Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Allied Turn 37 Franchorchamps

Some artillery but no real results. I think I got 2 N/E's and 2 fatigues on his Panthers.

Against his wall of armour I can but fall back all along the line.

3rd Armoured moved up and will try to get into position and begin digging in if there is time. 3-33rd sent to help units from 30th Div.

33rd Arm Eng Bn moved out of Trois Pont to heavy bridge north east of town and will try to blow it next turn. I know he has lots of engineers in the area as can be seen by my patrols so this won't slow him down much.

Given lack of activity in the centre and south I'm starting to wonder if he is concentrating everything in the north?

[Plain Ian]

Allied Turn 38 Elsenborn

I juggled some units to try to keep him away from my artillery. 3-39th pulled out (its wrecked with Fatigue 235 and 335 men (43%). 2-39th moved in. I targeted enemy opposite and used 741st Tank Bn to rack up some losses on his infantry.

I used artillery on the 12th VGD unit and then tried an assault using 254th Eng Bn. It has best assault factors but it bounced off. I forgot to record results but it wasn't pretty. I then sent 823rd TD Bn (M10's) forward to target his T-mode A/T guns just behind 12th VG and took out 3 BUT ended up getting disrupted by German artillery opportunity fire.......
Only consolation is that these units will attract every single bit of artillery and mortar fire this turn and take the heat off the rest of the line. I predict 150 men and probably 10 tanks easy........

Things not looking great up here.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 38 08:00 Dec 20th 1944

Weather Snow and visibility is 1 hex. VP and casualties listed below.



Number of men I lost rose to over 600, but I lost far fewer tanks this turn. He only had one real tank target to go for. The most disappointing thing about the figures is the lack of German losses. Opportunity Fire or Defensive Fire was pretty poor. It either didn't fire or picked the wrong targets. Nothing worse than seeing a good A rated unit being fired on by armour and blazing of 3 shots for NE then getting hit by lowly Volks Grenadier units with no reply.
Of course that will even out when its my turn to attack you'll probably say....but I'm not confident the game will go the full length.

Lets look at the big picture in the north.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 37 - North



At Franchorchamps he followed my withdrawl and gained 2 hexes. Strangely Peiper's Panthers and King Tigers have disappeared? They did not advance so they must be left behind watching his northern flank..... or being redeployed?

Stavelot was similar and he advanced over a 4 hex front and again Peipers King Tigers have disappeared?

At Elsenborn 4 hexes came under severe mortar and artillery fire and he made one successful assault.

And Elsenborn is a problem for me because it means that I may have to give in folks. The map edge and the Hohes Venn means I have boxed myself in and have nowhere to go. He has 4 Divisions (277/326 VGD/12th SS Pz/3rd PGD) with 4 Divisions worth of artillery plus at least a few Korps Artillery and Mortar/Werfer groups and will not stop attacking here. US artillery has been pretty feeble and its now difficult to feed more troops into the area because the road from Verviers is just about cut off after Robertville. And I don't have an endless supply of troops to do that anyway? No serious reinforcements are scheduled for today.

I have to start moving my artillery now and the only route for it is north and then west through the woods. I'm not going to have any artillery for probably 36 hours and I've got to get about 13+ artillery units and about one and a half Divisions worth of Broken/Disrupted troops over the same route and fight a rear guard action...........under inexhaustible artillery and ground attacks. II SS Korps was released last turn and I wouldn't be surprised if its headed this way.

I can see why there quite a few Axis Major Victories for this scenario. Possibly they all go for a northen gambit?

Will have a think and finish of the detail maps shortly.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 38 - Elsenborn close up



823TD Bn lost 4 tanks from the 75mm guns which unlimbered and fired without any reaction from units again.......WW2 stealth units.

254th lost 47 men to artillery and 77 men to ground fire. Engineers in Clear is like waiving a red flag in front of a bull to my oppo.

3-16th lost 80 men to fire then was assaulted losing a further 19 men....but hey look on the bright side I did take out a tank and 5 men.

1-18th sat under a hail of artillery/werfer fire and lost 45 men.

2-39th 25 men to artillery and 34 men to ground fire.

I lost 10 of those Regimental 105mm guns (Cannon/47th wiped out and cannon/9th lost 4) because they were left sitting in front line. (where 3-47th is) I didn't think it was worth limbering up and trying to move......I ALWAYS GET OPPORTUNITY FIRE when I try this.

I can't remember his losses much but his total losses for the turn were 89 men and 3 vehicles so it wasn't spectacular shooting......

I've got 3 good units in line 1-18th, 3-47th 1-18th which will have to hold for a turn or two. 1-18th and 3-47th are in Clear terrain....ugh pefect Werfer terrain. Guarenteed to lose 10 men per salvo. I have the 2-18th as well but I may need that as a good block on the Verviers road.

No sign of any obvious Werfer units revealed. I see a spotted SS unit which I take to be a SPG unit.

Its like shooting fish in a barrel for him. If anyone can see what I should be doing better here then please chime in......a white flag seems to best option.

