Die Letzte Hoffnung - a campaign DAR

[TheVulture]

Just to give y'all something to read between arguing about the UI and whether tanks firing on the move is a bug or not, I present

Die Letzte Hoffnung

A campaign DAR

(That's During Action Report for those who don't know - like an AAR, but done as you go along).

So since I decided to restart Field Marshall Blucher's campaign having not done so well on it at the first attempt, I figured it was as good a time as any to write a DAR as I went along. I'm going to try to avoid using information I picked up on the first play through asfar as possible, and take a different path through the campaign where I have the choice, although I think that only makes for one completely new scenario and one that is slightly different on the same map. Plus there may be some alternative AI plans in use, which can make things play out rather differently.

My first play through wasn't a roaring success. I basically ran out of units. By the time I got to the penultimate mission I was down tothree tanks (from ten at the start) - mostly due to becomming immobilised in the mud - and 50-60% headcount in my infantry platoons. Andthat misison wasn't going well either, so I admitted defeat and threw in the towel.

So... back to the beginning for another spin around.

And while this ought to be obvious, I will say it anyway

This will contain spoilers for the "Die Letzte Hoffnung" campaign

The campaign is the sory of an attempted German counterattack towards Avranches after the US capture of St. Lo. While being based on real events, FMB has wisely taken liberties with the details to make for interesting missions. The player is given command of a scratch task force consisting of an infantry battalion, two panzer platoons (Pv IZ and Panther), some recon assets and some engineers. The player's particular task is to open the road to the crossroads town of Cherence-le-Roussel and hold it for the main division attack to pass through towards Avranches. The infantry batallion has been reorganised to bring 1st and 2nd companies up to strength by disbanding the 3rd company (4th company is the heavy weapon company, which is also at full strength now).

[TheVulture]

Mission 1 : Getting Rolling

05:00 hours, and the attack is starting, several hours behind schedule. The road we are to advance along passes between a dairy farm and a factory complex, which is where the American front line troops are positioned. They have had time to build some hasty defenses in this area, and intelligence warns us that we can expect foxholes, tank obstacles and some mines. It is thought that there is no artillery or air support for the Americans at this time, and the defence is basically simple infantry (plus some organic weapons).

The actual objectives for the mission are to clear the factory and dairy farm on either side of the road. Here is the map of the area:

Green lines are very approximate indications of the contours of the land, with the highest point being in the centre. My deployment area is the bottom left corner.

The approach to the factory is wooded, giving a nice avenue of approach without any natural chokepoints that would be obviously mined. The is a slight rise from there up to the 'private houses' and belt of trees in the centre. The dairy farm is low down, with downward sloping open fields as the approaches. The top left of the map is cut up by bocage and would require the engineers to blast breaches to get any vehicles through that area.

Pre-battle intelligence show a scattering of contacts in the two objective areas and the private houses between.

My main force is the battalions 1st company - 3 motorised panzergrenadier platoons and 2 HMG teams. These are supported by the panther platoon and the Pz IV platoon. I also have 5 PSW 234 armoured cars from the recon company and a squad of engineers. Only the recon units are present at the start of the battle; the rest will turn up over the next 5-10 minutes.

The basic plan is very simple:

• Clear the factory complex
  
• Clear the houses and woods on the central ridge
  
• Use those as a base of fire to clear the dairy farm
  

I have no intention of using the recon vehicles. To my mind the point of recon is to be miles ahead or to the side of a moving column to have some idea of where the enemy are. When you are within a few hundred metres of a defended enemy position and deploying for the attack, the job of the recon assets is long done.

(This is basically the same plan as I used first time around, but I think if I came to this map 100 times with amnesia between each time, I'd still do it the same way every time. I really can't conceive of any other sane way to go about it, unless I am deliberately trying to avoid doing this exact thing)

[Statisoris]

What program are you using for illustrating the map? Looks a lot better than what one can do with Infranview.

[Erwin]

Having completed scenario 1, I agree. This seems to be the most sensible route of attack.

I also agree that one the smallish (compared to CM1) maps in CMBN, recon vehicles are a liability so close to enemy positions. They may be useful later as support when the inf have cleared any AT assets. Designers should provide inf recon teams instead.

