Dark_Winter by Prinz von Egan

[Mr Grumpy]

Dark_Winter

"Dark Winter" is the first B44 scenario with accurate time. According to the indubitable Joseph “Sepp” Dietrich, “It didn't get light till eight and was dark again at four.” But our Bulge games have daylight at 0600 and night doesn’t arrive until 1800. We can’t reconcile that with history, nor with Dietrich’s personal observations, nor with Newtonian physics. Our B44 games have first light at 0600 because we want to give the Germans more and better shots, it’s as simple as that. But it isn’t right. Precise time, date and place measurements say the sun rises in the Ardennes on December 16th at exactly 0845, which means there is only a glimmer of light at 0800. Dietrich was right! Therefore, making 0600 daylight, or even dawn, is absolutely false reckoning. Sundown is at 1601, and if you’ve ever lived there, you know it is pitch black 20 minutes later. Dietrich is correct again. Fundamentally, playing the game with 6 daylight turns, and three night turns cannot give us a true simulation of the time constraints endured by the German commanders. Look at it this way: In France ’40, there are 8 daylight turns and 2 night turns. That’s because sunrise in the Ardennes on May 10 is at 0600 and night falls at 2100, so an approximation allows for F40 to simulate this by having sunrise accurately at 0600 and night at 2200, leaving time for two night turns, from 2200 until 0600, with no dawn or dusk. Now the German 1944 Ardennes offensive was at the opposite end of the year. Ergo, a true simulation gives us four daylight, and four night turns, which reflects German western front tactics late in the war when they fought a lot a night to avoid Allied air strikes..

There were some 88 guns that were used as long range arty, and we included some of those in the III Flak Korps, which is organized like in Normandy. The long range 88’s used the same ammo as in a flak role, with fuses and rapid fire and the shells exploded overhead. There’s one story about a flak commander in Normandy who refused to use his 88’s in an anti-tank role and had to be threatened. According to our research, there were more American artillery units eastward than in the original game. Also, the additional American arty was included when we saw that in the original game, the XII Corps did not have any arty, so we thought that something must be wrong there. In fact it’s difficult to track down all the American arty historically because they were being moved about from corps to corps throughout the battle. After months of research and using at least 2 sources, usually between 6- 8, (see attached bibliography), for every addition, some American arty was added in the form of Field Artillery Groups (FAG). The original game had 59 total artillery battalions and this one Dark Winter, including Bulge Revised, has 75 total for 16 additional American artillery battalions. There are a total of 102 American artillery battalions identified in various sources, and in the original game, some are misnamed like the 5th, 6th and 7th field artillery batteries in American 5th Corps, which weren’t in the Ardennes. The FAG concept allows you to transfer artillery in the battle as was the American method historically. We didn’t make any changes in American recon, or German recon either. As for supply, there are some major depots now around Spa and Bastogne, which allows those places to hold out, but also gives the Germans something to capture. There are some supply problems for the Germans, because there should be. However, 11th Pz and 10th SS Pz now enter the game (Dark Winter) with 3 supply trucks each, so you ought to be able to make a good run forward as the Germans, especially if you don't blow off too much supply on the first day and conserve some of those original supply dumps, for example by not firing those 2-3 gun batteries, nor those immovable rocket launchers, no matter how tempting it is to do so, otherwise those large supply dumps won’t last you one day! Those large dumps will be really helpful on day 2 and 3 giving fuel to motorized units passing bye.

Large Scenario 142 turns, Designer Prinz von Egan

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