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[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied -south



To get the 23rd Arm Engineers out of isolation I brought up the 37th Tank Bn to the Forest hex which allowed the Engineers to move NW. Indragnir has some heavy Werfers here so I did not want to leave my Engineers in Clear terrain. The 37th had plenty MP’s left to move away even after entering a Forest. 

The 25th Cav were brought up and I moved 22nd Rgt HQ to form a line in case he brought down his Pz Lehr Panthers which are up there? 

The Pz Lehr infantry which he is using as a block for his moves at Bigonville I hit with artillery and tank fire. I pulled back the 704th TD Bn (4th Armoured) because of its poor defensive strength. (M36’s are 4?)

I held fire against his main Pz Lehr armour as I didn’t want to disrupt myself.

4th In Div infantry (2-12th and 3-12th are moving up in company sizes).


4th armoured units (10th and 53rd Arm Inf are also moving out of over the river to support move east north of the river.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied -Warnach



Well fighting at Warnach still goes on. The 15th Pz Gr Bn was hit by every available allied artillery inflicting 37 losses on it. Then the B/103rd assaulted (18/6) losing heavily but staying undisrupted and pushing him back. This allowed my cut off units to escape. The B/103rd tried to move after the assault back but night disrupted. 


I  made some moves with other units at Warnach but there is not much I can do. 



The 158th Engineers and 299th Engineers have been left to buy some time.



The 2-501st were pulled back.


With Normal weather and dusk he will smash through my units very easily. His Panthers have recovered disruption (A) and I'm sure he will organize his attacks to maximize movement.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied - Bastogne area 



My only area of concern here was at Bertogne where the 2-505th and 159th Eng were in danger of being cut off. The only solution was to pull them back. The 15th Pz Gr Bn which had assaulted last turn was well peppered with artillery, then fired at by the two Para Bn’s to its south west. This was costly as they received quite heavy return fire from his stack of 3 VG Bn’s (26th VGD). However the 15th Pz Gr Bn was probably disrupted and did not fire when my units pulled back. Hopefully it will stay disrupted for his turn so can't assault.....

 

However I guess he will still follow up and keep the pressure on here. The good news is the French are here. Vive la France! 1st and 2nd Lt Bn’s are arriving. 600 men and Morale C. They have the same stats as US Battalions.

 

I’ve got 4 Bn’s of 82nd paratroopers sitting idle south of Bertogne which I can use. Once daylight visibility is restored I’ll decided whether to move them north or not.

 

The other good news in this area is that the 53rd Welsh have arrived and will relieve the 101st. A fine bunch of moustachioed men who will do a good job I hope holding the line and possibly advancing? They have 6 x C Morale Bn’s and 3 x B Morale Bn’s plus a B Morale MG Bn. Not the best Soft attack values but pretty good Hard attack values. (why?) Assault values are not great but if you only assault disrupted units then it doesn’t really matter........

Oh and 72 x 24 pounders will be useful for softening up the Fuhrer Begleit Bde.

 

The 101st will move south and come under VIII Corps.

 

At Nadrin I pull back and got into cover. The 1-505th (A morale) night disrupted so even the best units can fail. When daylight comes this will be an artillery war again, and with the bridge down I’m not going to get reinforcements quickly into this area. The 35th Engineers did move successfuly adjacent to the blown bridge so will start building a new one next turn.


It does look like a nice area to make an attack as Houffalize is just a few hexes away to the east....but secondary roads and a blown bridge makes this difficult. Indragnir has started blowing bridges over major rivers in the south. Once he starts doing this on streams in Forest hexes things are going to sloooow down even more.  

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied - Chession - Samree



The Chession – Samree area has 4 divisions holding the line with most of the action in the south with the 75th and 84th.

 

At Samree I continue to dig in whilst my units are still green fatigue.

 

At Manhay-Grandmenil its a different story. Most units of the 84th are mid to high yellow fatigue (120+) after a days worth of pounding by 9th SS armour. Getting 75th Division reinforcements into this area has been difficult and the D morale units are night disrupting.

 

At Bra the British have pulled back a bit and left most of the fighting to 10th Armoured M4’s although they are starting to fatigue.

 

The 509th Para Bn (independent unit?) has moved into line on the Werbomont road to bolster the 43rd Division which are mostly D morale units.

 

At Chession I pounded his 116th Pioneers who were digging in. They survived artillery and tank fire so I ended up using the disrupted unit. I managed to disrupt them with my last fire....tough cookies. 

