Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

South map



2nd Panzer infantry beat me to Nadrin. They haven't dug in but will do so. Luckily I sent a Para Rgt here to support the 106th and parts of 75th Division which are also headed here. The French 1st Light Bde (2 Bn's) is also coming here. Samree is Rubbled by the way and a bridge over a stream on the La Roche - Nadrin road is blown so movement in this area is slooooow.

With the 2nd Pz Division now north of the river Ourthe the 82nd have made minor gains against the 26th VGD and hope to push on Bertogne. 

The 101st area at Flamierge has been quiet. The Fuhrer Begleit is dug in here. Most of the action is taking place on the south flank of XVIII Corps where the 101st is bolstering the 26th Division at Margerotte.

The 26th Division is is the sole unit of III Corps and has no Corps artillery. (It has 2-3 Bn's but they weer subordinated to XII Corps) It has been hit badly by 2nd SS and has received help from 29th Division units which have spent 3 days recovering from the 16th/17th. 

The real disaster lies to the south in VIII Corps which had been resting behind the lnes with the 29th (edit thats the 28th Div....the map label is wrong as well)  and 9th Armoured Division but the HQ and units  moved forward to take command of the 30th Division which was stretched out from Hompre to Pratz. The 2nd SS (48 Panthers) plus the 15th PzGr (70+ tanks/assault guns) are now attacking south with the FG Bde attacking west. 60-80 tanks/assault guns?

And of course Cesar has thrown in Panzer Lehr which is just about to smash through the right wing of 30th Division and push to Martelange. 

All in all things are looking desperate.

In the south I've suddenly spotted blown bridges (Boevange-Berg) and realised what this means. I've sent out 10th Armoured this turn but Cesar is gone. I've caught a Disrupted MG Bn west of Mersch but no sign of any other unit. 

4th Armoured will now try to shift north. 4th Infantry will also move north but use the Attert - Martelange road. 

No doubt Cesar is building a new defensive line at Bissen.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 70 Dec 23rd 6pm - Nadrin - Bertogne



He now has 3 Bn's of 2nd Panzer infantry at Nadrin with one in the village. My paras are not going to last long sitting in Clear adjacent to him so will have to move away. Its a shoestring operation as its difficult to reinforce the area. I have an engineer unit which will try to repair the bridge NE of the F/2-424th. 

Operations against 26th VGD are also low keys as I try to shift 82nd units north. In fact I only had an Engineer unit (352 men) for the assault against his Pioneers. I only have one Bn of the 106th left here (2-423rd) and most of this is disrupted.

I do have plenty of artillery. Divisional (82nd/106th) plusalso  XVIII Corps. XVIII Corps has all of the VIII Corps subordinated. 106th admittedly only has 2 artillery Bn's left to its name.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 70 Dec 23rd 6pm - Bastogne - Magerotte



All quiet on the Bastogne front. In fact too quiet. I think Cesar has slipped away east of Flamierge? I put the 2-502nd on Patrol last turn and its not showing any units? There should be two units showing in the woods and a Pioneer/Flak group on the road just east of them? I checked turn 68 and they were there but I took off patrolling that turn so cannot tell if they were there last turn on turn 69? Maybe he has pulled them all back one hex?

I think his SS Pioneers and armour groups are still there and the 2nd SS infantry will still be dug in in the woods?

Most para units are up to strength. 501st is averaging 650, the 327th/401st averages 700+, and the 502nd also averages 750 apart from the 1-502nd whih is down at 500.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 70 Dec 23rd 6pm - Warnach Debacle



Ok here is the situation south of Bastogne or Disaster on the Sure as I like to call it....

 

I think Cesars intentions are pretty clear. 2nd SS has been pressing south and is now joined by 15th Pz Gr Div. The 2nd SS has the Panther Bn (48) and at least 2 Bn’s (700+) of motorised infantry. So far 15th Pz Gr Div has committed all its armour plus one Mot Bn which was disrupted in last turns assault.


The Fuhrer Grenadier Bde has now all its armour on the front line (30+ Panthers and 30+ StuG’s?) and probably the rest of the Bde is stacked behind.

Further south the Pz Lehr is making a big push with the aim no doubt of getting to the bridge at Martelange. If he gains this hex then I only have one road bridge (medium) which I can use to evacuate my forces at Warnach. (Edit - there is rail bridge as well)

On turn 70 I did make one assault with 2-501st and pushed back a unit and revealed some of his artillery. I didn’t have any artillery to take advantage of this. However this may divert some 15th Pz Gr Div infantry which I know he is going to use to protect his right flank along the stream.

I’ve also moved up my only reserves of 9th Armoured Div units. Most of these are pretty small. C/14 Tnk has 14 tanks. B/811 TD has 4. The 18th Tnk Bn does have 27 and is probably the strongest unit although its D morale. I've used these at Warnach and also at Bigonville.
The one quality unit I have is the 5th Rangers which I've sent to try and hold off Pz Lehr. 450 men but morale A.
26th Div is morale D but most units are 700+ strength.
80th Div is morale C and most units are around 700 as well.
28th Div is morale B but units average 3-400 and some have companies missing.