***SPOILER ALERT***

I dismounted the two 234/1's and used the crew as foot recon. One team along the central woods/road route (found an AT gun) but lost 2 crew, and even though they reoccupied their vehicle that 234/1 was missing in the 2nd scenario, so there is a risk when using dismounted crews. The 2nd crew went along the side of the factory near the map edge and located some enemy there that my inf plus HMG's were able to deal with. With the Panthers covering the central area, I sent a couple Pz IV's south of the factory and that helped clear out those buildings with maybe 6 or so inf casualties.

[TheVulture]

What program are you using for illustrating the map? Looks a lot better than what one can do with Infranview.

MILSketch - it also does a nice line in adding NATO symbols to maps too : it is specifically for adding military overlays to maps. Very handy bit of software IMHO.

[TheVulture]

I dismounted the two 234/1's and used the crew as foot recon. One team along the central woods/road route (found an AT gun) but lost 2 crew, and even though they reoccupied their vehicle that 234/1 was missing in the 2nd scenario, so there is a risk when using dismounted crews. The 2nd crew went along the side of the factory near the map edge and located some enemy there that my inf plus HMG's were able to deal with. With the Panthers covering the central area, I sent a couple Pz IV's south of the factory and that helped clear out those buildings with maybe 6 or so inf casualties.

I sometimes use dismounted recon vehicle crews for scouting purposes, but it is very situation dependent for the reason you noted - crews can get themselves shot which still leaves you a vehicle down in practice. Against stationary defenders in buildings and woods at night (as in thise case), recon dismounts are going to be spotted moving long before they spot anything. They probably won't see anything at all until it shoots at them, at which point they are too close

[Erwin]

Totally agree. One needs far larger maps (without too much cover) to use recon vehicles properly.

[TheVulture]

60 minutes left

Nothing much happens for the first ten minutes (an exciting start to the story) because I start with a selection of wheeled PSW recon vehicles, and as previously mentioned have developed a pathalogical dislike of using such vehicles in scenarios like this. When I am within 100 meters of the enemy units it is not the time to be leading with recon assets. It is time for the main assault force to deploy.

So rather than get my recon units killed by ambling aimlessly around in a non-recon situation, I just park them in the trees and plan to leave them there for the duration of the battle. Then I wait for the first parts of my main force to turn up. After eight minutes the guests begin to arrive for the party:

• Two platoons of dismounted infantry
  
• Their company HQ and command staff with a small collection of jeeps
  
• A forward observer
  
• A platoon of five Panther A (mid) tanks
  
• A squad of engineers mounted in two halftracks
  

Now we can get down to business. The next few minutes are spent getting the forces into the positions I want for the attack on the factory complex....

50 minutes left

Orders

The second tranche of forces also arrive just in time for the orders phase:

• The third infantry platoon of the company, mounted in trucks
  
• The company heavy weapons platoon - two HMG teams
  
• A platoon of five Pz IV tanks
  
• Another forward observer
  

My lead forces are now expecting contact imminently:

The panther platoon is positioned to cut enemy avenues of movement. With my infantry planning to move right to left across the tanks' field of view, I anticipate driving any defenders out of their buildings and into the tanks lines of fire. Plus, any move to reinforce the defence will also run into the tank overwatch. There is some risk of AT gun fire, but panther frontal armour is pretty tough, and with the tanks packed pretty close together any dangerous enemy units should be quickly crushed.

First infantry platoon are going to sneak into the houses as shown to give a base of fire covering the open ground outside the factory. Advance intelligence has detected a few enemy units in the buildings just northeast of the factory. I am relying on the difficulty of spotting infantry in houses at night to enable them to get into position without drawing fire.

Second platoon are going to use the door into the factory and slowly advance through it. If there are any American squads in the factory then I will only find out by bumping in to them. This will cost men since any defenders are virtually certain to get the first shots off, but I intend to keep the whole platoon in tight formation to rapidly outshoot any defence. But these situations tend to get ugly, fast.

Action

The panther skirmish line rolls into position, although by the time they are all lined up I've had two vehicles bog and then extricate themselves. The ground here is not very tank-friendly. I shall endeavour to move my tanks as little as possible, and shall consider using the lighter wheeled recon vehicles to provide fire support in areas that I think are safe.

One of the panthers is targeted by small arms fire from a tower near the factory. Whichever fool started shooting is probably not thanked by his colleagues as a burst of tank MG fire and two HE shells come back in return. No further movement is seen in that building.

