Scheldt '44 Market Garden (expanded) Allied AAR - settled for a Draw turn 69

[Mr Grumpy]

It arrives before I have to make the strategy decision where to land the rest of the Polish paratroopers.

As it's mentioned in the Polish paratrooper brigade OOB, it seems to be attached the the Polish brigade HQ and not 1st Airborne Division. That might be historical.

As it's arriving by glider, landing zones in the polder terrain on the southern side of the Rhine were considered unsuitable.

The 1st Airborne will need those guns if they land safely enough. Glider landings should suffer lower disruption/loss.

Looking forward to seeing the British landings and whether Frosts' Battalion can replicate its journey to the bridge. 

Ian in Dundee

I am also interested in this aspect, I helped to edit VM's _Alt version of the MG44 campaign to allow Frost to reach the bridge as it was just about impossible against a competent German player in the stock campaign scenario.

[phoenix]

'Any entrenched German unit in a Town or City is completely bulletproof when taking fire from a D quality unit. 100-(40+40+20)=0.'

Very interested in how you deal with this, which I've already discovered in other smaller scenarios (Antwerp, for example) and been very frustrated by, since it seems to prevent historical outcomes, sometimes. In fact, generally, I'm interested in how the decisions to give the Allies so many D quality units will affect possible historical outcomes.

[Plain Ian]

'Any entrenched German unit in a Town or City is completely bulletproof when taking fire from a D quality unit. 100-(40+40+20)=0.'

Very interested in how you deal with this, which I've already discovered in other smaller scenarios (Antwerp, for example) and been very frustrated by, since it seems to prevent historical outcomes, sometimes. In fact, generally, I'm interested in how the decisions to give the Allies so many D quality units will affect possible historical outcomes.

Sounds like it might be best to play without the Quality Fatigue Modifier?

Ian

[Plain Ian]

An overview of the starting situation in the north and south, without paratroopers on the map aside from pathfinder units.

I see that blocked or non playable hexes are now a nice purple colour? Is there any changes to the hex array showing in the Maps folder for non visible hexes or hexes that cannot be reached? I've always found them too intrusive so changed the density and colour of the pixelated dots. 



This works fine....until the weather changes from Snow to Mud! 10% chance of Mud on the 17th....
Will need to find another colour.




Ian

[Plain Ian]

It arrives before I have to make the strategy decision where to land the rest of the Polish paratroopers.

As it's mentioned in the Polish paratrooper brigade OOB, it seems to be attached the the Polish brigade HQ and not 1st Airborne Division. That might be historical.

As it's arriving by glider, landing zones in the polder terrain on the southern side of the Rhine were considered unsuitable.

The 1st Airborne will need those guns if they land safely enough. Glider landings should suffer lower disruption/loss.

Looking forward to seeing the British landings and whether Frosts' Battalion can replicate its journey to the bridge. 

Ian in Dundee

My public library is now open so I went along and took out a copy of Arnhem by Antony Beevor. 

Quick and easy to read with decent maps (not military standard) and it doesn't spend a lot of time setting up the operation. I do get a bit fed up up reading books on battles/campaigns which devote 1/3 of the book to the lead up to that battle/campaign.

Anyways I get to page 42 and....


So ComradeP any pics of the landings yet?

Ian in Dundee

[ComradeP]

From September 19th onwards, I'll provide detailed unit information. I'll post screenshots for the start of the Dawn and 13:00 turns of each day. Dawn of September 18th is only turn 7, the battle has just begun and losses are fairly light thus far.

Forgive the crude Paint skills, I'll slowly try to match "Plain Ian quality" for the AAR.

Turn 7, 05:00 Dawn, September 18th 1944. Normal Conditions.



The British Army in WWII was known for methodical and properly planned battles. This isn't one of them. Formations are released in bits and pieces, there are no proper echeloned attack options possible for most formations as the units are all over the place. This takes some ironing out.

The only divisions that start completely on-map and are released at this point are the Guards Armoured Division (which consists of just 2 brigades) and the 15th (Scottish) Division.

