Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 55 Allied - Grandmenil



Artillery used against his recce at Samree but no hits. The 3-333rd sat in the Clear terrain and didn't bother firing. 

Cautious advance made with HCR and 2-333rd. I ignored his 560th HQ. The 33rd HQ moved over the stream and should be able to extend its command range a bit next turn. I guess I should have cleared the road to Samree. Not too bothered as long as the Manhay - Baraque road is open.

3-333rd took advantage of the 560th sitting in Clear terrain and scored well. 

The 771st (Low Ammo) moved NE and ran into trouble. The 560th unit is digging in? Its already IMPROVED and the hex is Woods.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 55 Allied Webormont



A lot to look at but not that much action really. 

A - the 740th Tnk Bn was fed up looking at the XX Disrupted 116th infantry and assaulted. Result was 1 tank/13 men and they gained the hex.

B - the 3RTR did the same with the XX Disrupted 116th infantry opposite them. Result was -/17 men and they gained the hex. They came face to face with some Nebelwerfers. Lucky for them I had no artillery to use. 

I then moved 31 Tnk Bn over for support and brought up the 8th Rifles.

C - The 3RTR (14 Fireflies) moved over with 38th Armoured Infantry and found 2nd Pz armour digging in. I brought in all armour I could. 40th Tnk Bn were lucky that they lost no tanks as they moved up as they have come up against a large PAK group. The only loss to defense fire was an M36 in the 818th. 

The 23rd Hussars have been brought up and the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry have been sent south to help the 17th Tnk/48th Inf.........which I forgot to move again. 

I guess we will have to see how this tank battle pans out.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 55 Allied - Spa



Last map of my turn. The main area as far as I'm concerned. Its a bit busy but hopefully people can follow the action. It was quite bloody for Germans as the AI defensive fire was pretty poor. 

I spread out my artillery as per usual. Weakest points are his units in Clear terrain at either end of the northern shoulder. 

2-517th targeted KG Knittel mainly but did also take out some LAA vehicles. The 2-33rd targeted the 62nd VGD mostly but also gave KG Knittel one shot.

3-517th tried its best against the 150th but they are in woods/IMPROVED.

1-33rd struggled against KG Hansen. (Woods/TRENCH)

The KG peiper PzIV unit was hit by both 3rd Armoured Bn's and lost 6 tanks. The 1-32nd lost 1. It must have been a hard choice to move them in knowing he was up against good morale units but I guess he needs to anchor his line and protect Spa. The 99th targted the 3rd FJD unit.

Apart from that I've started to feed back in the 30th Division units which were in the Stoumont area. Makes more sense than using 334th Rgt 84 Div. Too hard to keep 334th in command and 30th Div are head and shoulders better morale units, even with fatigue. 

The only problem however is moving the units up there, as there are Commandos active on the road.

Cesar not finished in this area. Thats a powerful force in Spa and the 1-117th/1-120th are about to take another large hit.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 56 German - Results

Losses for turn

US infantry losses down considerably whilst German remains pretty consistent for his his phase. US tanks took a hit this turn as expected. Losses to german tanks low but thats no surprise given poor AI defense and the defense factors of some German tanks....although I was hoping for better.

Tank losses broken down

I haven't watched the replay just checked all adjacent tank forces to work out where the 26 losses came from. I was mildly surprised about Spa results, but it looks like he chose to dig in rather than fire? Werbomont a bit of a shock but I'll look at this when I map it.

Victory Point Status


VP track


VP level has plateaued over the last few turns. Losses have been mre or less level for both sides.

[Plain Ian]

Big Pictures

I  haven't done this for a while but here are the situation maps for the campaign. Cesar has emailed his turn back and in it he says that after re ordering things he is organising an attack.... or attacks? 

Well I believe him as I know he is a good player. I know that he has 2nd/9th SS still largely unused and also the 12th SS is available now. I've lost track of the 3rd PzGr Div and in the south he probably has 2-3 VGD's which are sitting doing nothing. (212th is B morale unit) Cesar strongly believes in not wasting effort so I can't see him leaving good units idle.

My moves are not really plotted apart from my intention to pull out of the Stoumont area and use these further north at Spa. I'll defend at Aywaille just now....if he chooses to advance along this axis. 

Here are the maps. 

