Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 48 Allied - Cheneux - Grandmenil




A - The 3-335th moved up and lost 7 men. The 2-335th are still Disrupted so didn’t fire. Artillery killed 4 from the 560th VGD.

B - The 309th Engineers moved up to support the 335th Rgt and bumped into an unexpected enemy unit. The 309th are Disrupted and still in T mode so I had to move the Divisional tank bn 771st to support. Artillery killed one of his AA guns.

C - 40th Tank Bn and 48th Arm Inf Bn pulled back and the 17th Tank Bn fired on 560th VGD Bn.

D - A few tricky moves here, 38th Armd Inf Bn left to delay the 116th whilst 117th withdraws. 814th moved up and 740th pulled back.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 48 Allied Spa



A – I pulled back from his Peiper stack. I’m quite happy to pull back one hex at a time here.

B – the 1-32nd Tank Bn attacked the 3 units adjacent plus artillery was used on one of the 3rd FJD Bn’s.

C – The 3-32nd Tank Bn lost a tank when it moved forward. The 1-36th Arm’d Inf Bn in Spa fired on KG Hansen Mot Inf and did well inflicting 42 and losing only 5.

D- Artillery targeted the T mode 75mm A/T units in the hex. The 3rd FJD unit lost 3, and the 62nd FJD units lost 3 between them.

E – There was a fire fight with the 1-119th, 3-517th, 1-517th against adjacent units. The 62nd VGD Bn’s were targeted. Artiillery was also used. The 62nd plus supporting artillery put up a fair fight and losses were greater than expected. (well done the AI)

I guess I just have to see what direction the Death Star takes next turn.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 48 Allied north



The 2-393rd falls back sw and triggers no retreat fire. I’ve finally put them ‘On Foot’ but thought it better for them to risk moving sw than fall back into the Marsh hex to the nw.

I didn’t move many units into the Hohes Venn as I thought it best to rest if possible.

Artillery plotted and results shown on map. The 277th VGD anf the 12th SS recon units were targeted as they are in Clear terrain. I should have targeted the 3 Bn’s of the 12th VGD opposite 1-16th and 1-47th a bit more as they will probably assault after artillery next turn?

703rd TD BN attacked twice against armour stuck in the Swamp then fell back ....job done. The 745th Tank Bn then attacked the 12th VGD Bn and the 2nd Combat Engineers also tried one attack. Results were not really great and we probably lost out out on this battle.

However the 745th and 2nd Combat Engineers do seem to be in a ‘golden position’ blocking the road north. The swamp road hex means that he can’t deploy. I have the 3-18th available with 750 men and 0 Fatigue as reserve.

[Plain Ian]

Turn VP's and Losses

Here are the turn VP's for end of Turn 48 and start of Turn 49 after Michael's moves.



Here is the turns losses. Its much the same as last turn except there are no losses to guns or tanks/vehicles.
He has gained 45 VP points.

His email mentioned that he was still moving forward but 1 hex at a time.



Weather forecast for next turn. Looks like Soft and possibly the visibility might open up a bit?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 49 German north



A - the 2-16th was severally attacked with ground and artillery. Return fire and counter artillery fire did some damage on the attacker though.

B - enemy group made no attacks.

C - one Battalion of the 12th VGD withdrew but was replaced with a fresh one from the 277th. Ground attacks and some artillery used, mainly on the 1-47th.

D/E - fresh forces of the 12th SS brought up.

F - artillery and ground fire against the 1-38th.

G/H - he continued following up my retreat with some ground fire and a little artillery.

There was no attempt to move up the main road from Monschau? It looks like he will follow me back into the Hoes Venn? Thats bad news as I will lose 3 HQ's and a heavy artillery unit stuck in Marsh.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 49 German Spa - La Gleize



At la Gleize his main strike force [A] followed my withdrawl. 23rd Armoured Infantry received minor artillery losses.

At Spa I moticed one Bn of 3rd FJD withdrew leaving Groups B and C which did not fire? His infantry group D attacked Spa concentrating mainly on the already fatigued 526th. It took 49 losses and now has a fatigue of 198. Return fire plus artillery did some damage on the attacker including a disruption on the 150th Pz Bde unit.