The lead squad of second platoon stream towards the back door of the factory, watched over by the pathers and the rest of their platoon.

The firing of the panthers at the tower does however seem to alert someone else to their presence. What sounds suspiciously like an AT gun of some description is heard firing, but the shell whistles past harmlessly. A second round hits the front of one of the tanks but ricochets into the air. Still no-one catches sight of whatever is firing.

Finally the muzzle flash is spotted as the third round is fired, which is another miss. The AT gun is set some way back, semi-keyholed by walls, trees and buildings, at around 300 metres range. The crew must be fairly poor, or rather panicky, to have missed two out of three shots at that sort of range.

As you can see, the advantage of keeping my tanks close together is that several of the platoon have line of sight to the target, so even if a lucky shot does take out a tank, the AT gun is still going to have a short, unhappy life. As it happens, the first panther to spot the gun gets its shot off quickly and accurately.

[TheVulture]

A few moments later another panther spots a brief movement in the trees ahead to the left.

Some GI chose an inopportune moment to light a cigarette, maybe. The troops in the foxholes are an AT ammo bearer team (I'm not a big fan of the fact that my troops can tell that in the five seconds the unit was visible - praying for the return of non- and mis-identification). Since they are over 100 metres away from the AT gun that was just destroyed, they seem unlikely to be the team for that gun, which means there is another one near those foxholes in the wood. That is a prime place for some mortar shells to land if I can get line of sight for a FO.

There are possible positions for the gun in that area that cover the road through the trees and the north side of the factory complex, and would get some juicy flank shots if I advance my tanks too far towards the buildings.

Given what I've seen so far - both actual units sighted and advance intelligence markers (and some meta-game knowledge about the fact that I am likely to be facing a force large enough to provide a challenge but still eminently defeatable) I have made some guesses about the enemy disposition. The orange markers are uints I've spotted and mostly destroyed. The yellow markers are my vague guesses.

I suspect there is a platoon of infantry somewhere around the factory complex - I've spotted one infantry team in the tower and have a few other contact markers in the area.

There is presumably an AT gun on the wooded raised ground in the center where the ammo bearer team were seen in the foxholes. That AT gun could see the factory area and the round through the trees, but the slope of the ground and the trees prevent it seeing the area where my tanks are currently sitting. That dead ground was being covered by the rear AT gun, but it wasn't up to the job of fending off a panther platoon.

A few contact markers and some common sense also suggest a platoon somewhere in the region of the AT gun on the higher ground. They probably also screen in front of the AT gun to some extent.

It is possible that the line could be held by a single platoon, reinforced by some heavy weapons, but given the number of avenues of approach they potentially have to cover that seems unlikely.

It is likely there is a third platoon defending the second objective - the dairy that can just be seen at the top of the picture.

[BletchleyGeek]

Excellent initiative! Subscribed and looking forward for more DAR's coming up on these forums.

[TheVulture]

After all that excitement, the next turn is surprisingly quiet, with 1st and 2nd platoons continuing to advance through builings and the panthers holding their position. The only change to the plan is that I send a FO north up the dirt track lane to get a view through the bocage down the road towards the suspected AT gun position. Just to be paranoid, I am sending a lone Pv IV ahead - I doubt there will be any meaningful American presence there, but can't rule out the possibility of some forward observation post that might be enough to take out my FO team.

So skipping ahead...

48 Minutes Left

Orders

The squads of 1st platoon are cautiously moving along the row of houses to get into position to cover the courtyard in front of the factory. The lead squad ought to be in position this turn, so I'll see how well my idea about them not being spotted plays out. I decide to start one of my HMG teams moving to join up with them for a bit of extra fire support.

2nd platoon are all in the factory now, and are fanned out across the width of the building. They will advance in line, one block per turn, which is slow but gives the best chance of responding to any enemy found in the factory.

The forward observer team with its Pz IV escort have arrived safely in the lane, so the FO will get out of his jeep and find a spotting position to see the foxholes through the bocage. The rest of my forces get to sit around some more. The panthers waiting to see something to shoot at. The Pv IZ platoon, 3rd infantry platoon and the engineers are waiting out of view as a reserve force.

