armour except the KOed Sherman, which put up a good fight disabling one of the Mark IV's 75mm.



The Panzers are currently positioned on a ridge to the left of the map, but I'm going to advance them forward 70-100m so they have a better view of the buildings our side of Fraser's Bridge, where enemy infantry sound contacts have been made along with a visual contact on a Dingo armoured car.



Afterwards, I would be tempted to move the Panzers across to the right so they can fire on the Canadian infantry which is advancing at pace on my right flank. But I'm worried about exposing the tanks' flanks to AT guns, so I will withdraw them either to woods to the right of the mounted grenadier reserve, or San Leonardo so the tanks to fire on the enemy's advancing infantry.

[Odin]

A quick update from the front. I am 27 minutes into the battle, and overall things are going well. The overhead shows the main action points since my last post. 



I have advanced two panzers, supported by a couple of infantry units, into the Canadian's Western crossing point at Frasers Bridge. The panzers ran amock inflicting heavy casualties on the Canadian infantry, as well as knocking out an AT gun and a few vehicles. Unforuntatly, at the end of the last turn an undiscovered 6pounder AT gun destroyed one of the MkIVs. I should be able to get the gun next turn with the other tank which has moved behind its position.


The panzers push through the Canadian positions at Fraser's Bridge, wrecking carnage


A few of the Canadian casualties


An AT gun is taken out


But a few turns later another gun takes out a MkIV

To the East Canadian infantry have continued to try to advance forward. I seems to have halted their advance by pinning the Canadian infantry down with long range MG from two HMG teams (almost 2km away) and the MkIV I moved over to the right flank.


On the right surving German units are pulled back, while Canadian infantry is pinned down by long range MG fire

I have also used a MkIV in the centre to destroy Canadian scout units which up until that point advanced unopposed.


Smoke rises from a universal carrier destroyed by a MkIV

The loss of the panzer is disappointing, but I still expect to crush the Canadian bridgehead at Fraser's Bridge before Allied reinforcements arrive.

[Odin]

Right then... It's been some time since my last update, and as you've seen the Canadians were victorious in my San Leonardo slugfest. So this is going to be a compressed final AAR post highlighting some of the significant points in the battle during its last 50-60 minutes or so...

As I left things last time, my assault on the Canadian bridgehead to the German left flank was in full flow.


Here's an overhead of the battle. The tank icons in the upper-left hand corner assaulting the Canadian infantry positions around the bridgehead



And quite a few Canuck infantrymen met there pixel truppen maker in the sky (aka Phil) during the attack.



It's from here on in that things become 'tricky'. First off, two MkIVs are lost to a 6pdr AT gun positioned in the Canadian bridgehead. The loss of the first tank was a surprise, as I didn't realise that there was a surviving AT gun. The loss of the second panzer was just annoying as I knew the AT gun was there, and ordered the panzer to area fire at it, but the panzer could not spot the gun and was distracted by bren gun carriers. A fatal mistake which led to its destruction - as the 6pdr swivelled round to to dispatch it at almost point blank range...


The first MkIV assaulting the bridgehead meets its maker


Shortly followed by the second

With the bridgehead attack brought to a halt, the surviving panzers were ordered by the general that be (Phil) to withdraw to in counterattack elsewhere. Unfortunately, One MkIV was lost to another AT gun, while another got bogged. Meaning only two MkIV's exited the battle.


Bang goes another panzer

With the tank support gone, the AT defence was left to a 88mm Flak , two 50mm AT guns, and two 75mm AT guns. A small group of armoured cars were also on their way.

Unfortunately, the Canadian observers got a sighting of my 88mm, positioned on the outskirts of San Leonardo, and called in an incessant mortar barrage on its position, until it felt like they couldn't have many mortar rounds left,and having created a moon scape around the gun, the Canucks final scored a direct hit.



With the panzers and 88mm gone, here's how the battlefield looked from my perspective.


