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[Plain Ian]

Turn 38 Allied Moves - Elsenborn



Operation Exodous begins. Artillery limbered up and moving. Best units put in harms way and rest moving north west or north.

Half way through my move I bumped into a T mode 3rd PGD unit with D/743 TNK. This unit is part of 30th Division (VII Corps) so I had limited artillery to call in. Nor could I get another unit adjacent. Because this could be a serious threat I redeployed 2-18th and 2-16th NW to protect my guns.

With hindsight I should have done things differently. If he cuts the Verviers road by getting a ZOC onto the hex NW of 823rd TD Bn then things will be grim for a speedy withdrawl!

823rd TD belongs to 30th Division and is well outwith 30th Div command range.....hence its Low Fuel and Disruption I guess.

Artillery losses inflicted shown on map.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 38 Allied - Trois Ponts - Franchorchamps



Not much to report here. I fell back all along this front.

740th Tank Bn (45 x M4's 88% Morale C Fatigue 0) evacuated Trois Ponts and now await the Panzer IV's of the 116th. 33rd Eng Bn successfully dropped the bridge over the Salm R.
Along with the 3-117th and other units in this area they will have to pull back through woods to Cheneux as the Germans will cut the road west this turn.

3rd Armoured (half) has begun digging in at La Gleize. The other half is staioned at Spa for just now.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 38 Allied - Bastogne



Still pulling back here as well.

82nd and 101st artillery pulled back over the River.

28th Division recovering at Regogne.

9th Armoured will recover at St Hubert.

Two minor attacks -
2-506th moved north to harass FBB armour. (1) Inflicted 9 losses on enemy. Artillery killed a further 8 and inflicted 3 Fatigue hits on armour.

3-508th moved to cut off forward FBB tank unit and met FBB Engineers and 2nd Panzer Grenadiers. Inflicted 19 losses and suffered 17. (2)

[Plain Ian]

Turn 38 Allied - South



Line formed in woods against the Panzer Lehr infantry. Artillery attacks made aginst one of the groups. Also artillery on 5th FJD units opposite Boevange. 90th Cav Bn left to guard Boevange.

3-501st manged to destroy the Pz Lehr recce unit at Redanges. (1 a/c) but the unit at Bekerich was bullet proof and survived.

With 4th Armoured on map now, 80th Division moved off north leaving 1-319th and 610th TD Bn behind for moment. Destination is Neufchateau.

2-501st lead unit for 501st Para Rgt met enemy unit (5th FJD Bn) south of Warnach when it tried to move north east of the river. 36 men lost. 501st pulled back to Martelange.
Hopefully enemy will move away and allow the 80th Division to move past Martelange by road.

4th Armoured (part) arrived and Divisional TD unit (704th TD Bn) showed its usefulness by managing to clear the stream and gain the road Bekerich. (very mobile units) The Armd Inf Bn (10th Arm Inf) will have to take slow route via Ell and Redanges.

[Plain Ian]

Big picture - North

Front line in red..... as far as I know it. II SS Pz Korps on the move but I've no idea where its going to turn up?

[Plain Ian]

End of Turn 38 VP/Losses



Total losses for Turn 38 edged towards 800 men. I actually lost 100 men during my turn and only inflicted 178 on him. I took out 4 guns and at least 1 tank.

I'll post big picture of south when I get chance.

[Haplo_Patryn]

Enjoying your AAR. Thank you very much.

[Plain Ian]

Big Picture - South

Front line in red. Circled units not 100% sure are still there.
When you look at how few units he has I feel pretty silly complaining about how hard the game is for the US?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 39 German Results

Victory Points and losses below. I've still to watch and record the replay. (Screenpresso is great for this)

Total losses to date in men is almost 30k. Thats roughly 50 Battalions worth, or 5 Divisions if you assume 10 Bn sized units per Division.

Of course in the beginning of the game whole units were surrounded and destroyed so I'd expect large losses.

However game has settled down and I am trying my hardest to ensure I don't lose any more complete units....yet I'm still losing a Battalions worth every 2 hours.

Roll on the good weather and air strikes.

[ComradeP]

Forgot to mention it last time, but great AAR indeed.

In campaign games, with time to rest your units, losing whole units is more painful than suffering reasonably high losses. As long as a unit doesn't die, it can refit and be used again after all.

Still, you don't seem to lose entire divisions worth of quality troops so when more reinforcements show up and the weather improves, you should have a good chance of pushing him back.

As you wrote, the Germans don't have a lot of divisions and they're vulnerable to attrition.