Head For The Hills.... ROW II

[Juha Ahoniemi]

Here is a sad story for You to read:

ROWII:The Boots & Tracks Brawl

Tournament 1, section 4

Head for the hills - AAR by Juha Ahoniemi

Juha Ahoniemi(allied) vs. SaPort (Axis)

Alrighty then, I am ordered to take those damn hills. The briefing didn't promise nice little picknick - I will be facing a lot of guns and some infantry. My forces are already late, I should start immediately.

The map seems a bit nasty for me as an attacker: I have a good amount of arty, but there won't be any LOS available to those hills because of the woods. So I can bury my hopes of precise shelling of kraut butt. Terrain is...forest, mostly. That doesn't invite to drive my tanks there, to get shot into pieces by german infantry. And those hills form a valley (in which the village is placed) which looks like a shooting gallery to me.

I start by shelling the nearest hill, of course totally random. Then I switch to smoke and start my cautious approach. I add smoke by firing it by my shermans too. All that shelling and smoke - in vain. My men are rushing from cover of smoke to woods. They run into some green volksturm, who are hidind in their foxholes, and they don't need to see my men until they can see their eyes. So the smoke is pointless as the enemy is in woods, and I find them only by stumbling on them. And, my friends, it is costly. I manage to overrun the hill, but I also suffer bad casualties during that. I don't have too much men so I decide not go "combimg" the entire area near the hill, I just leave some depleted units to early warning if the enemy shows himself as my main force approaches the village. I am shelling the village heavily with arty and tanks. Meanwhile my "early warning" troops back at the hill didn't even saw what slaughtered them. Later I found out that they were veteran SS troops. Great. I spot no resistance from vilage and start approaching it confident. Then a gun shows itself far away. I engage it with two shermans. They miss. The gun doesn't. My remaining sherman is easy prey to stalking panzerschreck which has managed to avoid the eyes of my closing infantry. I guess my guys had very dark sunglasses or somefink. Then enemy arty starts fall in that village and I am paying the price. Enemy SS also harasses my panicking troops which I thought were safe in the woods near the village. They weren't. The rest of the game near the village is as follows: Enemy arty falls. More enemy guns reveales themselves. My arty and mortars tries to kill the enemy guns with some succeess. But the enemy is clever: he doesn't show his all assets at once. And seeing what it takes from me to kill a single gun, he can punish my infantry near the village with his guns without a fear. His guns seems to be überguns - they don't give a damn even if a BIG shell lands on top of their heads. Unbelievable.

My reinforcements that arrived to the left of my starting force are also approaching cautiously. I manage to kill almost everything that I find, some manage to escape unfortunately. But my guys are suffering some casualties, too. My finest moment at that part of the front comes when my flamethrower is having a barbeque with some krauts...ahhh I can almost smell the burning flesh!

So, tired to my casualties, about 200 meters before I reach the little VL up on that hill I decide stop my men and give a hell of a arty barrage there with heavy guns. It goes on a few turns, and then I charge - only to found out as soon as my troops have secured the VL that a strong enemy force is charging towards. This is what have happened : My heavy arty barrage goes to waste (some squirrels maybe crapped on their feet) as the hill is unmanned. Enemy reinforcements (a **** load of vet SS) is just approaching the hill. I manage to cause heavy casualties to the enemy force but in the end my remaining guys flee in panic and I can't even contest that flag. Typical to this scenario. It seems that I have run out almost all of my luck.

Now to my thoughs of this scenario in my point of view:

IT SUCKS! Why? well...

1. the map. Woods and hills. No LOS for spotters. Ideal to defend. Nightmare to attack. Excellent places for enemy to place his guns. The valley, and anything that can be seen from those far hills, is a kill zone. When the German player places his guns wisely, and keeps them hiding as long as possible (as my opponent did, kudos to him) it is impossible task for the allied player.

2. the forces. The allied player should be assaulting - against forces of infantry almost as big as allied! Ok many were green but they were in foxholes in woods for god's sake! Hello man?!? And those guns - veteran FLAK 88 - good HE, Excellent AP. Ask my tanks. Ask my troops. And they seem to endure even my largest shells nearby. And what the hell I was supposed to do with that armor?

