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[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 German – 2am 25th Dec Snow – Bertogne



The 3-508th comes under fire from his 26th VGD/15th PGD group. Artillery adds to their losses. Fatigue for the unit is still quite low though although manpower is down to 553. The 1-508th has 643 men. Both units are IMPROVED whilst the enemy is TRENCH. One of the 15th PGD Bn's is disrupted?

Further south his FBB infantry finally pull back leaving his Jagdpanzers to attack the 3-506th in the Bunker. Looks like his hard attack factors are better than his soft so the units in the Bunker will be his target. 

The 53rd Division are more or less in place and fatigue for all units is just about 0. 2nd Armoured is on the road stacked up behind and I'll probably move them at Dawn. 

I still haven't come up with a plan but I'll do that when I finish this AAR......

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 German – 2am 25th Dec Snow – Magerotte - Redanges



Now you see them, now you don’t? At Magerotte the 2nd SS do not pursue? The only activity is a small bombardment on the 1-501st. Why did he stop? Waiting for dawn? So do I take advantage and pull back or just sit tight? 

The 3-101st didn’t recover from disruption but the 735th Tank Bn did....but will probably disrupt if I try to move it again.

Down at Hotte the Germans are still having digging problems. They are still at IMPROVED. Meanwhile over the river my 1278th Engineer Bn put down their shovels and shout....”finished!” to the Germans over the river! (1) TRENCH...kerching!

The 2-319th pays the price for holding the line and is werfer’d and hit by tank fire. (2) The 19th Tank Bn which pulled back does not recover disruption so I might as well keep moving it.

The 212th have given up at Ell and pulled back. Two of the three groups were disrupted. Indragnir said in his email that with 5th Division withdrawn he has stopped the attacks.

The 10th Arm Inf Bn is werfer’d before they leave. The 37th Tank Bn does not recover disruption but again it offers me a chance to move it further out of the way.

Patrols from Redange show a FJD Bn and 88mm group digging in? (3) This is Clear terrain (no previous Trenches) and will be in view of my units?? Of course he will have a good view of my forces especially my artillery in woods in the Ell-Redange area. It does however signal that he may not be content to just sit back? Add this information to the spotted artillery units (4) which are possibly werfers? (or self propelled guns?) The hex they are sitting in is a Trench so they have just moved in. Is this someone intending to defend?

Ok last map coming up.....

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 German – 2am 25th Dec Snow – Mersch



I’ve already looked at this area but I’ve watched the replay to see what happened.

His 9th Panzer motorised infantry moved up and was hit by a hail of tank shells from my armour at Mersch. (3)

There was 3 assaults. I think the first assault was with the 2 x Bn’s of 352nd? One disrupted?

The second assault involved his 9th Pz recon unit as he lost a vehicle. He might have used the motorised infantry as well as they definitely did not fire during the turn.

The last assault was probably by the 276th VGD Bn which moved up during the turn.

The 55th Engineers were asked to start taking the bridge down last turn on the assumption that it would take several turns and I didn’t want the unit to be sitting there being pounded by artillery or Panthers waiting on it coming down. And guess what they did it one turn. 121 men of the 1-11th and 2-11th are left marooned on the other side of the R. Alzette now. Two more battalions wiped off the OOB.

The only consolation is that I get to hit his 9th motorised for another 40-60 men with my tanks in Mersch.

As for Indragnirs intentions in the south I’ll cut and paste his email to me which came with the turn.

"My plans for the south...well I can reach Berg in a single turn with the 9th PzD. I can cross back the Alzette with my forces there or I can left a VGD to guard the river and sent the others with the panzers and mass Lehr, 9th PzD, FGB, 5 FJD, 79, 212 and 352 VGDs and try to force my way up to Attert... decisions, decisions... if I reach Attert I can cut all the forces between Attert and Mersch against the river... maybe the unchecked 9 and 167 VGDs could play a role."

I think I got most of this right apart from the VGD’s he has in reserve in this area. I thought he had the 79th VGD down here but it looks like its the 167th. Which means the 167th is elsewhere? Bastogne?

Anyway that’s it folks time to do my turn.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Results



My results this turn were pretty reasonable. Counterbattery took out 11 guns, noy through choice in most cases but because that was the only target available. 11 vehicles but I can only remember 1 tank (Jagdpanzer IV) and 4 armoured cars? 



Final turns losses above. In terms of VPS I clawed back 93 VP's against the 132 VP's he gained in his phase. So he gaind 39 VP's this turn. I'll show VP's and totals when I get his Turn 82 back.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Hoes Venn



I have advanced the 741st Tank Bn to interfere with his fatigue recovery. I guess this is the one of the few benefits I have from being the second player in the game. After I moved it I realised I had better move the 3-23rd as a safeguard in case he disrupts and assaults the tank unit and it retreats the wrong way. The second move costs me 13 men.

I hit all of the 326th units I could see with artillery. The units to the south east of the 741st are in clear terrain so I expect them to withdraw further next turn. The units to the south are in Forest TRENCH. They are the bigger threat. My tanks pick on the 75mm guns and take out 2 for no losses. The 75mm units goes from XX size to X.

