SPOILER: my AAR on Fear in the Fog

[Henri]

OK, here is my own AAR on the game I just finished as the Allies playing Fear in the Fog. For more details on the scenario itself and pictures of the map, check out the thread on the other AAR on this forum. I`m going from memory, so there may be a few inaccuracies.

Like one of the posters on the other thread, I misunderstood the briefing and was under the impression that the Germans would be coming down the road in the center of the map and that I might have to fight for the town. So I had my three original platoons moving North side-by-side, with the center one slightly ahead and the two others ready to step up to the flank when the central platoon collided with the enemy. Let us call them from left to right I, II and III platoons of Company A. My single tank followed behind the center.

I bypassed the town without incident, and assumed that the Germans would be around the second victory flag further up the road.I was startled when the the rightmost squad of Platoon 3/A on the right heard Germans coming to their right. I quickly turned them to the right and deployed them in wooded terrain as well as I could. A company of Germans walked right into them and was severely shot to pieces before they could bring up reinforcements.

I decided to continue Platoon 1/A up the road towards the second objective while turning Platoon 2 to the right and heading East just below the town. Company B reinforcements had just come in to the West with a second tank, and they could be split to cover the southern flank, take cover in the town and back up Platoon 3 of Company A.

Now strong German reinforcements were coming up NE of the town and causing casualties to Platoon 3/A, and it was clear that Platon 3/A could not hold out against what appeared to be a full German company, so I decided to execute a fighting retreat to fall back on my reinforcements, but it was too late, since German units were as close as 30 m from my units, and Platoon 3/A was annihilated . I quickly ordered Platoon 2/A to back up and to form a defensive line just East of the N-S road, while Platoon 1/B came up behind tosupport them. One squad of 2/A was sent to capture the second objective flag to the North.

In the meantime, Platoon 2/A ambushed a bunch of Germans SE of the town and again caused heavy casualties. The Germans were backed up by a tank, who was headed sraight for a Bazooka unit, who took careful aim, and destroyed the tank with his first shot. My first tank was parked next to a house at the extreme East end of the town, where I expected the German Schwerpunkt to hit.My second tank was bogged down and immobilized as soon as it moved .

After recovering from the ambush, the Germans brought up forces and again I tried a fighting retreat with the same result as before.After this, I came to this forum and learned that one should not attempt a fighting retreat when the enemy is closer than 80 m .Platoon 2/A was gone too.

Now a Panther appeared and moved within 30 m in front of my Sherman, who fired and missed after aiming for 30 seconds ! The Panther didn`t miss, and my last tank went up in flames . I scrambled my surviving bazooka units who, following Murphy`s principle, were all at the furthest possible distances from the German tank . I had visions of this German tank gallivanting through the center of my position without opposition .

I finally positioned a bazooka team in a woods some 50 m in front of the tank; he got off two shots before the tank sent his limbs flying in all directions with a direct hit from the cannon. My right flank was being held by a single infantry platoon, backed up by a HMG across the road, and the tank began to loop towards the infantry platoon, who was shooting at advancing Germans; the tanks stopped right adjacent to one of my company HQs, then slowly rotated to the left with the clear intention of putting the kibosh on my right flank along with the advancing German infantry . Less than a meter from the tank, the Company commander grabbed a satchel charge and threw it at the tank; a loud explosion and the tank crew came scampering out and were mowed down by the HQ unit , who then proceeded to hoof it out of there toward the West, because a number of German squads were approaching fast with revenge in their eyes.

in the meantime, i had managed to deploy two platooons of infantry North of the town into two N-S lines one behind the other and sliding them South, with the intention of doing another fighting retreat. This time, it worked perfectly: the Germans decided to rush what they thought was the right flank of this line, but it had moved and they rushed right into the center where they were greeted with a hail of lead. My units then sucessfully fell back smoe distance to wait for the next onslaught. If things turned sour, the second line should hold off the Germans.

It now became clear that the Germans were attacking with two pincers, one North of the town and one south of the town, expecting to take the defenders of the town in a squeeze play; But it turned out that my center was far to the rear in the Western part of the town, with my strength also in two pincers , one facing the Northern German pincer and the other slightly to the south of the other one. As a result, to the South, the Germans hit air when they rushed the center and were taken in the flank by my units there. When I saw enough German units in the center, I opened fire with my 105 mm artillery in an area bombardment, the result of which was not immediately evident, but it clearly rattled the teeth of the Germans.

The Germans tried once more to rush my line in the North, but once more they came right at my units in woods supported by two machineguns, and their dead were piled up like cordwood in front of my line.

Finally, I realized that the enemy assault was spent, and I ordered my reserve units in the South to advance, with the idea of mopping up survivors East and SE of the town and to hit the ones in the North on the flank.

As soon as the Germans saw that the tables were turned and that they were doomed, they surrendered, handing me a major victory . The Germans had taken four times as many casualties as they had given, despite wiping out the two platoons that they had originally met.

In retrospect, I was a bit lucky : after destroying the two platoons that had intercepted them, the Germans concluded that there would be a hole in my line at these locations, but as it happened, my deployment expecting Germans coming from the North favored a redeployment favorable to flanking the Germans on the one hand, and blocking them in the other. The loss of the Panther was the critical turning point of the battle.

Henri

[This message has been edited by Henri (edited 07-19-2000).]

[Wild Bill Wilder]

Sounds like a great battle, Henri. Never count on intelligence reports in these scenarios to be totally accurate. That is important.

In the actual historical battle, the troops were informed that the Germans were only probing in platoon strength with no reports of armor. Some much for "intelligence." That is mirrored in this battle.

When you start a battle, rely on your own intelligence. check out the terrain, your forces and think what the enemy might actually do.

The thing that impresses me is that even after having taken serious losses and the lack of armor support, you rallied, reorganized and did not give up in frustration.

In a real battle, you just don't do that. You improvise and overcome. That is what you did. Nice battle report. My congratulations on a well fought battle.

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

Wild Bill

Lead Tester/Designer

Combat Mission-Beyond Overlord

billw@matrixgames.com

[This message has been edited by Wild Bill Wilder (edited 07-20-2000).]