WF: Six days of Battle of Arracourt - Now in Scenario DB

[Crossroads]

Arracourt: The Third Day

Turns: 50
Complexity: 10
Size Modifier: 10
First Side: Axis

Alan R. Arvold
22 September, 1944

[30 Kilometers East of Nancy, France] [ALLIED/AXIS/H2H] [HIS] [GD]

At the end of the second day of the Arracourt battles, the Germans withdrew all their forces north of the Marne-Rhine Canal several miles to the east in order to reorganize and regroup.

The American 4th Armored Division's CCA on the next day (21 September) conducted another sweep through the area around Bures and Concourt down to the Marne-Rhine Canal and aside from running into a few rear guard individual tanks and recon units, found nothing else. As a result they pulled back into their positions of the day before and went into a one day maintenance standdown.

However, during the night of the 21st, the Germans moved back west and reassumed their old positions in preparation for an attack on the 22nd of the September. The German 113th Panzer Brigade was to assume a defensive mission while the 111th Panzer Brigade, reinforced by units from the 11th Panzer Division, was to attack CCA from the north through Juvelize. The attack was delayed three hours due to the late arrival of the units from the 11th Panzer and then it was only one panzergrenadier battalion that showed up. This unit was put into the defensive line in order to release the 111th's remaining good infantry battalion so it could support the armor in the attack.

The attack started off well as the armor, using the cover of fog, was able to move into Juvelize and push aside the American armored cavalry units there. However, a tank destroyer company located nearby ambushed the lead German elements and brought the attack to a temperary halt, giving time for the American tanks and armored infantry in Lezey to maneuver and attack the Germans in Juvelize from the northwest. This broke up the German attack and with the fog lifting American fighter-bombers roared in completing the destruction of the 111th Panzer Brigade as a viable unit.

[ALL: OPT AF] [2.02]

Enjoy!