 
The 43rd Wessex’s 24 pounders are now dug in and starting to be useful. The heavy artillery (2 medium Rgts) at Soy hopefully will be available soon as well.

[Plain Ian]

509th Parachute Battalion?



I did a quick google of this unit.

December 1944: The 509th was attached to the 101st Airborne Division in time for the Battle of the Bulge. In another defensive mission, against incredible odds, the 509th held out from 22 to 30 December at Sadzot, Belgium, against two Panzer Grenadier Battalions, both elite German mechanized infantry units, and earned the battalion its second Presidential Unit Citation.
The battalion entered the battle at full strength (about 750 men) but when the unit was pulled from the action in the end of January, only 48 enlisted men and 7 officers were still actively fighting. At this time the unit was disbanded and the men used as replacements for other airborne division.

In the game the unit is indeed a 750 man A morale unit but its an independent Corps unit. I guess I could have sent it south to join the 101st but Werbomont looked to be a better use for it. No 2nd Panzer for them but the 116th Panzer in my game. Sadzot by the way is actually just to the left of grandmenil if you look at the map above, so the unit isn't that far away from where it historically fought in 1944?

Added comment: If the 509th was at Sadzot how could it be attached to the 101st besieged in Bastogne? It must have been attached to the 82nd when it was fighting at Sadzot?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied - Spa



At Spa fighting has continued all night. I have a lot of artillery here so I have used it to prevent him resting.

 

At Francorchamps I used counterbattery against his spotted artillery. I also hit KG Sandig and KG KNittel with a lot of ground fire and artillery. KG Knittel was eliminated and KG Sandig might have been Disrupted? (I didn’t record KG Sandig losses but they were substantial 20-30) I thought about an assault with 1-26th/2-60th but decided against it. I still think 12th SS infantry are there plus I do not want to wreck two Battalions when I don't have replacements ready yet?

 

Tanks battles continue against his 12th SS group. (B) In his turn he scored 4 and lost 1. In my turn I scored 4 and lost 1. His 12th SS PzIV group has dropped from XX to X. I should have withdrawn the 23rd Arm Engineers.

 

At Spa I pulled back the 1-29th and moved up the 2-38th. It night disrupted.....

 

South of Spa I finally decided to assault his disrupted FJD units. The 2-29th lost heavily but this is a big fresh unit and it still has 723 men left. The 3-120th is also still up to strength and has 621 men.

The AI was kind to him and the retreat paths were pretty good. Not like at Warnach and a few other places where it’s picked the worst retreat options for me?

 
The retreats have revealed 3 undisrupted FJD units plus two tank units in Marsh??? Pretty surprised to see this as I had forgotten that he had gotten these units stuck there many turns back.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 72 2am 24th December Allied - Elsenborn



Pretty quiet here. Night resting. 

Just artillery and ground fire against his exposed 326th VGD units. Since he had units digging in I can tell when they are disrupted. I did not try to assault but decided to keep fatigue low instead. 
The 3-39th could have moved up this turn but I'll wait to see which hex he reinforces and rest it one more night turn. If I get air recon at daylight I will check out the clear terrain to the east.

The 324th Engineers were pulled back.

[Plain Ian]

End of Turn 72 VP's/Losses



Losses for turn above. Not quite the same bloodbath as last turn but still quite bad. Next turn will definitely be worse because of the situation at Warnach.



VP's and total losses by player phase.



Losses broken down for each phase.

[Plain Ian]

509th at Sadzot - PzC



It would be a tough fight in PzC if the 2nd Panzer units were near full strength. Take off some losses and have the 509th in the village with a TRENCH then it wuld be an impossible fight for the Germans I think,

[Plain Ian]

Overview - the north



I've not made any changes to Corps command at my midnight turn.

V Corps has a command range of 15 and retains its 4 Division. At the moment it can reach back as far as Spa and is adequate for defense or for minor advances east.

VII Corps has a large range of 25 and covers a large front. There are Corps artillery units at Verviers and it just reaches 75th Division HQ at Samree. 

XXX Corps has arrived but has no units at moment. I intend to halt it and wait on 2nd Armoured arriving. The Corps units have been given to VII Corps as has the British units. (43rd Div/53rd Div/29th Arm Bde/34th Tank Bde) I was going to put XXX Corps in at Werbomont and reassign 43rd Div and 34th tank Bde. It might be better giving it the Samree sector.