Oncoming Scenario

[RockinHarry]

..and supplementing mods.

The 9th US Infantry Division in the Octorbre 1944 Hurtgen forest battles:

http://pixerve.de/27385/Combat-Mission-Afrika-Korps.html

[SgtMuhammed]

I would be very interested in this one. My father-in-law was wounded there while serving with 2/60 INF.

If you need a tester let me know. The email in my profile is good.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Looks very promising. Like the broken off tree look.

[Brent Pollock]

..and what looks like a pillbox mod'ed to an open concrete pit?

Is the broken tree tile rubble?

Yummy!

[Kingfish]

The pines stripped of foliage in the background is a nice touch.

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by sgtgoody (esq):

I would be very interested in this one. My father-in-law was wounded there while serving with 2/60 INF.

If you need a tester let me know. The email in my profile is good.

The battle I´m currently working on deals with some actions of the 39th Regiment, but I have very good sources that deal with the actions of the 60th in 10/44 as well. Your email is on my list now... :cool:

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by Brent Pollock:

..and what looks like a pillbox mod'ed to an open concrete pit?

Is the broken tree tile rubble?

Yummy!

Yep, it´s modded sandbags. Not very realistic, but I tried modelling a fortified (concrete) position that not just includes the crappy standard pillboxes! The broken trees in front of the pic is "Rough" (german version it´s Felsen=Rocks), but the smaller CMAK stony/rocky tile is affected as well since it uses the same BMPs. For NWE battles there little use for rocks/boulders actually. Same goes for vineyards which I modded to something different as well.

The broken pine trees files is too large to be posted at CMMODS, since I lack a private internet connection. The other stuff fits on diskettes and I should upload it next week coming,..probably at the same time when the scenario using the stuff is finished.

[Pyewacket]

Looks cool!!

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by sgtgoody (esq):

I would be very interested in this one. My father-in-law was wounded there while serving with 2/60 INF.

If you need a tester let me know. The email in my profile is good.

Check your inbox!

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by Pyewacket:

Looks cool!!

Hey you´re the maker of MC? :cool: Thanks a lot!

[RockinHarry]

I could possibly do a somewhat larger scale conversion of Squad Leader 300 Series scenario "The Clearing" (Scenario #301) which deals with elements of the 60th IR on October 10, 1944. The SL scenario has about Plt. size forces (+ support elements) and I could easily expand it to at least Cpy. size. How does that sound?

"Der Kessel'" had a couple of CMBO Hurtgen forest scenarios as well, but I don´t aim for any remake! I have very detailed sources, digital terrain data in 3D and last but not least, I visited the former battlefield several times in the past. :eek:

[juan_gigante]

My grandfather's next door neighbor got a Silver Star with the 75th Infantry in the Hurtgen. He wrote a memoir later, and I was going to make a scenario of the engagement for which he got the medal, but reading the memoir, I realized that it would be kind of a lame scenario.

(Note: His company was pinned down by a Tiger tank and a pair of HMG-42s. Neighbor sent two guys out to see if it was possible to flank the nests, and they both got hit. He ran out, grabbed them, carried them back, then went back and destroyed the MG-42 nests. The Tiger then decided it had better things to do, and took off.)

Most of the memoir was about occupying Italy after the war ended and establishing cross-cutural relations with local ladies of the night.

[SgtMuhammed]

Originally posted by RockinHarry:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by sgtgoody (esq):

I would be very interested in this one. My father-in-law was wounded there while serving with 2/60 INF.

If you need a tester let me know. The email in my profile is good.

Check your inbox! </font>

[SgtMuhammed]

Originally posted by RockinHarry:

I could possibly do a somewhat larger scale conversion of Squad Leader 300 Series scenario "The Clearing" (Scenario #301) which deals with elements of the 60th IR on October 10, 1944. The SL scenario has about Plt. size forces (+ support elements) and I could easily expand it to at least Cpy. size. How does that sound?