3. Length. Too long to keep up interest when things aren't going decently.

And then note to myself: Do not seek help from the pub. After things went wrong, I made a couple of turns after some beers. That didn't help either.

AAR

Allied Attecker:

397 casualties (130KIA)

6 captured

3 mortars destroyed

1 gun destroyed

5 vehicles knocked out

men OK 54

Score 34

Axis Defender:

255 casualties (54KIA)

3 guns destroyed

1 vehicle knocked out

Men OK 123

Score 58

AXIS MINOR VICTORY

[John Kettler]

Bump! More AARs please!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Spanish Bombs]

OK, heres my AAR, which has been inaccessible for awhile due to a computer problem. The scenario ended early because of mutual destruction, unfortunately because it would have been a pretty close contest for all 3 of the flags which were very much in dispute at the end.

Hills AAR

Setup: The map is just awesome, a great mountain in the front on my right, a valley with a city in the middle and hills to my left. I setup some infantry and company assets on my right, intending to throw some smoke on that side, and feint there with some infantry in order to keep whatever he has on the mountain steady. My real intent is to take the city in the middle, but I will hold off on that push for a turn or two. With the city taken, I can isolate on the hill, and hopefully clean it out before moving on the hills on the left.

Turn01 Right off, a German gun starts a duel at 700m with the tank on my left. If I lose the Sherman, it would be a bad start as it is my support for the 3 platoons moving into the town. Fortunately, it shrugs off 3 front turret shots before zeroing in on the gun. Not sure what type of gun, (what do GJ’s have?), but it sounded big but couldn’t penetrate.

Turn 2: No further contact, Easy Co. has still not shown up on my left.

Turn 3: That tank I was happy to have survived turn 1 makes it all of 10 seconds into this turn, when a gun in the city drills it with the first shot. Given that it was within the range of that gun the whole last 3 turns, I guess I’m lucky I lasted this long. Meanwhile, it also draws numerous infantry casualties on a platoon grouped too close to the gun. First real casualties, and I hate losing a tank to uncover a gun, but I should be getting E Co. real soon on that side, and my plan is still (somewhat) intact.

Turn 4: Turns out that there are at least 3 big German guns up front. I take an up-close one under fire and it turns out to be an 88. This is a blessing, as I have its crew halved by the end of the turn. On my right, with my holding advance, I exchange small arms fire enough to take out two LMGs and a Platoon HQ. The extra ammo I apparently have is a huge blessing.

Turn 5: The 88 is under heavy fire, but isn’t quite abandoned. It doesn’t get off a shot, though. Meanwhile, on my right, I have wiped out no less than 3 LMGs or crews, and a HQ unit. It started as a feint, but I guess I’ll keep pushing a little there. Otherwise, the city appears heavily fortified by wire or roadblocks.

Turn 6: The 88 finally gives way, and the other gun is now under mortar fire and suppressed. I have not run into much by way of infantry here, but knocking out the third gun in the next minute or so would be a huge plus. I finally notice just how far back the flags are on these hills, eventually my infantry will be outdistancing most of the direct fire support, especially given these woods. Some nasty infantry fighting is inevitable, but so far it is mostly guns.

Turn 7: I’m starting to uncover spades of snipers, the Battalion HQ which is bringing up the rear nearly stumbles across one, and fortunately kills him without taking a casualty. Meanwhile, a squad surfaces, which must have been the protection for the 88. It causes a casualty or two to the infantry I have there, but I am just happy to have eliminated the 88. I’m going to start laying smoke in the town, and time to make my move there.

Turn 9: Turns out the squads guarding the 88 are old men in militia uniforms. They still cause casualties, though, but I hope to whittle them down. I also blunder into a few crews on my left, and take a few casualties there. Serrig is pretty well smoked now, and I have converging formations on both sides, and more smoke coming.