The 277th VGD Bn digging in receives some artillery and direct fire (1-23rd/2-23rd/1-9th) in an effort to disrupt it. I failed to do this and suffered fairly heavily in return fire. 

Most of my units in this area rest. I did think about rotating out the 3-39th (fat 143 men 163) but decided to sit tight.

Further south the battle with the 12th SS and 12th VGD continues. I managed to disrupt one of the VGD units digging in but the other two are unaffected.

My 745th Tank Bn did  kill another 3 armoured cars to add to the 3 from the last turn. The 1-517th does not make much of an impression on the 12th SS. I hold back my artillery against the 12th SS here and save it for SPA.

I expect Indragnir will hit back next turn. Its dawn so he will not have to worry about fatigue. He also likes to put me on the back foot and keep the initiative. I know the 246th VGD is in reserve somewhere in the north and the 3rd PGD is also available. I don’t think he will sit on the defensive and wait on me slowly building up an offensive. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Spa



I had held back artillery for use against SS units that had pushed the 1-33rd Tank Bn back in his phase. (12th SS and KG Hansen) I hit the 12th SS Bn with about 11-12 Artillery Bn's. Its a B quality unit so I hoped I might have a better chance of disrupting it than the KG Hansen Bn. (A quality)  Despite an impressive tally I failed to disrupt it. 

I have pulled back the battered 3-60th and the 15th Combat Engineers. Howeve I held my positions with all the other units. This has left the 1-33rd sitting in clear terain and the 2-33rd/38th Cav (both C quality) possibly open to assault. 
The 2-26th is also in need of withdrawing but its stacked with the 1-119th which is an A quality unit.

The only other notable action was an attempt by my tanks to disrupt the 62nd VGD unit digging in. It failed. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Odeigne - Flamierge



At Odeigne my heavy artillery score a rare success against his Jagdpanzers digging in and kill one. It doesn't disrupt it or stop it digging in though.

An assault is launched by 1-505th and 3-325th against his disrupted 9th SS Bn. It succeeds as expected but the 1-325th is badly hit by the assault. Total US losses were 55 men (7 from opp fire before the assault) but we inflicted 106 losses on his unit. I expected the hex he fell back on to have another SS infantry Bn but it contained only Flak units digging in? My artillery killed one of these. 



The 1-325th will have to rest now and the 1-505th is out of command range and will have to pull back south. The two supporting Bn's of the 75th (1-289th/2-290th) are both shot and will have to pull back or rest in place. I'll have to find some fresh good troops to reiforce this axis from soemwhere.

The only other action was at Bertogne. When I hit Turn end I checked and the 15th PGD unit was disrupted but he will reinforce this hex with a 26th VGD unit if he need to. 

Edit: I've outlined the strength and health of the 82nd Airborne in the area. The 504th and 508th which are operating south of the river at Bertogne are in good shape although well below full strength apart from the 2-508th. However you don't want units at 700+ plus becuase it causes stacking problems. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Magerotte - Pratz



At magerotte I made the decision to hold my positions south of Magerotte and not withdraw any further. The circled line shows the wooded position I am holding. 
I use artillery against his 2nd SS half track BN and then use the 1-501st/2-327th to fire. He is in woods but has only minimum defenses 'trench' so casualties are high. The 3-104th and 745th Tank sit it out. I manage to disrupt the enemy unit. 

Artillery hits his 2nd SS recon unit and I manges to hit one of the units killing an armoured car and disrupt it.

East of Martelange I withhold fire from my adjacent infantry unit and hit his 212th VGD with a little artillery fire. (-10)

There is no action at Redanges. I redeploy my armour. 

With no real targets my artillery (7-8 Bn's) is forced to fire at his spotted artillery unit. Again he is not fully dug in, only Trench level -20%, so I knock out 9 guns.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Mersch



Last map. Its a bit high level with litle detail on it I'm afraid. 

The only action was for my tank units at Mersch to hit back at the 9th Pz motorised unit sitting in clear defenseless terrain. I inflicted a horrific 97 losses. 

5th Division pulls its artillery out and sends one Infantry Bn north towards Bissen. The rest of the Division sits tight and tries to recover and wait for dawn next turn. Hopefully I will get some air recon in the next few turns so I can monitor his moves, but I'm more than ready to begin bugging out both Divisions. I'm also still thinking of sending the depleted 9th Armoured here to recover and watch the river. 

No turn back from Cesar so far. I'll maybe try to do an overview of the situation.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – Overview of the north



Here is a quick map of the north. There has not been much changes here in the front line. Indragnir has more or less stopped any advances after taking Spa. And of course I haven't made any major advances or attacks.

Edit: map changed 10/6 to add in 5th FJD and Peiper.
Edit: ignore reference to 5th FJD its actually 3rd FJD...I'll fix this map later. 

I have however started applying small pressure to some areas of his line. At 1 and 2 I am applying slight pressure waiting until most of my Divisions in this area are recovered.

Areas 3 and 4 are areas I will try to apply pressure soon.

Area 5 was an opportunistic attack which would have been nice to follow up if I had planned it a bit better. 

Area 6 I am still looking at. It means going in against 2nd Pz but is an enticing axis for advance?

Thats it for tonight will post the south tomorrow.