"Der Kessel'" had a couple of CMBO Hurtgen forest scenarios as well, but I don´t aim for any remake! I have very detailed sources, digital terrain data in 3D and last but not least, I visited the former battlefield several times in the past. :eek:

Shoot it my way if you make one.

I was able to visit several battlefields while stationed in Germany. I made three trips to Hosingen and the Bastogne area to research my scenarios. I also got stuck in Grand Camp Maisey (formerly Grand Camp Les Baines) right in the middle of Utah and Omaha beaches. Had to spend a week in a 3 star French motel during the off season. Pure hell I assure you.

I think it makes the trip really special when you can pick out a specific location and feel what was happening there 60 years ago. I was able to stand on the Dasburg bridge and imagine 2nd Panzer advancing past me. Walking around the woods near Hosingen I could imagine the uncertainty as the K Co heard the 26th VGD flow around them but couldn't see them through the fog. I highly recomend anyone to do the same.

[JasonC]

Rocking Harry - I too am interested in this one. I've been researching the Hurtgen fighting, supplimenting the US army green books with Google earth and the like. I'd love to see what you've got.

[junk2drive]

I had a chance to load the tree stump mod and concrete sandbag mod. Looks very good. The battle is in fog and low light (dawn). With all the hills, trees and fog, zooming around at level one is very eerie.

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by junk2drive:

I had a chance to load the tree stump mod and concrete sandbag mod. Looks very good. The battle is in fog and low light (dawn). With all the hills, trees and fog, zooming around at level one is very eerie.

That´s exactly the mood I try to catch! :cool: With the larger tree mod (made of SDogs Pine trees; with his permission)the looks is even better.

Here´s how it looks on my computer (CMETO + J2D fall Trees Mod + couple of my own stuff)

http://pixerve.de/29896/Combat-Mission-Afrika-Korps-Mod-Pic.html

http://pixerve.de/29899/Combat-Mission-Afrika-Korps-Mod.html

http://pixerve.de/29900/Combat-Mission-Afrika-Korps-Mod.html

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by JasonC:

Rocking Harry - I too am interested in this one. I've been researching the Hurtgen fighting, supplimenting the US army green books with Google earth and the like. I'd love to see what you've got.

Will do! Currently making some more adjustments, but I can send you the version I did send to the other guys.

[RockinHarry]

I´ve just uploaded the first 2 mods at CMMODS:

1: Rough Mod (the one with the broken trees)

2: Sandbag Mod (turning sandbags to look like an open concrete emplacement.

Both are (must be) used for my Hurtgen forest scenario(s) :cool:

[RockinHarry]

Last but not least the broken trees:

http://pixerve.de/30757/Combat-Mission-Afrika-Korps-Hurtgen-Forest-Mod.html

Now available at CMMODS.com

"RockinHarry Fall1944 HighPines" for CMAK

[RockinHarry]

Originally posted by juan_gigante:

My grandfather's next door neighbor got a Silver Star with the 75th Infantry in the Hurtgen. He wrote a memoir later, and I was going to make a scenario of the engagement for which he got the medal, but reading the memoir, I realized that it would be kind of a lame scenario.

(Note: His company was pinned down by a Tiger tank and a pair of HMG-42s. Neighbor sent two guys out to see if it was possible to flank the nests, and they both got hit. He ran out, grabbed them, carried them back, then went back and destroyed the MG-42 nests. The Tiger then decided it had better things to do, and took off.)

Most of the memoir was about occupying Italy after the war ended and establishing cross-cutural relations with local ladies of the night.

Could not find any 75th Regiment. Do you rather mean the 78th Division (Rgt.309/310/311) which participated in the final attack on Schmidt? :confused:

One could possibly put that Silver Star engagement into the context of a larger scenario dealing with the final attack on Schmidt. All I can say now that it´s possible to make accurate CM maps of the battle area. Could make you the contour map for use in MM. No problem.

The post war occupation duty in italy thing sounds interesting as well!

[junk2drive]

I installed your pine mod. Looks great.

I am using Ed's CMBB bunker mod and it doesn't match your sandbag mod. I'll have to look for another bunker. Which one are you using?