Turn 10: The gun in Serrig turns out to be an 88. I have it whittled down to one crew member at the end of this movie, but another one behind it shows up too. And, Serrig appears to be defended by at least a platoon of infantry. I eliminate another two LMGs on my left, but they cause more casualties than their worth including a flamethrower team. Things are static on my right, which is part of the plan, at least for a few turns or so.

Turn 11: The wire starts to work near the village, keeping me at arms length and subject to small arms fire. Am sending a platoon on the flank, and still driving up the road in the middle with another. The 88 is still functional, but with only one crew member, and it hasn’t fired a shot in over a minute. Another gun surfaces in the woods, but I think I can flank it with the two platoons in the woods there. Still smoking Serrig.

Turn 12: I skirt around the wire, but have met heavy infantry fire in the village. I only hope the formations I have on the flanks of the village will be able to swing around in time to take it. The 88 at the front finally falls, but not before firing a last round, with one guy left. 3 guns taken out, at least 2 more in position to harass my infantry. So far, not too bad on the casualties, but there is a long way to go.

Turn 13: Yet another gun surfaces, he now has at least 3 firing. I loose two ‘zook teams to long range gun fire, and without getting off a shot. Meanwhile, across the wire, and outside of the village one of my platoons is starting to get a little ragged, he is well entrenched there, and will take some prying out. I could use some more infantry, but it is now time for my flank movements to squeeze toward the middle.

Turn 14: Not a great turn for me. Wherever I am in close contact with the Germans, I am taking casualties. My flanking platoons from the left end up down many men, and broken in their too hasty attempt to get toward the gun on that hill. On my right, I fare a little better, and have the corner, but in the village itself it is tough slogging. At least I have a tank finally get the range on some infantry at the end of the turn, but still have taken too many casualties here.

Turn 15: I have two pretty well preserved platoons in the woods above Serrig, two shattered platoons in the approaches to the village, another shaken platoon in the heights to the left. My two remaining tanks are in decent enfilade position with regard to the infantry on the heights to the left - hopefully this I can exploit. Meanwhile, his three visible and remaining guns are pounding from a distance, but I have to shore up what I have before taking them on.

Turn 16: My Global morale is way too low, but my enfilading fire by the tanks, and the soon to be helping AT gun, have helped blunt the tide on my left. If the 105s I have landing on his forward-most gun works, I might yet cave in that side. Meanwhile, my engineers slide toward the right hill’s flag, and I can tell that I am causing casualties in the village, but am far uncertain if it will be enough, or close to enough. I could sure use that “counterbattery” fire and extra engineer platoon promised in the briefing.

Turn 17: The carnage continues. I am able to rout a platoon on my left with the help of long range tank fire. My support units bringing up the rear on my right run into some dug-in infantry. I’m in the midst of losing a mortar, but have a flamethrower ready to let lose at the end of the turn. I am losing way too much infantry, but at least I receive the long awaited reinforcements at the end of the turn: I’ll let lose with some 155 right off, and I need those engineers in about 4 different places. I am also about to land some 105mm on the top of some clustered infantry and a gun.

Turn 18: The flamethrower routs a squad, but is lucky to have some back up there. I make some progress on the hill on my right. The 105 doesn’t seem to have too much of an effect, and the 155 is a minute off. My initial wave has broken against Serrig, but I have decent positions on my right and left, I think. Its just a matter of taking out some of those guns. The tanks continue to be of huge help across the board toward my left, but I lose almost a full squad in the attempt to make progress there.

Turn 19: Mostly, more of the same. My reinforcements run to the hill above Serrig. My original engineer platoon is flanking entrenched volkstrum, apparently more than a platoon, in the woods. My tanks are in very good flanking position, using the hills as cover, and the infantry on his right is being pounded, although I am very short on men there to attempt to exploit it. At the end of the turn, I see American flags for the first time, in Serrig, and on the hill above it. This is very interesting…

Turn 20: I pause for a second, and continue to let my artillery fall on the foremost gun, without success, but hopefully the close shots have it on the edge. The tanks continue to pound away, with some success, helped mostly by their huge HE loadouts.

