Proper Employment of German 75mm Infantry Gun(NO SPOILERS)

[John Kettler]

Last night, I fought a Quick Battle (small hills, moderate trees, rural, Wehrmacht regulars in combined arm defense(human choice), Probe, Sept.'44, clear) against what turned out to be at least a French armored recon company (lots of M-8s, M-20s and halftracks), w/ hordes of infantry, 60mm mortars and bazookas).

The linchpin of my defense (two dug-in platoons--one covering the main, the other two secondaries, augmented by 81mm FO w/ 250, a 250/9 two Hetzers, two Panzerschrecks, 3 x AP mines and a pair of sharpshooters, plus the gun we're discussing) against his main attack turned out to be that gun, which was faithfully served by Obergefreiter Ferner and his men until ammo was almost exhausted and no one was left.

I had placed the gun behind some tall pines at the base of a gentle slope, siting the gun so it wasn't visible over a considerable frontal arc, but could enfilade the frontal approaches to the primary objective. I also set an ambush marker squarely in the likely approach.

The gun caught the French flatfooted when they first left a closeby woods and tried to enter the woods housing my reverse sloped platoon and HQ, but they soon moved heaven and earth, from their initial position and two positions they managed to reach in the objective's woods, to destroy it and a shortly savaged squad in foxholes in front of my gun about 20 meters or so.

Action was continuous, with the gun under fire not only from infantry weapons, but also an M-8 at virtual spitting distance behind a hedge, until Ferner and his men first immobilized it, then destroyed it with a shot through the side of the turret.

Here's what one well served gun did officially against French regulars per the kill screen count(detail my own battle reconstruction except for M-8):

Eliminated Sgt. Terrot's squad 12 men

Eliminated Cpl. Darne's baz. team 2 men

Eliminated Lt. Montagu's FO team 2 men Inflicted one casualty on M-8 crew 1 man

______

Total credited in kill screen 17 + M-8

In reality, based on watching the battle unfold and on the fact that much of the engagement was conducted solely by Ferner and his men (the foxholed squad in front having taken eight casualties, inflicted eight and been ordered to hide for a while), we need to add:

Sgt. Vernadoum's squad, broken, 9 casualties

Cpl. LeDoux's M1919 MG team, panic, 3 casualties

Lt. Coche's platoon HQ, 3 casualties

In short, one gun inflicted some 32 casualties, virtually destroying a reinforced platoon, sending most of the survivors fleeing rearward, and nearly all by itself beat off the main attack. Not bad for 33 points!

By contrast, the mortar FO plowed lots of ground, killing no one, one sharpshooter died with no results, and the other got three kills (one finished off a platoon HQ) and KOed a mortar.

The Hetzer on the same side as the infantry gun racked up five kills on swarms of recon vehicles, but didn't have LOS to where the gun waged its lonely war. It fought most of the battle from a ridgeline almost at the back of the map and was hit time after nerveracking time by some weapon which may have been an M-8, but which the crew wasn't able to ID.The Hetzer pumped round after round of HE into a house it thought had an AT gun in it. The Hetzer on the left flank helped hold the line against platoons of infantry and support weapon teams, both by blasting them directly with HE or bringing the house down upon them, shredding a squad in the process. This helped weak forces hold a secondary objective.

Panzerfaust fire stopped an M-20 practically on top of the objective, and a Panzerschreck killed an M-5 halftrack. Its colleague made things hot for a platoon HQ, having had no vehicles in its sector. The AI gave up when French morale hit 17%, resulting in an Axis decisive victory.

I've got three screenshots showing the scene with trees, stripped of trees, and with the gun's kill screen, but I don't know how to include them here. If someone tells me how (am on a Mac), I'll be happy to edit them in later.

Sincerely,

John Kettler

[This message has been edited by John Kettler (edited 07-10-2000).]

[Darwin]

hmmm, posting pics...

Several ways you can do this but they all require you to first post the pics somewhere else on the web first and then link to the pics from here.

The simplest method is to use the UBB code as described in the link avaliable just underneath the submit reply button when making posts.

[James Bailey]

John,

Thanks for that detailed post on proper IG placement.

This same theory applies to any type of weapon that can't move - Limit the LOS, so the enemy can't destroy you immediately after your first volley... and then put protection in likely Enemy Avenues of Approach against this stationary position.