Recon AAR

[Guest J Pender]

Battle Reconnaissance (Gefechtsaufklarung)

Armored Car Patrols:

The Panzer division dispatches armored vehicles and numerous automatic weapons. The

armored reconnaissance unit is fast and has a wide radius of action.

Armored car patrols normally are composed of three armored reconnaissance cars, one

of which is equipped with a radio. An artillery observer often accompanies the patrol so

that in an emergency fire can be brought down quickly. This type of patrol usually is

organized for missions lasting one to two days. Tasks are defined clearly, and nothing is

allowed to interfere with the patrol’s main objective. If enemy forces are met, action is to

be avoided unless the force is so weak that it can be destroyed without diverting the patrol

from its main task. If enemy action is anticipated, the patrol is reinforced with

self-propelled guns and occasionally tanks. Engineers and motorcyclists are often attached

to the patrol to deal with road blocks and demolition.

While scouting a woods, a favorite German ruse is to drive the leading car toward its

edge, halt briefly to observe, and then drive off rapidly, hoping to draw fire that will

disclose the enemy positions.

At road blocks, the leading car opens fire. If fire is not returned, men dismount and go

forward to attach tow ropes to the road block. If necessary the patrol dismounts and

proceeds on foot.

A patrol is never split up, but in open country distances between cars may be as much as

200 to 300 yards.

After reading the above passage I decided to try a reconnaissance quick battle.

A 600 pt probe scenario with Axis on the attack, clear, day. I chose a large map with

gentle slopes, heavy trees in a farm land setting. I used Axis Mechanized of high quality

and Allied combined arms regular quality with full FOW.

My force elements:

PSW 234/2 50mm Unteroffizier Wollak (Patrol leader)

PSW 234/2 50mm Unteroffizier Griess

PSW 234/1 20mm Unteroffizier Lamp

Grenadier 1/2 sqd Unteroffizier Graf

Grenadier 1/2 sqd Obergerfreiter Kunze

120mm spoter

Aug 24th 1944

I received orders to take my recon group forward and conduct a reconnaissance patrol of

a small farm village, we were to identify any enemy units in the area of the village and

occupy it if possible. I studied my map and decided against approaching via the road

leading into the village due to the possibility of mines and the long mostly unobstructed

view of it from the village. We approached the village from the West via the tree lined

grain fields. Our approach was covered by the terrain until we were within 400 meters of

the town, at this point I disembarked our FO who took up position in some woods directly

to the front of the town. I kept all the vehicles behind cover and sent a team of Grenadiers

forward across an open field to check the woods on the other side for enemy activity. Unt

Graf and his 5 man team set up the squads LMG and took up position to cover Obg

Kunze and his men as they crossed the field. After Obg Kunze and his men successfully

crossed I took up a mostly hull down covering position and ordered the cars of Unt

Griess and Lamp to hunt across the field. When they had taken up firing positions on the

other side I directed my driver to cross the field. While crossing I saw some enemy light

armor on the move 200 meters to my right. unfortunately I lost sight of them when they

passed behind a building and some woods. When I came alongside Unt Griess and Lamp I

showed them were I thought the armor would be spotted next, we faced our vehicles in

that direction, unbuttoned and waited. While we waited I ordered the inf teams to take up

position in the woods to our left to protect against enemy inf approaching from that

direction. Then before I knew what had happened the cars of Unt Lamp and Griess had

been hit and put out of action. Unt Lamp was killed instantly when an AP round

penetrated the front of his turret, one of his drivers was severely wounded by MG fire

while running from the shot up car. Unt Graf and his assistant were both wounded by

splinters when their car was penetrated by AP shot. I saw the muzzle flash of the canon

that knocked out Unt Grafs car, it was from a light tank (Stuart) hidden in some trees. I

put the tank in my sites and fired away ordering my driver to reverse to cover. Before my

driver started moving we were able to get off two rounds, the second finding its mark