Turn 21: The artillery falls, but apparently without success. I may have to expose a Sherman on the suppressed, hopefully shaken or broken gun that is on the hill. The reinforcement engineer platoon is moving closer to action on Hill 178, but it is SS there, not old men and young boys. My long range tank fire continues to have some effect, but I cannot tell if it causes casualties.

Turn 22: After 60 seconds, the last arty round of the turn knocks out the near gun. One tank and the HT are approaching the village, where there is now little German activity. The engineers on my right are heavily engaged against a mix of Volkstrum and SS, and my reinforcing platoon is about to be put into action. On my left, his squads retreat, out of the line of fire of the tanks, but again I am not sure if I have enough to exploit that.

Turn 23: I get another gun about half way through. Once again, my infantry gives up blood for ground. There is only one more known gun position, and I trust he hasn’t been hiding one all game, although I see infantry reinforcements in the rear. I will target the arty on the last gun, and continue to push with my infantry. I have troops at both entrances to Serrig.

Turn 24: My armor is finally engaging his infantry in Serrig. I believe I have enough numbers to take the town, but will wait a minute or two before pushing, letting my armor soften it up while my final 105 rounds land there. There are numerous “contact” markers on my left and right, but I also lose a squad of engineers pushing through the hill on my right. I think I have numbers there, too, plus a flamethrower about to be brought to the task.

Turn 25: The armor ignores the guys in the village to attack a platoon which surfaces and menaces my left flank. There it is a desperate fight, and a flamethrower, but he might be suppressed too much to fire. My last rounds are 1 second off from the village, and another 2 minutes from the last gun. At the end of the turn I move my assault force for Serrig closer. On the hill behind them, I cause some decent casualties, and I think I have the edge.

Turn 26: Everywhere, I am taking casualties, but I think causing more. My far left flank is torn up, but I am moving quickly with my main force on that side. In the village, the 105 lands without effect, but my infantry mass is pressing up to the wall, and causing casualties, but with the tanks in close support. On the hill on my right, am faring well, casualty wise, but can’t catch up to the enemy.

Turn 27: A pretty costly turn - my infantry is in heavy fighting on my right and in Serrig, and takes casualties all along. I do cause casualties, however, and am better off number-wise there as well. The turn becomes a good one when his last visible gun is knocked out by my 155’s very first round. I now have some arty to spare, hopefully a free range for my tanks, but a long way to go to the back flag. I also lose my HT unfortunately to a mine on the other side of the road to Serrig, which will cut down my mobility considerably.

Turn 28: Finally, a foothold in Serrig, with both tanks in town, too. His infantry is running toward the rear of the town. I have squads in town, and a few more out of town ready to commit. The engineers take some heavy casualties, but appear to have captured the hill above Serrig. Meanwhile, on my left, I am able to rout the volkstrum once I get some fire on them, but at least one of my squads suffers 3 casualties when it stumbles across a full undamaged volkstrum squad.

Turn 29: Two hidden SS veteran squads crop up on my right, and play havoc with the forces there. I need to secure that flag, but all of a sudden things are close to even there. Meanwhile, one of my Shermans takes a side shot by a tank that had not appeared yet. I make some progress in the city, but my global morale is shrinking, and it is time to give up on that last flag.

Turn 30: This will be a close run thing at all points. Its practically down to twos and threes and fours on both hills 178 and 182. Serrig looks to turn my way, but I’ll have little left to work with. Global morale plummeting, Battalion HQ takes 5 casualties, slight lead in victory %.

Final: A surprising end, a joint autosurrender as both sides had significantly low global morales. A dead 49:49 draw, I can only hope that other allied attackers don’t do so well. In spite of the low morales, there was to be a fair amount of fighting left in the next 5 minutes or so. He had a Marder and a 75 mm gun left, but I had wiped out enough troops near Hill 178 that I think I could have changed that flag from ? to USA in the last few minutes. I think I could have held onto Serrig, with a fairly well stocked ammunition wise Sherman ensconced in the middle of town. Dodging that Marder and the gun wouldn’t have been too much trouble, but my infantry reserves there were down to few. On the left, I had some 155 rounds peppering the hill, before pushing with my leftovers there. I don’t think I would have had enough to take the flag, as he has some full, but green, squads nearby. Still, it may have been enough to turn it to ?.