I suggest you make a rubble mod. I am using MikeyD's for CMAK. It is very good but a match to your other mods would be even better.

[JasonC]

There was no 75th Infantry, as a regimental designation, in WW II. It later became the regimental designation of the US army rangers, as a parent for the separate battalions - but not until Nam.

There was, however, a 75th Infantry *Division*, which fought in the ETO. It arrived late in 1944 and first fought in the battle of the Bulge. It was on the north side of the Bulge, near Leige, and enter combat just before Christmas day, with most of the division only entering combat on Christmas day.

It fought to drive back the Germans from the Bulge, in close cooperation with the 3rd Armored division. Around New Years in particular, it was very heavily reinforced (CCA 3rd armored plus independent armor battalion plus 2 SP TD battalions plus extra 155mm artillery - a super-division) and led US attacks.

It never fought in the Hurtgen battles proper. It fought in the Ardennes throughout January, then along the upper Rhine in February, by which time the Hurtgen fighting was over. It was transfered north to Holland in March and fought into Germany from there.

I have seen before the tendency of veterans to conflate fighting in woods in winter with the Hurtgen, and specifically the northern part of the Ardennes. But usually earlier in time, before the Bulge e.g. Sometimes they mean any fighting in woods before the Bulge, at the westwall. The 75th division wasn't there yet, however. It's winter woods fighting was part of the battle of the Bulge, not part of the Hurtgen campaign.

The Hurtgen campaign was, incidentally, much larger than the affair at Schmitt and the events immediately leading up to it, which was one intermediate chapter focused on the 29th infantry division. Others had fought there earlier, and the biggest part of the fight came after the 29th failed, and involved several corps over a much wider stretch of front.

I also notice the report of Tiger tanks, when the division engaged at the time, the 116th Panzer, didn't have any. The 116th was the only German armor formation to fight in the Hurtgen. It put in its appearance at the time of the 29th's push to Schimdt.

The basic tactical issue was the US infantry had advanced in a narrow wedge to ground US tanks could not really reach. The only trail to them through a certain gorge was a hiking foot path about 4 feet wide and strewn with bolders and fallen trees. Some US armor managed to make it up to them - frankly, a miraculous accomplishment that was accompanied by a dozen vehicles ending up in ditches etc.

German tanks could get at the tip of the penetration readily. The only ones available - 16th Panzer regiment of the 116th PD - had Pz IVs and some Panthers, but no Tigers. There were only about 30 of them, but they were quite sufficient.

There are a few other occasions in the Hurtgen fighting in which something similar happened, meaning US infantry got far enough forward that no US vehicles could reach them through the poor road net, which was in addition blocked by systematic down tree abatis and tons of AT mines, and then ran into German armor. But typically very small packets of it, not the full sized deal encountered at Schmidt. A few StuGs, that sort of thing. It was usually sufficient to stop the American infantry.

Encountering Tigers would be possible in the area the 75th ID actually fought, though, which was the Ardennes not the Hurtgen. Most of the Tigers there were King, though a few of the older Is were still around (only a couple companies worth, though). It is more likely it was a typical veteran's mis-ID, however.

[Vossiewulf]

Neat stuff Harry, really excellent look.

[Kingfish]

Originally posted by JasonC:

Encountering Tigers would be possible in the area the 75th ID actually fought, though, which was the Ardennes not the Hurtgen. Most of the Tigers there were King, though a few of the older Is were still around (only a couple companies worth, though). It is more likely it was a typical veteran's mis-ID, however.

Panzerkeil lists the 506th schwere Pz. Abt., with 46 Tiger IIs, being commited in the direction of Bastogne on December 21st. Granted, a bit too far south for the 75th to encounter them, but its possible that the unit (or part) got commited further north. IIRC, the OKW reserves were commited sometime around X-mas, and they may have scooped up the Tigers on their way north.

The only other possibility would be the remaining Tigers that were originally part of LSSAH being transferred to II SS Pz Corp, which did see action against the 75th ID.