My right wing has been opened up with the demise of the 88. Only a few HMG teams are left defending San Leanoardo - which combined with two more positioned on the edge of the woods to my left - try to pin down the advancing infantry with long range HMG fire.


At this point the Canadians seemed sure they had the upper hand and with with the Flak dispatched, my right flank is open and the Canadian infantry intensify their attacks down there. I continue to try to suppress the enemy's infantry movement with long range HMG fire. Which does enough to pin down the Canadians until I can call in a 105mm artillery strike on one of their advancing columns.


Death from above, If you look closely, you can see a couple of mushroom plumes from the 105 Arty fire dropping to the far right on the map. It seemed to inflict quite a few casualties and I saw Canadian infantrymen breaking to run for the rear. 

Sadly, the assault down my right wing was too strong for my 105s to repel and the advance continued. At the same time the Arty began to drop, a squadron of Shermans arrived (by battle's conclusion, I'd estimate there were 10+ Shermans on the field).



The Shermans were evenly distributed, as the Canadians adopted a broad frontal assault, supported by further infantry (possibly a battalion+ worth of infantrymen distributed across the battlefield?).

In hindsight the wise thing to do at this point, would have been for me to withdraw all of my grenadiers, under the protection of the AT guns and few HMG guns. I made the mistake though of just withdrawing one motorised grenadier platoon. Which was to cost me later on in the battle.

With the lone grenadier platoon exiting the battlefield, the remaining men dug in, looked to the sky and prayed for savation in the form of a few Paks. The AT guns were set up 700m+ behind the infantry's front lines with armour target arcs set, laying in wait for the Shermans

With the Canadian infantry of my right bogged down under artillery and HMG fire the Canadian commanders dispatched a platoon of Shermans to kicjstart their advance. With a platoon of Shermans trundling across the the map with their flanks exposed, I decided to role the dice, and removed one of the 75mm's target armour arcs. It took aim at one of the Sherman's flank from at just under the 2km mark. After a few range finding shots, the AT crew pulled off the shot of my CM playing career and took out the Sherman at about the 1800m mark. WHAT A HIT BOYS!


Fire at will men


Take a bow son!

Just after this takes place, a combination of 75mm and 50mm fire pepper a couple od Shermans supporting an infantry advance through the centre. My 50mm guns manage to force one crew to abandon their tank; but the lack of punch fails to KO the tank. In the meantime, the other Sherman knocks out both 50mms, before its self being KOed by one of my 75mms, positioned further back.


That's a nice piece of emmental

With both 50mms taken out, I'm up against it, and the Canadian infantry positioned in the centre proceed to push forward. With my defence in the centre weak, I have little to repulse them, except for my two remaing 75mm PAKs. So I give the order to open up on the exposed Canuck grunts, 800m of so in front of AT guns' positions.

Over the course of the next two turns I see at 15-20 red crosses flutter up in amongst the exposed Canadian infantry. But I know it can't be long until the enemy turn the mortars against my AT guns. Sure enough the two lone Paks come under incessant mortar fire, effectively nullifying my AT defences.

The only glimmer of hope is the arrival of a three armoured vehicles to my far right. But in the face of a tidalwave of tanks and infantry, they are not the bulwark I require to dam the onslaught.


The reinforcements consist of a 37mm and 75mm halftrack and a 20mm armoured car... oh dear

The 37mm is promptly dispatched by an AT gun, which is within LOS on its arrival on the battlefield. During the next turn an HMG team in San Leonardo is ordered to fire on the 6 pdr's positon (from almost 2km away). It manages to suppress the AT gun, allowing the short-barrelled 75, halftrack to sneak up to the ledge of a rise overlooking the the Canadians advancing on my right flank. The halftrack spots two Shermans supporting the Canadian attack and fires at both using shoot and scoot tactics over the course of 3-4 turns. It manages to penetrate both tanks, forcing both crews to bail. But much to my frustration it cannot deliver a knock out blow to either, due to the low velocity of its gun, and limited HEAT ammo.