Action

The advance of 1st platoon doesn't appear to draw any immediate attention. But a short time in to the turn, a sound contact is heard, apparently moving down the road towards the tower that was previously fired on by the panthers. Although that stretch of road is visible to the panthers they fail to spot anything. The men of 1st platoon however do soon spot some American infantry coming in to the area.

Naturally my men open fire, thus removing any chance of stealthily getting the whole platoon into position. I could have given the squad a cover arc to avoid this, but I decided against it on the grounds that I didn't want to risk them getting spotted and spending the whole minute being shot at and refusing to react because of the arc.

Inevitably it all kicks off. My squad firing means that everyone and their grandmother knows where they are, and American troops in other nearby buildings join the firefight. My men quickly set themselves up for the fight:

A badly aimed rifle grenade hits the ground in the middle of the courtyard. There is plenty of wild shooting from all sides, but precious little accuracy. Two enemy squads are spotted in nearby buildings. There are two more sound contact markers neat the tower, although it is unclear whether they are more units or other friendly units' contacts on the spotted team there. All the US squads spotted are split into teams, so although at first glance there is one unit against three, the numbers involved are actually pretty equal.

Finally as the turn comes to an end, the team by the fence have had enough and run for the relative safety of a nearby building. One of the fleeing soldiers is hit as they run. So we're up 1-0 in the confirmed kill stakes.

Well, it's a start.

Things are uneventful for the rest of my forces. the FO is in position by the end of the turn, and 2nd platoon are making their way slowly through the factory with no incident.

[Erwin]

I learned in this and the subsequent scenario that with damp/wet ground one has to move tanks SLOW to lessen bogging chances - even on roads.

It's weird that I have yet to see a wheeled vehicle going QUICK across country bogging, but it happens to tanks frequently. Isn't it supposed to be the other way round - as in that's why tanks have treads and not wheels??!

[Frankster65]

Beautiful DAR! It is a great campaign.

[TheVulture]

(I think I've got my turn numbers mixed up somewhere. This definitely follows on directly after the last installment, but a screenshot shows that there were 46 minutes on the clock at the start of the turn. So last turn should have been 47 minutes left, not 48. I guess I got it wrong somewhere in that first 10 minutes or so of setting things up).

46 Minutes Left

Orders

The first order of business is to get the rest of 1st platoon into the factory courtyard shootout. Only one squad and the HQ are currently engaged. The quickest way to get everyone engaged is just to shuffle everyone along one block. But that means that I have no-one shooting for the first 20 seconds or so while everyone repositions. To me, that sounds like a recipe for unnecessary casualties. So my orders are instead:

The currently engaged squad stays put on the upper floor. The other upper floor squad will move past to the end of the row of houses. On the lwoer floor the HQ will however shift along; the three men don't add a huge amount to the overall firepower, and getting the 11 men of the 3rd squad firing as soon as possible takes priority.

The other important action this turn is the FO calling in an 81mm mortar strike, with the companies 2 81mm mortar tubes (off map). I can't quite get line of sight to the ammo bearer team directly. This isny't an immediate problem, since I suspect the AT gun is next to the ammo bearer in an area the FO can see; if it is there it will have LoS down this road and also over the open approach to the factory complex (and into the factory courtyard as well). The diameter of the misison target can then be set to cover the spotted foxholes and ammo team as well.

[TheVulture]

Action

1st platoon's maneouver works without a hitch. One of my men takes a minor injury, but soon the whole platoon is shooting and the firepower overwhelms the two enemy teams in the nearby houses. They turn tail and run.

I don't know if I caused any casualties, but the houses are now nicely empty and ready for me to advance.

While this is going on, I hear a few large calibre explosions. I eventually track them down do the woods in front of the AT ammo bearer team. This looks ominously like the AT gun is firing at my panthers with very marginal line of sight, and mostly putting shells into trees or the ground. Finally one shot goes high enough, but misses the end panther in my line. But this apparently spurs him into seeing where the shots are coming from.

Another 57mm ATG, and as it happens it is almost exactly at the centre of my plotted fire mission. A duel ensues whose competence level owes more to the Three Stooges than it does to a well trained military. Trees and innocent patches of earth take an absolute beating from both side.

This was the most accurate shot from my panther. It killed a nearby squirrel, but didn't seem to have any effect on the gun or its crew. Actually, that turns out to be a lie: it seems to focus their minds on the task at hand wonderfully.

