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Panzers at Ogledow AAR


Dlw

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After heated fighting the day prior under heavy fog the unit was forced to withdraw due to hampering weather conditions, despite this, PzAbt 501 prepared for the defense of the towns outskirts east and west the next day. Despite enemy numerical advantage and the debut of multiple heavy IS-2 tanks, our Tiger-II's proved their superior engineering and won the day, without a single loss in their brave combat actions. Furthermore, surprisingly infantry losses were significantly low due to the enfilading fire provided by von Legats well placed positions, our success allowed for further offensive actions by the 3rd PZ Corps and the war continues on!

Had a lot of fun and was quite pleased with my casualty ratio, no save scumming involved and my first try. Wishing you the best in your campaigns, feel free to post any awesome battle AAR's here to brag too!😄 

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15 minutes ago, danfrodo said:

I just started this campaign.  I'm avoiding looking at the numbers on your screenshot but good to know it's winnable.  I hope I have same level of success 🙂

yea post your results afterwards i'd be interested to see some other peoples! Plus I have zero idea what the diverging trees will do so it could be very different if you win/lose the 1st or 2nd missions

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am having a very bad time at Ogledow, unlike Dlw's original post here.  I decided to go on the offensive right away w 5 tigers and infantry support.  One tiger picked sniped by something but I kept going.  Ran into a buzz saw of JS2 tanks.  Was all in my favor at first then things started going very, very badly.  Stupid fog putting RU tanks into point blank range.

Tigers leave town on a hunting mission.  Well, the ones that actually work left town.

https://imgur.com/anQO2JqanQO2Jq.png

Everything OK so far, had a quick fight w RU forces in copse of trees but only one casualty on my side.

https://imgur.com/PHsHw

PHsHw4m.png

And now we've got a fight:  JS2 shows up.

02l38u9.png

and dies, HA take that GeorgeMC-ovich!

6ERYGlK.png

Burn, baby, burn.  I was feeling pretty good at this point.

mAhX98r.png

Three JS2 down, no loss on my side.  Victory for my tigers, though the close range is terrifying.

jNG5bwk.png

A few minutes later..... and I've lost three of my 5 tigers.  At least they died w sword in hand and will go to tank valhalla, unlike all the ones that simply broke down.

24Zu2gh.png

And the fight goes on.  I do not think tiger2s were made for this kind of close up fighting.  All my advantages are gone due to fog, but won this duel at 50m.  Is this all the JS2s??  Are there more?  There was one on my left in some trees earlier but I hit him though not a kill.  Is his gun damaged?

DraPSJr.jpg

So I have managed to wreck a bunch of tigers, lose some infantry, and still don't have the objective.  This aint good.  What else is hiding back there in the fog???

 

 

https://imgur.com/anQO2J

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And our tigers regain the upper hand.  How you like me now GeorgeMC-ovich?  The Boss is not gonna be happy when you tell him how many of his namesake tanks just got smoked.  He'll say "GeorgeMC-ovich, if I knew you were going to mishandle these tanks so badly I would've named them Beria tanks, or maybe after that bald punk, Krushchev.  It does not look good to have a bunch of 'Josef Stalin' tanks burning, now does it?  Do not fail me again, GeorgeMC-ovich."

Two of the smoke columns are mine, sadly.  But the rest were JS2s that were supposed to be an attack that turned into a very nasty meeting engagement in the fog when my attack blundered into soviet attack. 

dLQO0yk.png

 Two more JS2s destroyed.  Also found & flanked the last one that was hiding in the trees.  My two remaining tigers just loaded up infantry are will be heading into the soviet flank now with a trail of some more infantry. 

pTGRxGp.png

I have taken the distant objective first.   Despite losses, I hope to have enough combat power in this group to flank the near objective while engaging from the front.  Sounds good on paper, but so did invading Russia in the first place and that didn't turn out so well.  I know there's big concentration of soviet infantry still on the map, and who knows what else.  Hopefully I can use dead ground to sneak up on the objective from behind w/o being exposed.

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, danfrodo said:

And our tigers regain the upper hand.  How you like me now GeorgeMC-ovich?  The Boss is not gonna be happy when you tell him how many of his namesake tanks just got smoked.  He'll say "GeorgeMC-ovich, if I knew you were going to mishandle these tanks so badly I would've named them Beria tanks, or maybe after that bald punk, Krushchev.  It does not look good to have a bunch of 'Josef Stalin' tanks burning, now does it?  Do not fail me again, GeorgeMC-ovich."