I’ve fed in units of the 28th and 26th but I think that all that this will achieve is trapping them as well.


Too many of my units are disrupted and ripe for assault though. Once I’m pushed back onto the Clear terrain its going to be a Turkey Shoot. I think I could lose about 3-4 Bn’s and about 3-4000 men here! Mud has meant that this has been a slo mo car crash event but I saw it coming....just couldn't do enough to get out of the trap. 4th Infantry on the move as is 4th Armoured but too late is the cry.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 70 Dec 23rd 6pm - the south



Its my last map showing situation in the the south. I went and checked and can see that he began blowing bridges over the R.Attert from Turn 67 onwards. No point in defending in order to slow me down when he can let major rivers do that I suppose.


I’ve sent two Tnk Bn’s of 10th Armoured east and they’ve just met a lone MG unit. A Tnk Bn from 4th Armoured has checked Boevange and its empty.



I also made a few rash moves.

1.      24th Eng sent over the river. If he has units on patrol they are toast if he moves adjacent and uses artillery.

2.      37th Tnk Bn moved forward to see if he was still there and yes he is. I used artillery on the FJD recon unit and it was disrupted. (it was digging in and this disappeared) There is a risk that he can cut off the 37th in which case I will struggle to get it out.

 

Apart from that I’ve broken down two Bn’s of the 4th Inf (2-12th/3-12th) to send north by road. Both are at 50+ fatigue. The 2-8th is the only other 4th Inf Div unit with low fatigue but that is down at Brouch at the moment. The rest are resting.

 

4th Armoured will have to struggle out by the medium road bridge at Redange although the river turns to a stream at that point so the bridge is only useful for motorised units. The armoured units will have to struggle one hex per turn over the stream. 

 

10th Armoured will attempt to move east or north east.....and see what is there? From the inset map you can see the reason why Cesar is pulling back. The US 5th Division is scheduled to come on at 6am tomorrow south of Lintgen. This would be behind his lines if he held his position.


6am is a long way off though. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 71 Dec 23rd 8pm Night  - German Turn results



Well this turn is worse than I thought it would be but its just the start i guess. Losses below.



1600 men and 48 vehicles lost. 31 of the vehicles lost are Greyhound M8's and the rest are tanks/TD's. Almost 1,000 men are lost when cut off and surrounded and assaulted. (2 Bn's worth) 
German losses were in line with heavy fighting I guess. I think 4 of the 6 vehicle losses were tanks/assault guns and 1 was a Panther.......

I've started doing my turn so will post a quick map of the north and post the rest tomorrow. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 71 Dec 23rd 10pm - the north



Not much happened. The 2 unist of 326th VGD I assaulted have withdrawn so I guess they did not recover from disruption. The 324th US Combat Engineers were fired at and hit with artillery but losses were pretty light at 10 men. The unit is quite heavily fatigued though. 
Most of the artillery was counterbattery and the 18th Rkt Bn was picked out. It lost one vehicle but had a few fatigue hits. The infantry unit stacked with it got hit a few times as well.
Prety quiet in terms of artillery so either he is resting them or hiding them?

I intend to push up 1-23rd and 1-26th and hit his 326thVGD  stack with as much artillery as possible to disrupt the two Bn which are both digging in.

Patrols by 3-23rd in the north show pretty much what I expected. 

This axis looks to be quite good actually as if I take this hex I am next to the clear terrain and pose a threat. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 71 Dec 23rd 10pm - Spa



Cesar makes the usual attacks against more or less the same units. 

The 823rd TD Bn was hit and lost 3 TD's. I moved them away from his 12th SS tank stack but his infantry still managed to kill two and artillery killed a third.

The 23rd Engineers received heavy artillery fire and was hit by infantry fire. His tanks targeted the 743rd Tnk Bn and took out 2. (possibly he didn't fire with all his tanks?)

The 1-29th lost heavily at Spa and the 2-119th was hit by his King Tiger group. 

His 3rd FJD infantry have still not recovered from disruption. I didn't notice any movements apart from him moving a Pioneer unit to the top of a stack. (opposite 23rd Arm Eng) 

I think maybe the 12th SS will be used to rotate fresh units into his front line here?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 71 Dec 23rd 10pm - Chession - Bra


The 38th Arm Inf were well and trully clobbered with werfers. They went from green fatigue to orange in one swoop. 5-6 barrages averaging 10-15 losses. (Cesar likes to combine artillery fire) There is a spotted artillery unit at Basse Bodeaux which is within the 7 hex range for a heavy werfer.

At Bra the Brits were also given a nice welcome and were easily disrupted.

The fact he fed in Flak gives me some hope he is low on fresh troops although his splitting tactic is a bit annoying. 

Most of my troops are D morale so I won't be making many moves.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 71 Dec 23rd 10pm - Grandmenil



Well its always nice to see german armour as you at least don't have to worry about it turning up unannounced. 

His Panther PILLBOXES do that splitting thang......obviously he doesn't worry about excess fatigue on his company units. But I suppose I get to count them now. 36? 32? Whatever?

2ns SS continues to batter 84th Division and the 75th Division will get the same treatment once 2nd Panzer is dug in.