The round hits the gun mantlet and destroys the gun and the coaxial MG, knocking the tank out. "Awwww crap" as the saying goes. And it was the platoon HQ for good measure. Note that the tank was sitting there for a good five minutes before the gun spotted it and started shooting - this was about as marginal a spotting situation as you can get. And a good six rounds from the gun must have hit the ground or trees between the two. Actually spotting the tank and getting a shot on target before running out of ammo is quite lucky. Getting a frontal kill on a panther with that one hit is also rather lucky. Such are the fortunes of war.

The only upside is that at least all of the crew survived uninjured.

[Erwin]

Lessons (I) learned:

1) If an AT gun starts shooting at any tank, no matter how powerful, best to reverse it out of enemy LOS. Even those US 57mm can be deadly vs a Panther mantle (doesn't seem like it should, but...)

2) I found the 81mm barrage to be ineffective in killing the AT gun in the foxhole. Bit, of a shock as I had the spotter only a couple dozen yards away in the trees, and the fire was pretty accurate.

[TheVulture]

Lessons (I) learned:

1) If an AT gun starts shooting at any tank, no matter how powerful, best to reverse it out of enemy LOS. Even those US 57mm can be deadly vs a Panther mantle (doesn't seem like it should, but...)

Yeah, not getting shot at always give you better odds than relying on the armour. In this case I never got the chance to since it all happened within one turn (this is WeGo incidentally). Armour obeys the uncertainty principle: it works fine when it isn't needed, but if you ever decide to rely on it it vanishes.

2) I found the 81mm barrage to be ineffective in killing the AT gun in the foxhole. Bit, of a shock as I had the spotter only a couple dozen yards away in the trees, and the fire was pretty accurate.

81mm mortars vs foxholes is a far from certain thing. Even with treebursts. Which is why I am sending the platoon in to mop up immediately after, while they are still suppressed and hopefully with low morale. If the mortars take out the gun anyway, that's just a bonus.

[TheVulture]

45 Minutes Left

Orders

There isn't really anything to change in the orders for most units. 1st platoon have essentially secured the courtyard, but won't advance yet because 2nd platoon haven't finished their sweep through the factory. I want to make sure there is no-one lurking at the edge of the building to open fire as I move my men across the open ground.

I decide to leave the panthers where they are. I'm pretty sure that at ATG only had line of sight to the one of them since all the others have fired at some point now, and would certainly have been spotted then if the ATG had any line of sight to them at all. And I don't want to go hunting the ATG with my tanks since it has already proven capable of killing a panther from the front, and besides I have a mortar mission due to arrive on top of it in three minutes or so.

Action

2nd platoon discover that there is someone in the factory after all.

As anticipated, the stationary defenders get the first shots off at point blank range, with predictable results. Four men go down. For line of sight between sections of modular buildings with no walls, as in this picture, there is almost no connection between how things look on screen and how LoS works in game. Which is fine, as long as you understand how things work in the game. In this case, the units either side of the squad that was hit, which are in diagonally adjacent blocks of the building, will find it very hard to spot the defenders, and equally hard to advance to a point where they do have a chance of spotting without taking casualties in the process.

The redeeming feature of the situation is that 1st platoon sitting in their row of houses outside do have good line of sight to that building block, and spot the defenders quickly.

As far as I can see, two of the enemy squad are hit. It is another five man squad, so two casualties, combined with being surrounded and taking fire from all sides (even if it is unconvincing fire) ought to be enough to get them cowering in the dirt ready to be mopped up.

Back with the tanks, the ammo bearer team is seen moving once again, and two of the tanks put down more MG fire and a few tank rounds again. And once again, since the foxholes are virtually in a reverse slope position, anything other than a direct hit on a soldier is going to fall far too short or far too long.

What actually causes the ammo team to be spotted is them firing at 1st platoon. As a curious aside, I don't think that anyone would ever consciously plan the chain of events that leads to my tanks getting a shot at the infantry here.

• 2nd platoon moves within a completely enclosed, windowless building.
  
• American team in that building spots them and fires
  
• 1st platoon spot that team firing, and open fire
  
• Ammo bearer team spot 1st platoon firing, and open fire
  
• Tank spots ammo bearer team firing, and opens fire
  

No-one is going to think "how can I get my tanks to fire at the ammo team without using area fire? I know - I'll move a platoon out of line of sight of all of them deep within a building".

