New file at the Repository: Kampfgruppe Rohrbach.rar (2011-09-14)

[Battlefront Repository]

On the early morning of 19 june 1944 bad weather struck the English channel just as delivering supplies across Utah and Omaha beach had begun to work at full capacity. This bad weather called the “Big Storm” lasted for four days and seriously damaged the Mulberry port. Before noon all ferrying operations were suspended on both landingbeaches.On 20 june the storm continued and the artificial port showed signs of breaking up. The supplies that could be brought to land were nearly not enough to accomplish any tactical plans. On top of the raging storm 116 German aircraft were active in the night of 19 to 20 june over the beaches and shippinglanes. At Omaha the Naval commander concluded the artifiacial ports had proven to be impractical and should not be reconstructed. The American army desperatly needed a real port to unload its supplies. Before the storm ended Major General J. Lawton Collins, commander of VII Corps, issued orders for resumption for the attack on Cherbourg.You are to command elements of Kampfgruppe Rohrbach to stop the American 4th Infantry Division's advance from the north of Bois du Roudou in the direction of La Boissais and La Besnarderie. The Americans must be prevented from moving to the high ground east of La Glacerie just south of Cherbourg.

More...

[Erwin]

Lovely. Thanks...

[Eddie]

You're welcome, and I hope you will enjoy the mission.

[smashing]

Top quality battle, had a blast. Good old fashioned set piece. intelligently done. Great map.

Thanks, please do more

[Eddie]

I'm glad you had a good time playing the mission. And thanks for the compliments, especially the part "intelligently done". Also, thanks for the feedback and I will make more missions, in fact I have already started working on a new one.

[bodkin]

Eddie,

It would be nice if you gave the German player the option to set up their own defence, that way it feels you've got more control of proceedings rather than just being a spectator at the start.

Cheers,

[Eddie]

It would be nice if you gave the German player the option to set up their own defence, that way it feels you've got more control of proceedings rather than just being a spectator at the start.

I understand your toughts about setting up the German defence the way you would like it yourself. But the consequence could be that the order in which the AI is ordered to conducts its actions could be disrupted in such a way it could mess up the entire AI plan. For example, the player could set up the PaK-40 at WN 411c and take out the allied tanks when they start moving from their starting positions right at the beginning of the mission. I did position the PaK-40 at WN 411c in the early stages of missiondesign and it was nice to knock out three of four Sheman's as soon as they were spotted by the crew of the PaK-40 but it left the Allies without any tanksupport on their advance. I think that in a real situation any Allied attack would be halted until the PaK-40 would have been neutralized by Allied artillery or fighterbombers and the advance would be postponed until new tanks would have arived to support the infantry. This is something one can not simulate in a CM mission, well at least I can't. Therefore I have chosen to not let the player decide where his or her forces are deployed and make an AI plan that ensures something is happening all the time during the entire mission to keep things interesting. Besides, it gives the AI more chance to be more of a challenge to the player.

If I were to make a mission in which the player was to attack a certain sector I would give him or her more choice where certain units start the mission. In a mission such as this, in which the player has to defend a certain sector, I prefer to do the things the way I did because of what I explained above. Anyway, thanks for your feedback and if I find a way to make a defensive mission which is less scripted, and with more freedom for the player to set up his forces without the chance the AI plan becomes cripled I will certainly do this. By the way, did you win or loose?

[Vin]

The map and briefing are as usual detailed and well done, and I like the placement and design of the fortifications on the map. You had 179 downloads and no ratings, I just gave you one. The map very much resembles the satellite aerial shot in the briefing, I like and recognize the briefing map icons . At an hour and 50 minutes, I think I will just divide the AAR on this into two parts so I can put more time into playing. I haven't finished a single mission from CMBN yet, I never even got to finish the demo missions before the game came out. I've been playing CMA pretty much exclusively for these past few months. I look forward to returning to this game for awhile, and experiencing an even better version of the enjoyment I got from CMBO. I understand you limiting the placement of starting forces on the map, a frontal assault against a fortified position without armor will be suicidal and costly for the Americans so that armor needs a chance to survive. Will there be an alternate version of this mission from the American side or are you designing a completely new next mission?