Two of the battalions of the 15th (Scottish) Division start in a terrible position on the other side of the canal (in the objective hex with the engineer and Belgian resistance units next to it) and it will be difficult to save them if the Germans attack them. One of them starts Disrupted, so it can't be ferried across the canal. The other starts with yellow/medium fatigue. The third battalion in the brigade starts with high fatigue in the rear. I got lucky and got a bridge up fairly quickly, so they've been enjoying some rest for a few turns by now.

The 53rd (Welsh) Division has constructed a bridge across the Bocholt-Heerentals canal out of sight of German units. The division and most of the 15th (Scottish) Division will cross the canal here to threaten Kampfgruppe Chill with encirclement.

The Guards Armoured has made some progress, but there's no real breakthrough yet. That will soon change as you'll see in the 13:00 screenshot, as I was able to "chain" assaults (assaulting a Disrupted unit several times to move "through" a ZOC of another unit) together into a breakthrough.

A single brigade of the 50th (Northumbrian) and some divisional assets are active. For obvious reasons, the divisional assets quickly end up Low Fuel/Ammo as the divisional HQ is in the rear.



101st Airborne has not encountered much resistance thus far. There's a convoluted path to Veghel, but no direct road link as units have to "side-step" into a marsh hex and then move into the Broken hex next to Veghel. Armoured units, which need a heavy bridge, have no cleared path yet.

For all airborne units, the second lift arrives later today. For 101st Airborne, the glider regiment arrives at LZ "W"

101st Airborne can trace supply from the map edge.



82nd Airborne has not captured a heavy bridge across the Maas as the bridge at Nederasselt blew up, the first major setback. The glider regiment arrives much later, the second lift only includes artillery and AT assets around Groesbeek.

Supply is fairly generous, with there being two 40 point supply hexes in DZ "O" and LZ "N". The formation can already trace supply from the map edge.

Capturing Nijmegen isn't going to happen due to there being a stack in the hex.



Limited offensive action by 1st Airborne isolated a couple of low-quality German companies that will soon be destroyed. Its third paratrooper brigade will arrive at DZ "Y" later today.

Due to generous rail capacity and the available of more forces than was historically the case (as they can be moved here from different parts of the map), 1st Airborne won't be making much of an offensive push. I'd be surprised if any units are alive by turn 40. They have only 1 supply hex, at LZ "Z"

[ComradeP]

Turn 11, 13:00 September 18th 1944.



Guards Armoured links up with 101st Airborne south of Eindhoven by taking the "bypass" through the Clear terrain west of the highway.

The 53rd (Welsh) Division makes good progress in De Kempen.

The Valkenswaard and Luyksgestel objective expire on turn 6. I think it's highly unlikely they can be captured on time.

Eindhoven and Aalst expire on turn 16.



US airborne forces are mostly testing wired bridges and have established a perimeter. The first Fallschirmjaeger units from 's Hertogenbosch have shown up.



Both of the Ravenstein bridges blew up. No heavy bridges across the Maas have been secured.

There's not much pressure on 1st Airborne yet, they can comfortably hold the perimeter.

Regarding my vehicle losses: most of them are recon vehicles. I'm losing more Shermans and Cromwells to breakdowns than to German fire at the moment.

In PzC, the British love for armoured cars isn't much of an advantage as they're frail and have low attack values. A more "German" style recon setup with infantry companies and an armoured car unit would work better in the game.

[Plain Ian]

Maps are fine and the AAR is nice and concise. I tend to "haver" a bit.

There is a lot to like about this scenario. Some set piece battles in confined areas but most of it is a large map with small units. Plenty of room to maneouvre and of course worry about threats coming from unexpected areas. Of course as you point out you do know where some of the threats will come from. (s-Hertogenbosch)

Movement won't be fast for the airborne units but I expect the Germans won't have much motorised stuff to start with either so it will be a bit slow motion. 

Visibility looks to be decent at 4 hexes on T11 maps.

Terrain looks horrendous to fight in. Not sure if that's Marsh or Swamp terrain in a lot of places, probably Marsh +10%? Maps look very nice when I look at them in Imgur though. 