Two of the smoke columns are mine, sadly.  But the rest were JS2s that were supposed to be an attack that turned into a very nasty meeting engagement in the fog when my attack blundered into soviet attack. 

 Two more JS2s destroyed.  Also found & flanked the last one that was hiding in the trees.  My two remaining tigers just loaded up infantry are will be heading into the soviet flank now with a trail of some more infantry. 

I have taken the distant objective first.   Despite losses, I hope to have enough combat power in this group to flank the near objective while engaging from the front.  Sounds good on paper, but so did invading Russia in the first place and that didn't turn out so well.  I know there's big concentration of soviet infantry still on the map, and who knows what else.  Hopefully I can use dead ground to sneak up on the objective from behind w/o being exposed.

He! So Mr Bond - "The Only Question Remains: Will You Yield, In Time?" :)

Great DAR - enjoyed reading it thank you.

Though does sound like you've made a large dent in the Soviet armour in that sector! Good effort :)

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9 hours ago, George MC said:

He! So Mr Bond - "The Only Question Remains: Will You Yield, In Time?" :)

Great DAR - enjoyed reading it thank you.

Though does sound like you've made a large dent in the Soviet armour in that sector! Good effort :)

Yeah, I may yet end up in a disaster here.  But at least I'm goin' down fightin'.  :)

The dang fog really hurts!  As was certainly intended.  I am guessing there was fog during the actual battle?

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7 hours ago, danfrodo said:

Yeah, I may yet end up in a disaster here.  But at least I'm goin' down fightin'.  :)

The dang fog really hurts!  As was certainly intended.  I am guessing there was fog during the actual battle?

Aye the weather during the action was misty with very much reduced vis. This is a good English language source about the actual action - though based heavily on a Russian language source and repeats a date error contained in that account :

https://www.tankarchives.ca/2013/07/king-tigers-at-ogledow.html

Overall the combat debut of the 501st during this and subsequent actions in the Sandomierz bridgehead was generally unimpressive. Possibly due to the original battalion being all but destroyed attempting to hold back Soviet attacks during Operation Bagration. Such catastrophic events would mean few of the experienced crews would survive to help form the cadre for the new unit to be rebuilt around. 

The 501st was reconstituted on the 14th July 1944 with the new Tiger IIs but this only gave the whole unit around a month to reform and train on the new vehicles, and as a combat unit, before being sent into action – perhaps therein lays the reasons for the lacklustre performance of the new tanks and their crews through August 1944? So possible contributory factors to its poor performance: 

•    after the heavy losses in June 1944 the reformed 501st  consisted mainly of new recruits without combat experience and lack of thorough training due to the short time between being reformed and sent into combat;

•    serious technical problems with the new Tiger IIs (final drives in the vehicles being especially prone to failure, especially if the driver was inexperienced);

•    lack of experience with the new tanks and their strengths and weaknesses combined with overconfidence and overestimation of what the weapon system could achieve, especially the thick armour, often resulted in poor reconnaissance measures and a resultant poor tactical handling.

The 501st’s record through August 1944 was so poor that on the 22nd August 1944 Major von Legat was relieved of his command. It is also reported that he had links to the 20th July 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler. On the 21st December 1944 the battalion was redesignated as schwere Panzer-Abteilung 424.

It is worth mentioning that the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Corps, crucially and in marked contrast to their German opponents from the 501st, crews were seasoned and experienced armoured combat veterans. This ensured they made excellent use of reconnaissance, took full advantage of the terrain and the tactical opportunities it afforded and ensured excellent tactical handling at all levels of the unit. 
 

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  • 2 months later...
On 4/3/2023 at 9:34 PM, danfrodo said:

Yeah, I may yet end up in a disaster here.  But at least I'm goin' down fightin'.  :)

The dang fog really hurts!  As was certainly intended.  I am guessing there was fog during the actual battle?

Nice reports! Yea and I just ended the mission and decided F that lol, I knew i'd lose all my KTs in that fog after the first couple of mine got killed, they were invaluable in the following missions

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