Operation Herrlishiem - Confirmation from a Vet

[Wild Bill Wilder]

I received this today from a Veteran who was there in the area where this battle took place.

During my time of scenario design, I've heard from vets involved to one degree or another in many battles I've done on WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and even DS.

I can't tell you how exciting it is to get these. This one is from Mr. Vernon Brown, who served as a cavalry trooper with the 14th Armored Division.

Dear Bill....

I was fascinated by your Scenario on Herrlisheim, 'cause as a young cavalry trooper I got shoved into "Operation Nordwind" not with the 12th Arm'd, but in "Task Force Huddleson" of the sister 14th Arm'd Division.

As you are no doubt aware, Ike sent George Patton and most of the Seventh and Third Army north to contain the Bulge leaving the VI Corps (in one briefing you have it the sixth Army ) to mind the store in the south.

Hitler saw a chance to recapture Alsace, free his trapped army in the south, and wreck the relations between DeGaule and the US for once and for all, and on New Year's Eve he struck with great force.

Our lines at TF Huddleson were spread so thinly, that there must have been a couple of hundred yards of forest between my platoon and the neighboring one. Kind of scary. Jerry patrols had been going through us at will on a nightly basis.

In the weeks that followed bitter winter fighting took place not only at Herrlisheim, but Hatten-Rittershoffen, Soultz, Gambsheim and all the little heims in between. Tanks slid off the icy roads, the wounded had to be picked up quickly or they would freeze to death.

Let me quote a paragraph from my book:

"Mount up, We're Moving out!"

"By the 19th of January it became apparent to General Patch that his Seventh Army could no longer take the punishment being meted out by the numerically superior German Divisions. He had already lost fifteen percent of his army, of which the 14th Armored alone had suffered the loss of eighty-three officers and 1,038 enlisted men. Some of the infantry companies were so depleted that they were no longer deemed effective fighting units.

~~~~~Colonel Hans Von Luck, commanding the 21st Panzer Division wrote

in his memoirs that "towards the end neither side was fighting for anything but survival" referring to it as "one of the hardest

fought battles ever fought on the Western Front" On the two sides 10,000 artillery shells were fired each day. Plans were made to withdraw Sixth Corps to secondary positions some twenty miles back along the Moder River."

I play alot of strategy war games, and I want to tell you that CC is the only only that has ever approached that awful feeling of "****! There they are!"

I have not completed your Herrlishheim scenario yet, my only thought is that at the beginning the guys would have taken defensive positons in the town itself, not in the woods or that broad expanse of open ground in front We hated the woods, not only air bursts but the endless cold and constant snow. In town there were good defensive positions, we could burn furniture in the stoves for warmth,and to heat our K rations.

Love to see more of these great scenarios...!

Best wishes, Vernon Brown

------------------

Wild Bill

Lead Tester

Scenario Design Team

Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord

billw@matrixgames.com

[Otto Mekanik]

Wild Bill,

Thanks for passing this message along, I have a great interest in that area.

My grandfather was in the Hatten/Rittershoffen battle and won a bronze star for his actions in the Anti-Tank Company. He is still alive today and I recently spent a week traveling with him in a motorhome talking about his war stories....

But anyway, I wanted to mention that I'm making a Hatten/Rittershoffen operation.

Would be great to speak with Mr. Brown to see if my scenario is accurate.

Also, I'm sure you have great sources, but I have seen much written about Herrlishiem in the books "Final Crisis" by Engler and "Winter Storm" by Pommois.

Would love to get some advice from you about scenarios and stuff....

Later,

Otto