1st Chronicles Of V Panzer Army DAR

[Cole]

End of Turn 16.

The end of the 17th of December saw the Germans across the Our River and the front lines formed a semi-circle to the east of St. Vith.

I have yet to advance so far. In fact the semi-circle is forming to the east of Schoenburg and it's vital bridges. I believe that a combination of Steve's tough defense and orders to my regiments not to bypass resistance is slowing me down (don't want any ambush of loaded transport or artillery later). I suspect due to the movement point costs on this map for the hilly terrain and snow maybe 10 turns would better represent a "day". That being said I will keep the 8 turns a day count.

Now the majority of Steve's units are either withdrawing as quickly as possible or are being overtaken and destroyed. The casualty VP totals finally moved into my favor and this turn I have a 200 VP advantage. In order to secure a major victory I will need 6000 VPs so I have a ways to go. Schoenburg will give me 500 VPs and St. Vith will give me 2000 so if I can cross the river tomorrow I should be fine.

One area where Steve's defense is still giving me heartache is on the road to Andler from Auw. The 294th has received help from the Fuhrer Begleit Brigade and the screen shot below shows some much needed help in the form of PZ-IV's. A lot of the wrecks are the ruins of most of the Brigades recon units. I was throwing everything I could up the hill but the defense here has still not cracked.


The action continues with the 116th Division. The American forces that ambushed and destroyed my Panthers on the road to Burg Rueland are now following us back across the border into Germany. Fortunately I have some Panzergrenadiers that are clearing out Americans to the woods in the south and one platoon even destroyed a vanguard platoon of the ubiquitous M8 Greyhound scouts. Besides two companies of Panthers supporting the advance towards Schoenburg I have withdrawn most of the 116th back south to deal with the American counter attack and to help finish mopping up almost a battalion of infantry in the woods to the east.


My heavy artillery and railroad guns have been shelling Schoenburg with indirect fire missions for the past couple of turns and each turn I have seen the satisfying sight of loaded trucks and HQ units moving out of the target hexes. Wishful thinking would be that I'm hitting retreating units but I suspect a hard fight is going to develop here and it might even decided the outcome of the game.

Seeing the results of my indirect fire reminds me of a paragraph I read in A Time For Trumpets on how two German artillery spotters had infiltrated through the woods the night before the battle into Clervaux (off this scenario's map to the south). They holed up "in a room in the rear of the Pharmacie Molitor..." and at daylight were able to direct fire onto targets within the town.