North

South

[Plain Ian]

Turn 56 - North

German Turn


12th and 277th followed me up andthe 1st Combat Engineers were selected as main target for artillery/mortars. The 703rd lost an M4 to the 12th. Apart from that it was relatively quiet. 
Its quite embarrassing when you see 6-7 VGD units and a hoard of of US units sitting there. 


Allied Turn


I spread out my artillery using quite a bit on the 12th in the south and also on counterbattery fire. I've started pulling out units to send towards Spa. 703rd TD and 634th TD. 703rd and 745th fired twice at the 12th VGD then moved away, the 745th to the Clear/TRENCH 1 hex away. 

2-16th and 2nd CE pulled back and 3-18th moved forward. It fired at the second 12th VGD unit and did reasonably well. 3-18th and 745th will pull back next turn, I'm giving up this terrain just now.

1-26th joined 2nd CE but the AI defense actually preformed well for a change and it lost heavily in the shoot out. The 1st CE did well.

741st Tnk left out to delay his advance if he choses to advance.

And that was that.

Oh forgot to mention I brought up an AAA unit and Engineers for digging purposes. I've noticed that Cesar never misses an opportunity to dig so these units were idle in the back area and I thought I'd use them. If 12th SS appear here then it might be handy having TRENCHES ready when I'm being pushed back.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 56 German - Spa



I meant to post both the German turn and the Allied turn for this area but I won't have time. So here is Cesars turn.

He used selective firing again peferring to dig in and I assume rest. There wan't much artillery, the 99th received the worst. (Werfers) 

KG's B and C are dug in to TRENCH in woods. KG A, D and I are all digging like mad. 

EDIT: I've just noticed that B and C are identified wrong. The labels are the wrong way around. Will fix this picture......but can't so just read the lists the other way around. ie List C goes with the units at B opposite 3-517th and List B is for the units opposite 1-33rd Tnk Bn.

Behind the line I see he is setting up a strong A/T KG F and KG E has a VGD Bn which I assume will move to support the Pioneers.  KG G has 3 FJD Bn's (one might be 150th?) which are recovering.

Pretty well organised. Once he is dug in, what then?

[ComradeP]

Is there a bunker probabilty for the scenario (in the parameter data dialog)?

[Plain Ian]

Is there a bunker probabilty for the scenario (in the parameter data dialog)?

I don't think so, I will check. 

My answer would be that he might attack? If he does reinforce the area and I do not dig in then I think he will probably attack here. If I stay unstacked and one per hex then eventually I will disrupt and he will assault. 

I think he knows that he is not faced with overwhelming odds but that my forces are about equal to his. It certainly feels like that to me. Admittedly my infantry units are bigger and I have more tanks. Quality/Morale is difficult to gauge but again it must be close to parity.  

I have 2-3 more Bn's of 30th Division moving on Spa this turn (A/B's) and hopefully the last Regiment of 9th Division will be arriving on the north edge shortly. I'm also bringing some 1st Division armour back. 
That should be enough.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 56 Allied - Spa



Ok here is my turn for the same area. 

My artillery targeted the usual stacks at either end of his northern flank but the heavies (155mm) had a go at his panzers south of Spa and succeeded in knocking out 1.

The 2-23rd Tnk Bn tried to disrupt the units digging in to its south. They lost a tank.

The 3-517th duelled with the 3rd FJD Pioneers which are also digging in. I may have said they were in TRENCH above when I talked about the German turn? They are still at IMPROVED. 

The 1-32nd and 2-32nd attacked the SS panzers but halted after knocking out 2 when I realised that the panzers had slipped from [XX] to [X]  They then targeted the 3rd FJD as did the 99th. 

I thought the D/3-32TNK was a bit exposed and went to pull it back and it bumped into his 'reinforcements'. No fire was triggered and I thought about artillery but the only artillery I had was in Clear and stacked with T mode units. I didn't want to risk counterbattery fire. Not a formidable force but I suspect that there may be King Tigers bringing up the rear?

My moves are shown on the map. 2 rested units of the 117th now behind Spa and ready for use. I'll get the 1-334th out when they move in. 

Some rear units brought into Tiege area to start digging. 

2-517th pulled back to rest. I'm a bit wary of this area because with Snow weather, clear terrain is quite good for movement of traked vehicles. I'll somehow have to reinforce here.