A very fun scenario, too bad it ended early. It ends in a sister-kisser, which is a shame, as both sides had some toys left and all three flags were very much up in the air. I was probably helped by the fact that the 88s were so close to my front, but I shouldn’t have been so wasteful of my infantry.

[Mick_Oz]

Here is my travel-delayed AAR for this fight.. congrats to the designer.. I thought this was a great map!

AFTER-ACTION REPORT: HEAD FOR THE HILLS

[Mick_Oz (Axis) v BigDog(Allies)

15 March 1945

Serrig, Germany

To: Commander, Division HQ

From: Commander, First Company/11th SS Gebirgsjager Division

Sir:

I am most pleased to report to you that we have successfully repulsed the anticipated assault on our position by elements of the American 87th Infantry Division. The Americans have largely retired from the field with heavy loss of life. Although Hill 178 ( a wooded elevation immediately south of Serrig) remains contested at time of writing, the American units still able to offer resistance will shortly be overrun by our arriving reinforcements. All other key locations, including Serrig itself, remain solidly in German hands.The following report outlines my defensive preparations and provides a summary of the engagement itself.

We had been ordered not to tamper with the anti-tank mines placed by an advance party of engineers and these were left on either side of the main road into Serrig in front of the roadblock, which as ordered, was also left untouched. [all locked] However, we were given four other anti-tank mines and I ordered these placed as follows: one to guard a likely vehicle approach through a gap in trees flanking Hill 178 (on German left, near south edge of map), two on roads within the village and the fourth in a gap between wooded patches to the south of Hill 182, on our right. As it transpired, these mines never claimed any enemy vehicles although in the end, it didn’t matter much. I am, however, embarrassed to report that the barbed wire supplied to us was overlooked and remained in the rear of our position, unused. Again, I think this made little difference given the result of the engagement but I have ordered the engineers responsible to be shot anyway. Discipline and meticulous preparation must be enforced.

Our six Luftwaffe 88 Flak guns - which were to prove pivotal in this contest - were placed in wooded areas, all to the north of the main road but with different angles of oversight to guard both flanks as well as the centre road into Serrig. They were to cause dismay and death to many unwary US infantry. Only two were lost due to enemy artillery fire (a considerable stroke of good fortune here: my opponent acknowledged he had overlooked his 105mm FO and 160 rounds went unspent).

I placed two platoons of green Volkssturm in woods on the reverse slopes of Hill 178 on my left. Two other squads with an anti-tank team were placed in the village church at the rear of town. Hill 178 I regarded as expendable. My plan was to let the gum-chewing Americans engage my green infantry there on the reverse slopes, perhaps routing them but then finding themselves under the fire of at least two 88 flak guns. This is what occurred on both flanks as it happens but especially around Hill 178.

Approaches to key locations [VL’s] on both wooded flanks were sparsely held by recon infantry: light machine gun units, sharpshooters and spare platoon leaders. At the forward town perimeter, I placed two HMG teams and one LMG team in buildings along with a schreck unit. The MG teams would also provide warning of a push on town from the wooded left flank (the north slope of Hill 178) which I expected.

A platoon of Volks infantry protected one of my AA guns in the woods on the southern slopes of Hill 182 although I moved the platoon to the right, out of harm’s way after the gun had revealed its location. I anticipated correctly an imminent allied artillery strike. [Despite several turns of shelling, the gun survived].

My strongest units: One vet SS rifle squad platoon (simulating Gebir units) and a crack platoon of Pioneers were placed in positions to defend Hill 182 [The pioneers were locked at setup in a more central spot but I moved them to the right], reinforcing the forward platoon of green Volks that guarded a likely approach to the VL. Another vet SS platoon (Gebirs) held the far right wooded slope of the main VL, Hill 183 at rear of map, also held by a flak gun near summit.