[bodkin]

No worries Eddie, thanks.

[Eddie]

The map and briefing are as usual detailed and well done, and I like the placement and design of the fortifications on the map. You had 179 downloads and no ratings, I just gave you one.

Thanks for the rating and I'm glad you like the map, the briefing and the fortifications.

The map very much resembles the satellite aerial shot in the briefing, I like and recognize the briefing map icons.

I printed the satellite image I made with google maps and used this as a "guide" to make the map. I just could not resist using these icons since they have same names that were doing battle in this area on the Cotentin Peninsula. And I could not find them anywhere else so...

At an hour and 50 minutes, I think I will just divide the AAR on this into two parts so I can put more time into playing. I haven't finished a single mission from CMBN yet, I never even got to finish the demo missions before the game came out.

You are right to put more time into playing the mission. I think this will bring you most fun and I hope you will find this mission interesting enough to make it the first CMBN mission you finish.

I've been playing CMA pretty much exclusively for these past few months.

This I know.

I look forward to returning to this game for awhile, and experiencing an even better version of the enjoyment I got from CMBO.

I think with all the improvements CMBN has over CMBO you will definitly have a better experience.

I understand you limiting the placement of starting forces on the map, a frontal assault against a fortified position without armor will be suicidal and costly for the Americans so that armor needs a chance to survive.

I'm glad you understand my position concerning the frontal assault against the fortified position and the American armor.

Will there be an alternate version of this mission from the American side or are you designing a completely new next mission?

I'm designing a completely new mission which will put the player in command of the American VII Corps. I figured that if I made a new mission using the same map, as I originally intended, the map would become a bore for myself and anyone who decides to download and give it a try. The new map, which is done for the larger part, is actually only a few hundred meters east of the current map (it could also be west, this depends if you are looking at it from the north or south). Anyway, I will have to go back to my reading materials to see if there was a counterattack by the Germans in this area so I can make another defensive mission (if I remember correctly there was one counterattack). But if there was no counterattack I will make an offensive mission.

No worries Eddie, thanks.

I'm not worried and you are welcome.

[Eddie]

You are right to put more time into playing the mission. I think this will bring you most fun and I hope you will find this mission interesting enough to make it the first CMBN mission you finish.

Edit: Just to make things clear. By no means did I mean to say that you did not finish any other CMBN mission because they were not interesting enough.

[Vin]

Lol, I didn't think you did. I decided to delete my saves and start fresh another time with those battles. Where before I was playing all CMx2 games, I recently decided to focus on one at a time, not moving onto a different one before I was done with a battle. With so many armies to choose from, it can be difficult to make up your mind about which one to play. I changed my mind about playing campaigns too when I saw Fredrock1957's new previews.

[Eddie]

Where before I was playing all CMx2 games, I recently decided to focus on one at a time, not moving onto a different one before I was done with a battle.

A wise and understandable decision.

With so many armies to choose from, it can be difficult to make up your mind about which one to play.

I don't have this problem since I have not played any missions at all in the last few months.

I changed my mind about playing campaigns too when I saw Fredrock1957's new previews.

You should most definitly play Fredrock's campaign as it looks very prommising.

I have a question for you which might seem a bit strange but I have a very good reason for it to ask. Would it be possible for me to provide you with the .btt file of any future mission(s) that I create in an other way then the repository? My question has to do with private reasons which I will not discuss on this forum.

[bodkin]

Finished with a tactical defeat.

*possible spoilers*

I held the WN11a and WN11b objectives and fought hard to try and regain WN11c but it was too heavily defended. Taking back the bocage objectives was an impossible suicide mission, the strength of the US forces was more than enough to stop any of my counter attacks. Looking at the scores at the end even if I regained WN11c I still would have lost, I think their were some destroy unit objectives but I don't know what they were.

I found the Pak 40 useless, I don't think it got a shot in all game and ended up being destroyed by artillery. The Marders weren't much more use, their shots bounced harmlessly off the Shermans at long range but they got destroyed in one shot when the Shermans returned fire.

If it was my scenario I'd give the Germans some more artillery so they can soften up the us defenders a bit more, I used alot of my arty stopping the US human wave that was sweeping across the battlefield and didn't have enough left to counter attack. A decent anti tank capability would be nice as well, maybe a panther or an 88.