penetrating the turret of the American tank. After reversing behind some cover I contacted

our FO to see if he knew where and what was the source of the fire that put Unt Wollaks

car out of action, he said the fire came from an armored car partially hidden behind a

house. I directed the FO to call in a fire mission from his 120mm mortars. After about 2

minutes the mortar fire was impacting on the target area, I ordered my driver to slowly

move forward in hope of getting off a shot at the American car while it was

distracted/blinded/ terrorized by the incoming strike. After 2 minutes of slowly creeping

forward I still had not visually located the American car, fortunately after 11/2 minutes the

mortars did and that was the last armor we encountered during our patrol. With two cars

out of action and approximately 1 minute of mortar fire available I decided to make a last

very cautious advance toward the village. With all other units hidden I ordered Unt Graf

to sneak forward across the next field into a small section of woods just 75 meters from

the center of the village. Unt Graf and his men crossed the field unnoticed but just as the

reached the far side of the woods they had just entered they were taken under fire by .30

and .50 cal mgs. less 75 meters away. Knowing he was in a bad spot Unt Graf ordered his

men to brake contact fall back deeper into woods and hide. The FO had a good view of

the 2 enemy mg nests and called in our remaining fire mission. As soon as Unt Graf and

his team came under fire Obg Kunze set out with his team to take up a position were he

could provide cover fire for his trapped comrades. I ordered the hatches closed on the car

then I directed my driver to slowly work forward so we could take the .30 cal under fire.

Finally the mortars began to strike and combined with the fire of the 2 Grenadire teams

and the HE / MG rounds from my car we were able to put out of action the .50 cal and

rout the .30 cal team with 2 casualties. During the firefight Grenadier Fusilier Wiltz was

severely wounded when fire from the .50 cal struck him in shoulder nearly separating his

left arm from his body. It was time to pull out.

With no enemy in sight I was tempted to make another advance into the village but I

decided against it, I was out of Mortar fire missions, 2 of the cars were out of action,

5 of the men were casualties and my dear friend Unt Lamp was dead. No we had done

enough I ordered the patrol to pull back.

Unteroffizier Hans Wollak

The small size of my forces made it easier to follow the progress of the individual units

combine this with playing at mostly level 1 using the units point of view made this a very

tense yet enjoyable mini battle.

Take care

John Pender

[Henri]

I would like to know whcih document you are quoting. It is interesting to note that the document explicitely contradicts those on tis forum who have been claiming that recon patrols never purposely drew fire in order to spot enemy positions.

It would bve easier to read if you removed the extra paragraph marks ^p. here is how it can be done in a few seconds with Word:

1) Bring up the search and replace screen. Tell it to replace all double return marks (^p^p) with some unused character like # (this ensures preserving lines between paragraphs).

2) Now tell it to replace all ^p with a space.

3) Now tell it to replace all # with ^p^p.

Presto, you have a document with paragraphs separated and no extra ends of line.

Henri

[Cwhit21]

Very enjoyable story.One question in QBs what is the setup for a probe?

[Guest J Pender]

Hello Henri,

I got the text from The U.S. War Department Handbook on German Military Forces (pg 211)

Take care

John Pender

[Guest J Pender]

Hello Cwhit21,

I am glad you enjoyed the AAR.

"One question in QBs what is the setup for a probe"

Im not sure I understand your question.

For my next recon QB I plan to add a full 251/1 equiped Grenadier platoon to suport the armored cars as well as a 250/1 to transport the FO.

Take care

John Pender

[rlh1138]

Mr. Pender,

I also enjoyed your AAR - my question - I've not yet actually sent up a game like that. Once its set up and saved, could it be sent to someone else (like me ) who could then play it?

Thx,

[Ksak]

Enjoyed reading your AAR. When well done like yours they add another whole dimension to the game.

[Pvt.Tom]

Great AAR, I would love to read more if you have any.