First Contact: The first sign of the enemy was on the left, with my LMG and other units picking up advancing infantry and an HT. Their obvious goal was Hill 178. I was content to let them advance as I had little forward infantry defence of any strength for reasons stated above. Although briefly interrupted by my fire, including that of two sharpshooters, one enemy platoon quickly over-ran my green LMG team, who managed to claim at least one casualty before he was cut down. Another Vet LMG team closer to the centre was also killed by enemy machine gun or heavier fire. However, other advancing enemy rifle squads on my left.. (estimated to be at least two platoons) were taken under fire by one of my 88 Flak guns, which used direct and indirect HE fire to devastating effect, coupled with fire from two sharpshooters. I believe this routed at least two enemy platoons.

I knew now that the enemy would appear in some strength in the vicinity of Hill 178. Clearly, he intended to avoid a central push down the road into town at least initially. [in fact, it turned out that the road was never touched, the battle unfolded as two attacks against the flank VL’s. This suited my defence quite well as I had left Serrig itself only lightly defended.] The wide separation of the US assaults also denied the enemy mutual support and thus my infantry was able to repulse each push in detail, aided greatly at Hill 178 by 88 fire from my guns.

The enemy was then detected advancing in what appeared to be at least company strength on my far right [Turn 5]. Again, two LMG advance teams were quickly eliminated although they inflicted one or two casualties. Artillery fire had started against my flak gun south of Hill 182 which was clearly the goal of the enemy’s push down the right. I needed to protect the gun from infantry should it survive the shelling (it did) and moved my platoon of green volks infantry to the slope of Hill 182 in advance ambush position away from the gun, also to protect them from shelling. I also ordered my vet Pioneer platoon to reinforce the volks infantry and staunchly defend Hill 182. They would arrive just in time. I had a general idea of the enemy’s position as their units were intermittently spotted and taken under fire from my MG units in town.. and later by one of my flak guns near Serrig.

In the meantime, I continued indirect flak gun fire on woods patches on the left approaches to Hill 178..where more advancing US infantry was spotted along with a towed gun/halftrack. I wasn’t too worried about the gun as the only possible goal would be scattered trees on my far left .. well covered by my flak guns and schreck teams.

Hell on the Flanks: The storm broke on both flanks more or less simultaneously [Turn 13]. On the right, a platoon of Vet US infantry came charging down from the wooded lower summit of Hill 182 (which approached the VL) toward my flak gun. They ran smack into my green Volks platoon, which although battered by the encounter, held its ground, killing an anti-tank team and panicking at least one enemy squad. Within the next minute, my gallant green infantry had routed the entire Vet platoon, killing the platoon leader. Spotted US reinforcements were still some distance away these were taken under fire and pinned/panicked by my town flak gun and HMG fire. The piecemeal US attack on the right and the enemy’s failure to scout ahead would carry the seeds of its collapse.

On the left, at Hill 178 VL (reverse slopes) a platoon of regular US infantry charged into my green volks, killing my company commander, Hpt Meissner and inflicting heavy casualties on my men, who still managed to kill several of the enemy. Within a minute or so, however, my green infantry had been wiped out bar one survivor. The enemy platoon, however, was now taken under fire by one of my 88 flak guns, which had oversight of the reverse slope wooded area. My greens had been the bait: war for them ended as pure hell but their relatives will be well looked after.

I also moved up a reserve half squad and spare platoon leader on the right slope to help pin and stall the enemy. However, they were immediately engaged and wiped out. Soon after, I suffered another setback: my flak gun trained on Hill 178 was knocked out by US artillery. The enemy was now in force on the VL reverse slopes, perhaps a company strong. US infantry also appeared on the wooded edge of Hill 178 facing Serrig but these units were eroded and repulsed with heavy losses by combined infantry/mg/schreck fire from town and by 88 flak gun fire from my elevated positions. In fact, the enemy never made it into town at all.