[Vin]

You should most definitly play Fredrock's campaign as it looks very prommising.

I have a question for you which might seem a bit strange but I have a very good reason for it to ask. Would it be possible for me to provide you with the .btt file of any future mission(s) that I create in an other way then the repository? My question has to do with private reasons which I will not discuss on this forum.

I plan on playing Fredrock's campaign, though it may not be for awhile as I still plan on playing your CMBN missions first. Sure, you can provide me with your future mission .btt files. You could send me a PM about this since you don't want to discuss it on the forum, then maybe discuss further through email if PM is not sufficient.

[Eddie]

Finished with a tactical defeat.

Taking into account the overwhelming numbers in infantry and tanks for the US side not such a bad result in my opinion. Well done!

I held the WN11a and WN11b objectives and fought hard to try and regain WN11c but it was too heavily defended.

Then you did at least manage to fend of the US attack on WN 411b and you are correct, the AI does position a lot of forces in front of 411c in order to defend the objective.

Looking at the scores at the end even if I regained WN11c I still would have lost, I think their were some destroy unit objectives but I don't know what they were.

It could indeed be you stil lost even if you had regained WN 411c as the loss in units is, as you probably know, also a factor which calculates the endresult. And you are correct, there are unit objectives for both sides; tanks, mortars and AT-guns.

I found the Pak 40 useless, I don't think it got a shot in all game and ended up being destroyed by artillery.

The times I tested the mission the PaK-40 fired most of its projectiles on hard, and soft targets. I let the AT-gun hide until it could engage targets that were clearly visible. The moment I noticed the AI artillery started to fire rounds at the PaK-40's position I withdrew the gun with the truck to deploy it again after the artillery barrage was over. I could have even deployed it elsewhere if I wanted to.

The Marders weren't much more use, their shots bounced harmlessly off the Shermans at long range but they got destroyed in one shot when the Shermans returned fire.

During playtesting the Marders fired on the Sherman's and they sometimes managed to penetrate their armor and sometimes they did not. If the Sherman's were hit they withdrew to safer positions and by doing so became less of a threat to the Marders or other units of my forces. The Marders are indeed very vulnerable, it takes only one shot for the Sherman's to knock them out so they must be positioned very carefully.

If it was my scenario I'd give the Germans some more artillery so they can soften up the us defenders a bit more, I used alot of my arty stopping the US human wave that was sweeping across the battlefield and didn't have enough left to counter attack.

The US human wave is almost impossible to stop without the artillery but I can't confirm there is not enough left over to undertake the counterattack. I completely used the mortars that came as reinforcements for softening up the US defenders at 411c. The result was a bit dissapointing because when I counterattacked I discovered that the bombardment had very little effect as my forces came under intensive fire from the defenders and my units routed. I understand your position on the German artillery, this is something I maybe could have done in another way.

A decent anti tank capability would be nice as well, maybe a panther or an 88.

I think the PaK-40 and the Marders are decent anti-tank capabilities but I admit the Marders are very vulnerable in a dual with the Sherman's. If the PaK-40 gets a shot at the Sherman's and manages to hit it, it will cause significant damage in most cases. But I understand the Sherman's are difficult to hit because of the orders I gave them. During testplaying I managed to knock out a Sherman on two different occasions with the PaK-38 at WN 411c, those were lucky shots I guess as most hits simply bounced off. As for the Panther, there were no Panthers fighting on the Cotentin Peninsula except maybe for the one that belonged to some SS division but this is not sure. I could have given the Germans an 88 but decided not to since I thought (and stil think) the antitank capabilities were (are) good enough.

To bad you ended with a tactical defeat but I hope you stil enjoyed playing the mission. Thanks for your feedback and if you ever want to replay the mission, but want to change the forces for the player to make it easier you may ofcourse do so.

[Eddie]

I plan on playing Fredrock's campaign, though it may not be for awhile as I still plan on playing your CMBN missions first. Sure, you can provide me with your future mission .btt files. You could send me a PM about this since you don't want to discuss it on the forum, then maybe discuss further through email if PM is not sufficient.