The big move was by the Peiper King Tiger group E which took advantage of the withdrawl of the 743rd tank Bn and moved west adjacent to Spa. I think it dropped of one of the 75mm A/T units (62nd VGD) in the hex so possibly it is disrupted?

There is only one group of enemy next to the 517th now.

Things looking ominous for Spa now that he has two hexes adjacent to it. I guess I should try and put some pressure on the flanks to throttle the supply lines.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 49 Cheneux - Grandmenil



Most of my losses were due to artillery. The 309th Engineers in T mode thankfully only received a few barrages so they must be at the limit of his artillery. The 33rd Engineers received some nasty Mortar fire losing 23 men.

The bad news was he assaulted in the centre against the 38th Armoured Infantry which were already disrupted. I lost 3 men in the assault, he lost none and took the hex. Looks like most of the 116th Pz Divs armour was involved.

Interestingly I could see units moving up behind his armour. An Einheits unit in one hex and an HQ and Nebelwerfer unit in the other. Tempting but I've only the 740th Tank Bn which can get there and I was thinking of using this to help the 33rd Engineers (D Morale) and see if I can get some Sturm Tigers....if thats what they are?

He has reinforced at Rarmont as well.

Will probably fall back at Rarmont and most likely also in the centre toward Werbormont.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 49 German Bastogne



Not much happened here. Basically he picked 2-3 hexes and fired off all his artillery and with adjacent units. My return fire wasn't particularly good. I'll just run through things.

Firstly I wrongly identified a unit/formation last turn. I thought the SS units were 10th SS? They are in fact 2nd SS. 10th SS wasn't involved in the Bulge?

So 2nd SS Pz and 2nd Pz armour (groups A/B) followed up the retreating 106th Div unit which is a company sized unit so its best kept off the front line. The SS armour is PzIV's in Clear so I might be able to bag a few of them with my heavy artillery.

His group C fired and took out 41 men and artillery killed a further 10. I'm not keen to lose 40-50 men a turn so I guess I fall back here.

The 1-504th took the biggest lumps from his the 26th VGD. The 1-504th has actually just gone Low Ammo so will be pulled out. I'm still undecided whether to move 3-504th in and take another 90-100 losses, or just pull back the 2-504th and let him have the Wood hex. The other option I guess is to throw the 508th against him but I'm not keen on sitting the 508th in Clear versus an enemy in a Wood (Improved) hex.

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 49 southern front



Well nothing happened here. The 317th at Chaumont were not cut off by the 5th FJD Bn that I discovered last turn, and he has made no attacks in the far south at Brouch.

I'm quite happy to have a 'quid pro quo' approach at Brouch. If he makes no attacks on me here then I will reciprocate. I'm not a fan of advancing a spotter unit to bring down a shed load of artillery then skipping it back. So if he doesn't do it to me, I won't do it to him.

I had a quick strategy rethink here. The 26th Division has arrived and its subordinated to III Corps. What to do with it. Its a fresh unit and well up to strength with average Battalion strength of 765. BUT its D Morale. (its TD Bn and Tank Bn are C) In MUD it cost 25MP to move along secondary roads. A D rated Motorised Battalion has 64 MP's......so they will get 2 hexes a turn at best.

So if I choose Option B and insert them in north of the Alzette River and aim them east, they will take a long time to get there and won't be a stellar attacking force. Using them to replace the well trained 4th Armoured is another option BUT it will take probably even longer to get them there. In the meantime 80th Division could begin a drive east from Chaumont and possibly also from Martelange?

Option A could be to send 26th north using the main roads to replace 80th and bring the 317th/318th down to concentrate and drive along the Martelange - Grevils road. The 80th is a C rated unit and probably suited for this plus its a good axis of attack. I'm kind of leaning towards this.

Option A is a bit convoluted and I'd really just go for Option B but secondary roads are treacle and its going to take for ever to get this Division anywhere near Redanges or Bekerich. Now if I had been given the option of bringing the 26th Division onto the map along the Attert road, then this would have made it an easy choice.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 49 Allied VP/Loss Results





Amazingly the VP total is back to 11286 which is where it was at the end of Turn 48. I didn't quite make the losses in men I wanted but the tanks/guns I scored made up for that.

Michael looks to have gone on to the defensive apart from in certain areas. I guess its time I started to be a bit more offensive.