Or if anyone does think about things in the game that deeply, I hope I don't play against them

[TheVulture]

44 Minutes Left

Orders

In one of those belated flashes of insight, I realise I really ought to have a platoon ready to follow up the mortar fire mission. Oops. 3rd platoon, currently waiting in reserve, are sent in their truck so the edge of the woods and then will dismount and follow the line of trees along the side of the road. The rise of the ground will keep them in dead ground.

Back in the factory complex, the 2nd platoon squad that took casualties and fled in the factory is still commandable, so I cancel their movement and send them back to the spot where they were ambushed. The other two squads will advance on either side of enemy. One of 1st platoon's squads will put suppressive fire on the enemy location. This will hopefully allow the 2nd platoon to maneouver unimpeded and engage the American troops.

Since I now know what troops are in the factory, and they have plenty on their plate already, I order one of 1st platoon's squads to move forward into the next building that we just drove the Americans out of. An HMG team is also coming into the area to set up on the right flank to protect 1st platoon's advance and flank.

Action

Events in the factory unfold as I had hoped. faced with enemy squads on three sides and suppressive fire from the fourth, the American troops surrender. Three of them were killed, with two taken prisoner.

2nd platoon set about tending to the wounded and establishing a base of fire at the edge of the factory. Of the four casualties they took, two are dead and two seriously injured. Not a great result, but probably about par for the course for trying to clear an enemy team in this kind of situation.

The advance of 1st platoon draws some more attention from the At ammo bearer team up the hill.

The shots aren't accurate, and once again a burst of fire from a tank or two sends the soldiers back down to the ground in cover.

As the turn ends, the HMG team have just finished setting up in the woods. They have a dual purpose as overwatch for 1st platoon's advance, and to cover the large area of open ground east of the factory complex.

[BletchleyGeek]

That was indeed a lucky shot by that 57mm :eek: As you say "Awwww, crap".

By the way, I didn't get your explanation regarding LOS inside modular buildings. Did you mean that even if you don't see any wall there's an "invisible" wall - but not transparent - between each module?

[TheVulture]

That was indeed a lucky shot by that 57mm :eek: As you say "Awwww, crap".

By the way, I didn't get your explanation regarding LOS inside modular buildings. Did you mean that even if you don't see any wall there's an "invisible" wall - but not transparent - between each module?

With all the interior walls removed, you can see into your immediate neighbouring blocks - left, right, ahead, behind. But not into diagonally attached blocks, and you can't see through one block to the next. But if you look on screen at such a building, you - the player - can see the whole length of the building.

[TheVulture]

43 Minutes Left

Orders

1st platoon will continue to move squads forward one by one through the buildings of the factory complex. My only concern for them is that the ATG up on the hill can see part of their movement in all likelihood. But since it can only see a small portion of the path they take, I am counting on speed to mean that the gun won't get a shot off at them.

2nd platoon have finished caring for the wounded and move up to the edge of the factory, and get to sit around for a while while other people to the hard work.

3rd platoon are in the process of dismounting from their trucks and will asssemble at the edge of the trees in preparation for the advance.

Action

As the next squad of 1st platoon crosses the courtyard, they do indeed draw fire, but from an unexpected direction.

No-one spots where the shots come from, but the trajectory looks like it originates in the building on the right of the picture. If I had to guess, I'd say the top floor, but I'm not certain which building the shot comes from, never mind the floor. The ammo bearer team once again take a few shots, and as usual, are quickly suppressed by the panther tanks.

2nd platoon set up camp at the edge of the factory, and complete dealing with the surrendering US troops. The soldier with the bazooka in the middle squad was one of the men killed. Buddy aid recovers the bazooka, but only one round for it is salvaged.

3rd platoon finish assembling amongst the trees as the first spotting shells for the mortars start to fall. The third spotting round is very close to the target area, and the FO calls fire for effect as the turn ends. With around two minutes of mortar fire (I called for a medium/medium mission) that is nice timing to get the platoon into firing range just as the fire mission completes.

[TheVulture]

42 Minutes Left

Orders

While 3rd platoon advance on the ATG position and 2nd platoon do nothing, 1st platoon will continue to advance through the factory complex. The general idea is to move up through the line of buildings and fan out into the row at the end., which will then become the base of fire to attack the next row of houses.