Sorry Vin, I overlooked your reply, these eyes of mine and/or my brain sometimes let me down lately. I will send a PM to you right away.

[bodkin]

The times I tested the mission the PaK-40 fired most of its projectiles on hard, and soft targets. I let the AT-gun hide until it could engage targets that were clearly visible. The moment I noticed the AI artillery started to fire rounds at the PaK-40's position I withdrew the gun with the truck to deploy it again after the artillery barrage was over. I could have even deployed it elsewhere if I wanted to.

Yeah as soon as I saw the spotting rounds I tried to redeploy the Pak-40 but they were still packing up when the barrage hit. I think next time I'll try to redeploy it earlier as no US tanks came within it's line of sight where it was originally.

Thanks for taking the time to make and share this mission.

[Eddie]

Yeah as soon as I saw the spotting rounds I tried to redeploy the Pak-40 but they were still packing up when the barrage hit. I think next time I'll try to redeploy it earlier as no US tanks came within it's line of sight where it was originally.

To bad you could not withdraw the PaK-40 in time. But if you ever play the mission again I have a tip for you. Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers

If you let the PaK-40 face the paved road where the Sherman's are coming around the corner when they are moving toward that farm the crew will fire on them automatically. No need to set a fire arc. And maybe you can try to make a German human wave to defeat the defenders of certain objectives they captured earlier. Anyway, thank you for your feedback and the time you spend on my mission.

[jeep]

Great scenario!

I came away with German minor victory on my first play. I was able to recapture 411C, but I will say the defenders were tenacious. I finally took it by sending up a two prong attack. The first platoon came up the left side of the map, but didn't have enough men left to dislodge all the defenders (who fought effectively to the last man) and the two tanks.

I sent a second platoon up the road and hit them from behind, finally taking the objective. The tanks in the center had already been taken out (2) or displaced (1) by the Paks and Marders. I found they were very effective. I only lost the marders when I tried to drive through a low bocage (hoping it was brush). He turned around and exposed himself to MG fire The other one took a sherman shell. Only complaint on the anti armor is the pak on 411c was dead meat from the beginning. Both the other Paks survived. I like how you scripted the shermans, very effective. Usually the AI just drives right into my sights and burns. These ones were tough to crack

I tried a brief counter attack up the road on the right side of the map, but it took fire from both sides plus arty so that ended quickly. After seeing the enemy forces in the bocage afterwards it never would have worked anyway.

One complaint is the lack of openings in the bocage. It really limited the german retreat and counterattack. The center field is the worst, since there is no way to enter/exit on the left at all. I was going to send it some troops to retake the center bocage after 411c but there was no practical way to do it. The germans need to think about their lines of retreat when setting up the defense

Not sure if the americans could have realistically taken the WN objectives. Were the tanks scripted to ever move forward to support the attack? Seems like they had a lot of troops left over on the right side bocage that didn't support further attacks.

[Eddie]

Hi jeep,

Great scenario!

Thanks!

I came away with German minor victory on my first play. I was able to recapture 411C, but I will say the defenders were tenacious. I finally took it by sending up a two prong attack. The first platoon came up the left side of the map, but didn't have enough men left to dislodge all the defenders (who fought effectively to the last man) and the two tanks.

Congratulations on your victory, well done! So you managed to recapture 411c despite the US defenders, including two tanks, being all around the objective. Good work!

I sent a second platoon up the road and hit them from behind, finally taking the objective. The tanks in the center had already been taken out (2) or displaced (1) by the Paks and Marders. I found they were very effective. I only lost the marders when I tried to drive through a low bocage (hoping it was brush). He turned around and exposed himself to MG fire The other one took a sherman shell. Only complaint on the anti armor is the pak on 411c was dead meat from the beginning. Both the other Paks survived. I like how you scripted the shermans, very effective. Usually the AI just drives right into my sights and burns. These ones were tough to crack.

I see you made good use of the wide space on the map when you staged the attack from the road. I tried to put US defenders so that they would cover most routes toward the objectives, but in the end the AI decides how may units go to a certain area so there will always be a less defended area which the player can exploit. I think the antitank capabilities for the player would be sufficient to beat the US armor if used properly and I can tell from what you have written you did. But the Marders are vulnerable to the Sherman's and even machinegun fire as you have experienced. You are correct the paK-38 at 411c has no chance of survival. But I thought this fitted good in the scenario to picture the situation the Germans were in that day. And I know what you mean when the AI sends in tanks right into enemyfire so I figured I will help the AI a bit by giving them the orders I did. Glad you liked this.

