5,000 Pt. Meeting Engagement in progress/AAR...New pic's.

[Gyrene]

I don't have the turn numbers handy, but I will relate the events from my side as best as I can.

My forces were:

1 Infantry Battalion:

9 x '44 pattern rifle platoons

3 x Heavy Weapons platoons: 3 x .50, 6 x M1919, 1x M1917, 6 x 60mm Mortars, 9 x Bazooka teams

Artillery spotters: 2 x 81mm, 2 x 105mm, 1 x 4.5mm

Armor: 3 x M4A3(76)W, 4 x M4A3, 4 x M4A3(76)W, 2 x M18

My original plan was based on my assumption that Abbott would make his strongest push at the Chateau area, so I decided to position a holding force on the opposite side of the ravine across from the Chateau and to send 2 platoons across to gain a toe hold on the the far side, at the same time I put together my strongest infantry force, about 4 platoons, with heavy weapons and 3 tanks for support and sent them wide to the south to hopefully flank any of Abbott's forces sent to defend the Southern bridge.

This opperation went without a hitch up until the level of the far side of the bridge, where we ran into some artillery, which thankfully had little effect, killing only a MG team. At the same time I made a minor direct push towards my side of the South bridge, hoping to distract attention from my main maneuvering element, and to gauge his defenses there.

A brief tank battle erupted , with both of us losing about 2 to 3 tanks each over a couple of turns, then once my main force got spotted I commenced the assault and overran the local defenders.

A few turns later, I had lost all my supporting tanks travelling with the main force after a brief push North mostly, I think, to shreck fire. After my armor was gone I decided it would be fruitless to send my Infantry straight North alone, in light of the fact that Abbott had good LOS for his tanks from the Chateau area, so I sent them Northwest along the ravine to support the assault on the Chateau. At the very least I did not have to worry about the South bridge much for the rest of the game.

On the very North, I found a way to send a 2 tanks and a platoon across the ravine and up to the other side, hoping to distract him and at the very least cause some tank casualties on his side. Another tank was left on overwatch on my side of the ravine and was later sent across also.

This operation had mixed results, the entire force was eliminated, but they eliminated one enemy platoon, one hetzer (By the late coming Sherman) and one AT team, and contributed to the fighting at the Chateau, inflicting some infantry casualties there and perhaps acomplished their mission of tying up some of Abbott's resources to the North.

On the main Chateau area I was able to slowly make my way thru the rubble, but it soon became apparent that any further advance would be impossible, due the the overwhelming presence of German armor just east of the Chateau and the heavy infantry presence along the woods there.

I got lucky early in the game and killed 3 of the Tigers mainly by leaving 2 76 Shermans in view of a narrow back area between some buildings on his side, and all Tiger kills happened in that small corridor. I was able to punish his visible infantry in the western parts of the Chateau, but soon this duty became a grinder for my tanks, as a line of dead Shermans began to build up just south of the Northern bridge.

For my troops at the Chateau, there was no forward or back, just to hang on to their patches of rubble and wait for one side or the other to lose the advantage.

The hardest aspect of playing against Abbott, is that he is very skilled at breaking contact with his infantry, and the entire game I had little idea where his troop concentrations were, that lead me to have to make probe after probe, which slowly wore down my troops as I ran at least a couple of ambushes.

Hunting his tanks with my bazooka teams was virtually impossible, all his armor was restricted to a very small area and heavily surrounded by his own infantry, any hunting trips by my AT teams was their last, and his schreck team's much greater range had a huge edge on this map, there were no safe places for my tanks at the front.

I was given adequate artillery support, and I tried to guess his approach paths and troop staging areas, and I'm glad I was at least right on this. I could have held some of it in reserve, but I believe that his armor gave him the edge to make the final assault at the end and my artillery would have been of little use then.

Once the new Tigers made it to the scene I knew it would be all downhill, I only had one tank capable with dealing with them left and it's lucky streak (2 Tigers with 3 front shots) was about to end. My 75mm Shermans did a good shob against his infantry, but even his lesser tanks could take them out, I scored direct hits on at least 3 of his tanks with 75 Shermans and the 105 Sherman that came with the re-enforcements with no results, the 105 being a huge disappointment as it hit a Panzer IV twice but not once did it use its C charges.

Once the 76mm Sherman died, it was over.

In hindsight I would have rationed my AT teams better, and held the TD's to the North Bridge area, but if even this was the case, all I would have gotten would be a Draw, the map is much too small for manuevering and Abbott seemed to have eyes everywhere.

A great battle overall, I have no complaints about losing.

Gyrene

[ 05-29-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

[Micheal Wittman]

Wow, this AAR kicks a%$ , kinda like a good movie.

Sorry if I missed it, but where can I get the

scenrio from. Thank You!

[Micheal Wittman]

Wow, this AAR kicks a%$ , kinda like a good movie.

Sorry if I missed it, but where can I get the

scenrio from. Thank You!

[Abbott]

I have the blank map and would be happy to set up the battle on it if two players would be interested in fighting it.

[Abbott]

I have the blank map and would be happy to set up the battle on it if two players would be interested in fighting it.