Damn that's annoying!

Unable to stem the Canadian tide, I decide to make for the hills, and set my men on quick march orders for the nearest exit zones. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, it was a mistake on my part not to withdraw my infantrymen earlier - as realistically pre-panzerschreck era - what could they hope to achieve against a well organised tank supported assault?


A few turns later my men are fleeing as the enemy catch a scent and relaise there be easy prey to be had

I had hoped to withdraw under the cover of my two surviving Paks. But they are forced to eat dirt under continuous mortar fire, amazingly both hold out for 10 minutes+ until they are eventually knocked out.


One Pak crew manages to get their heads up long enough to fire a round off at the lead tank of Sherman column. Sadly the crew miss and are in turn KOed a turn later.

I should have taken account of the huge distance between the my frontline grenadiers' positions and the rear exit zone, which is 1.5km+ away. As the Canadians unleashed a avalanche of APCs and tanks they manage to catch 30-40 men, mercilessly cutting down those that don't surrender.



That said most of my men just about make it to the exit zones.



And they even manage to inflict the odd casualty on the way (although no where near in the same proportions as they suffered losses during the closing stages of the battle).



With that the battle brought to a close, and we can survey the AAR screen.



Upon relection, if I had withdrawn my infantry much earlier in the battle, I could have ended up with a much improved kill ratio, but as was is I learnt a lesson about multiplayer campaigns and the benefit of exit zones - If facing overwhelming odds better to shy a battle and live to fight another day. 

On another note if I had been given the MarkIVs for the duration of the battle, I would have grouped them together, parked them just behind a rise of a hill, and laid in wait for advancing Shermans, popped them over the crest at an opportune moment and let the Shermies have it.

It's possible use of the panzers for the duration of the battle could have turned the tide in the my favour. Ultimately, with the encounter taking place over such exposed ground, it was always going to be decided by tanks.

But, despite ending in defeat, I really enjoyed the battle, and my thanks goes out to@kohlenklau for organising it! Cheers Phil!

ODIN OVER AND OUT.

[kohlenklau]

@Odin

 

Thank you Owen from FEW GOOD MEN for doing this GREAT aar and thanks very much for participating single handed against all those bacon eating wildmen!

It was a real surprise to see this AAR and it is no problem for the Canadians to come read it. You can go read theirs as well. Now our other axis PBEM foot sloggers Richtig and mjkerner CANNOT YET read it as they are coming up for a few more battles in this operation.

[Stonecutter]

Thanks for the AAR from your perspective Odin, it is neat to see the battle from the other side. You definitely put together a great defence with limited resources that gave us some very scary moments early on and even in the end your troops were still fighting to buy time for their comrades to escape. Those darn Pak40's were definitely your MVPs. Perfectly located and used to great effect throughout the battle. Well done!   

[Kuderian]

Thanks Odin for posting this. It is always fascinating to read the other side's perspective after the last bullet has been fired.

I was in charge of the Recce armoured cars which you completely destroyed!

And the  leading infantry on our left flank which your HMG's and 105 barrage broke the back of...

Perhaps Stonecutter can post his excellent Allied AAR over here or at FGM?

[ChappyCanuck]

Well writen AAR, Odin! As the overall commander for this battle, I can say you gave me and my subordinate commanders some scary moments - notably the initial counter-attack towards Fraser Bridge and the impressive shooting of your Paks, which earned them the MVP award in our eyes.  An interesting perspective from our opponent's eyes.  Thanks for the battle!

[Odin]

Thanks guys glad you enjoyed it. @Kuderian my AAR has only made it into the German command's conversation thread, so most of the guys on the FGM forum wouldn't know about the Campaign.

To the victors - well fought and good game. Hope to see you on the battlefied soon!

 

Edited November 16, 2015 by Odin