I tried a brief counter attack up the road on the right side of the map, but it took fire from both sides plus arty so that ended quickly. After seeing the enemy forces in the bocage afterwards it never would have worked anyway.

I think you were right to try and counterattack on the right side of the map, just to bad you did not succeed. I like the way the AI uses artillery as it can really be a threat to the playerforce and influence things that are happening on the map.

One complaint is the lack of openings in the bocage. It really limited the german retreat and counterattack. The center field is the worst, since there is no way to enter/exit on the left at all. I was going to send it some troops to retake the center bocage after 411c but there was no practical way to do it. The germans need to think about their lines of retreat when setting up the defense.

I made as much openings in the bocage as I thought were needed to give the player the possibility to retreat but this has to be done in time. The same goes for recapturing lost terrain/objectives but I had to make some restrictions to give the AI the chance to stop the player's counterattack. But I'm sure that in real life the Germans would have made better lines of retreat.

Not sure if the americans could have realistically taken the WN objectives. Were the tanks scripted to ever move forward to support the attack? Seems like they had a lot of troops left over on the right side bocage that didn't support further attacks.

The attack on the WN 411a (the center) will never take place. I have tried to let US infantry attack this position but they could not make it as I sprayed them with lead from the MG's in the trenches. If I would have given the tanks orders to get closer to this defensive position without infantrysupport they could become easy targets for panzerschrecks. The US infantry constantly routed and retereated when they were fired upon by my MG's. This would mean the tanks would advance on their own, and this seemed somewhat incredible to me. Besides, the length of the scenario had to be much longer too and I figured 01:50 hours was long enough. As for the forces on the right side bocage that came as reinforcements, they were there for defensive purpose only to keep control of objectives the US captured there. This way I tried to make sure the player could not succesfully conduct a counterattack everywhere.

Thanks for your feedback Jeep, and its nice to read you managed a minor victory on your first try, great work!

[Vin]

Kampfgruppe Rohrbach AAR, Part 1 of 2, the first 55 minutes.

Prepared Bocage

Much of the battle during the first 20 minutes was just hiding the Kampfgruppe and waiting for the Americans to advance. I set ambushes at various distances to do as much damage as possible but when the Americans got started the advance was in waves. If I could do this part over I would have abandoned the Prepared Bocage, the American initial wave of attack was almost unstoppable. It reminded me of a Custer's last stand (except I had plenty of reinforcements). There were some ferocious firefights at the Prepared Bocage, eventually every position on that line fell.

Video:

I managed to retreat one man from that Bocage section to WN 411b. The men shown in this video making a run for it did not survive long after but managed to do some damage to the enemy.

Video:

The Prepared Bocage has completely fallen into enemy hands. There were a few pockets of resistance put up by the remaining squads but they too surrendered, died fighting or running (shot in the back, I saw this a few times with some soldiers). Some units that surrendered stayed in the same place for a long time. They generally disappear after awhile. A couple of the German's surrendered soldiers were in an area where there was heavy crossfire. They might as well have made a run for it but one suffered the consequences of sticking around.

Video:

WN 411a

This fortified area has been the place where all German artillery strikes have been called from. When WN 411c fell, mortar and artillery strikes were called on that area, if they had succeeded they would have neutralized a large amount of American troops in that area, instead the strikes were the equivalent of 100 meters off and did no relevant damage. The PaK40 was a great help early on with helping to disable American tanks but it didn't last long. As soon as a spotter got a good look at its crew's position it fell victim to highly-accurate artillery fire, with no chance to get away.

Video:

The reinforcement of the two Marder IIIs (which I have kept on a slope on the same road they came from) have aided the German side greatly by eliminating infantry and sapping morale and by destroying an M4 Sherman that was advancing on WN 411b.

Video:

The HMGs from this position combined with the Marders have been of great use in suppressing the attacks on WN 411b, though at this point it still is in jeopardy.