Ian in Dundee

[ComradeP]

The terrain isn't as poor as it looks. Most of the blue/green hexes are Broken terrain. There are numerous Marsh hexes (blue with "watery" deep blue lines in them) in the Peel in the southern part of the map but otherwise it's perfectly acceptable. Not that suitable for mobile operations, but there are enough Clear hexes to deploy armour along the intended path of XXX Corps.

Turn 17, 05:00 Dawn, September 19th 1944. Normal Conditions.

I'll save the detailed unit overview for September 20th. Most units have seen only limited action. Infantry strength is at ~60% to ~80% for the British divisions. Most divisions start at roughly 70%-80% strength.

The US airborne divisions have only seen limited action. No para units are below 90%, with most barely having taken any losses thus far.

1st Airborne Division is down 800 men already, but most of its individual units are in good shape. There are enough units to "spread" the losses.



Having pushed back Kampfgruppe Chill, Guards Armoured Division and the 53rd (Welsh) Division will start moving towards Nijmegen. The Welsh after the road to Eindhoven has been cleared. There's a Congestion hex in the middle of Eindhoven which armoured units have to pass through (no other heavy bridges around). Motorized units can take various roads.

The 15th (Scottish) Division will continue to put pressure on KG Chill, KG Rink and elements of the 719. Infanterie Division that are in its area. There are no objectives north-west of its position beyond Reusel, so it will be mostly waging an attritional war with the Germans for the remainder of the scenario. 

3rd Infantry Division will temporarily split in two with one brigade moving to Valkenswaard and the other helping out 101st Airborne at Best now that the German 59. Infanterie Division is starting to arrive. The glider regiment of the 101st moves towards Gemert.

11th Armoured Division is released and will move east of Eindhoven to Geldrop in order to threaten the positions held by Division Erdmann from the rear. The independent 4th Armoured Brigade will move to Helmond. It's currently at Hapert.



101st Airborne will start to rationalize its positions as XXX Corps units arrive.

82nd Airborne will try something...somewhat silly, but cunning at the same time. The division will only maintain a small bridge across the Maas-Waalkanaal at the two bridges we secured...



...the rest of the division will move north-west

The goal is to extract 1st Airborne by moving 6 battalions of the 82nd Airborne across the ferry at Druten and the 1st Airborne across the bridge at Renkum. That area is currently only held by some E quality companies. It's the only way 1st Airborne can survive. It's a longshot, but if it works, it will be worth it. Having troops across the Waal also complicates the German position and is the only chance I have of capturing Arnhem I think.

[ComradeP]

Turn 21, 13:00 September 19th 1944.



Mostly a lot of movement in the south as divisions reposition as described in the previous post. The pressure from 11th Armoured Division in the flank of Division Erdmann and the other units in the area is also intended to force the Germans to withdraw from Valkenswaard so my forces can use the highway.



The 101st Airborne glider units will screen Gemert. 107. Panzer Brigade is in the area.

Guards Armoured Division will enjoy some R&R west of Grave until the divisional engineers can establish a bridge across the Maas.

3rd Infantry Division engineers will bridge the Zuid-Willemsvaart at Beek, so my forces can use the primary road to Gemert. There will be mostly muddy days at the end of the scenario, so the Allies can use all the primary roads they can clear/all the primary roads across various canals with intact or repaired bridges.



The Germans were 1 turn too late to block 1st Airborne from moving across the Nederrijn. This was the moment where I was starting to believe that 1st Airborne might be saved.

I moved some 1st Airborne units forward in T-mode last turn, which resulted in one of the companies being blasted by artillery. It was still the most efficient way to "capture" as many hexes as possible in one move. As units can't move and assault in Broken terrain, the units would still be where I left them at the end of my turn. About 1 battalion of the 82nd Airborne is moving across the Waal each turn, but other reinforcements will have to wait until a bridge can be constructed across the Waal at Nederasselt or Ravenstein.

The repositioning of German units also resulted in significantly reduced pressure on the 1st Airborne perimeter and the 82nd Airborne bridgeheads at Neerbosch and Heumen. 1st Airborne would lose its first company on the German phase of the turn to multiple assaults (assault losses are rarely evenly distributed, one unit in the stack will take most of the beating), but other than that losses are acceptable.

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I just noticed that some of the name tags in the T7 south screenshot ended up in the wrong place, the image has been updated.