[Plain Ian]

In map posted above I highlighted this hex but forgot to mention it. I looked at the Divisional sign on the bottom HQ unit and initially thought that it was one of the early panzer units, 9th Panzer Division? I panicked as I thought that as well as 3rd Panzer Greandier Division he was about to bring in the 9th as well. I knew the 9th was in the campaign but historically was part of 5th Panzer Army not 6th SS?

I checked the Unit picture files and see that it has the name Denkert who is the 3rd PGD commander? I also checked up the sign properly and see that it is 3rd Panzer Division and not the 9th which is similar.

So panic over as it is 3rd PGD HQ but with the wrong divisional sign.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 38 Bastogne



Well I was right in that he didn't charge into Flamierge but he did send a probe using Fuhrer Begleit Bde forces in that direction. See map. (A)

Most of his armour kept back for use against 504th/506th.

Good news is that 705th TD Bn undisrupted and resupplied Ammo so it has regained some mobility. It still has a tough time getting out of the woods. Keeping its HQ in range paid off. 14th Tnk Bn wasn't so lucky and is still Low Ammo. The 3-502nd also is still Disrupted which will be a big problem as it can only fall back ONE hex.

No movement in north against 160th Div units?

Lookslike I shuffle back one more hex and dig in at Flamierge.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 38 South



Last map. Not much happened here....except he sneaked in over the river. 2 Panzer Lehr Bns? 55th Armd Eng Bn received some artillery and Disrupted. A small forced has also turned up at Boevange-sur-Attert, but parked up this time. Its a Heavy Bridge crossing but since he's over there is little point in contesting?

I could have possibly delayed his river crossing by positioning the 55th a hex closer. But its a woose unit anyway and ALWAYS seems to Disrupt easily. It spent most of the 19th recovering from 250+ Fatigue only to Disrupt at first fight. Its Fatigue 99 and Morale D at moment....which means useless.

No sign of any enemy from the Mersch region although I suspect there is a sizeable force out there?

Plans haven't changed, I will fall back again in the east and set up a defense in the woods to slow him down. Feel better about this front as I have a Regiment of the 80th nearby and its tank units. Not the best unit as its Morale C except for the tank unit which is a D. D tanks are no use on defense as they will always Disrupt on first fire, and are just target practice for panzers. . Only way to use them is on your turn, move up fire and run away hoping the defensive fire doesn't kick in.

The really good news is that 4th Armoured arrived at last. The bad news is that its going to take a few turns to get here.

[ComradeP]

Near Elsenborn, are you worried about him breaking through to Verviers or losing units?

Map edge or not, it seems many of your units would be safe going north. It would take them several days to move through the woods to Verviers, but they will probably survive that journey.

I don't know what the movement costs are in this scenario, but I'm guessing moving into woods and assaulting isn't possible, which would mean the Hohes Venn might limit movement, but would also make your units immune to assaults.

You seem to have some reserves, like the armour near Theux and Chession, that could be moved to the area.

How critical would the eventual loss of Verviers be and when do you get more reinforcements in the northern part of the map?

Currently, the situation near Elsenborn looks like a tricky situation, but you're not encircled yet and moving your men into the woods is primarily a problem if he can get to the other side before you do, which doesn't seem likely.

[Plain Ian]

Near Elsenborn, are you worried about him breaking through to Verviers or losing units?

Bit of both. I have a few map edge supply sources between Verviers and Konzen so supply not a problem. Its just that effectively any units in the Hohes Venn are dead or unusable and more importantly I lose the use of artillery my best tank killers.
My opponent isn't going to attempt to get near the Meuse. He is going to kill as many men as possible then settle down and wait for me to come at him.

Map edge or not, it seems many of your units would be safe going north. It would take them several days to move through the woods to Verviers, but they will probably survive that journey.

I don't know what the movement costs are in this scenario, but I'm guessing moving into woods and assaulting isn't possible, which would mean the Hohes Venn might limit movement, but would also make your units immune to assaults.

Thats my only option really. Yes safe from assault but he still gets one fire PLUS artillery which will be reduced due to Woods. Plus yes he has to commit troops to do this.........his Volks Grenaiers no doubt.

You seem to have some reserves, like the armour near Theux and Chession, that could be moved to the area.

The Chession units are both M5 Lt Tank units. One is a Red Fatigued 7th Armoured and the other a Low Fuel 3rd Armoured which got left behind. The Theux units are the other half of 3rd Armoured. 2 Tank Bns (50-60% 60 x M4's in total) and a full strength Arm Inf Bn. They were en route to join rest of 3rd armoured at La Gleize.

How critical would the eventual loss of Verviers be and when do you get more reinforcements in the northern part of the map?

Currently, the situation near Elsenborn looks like a tricky situation, but you're not encircled yet and moving your men into the woods is primarily a problem if he can get to the other side before you do, which doesn't seem likely.

Well some more reinforcements of 1st Div come on here later tonight. Just to the west of Verviers at 110.00. Then the last of 3rd Armoured on the 21st. Thats about it. Most north map reinforcements after this come on well to the west of Verviers.

No encirclement yet but I think he is about to do something.