WN 411b

This position has been taking the brunt of the attack after the Prepared Bocage and WN 411c were overrun. The Americans are trying a concentrated attack on the front and flanking on the side of the road. They had a hard time with the frontal attack due to the two Marder III's that arrived as support that were stationed on the road at WN 411a that used suppressing fire. In addition all HMGs on WN 411a were unhidden and began to open fire on the enemy troops trying to cross to WN 411b. The soldiers on WN 411b also came out of cover and opened fire and the frontal attack was driven back, but there are still American forces trying to flank.

Video:

The PaK38 here has been a great help suppressing the American advance and even fending off Sherman tanks.

Video:

When the Americans closed in on the flank the crew had to abandon the gun and the headquarters unit near that area moved to the trenches of WN 411b so that they would not be overwhelmed. The PaK38 in that area was abandoned with one shot left. The Americans had reached a position where they could see the crew and one was wounded.

WN 411c

Before the Hill was taken by the Americans this Pak38 had a commanding view, this Sherman tank put a stop to that:

Video:

The Bocage on the hill across from WN 411c has not come under heavy attack yet. Some infantry was sent down the Hill after it was captured but soon met the waiting Germans.

Video:

As of the last 15 minutes of this section, a counterattack has been launched with all of Gren. Komp. V with the objective of taking back WN 411c. An HMG has been sighted in the bocage on crest of the hill and there are many squads hidden along the bocage of that area as well. An entire squad that scouted that area was lost and those that stopped were unable to escape the gunfire from multiple sides of the hedgrows. All artillery attacks on this area have so far been unsuccessful because of poor spotting. Another one has been called but if it does not succeed there, taking WN 411c will have to be done in another way. One of the Marder IIIs may be used to directly fire smoke on that area, they do not have enough HE or AP shells left to spare so this is part of my backup plan. Gren. Komp. V is in position to attack and once a smoke screen can be laid down on the enemy they will have to take advantage. This will be an uphill attack with the German side having an extreme disadvantage. If the Germans do not take this position the game will be lost. At this point I think it will be logistically impossible to take back the Prepared Bocage. The Americans have too many tanks, they will need to be attacked only from concealed areas. If the Prepared Bocage is to be retaken at all a flanking attack by the Germans would be necessary but only with enough AT troops.

As of now this is a German Minor Defeat so it is imperative that the rest of my artillery be concentrated as precise as possible into the WN 411c position and at the crest of the Hill it is on. As I said above though a large amount of direct fire smoke would be my backup plan, there is no way around the crest of the hill without being exposed to gunfire from the heights and to make things worse the Sherman tank detachments are moving forward and the German advance is temporarily stalled until the tanks in the way can be dealt with.

The rest of the American artillery strikes have fallen off the mark and German troops have managed to kill several HQ radio operators that approached WN 411a and b that came into line of sight. The second half of this mission is going to be extremely hard but I'm looking forward to the challenge, I just hope my FOs and HQs are up to it too and are able to precisely call in strikes on those critical locations where they need to.

The current battle statistics are:

U.S. - OK: 520, KIA: 90, WIA: 44, 2 Tanks lost

Germany - OK: 401, KIA: 52 WIA: 57, MIA: 5, 2 PaK 38s Abandoned, 1 PaK 40 Destroyed

[Vin]

Kampfgruppe Rohrbach AAR, Part 2 of 2, the last 55 minutes.

Prepared Bocage

This position was permanently lost for the duration of the second half. The whole area was well-defended by American troops and tanks. It would not have been possible to retake it with the forces available, there were too many American tanks left and the two Marders at WN 411a were running low on ammunition.

WN 411a

The two Marders in this area were not moved off the road in the woods. Too many American tanks were present and they would have been vulnerable to attack from many directions. The Marders suppressed the infantry attacking WN 411b primarily, in the second half. A large group of officers (including my main artillery spotter) were caught in an artillery strike in the woods of WN 411a. I had thought they were hidden well enough but they were too closely grouped. While half the group and my main artillery spotter survived (who was also in the process of calling another artillery strike) a couple company HQs and the balance of their squads did not. The Americans were not able to get close to this position thanks to the HMGs located in the WN 411a trenches that had interlocking fields of fire.