Meanwhile I decide to bring some of my PSW 234/1 cars into the fray with their 50mm guns, which can be useful for persuading stubborn infantry to leave their houses.

For now they are just going to move through the trees and park them behind the buildings. I don't want to risk them in the open until that ATG is dealt with. And I don't want to have to move my tanks any more than necessary in the soft ground. Recon vehicles are much lighter and far less likely to bog. And if I do lose one, it is much less of a blow than losing a panther.

Action

With two squads from 1st platoon safely across into the houses, it is the turn of the HQ to move up (since I don't want the lead units to get too far away and out of command). To no great surprise, there are a few more pot shots.

Unfortunately I've become a bit disregarding of these occasional shots, since they never do much in the brief moments my men are visible. Naturally therefore this time they hit someone: the platoon commander. I do finally get to see where the shots are coming from though, on the ground floor of the right side building. My lead squads are very close to the enemy and open fire, as does the HMG team, also firing at under 100 metres distance.

The intense fire quickly takes down two of the enemy, and a third man is seen turning tail and running for his life.

I had considered setting the HMG to area fire on this building to try and suppress any defence, but decided against it on the ground that I didn't know which floor to target, and it would possible have been the wrong building anyway. I am generally loathe to set units to area fire unless I have enough to hit all the possible enemy positions, since otherwise the danger is that you hit the wrong place, reveal your positions, and the enemy spends a minute shooting at you with no-one returning fire since they are all suppressing somewhere else (where the enemy isn't).

Whilst I only lost one man this turn, he was the platoon commander. His immediate replacement is a much worse commander: leadership has gone from +1 to -2. So the effect on the combat effectiveness of this unit could be quite significant. And including the lost panther HQ, that is two platoons that are degraded in ability. Not good.

Elsewhere, the mortar shells start to fall on the enemy foxholes. Some treeburst, some land pretty close to the ATG position, but none land in the foxholes or look like direct hits on the gun. Ah well, there are a few more minutes of incoming yet to try and get lucky.

[TheVulture]

41 Minutes Left

Orders

With 1st platoon's commander down, I send the HQ unit back to give buddy aid and recover any HQ-useful equipment (binoculars, radio) that weren't being carried by someone else. The fallen man is right on the edge of two action spots, so it might take a few turns to get them positioned correctly to give aid. The platoon meanwhile push another squad forwards to close in on the row of houses. Although the Americans were seen fleeing their house last turn, I give the HMG an area target order there anyway; sometimes a few guys will be pinned and then get a few shots off before they run. There's no real downside to shooting up the house anyway.

I decide to send a squad of 2nd platoon into the tower, split into teams to occupy different floors for maximum firepower (and least crowding around windows). This is one of those "look back and wonder what I was thinking" moments when I come to write it down. The potential downsides are that they are exposed to the ATG position, will be exposed to enemy units in the next row of houses, the tower might still be occupied (unlikely, but possible), the left house of that row is where I saw US troops running in to and who knows if they are still there ready to fire as my men approach, and lastly I was keeping 2nd platoon as an unengaged semi-reserve, so committing bits of the platoon piecemeal is a good way to get sucked into positions you don't want to be in.

I'm not entirely sure what I was trying to achieve now either. My best guess is that I wanted to be able to shoot at any infantry fleeing out of the buildings, and didn't want to move my panthers forwards to see that area due to bogging and the ATG.

3rd platoon will continue to advance. Their end waypoints should just about be out of line of sight of the ATG. This will also keep them safe from shrapnel, since it is a truism that although the mortar rounds will have no observable effect on the two units directly beneath them, they are almost guaranteed to kill someone prone behind a tree 50 metres away.

Action

The split squad reach the tower safely as mortars land up the hill on the foxholes.

The spread out over several floors and spot the ATG and its crew, and decide to add to their misery by firing off the squad MGs at them. At least this will help distract them while 3rd platoon close in.

The lead squad of 1st platoon stumble into the remnants of various routed American squads and open fire. Three American soldiers are seen to fall. The fourth is made of sterner stuff, and stands amidst the bullets returning fire. He manages to hit two of my men before the turn ends.

[Frankster65]

It is like reading a suspense novel.