[Turn 16] On the right, another US platoon appeared to replace its luckless predecessor. They caused havoc with my green Volks defenders, killing all but five men and the platoon hq, but my crack Pioneers had by now arrived on the scene.

And I also received my reinforcements: a platoon of vet SS rifles (Gebirs) in trucks with the platoon HQ in a kubelwagon. These I sent forward to bolster my defence of Hill 182 on my right with plans for a counter-attack on its forward slopes. My other reinforcements: a towed 75mm AT gun, a Marder II and a 75mm FO I sent to the left slope of the main VL, Hill 183, where they would have LOS to Hill 178 and its reverse approaches. I was prepared if necessary to give away Hill 178 but intended to strongly defend the other key locations.

My crack Pioneers on the right soon had their hands full. The enemy infantry, regular rifle squads, came on in force. I judged there were two platoons with mg support. I lost one squad but my two remaining crack squads held and inflicted losses on the enemy. Meanwhile, I sent up two of my three defending SS rifles from the reverse slope of Hill 182.. to flank the enemy offensive on its right. This succeeded in breaking its backbone. My trucked in reinforcements were also getting close to the battlezone and the situation would soon be in hand.

On the left, I shelled Hill 178 with 81mm mortar fire as my Marder and gun drew closer to position. I also put Flak gun fire on wooded areas at the border of the reverse slope. And now the enemy made another careless advance, sending a platoon of Vet infantry charging into a lower patch of unscouted woods..where I had my reserve platoon of Volks infantry. The US troops found themselves running past my men, who opened up with devastating effect. The platoon was largely wiped out, including the platoon hq. More US infantry appeared.. some running out of woods into open areas.. they were targeted by HMG fire, mortars, flak guns and my rifle squads. Many died. My volks were under pressure but the enemy was suffering far more. The first US Sherman tank appeared and was targeted by my schreck, the Marder and a flak gun. The schreck got him first. I also spotted the towed gun and targeted his likely unlimbering spot with my 75mm FO. The subsequent artillery strike quickly knocked out the gun.

To summarise the rest of the engagement: At Hill 182, on the right, my rushed up two squads of SS rifles enfiladed and shattered the US offensive, although my green volks infantry and all but a handful of Pioneers perished in holding the line. I sent my SS troopers in search of US stragglers, killing an approaching flamethrower (a flak gun also killed a second flamethrower). The US effort on my right was now a spent force. I sent the trucked in reinforcement platoon into town by foot and eventually to Hill 178 where they contested the flag.

In town, my men in the church, combined with flak and machine gun fire, repulsed the US attempted advance from the woods of Hill 178.

At the main VL, Hill 183, a US artillery strike – assumed it was 105mm – knocked out a second of my six flak guns. I also spotted a TD just out of range of my Marder and gun.. so I targeted his area indirectly hoping for an indirect kill or immobilisation.

He later moved into the open, where his gun was hit. He was then immobilised by my 75mm AT gun and destroyed by my Marder. [Turn 29]

On the left, my reinforcements arrived to bolster the defence of Serrig after the repulse of the US effort on the right and infantry was rushed to contest if not overwhelm the VL at Hill 178. Unfortunately, my men were not sufficient at the close of the battle to completely eliminate the few remaining US troops. This I feel was my only significant error in the conduct of the fight. If I had gambled on leaving the other VL’s poorly defended (not a big gamble in hindsight) they may have been able to claim all strategic locations.

With the benefit of hindsight, I analyse my opponent’s key errors as follows:

 His failure to make use of his 105mm FO:

 His decision not to concentrate his force on one objective at a time rather than separate his attack into two correspondingly weaker flank attacks without mutual support;

 The piecemeal nature of the US infantry attacks (one platoon at a time rather than two or three in coordinated attacks);

 His failure to scout adequately with units ahead of his main force, which cost him at least two platoons if not more. Scouting with half squads or spare units should also be used to uncover the locations of my flak guns, which carry much of the German advantage in this battle.

Result: (Axis) 69; (Allies) 28.

Axis Tactical Victory.

Message Ends.