WN 411b

The WN 411b trench suffered an artillery attack early in the second half of the battle, many German soldiers were killed or wounded as shown here:

Video:

It was after this attack that I decided to reinforce this area with a platoon from WN 411a. There were not enough German soldiers to hold this area effectively after the artillery strike so I was forced to send more.

The Americans were reduced to crawling in order to assault WN 411b because of the suppressing fire of three HMGs located in the trenches at WN 411a. There were a couple American soldiers that tried to sneak through the side into the WN 411b trenches. Many of the German soldiers in the trench were hiding to avoid taking further casualties at this point, I had them ambush any Americans attempting to take this position rather than constantly exposing them to fire. There is one American soldier shown in this video that snuck through the obstacles and hedgerow creating havoc in the trench, but he is soon shot by the rattled German soldiers.

Video:

The reinforcements and the HMGS from WN 411a enabled the Germans to hold WN 411b for the rest of the mission.

WN 411c

An artillery strike was called in on the hedgerow that runs parallel to the road near WN 411c. German squads are seen here moving into position for assault, waiting for the artillery to cease fire. Close to the hedgerow that is under fire is the German scout squad that was completely annihilated as they approached. Their bodies can be seen at the far right in the video. The artillery strike was called in for this reason, the hedgerow at this point was a death trap where the advancing Germans could not see where they were being shot at from so this was necessary to gain further ground.

Video:

Here is a close-up of the lead squad moving into position to assault the same hedgerow shown in the previous video. They needed to be fairly close so I could time their assault right after the artillery strike ceased to take advantage of the suppression.

Video:

At this point the artillery strike on the area was done and then I was able to send in squads to deal with the Americans on the other side of the hedgerow near the road by WN 411c. The first German squad to close in for assault was met with gunfire and took a casualty as shown in this video. There were still a few soldiers left but they were quickly overwhelmed by the Germans.

Video:

The Germans take out the American HMG near the road to WN 411c here after they gain entry from the hedgerow:

Video:

I had an entire company with HMG and AT support on the way to assault this area. They came under fire from American troops in the field below on their way to the road near WN 411c.

Inside the hedgerow of WN 411c, a surrendered German soldier is shown being shot by Americans on the edge of the hedgerow while more German soldiers rush in only to surrender as well. Many of the assaulting German squads were suffering exhaustion and morale had broken in some.

Video:

My Artillery spotter at WN 411a called a strike on this house, which had some Americans inside and outside around the perimeter. If this strike hadn't succeeded, the Germans would have been subjected to more gunfire from here in addition to that from the WN 411c trench. There are several surrendered Germans shown in background, two of which changed back to fighting status when more of the German squads were able to assault and occupy this area.

Video:

This is the last 30 seconds of the mission. I had the equivalent of two platoons in this area in the process of attacking and also two HMGs taking up position on the high point of WN 411c. AT teams were also being moved in to prepare to deal with the American tanks in the area. At this point the AI was doing more than twice as well as me as far as mission points were concerned, so I was granted no overtime, which for me was the only hope of having a chance to win the battle. There were several squads of American soldiers partially hidden by fog of war in the WN 411c trench.

Video:

When I started this I didn't think I would be documenting a loss, lol. I put in a lot of time playing this battle and wanted to follow through to the end even if it was not in my favor, with this second AAR.

The final battle statistics are:

German Army Tactical Defeat

U.S. - OK: 454, KIA: 119, WIA: 80, MIA: 1, 2 Tanks lost

Germany - OK: 321, KIA: 102, WIA: 85, MIA: 7, 2 PaK 38s Abandoned, 1 PaK 40 Destroyed

[Vin]

The last file for the AAR.

[Eddie]

Hi Vin,

Thanks for posting this very extensive AAR. It is to bad the mission ended in a Tactical Defeat. Despite this result I think you enjoyed the mission since you played it to the very end, even when you knew you would not win. The Americans had overwhelming numbers in men and material, and they used some good tactics as well. I know there was a failed artillery strike on WN 411c earlier in the mission. Had this strike been succesfull the battle could have ended in another way. I think you did not do bad at all. I'm going to watch your videos now. Thanks a lot for making these, and for describing the events at the different objectives!