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[Plain Ian]

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



A map showing the central area and my reserves moving up. 

2nd US Armoured has transferred to VII Corps and is halted and waiting on the ponderous Allied High Command....me...making up its mind where to commit it. 

Just past Namur and racing towards Ciney the British Guards are moving up to the front under the command of XXX Corps. They accidentally halted at 10 pm last night when someone forgot to move them. However this has kept them relatively fresh and they enjoyed the brew up.

We looked at the OOB or TOE of the 2nd Armoured a few turns ago so I've displayed the British Guards this turn. As you can see they are a formidable unit. Most of its fighting elements are B quality except for its artillery and Divisional Engineers which are C quality. Strangely enough the Divisional HQ is C quality although its Bde HQ's are B's.

The Division is well equiped with tanks. 48 Fireflies, 87 Sherman V's and 53 Cromwell IV's in 4 Battalion sized units . (Regiments in British terminology)
The 21st AT Rgt has 24 towed 17 pdrs and 24 M10's armed with 17 pdrs. 
The Artillery is in two Regiments. 24 towed 25 pdrs and 24 self propelled 25 pdrs. (Sextons)
lastly the unit has 3 excellent Guards infantry units all up to full establishment with 600 men each. 

Now all I have to do is to decide what to do with all of this......ummmm.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 81 Allied – Night 2am 25th Dec Snow – the south



The situation in the south. No plans for any attacks here until my main reinforcements arrive here. 

The US 35th Div and US 6th Armoured are due 06:00 26th December (90% chance of being on time) on the southern map edge south west of St Hubert. The quickest way to the front looks to be the main road through St Hubert. 

Cesar has halted the 212th VGD attacks for now but the Pz Lehr is still here (30 Panthers?)  and 5th FJD should have recovered fatigue a bit. 5th FJD starts off a large 9 Battalion unit each 700 men strong. Mostly C quality but one Regiment is B. He has suffered attrition but its still a unit to be wary of.

As he also hinted there could be up to 3 fresh VGD units (9th/79th/167th) available for use in this area as well. The 167th is a reasonable C quality unit but the 79th is a D/E inferior unit. I haven’t checked the 9th VGD.

At Mersch we have a cat and mouse situation. If I pull out 5th and 10th he can do the same with 9th Pz and whatever VGD unit he wants. We both shorten the front and free up reserves. Or he can leave them here anticipating me pulling them out and come across the river. Thats maybe a bit unlikely but who knows?

I’ve shown current strengths of my Armoured Divisions. The 4th Armoured is the best equipped at the moment with most of its tank battalions still at 40+ strength. In the 10th Armoured the average strength is around about 30+.

The 9th is a shadow of its former self. It deceptively shows the Division as having 111 vehicles. However that includes 7 x M5’s 10 x Armoured cars 8 x M18’s and 26 x M7 Priests.  Its infantry units however have still some strength left although the fatigue of the 60th/52nd is still 100+. The 27th is down to fatigue 51 but its taken several days to get there. I think it was Broken or Max fatigued early on and has spent a long time in the rear recovering. It almost ready for the front line again but since its D quality then its really just a temporary gap filler. 

(I checked my old files and on the 21st December the 27th was recovering at Recogne with fatigue 230 and 638 men. On the 20th it was fighting at Longchamps near Bastogne against 2nd Panzer with 629 men and fatigue 289)

[Plain Ian]

I've just received an email from Cesar. Unfortunately he has just had eye surgery. It sounds quite major as it involved his retina. It means he is now restricted in using PC's and viewing bright screens. This means he will have to stop our game. 

I'd like to thank Cesar for taking up the challenge and keeping the game going when Michael had to drop out as well. He has been a superb German player. I actually think he has been playing in 2nd gear and could have changed up to 3rd gear and given me a roasting if he wanted to. 

So at the moment the game is halted. I'm not sure if there is another player out there that wants to take up the German player position? Its probably not wise to put a new German player into the game at this stage if he has been following this AAR. He will have a pretty detailed view of of the allied situation. Of course I always paint a good picture of the German position. If his situation is not as good as I think it is, then even if he knows my current set up it will not help him much? However Cesar is a pretty seasoned player so he probably has left it in a good position?

So keep going oris it time to pull the curtain back and look at that German set up?

Ian

[Plain Ian]

Lets finish the AAR by looking at the final positions of the German forces. I’ll start with the 7th Army. The map is a bit 'busy' I'm afraid as I've added as much information as possible.

Cesar has done a fine job. The 7th Army stretches from Warnach to Lintgen and on paper appears to be in a reasonably condition. The Divisions of 7th Army appear almost in the same order as their starting positions of the 16th December, except that he has brought across the 212th VGD to a more central position and of course the Panzer Lehr from 5th Pz Army has been added to its OOB. The addition of Lehr was a decision made by Michael early on in the game and Cesar has decided to keep it here in support. The movement of the 212th VGD I think was an opportunistic move he made to move a good B quality unity from a strictly defensive position in the Mersch area to an area where it could be used offensively and exploit possible US weaknesses.

Interestingly most of his units are subordinated to one Corp HQ, the LXXXV Corps. LXXX Corps has no units subordinated LIII has only the Fuhrer Grenadier Bde subordinated.

9th Panzer division appears to be on the move? North? Its subordinated to XLVII Pz Corps of 5th Pz Army. Cesar must have set this up on the midnight turn a few turns ago.  This possibly means he was sending it north towards Bastogne or he was going to move it up behind the right wing of 7th Army (Grevils area) where it would be within range of XXLVII Pz Corps but still available for 7th Army? Who knows? Well Cesar I guess?

The position of 79th VGD and 9th VGD is finally revealed. The 79th is in a reserve position just by Pratz. Fatigue is in the 50 range so they possibly have just arrived there recently. 

The 9th looks to be moving up on Menningen. Fatigue is in the 20 range and they are in T mode so it looks like they have just arrived on map and are moving up.

I’ll look closer at the condition of Cesars Divisions when I do a close up map.

In the map I’ve added a screen shot of German 7th Army strength 16th Dec and its strength on 25th Dec. Its not easy to check strengths as the PzC strength report seems to take reinforcing units into consideration when showing totals for Corps and Armies.

For example on 25th December I can see that AOK 7th Armee has 33,256 men 875 guns, 170 vehicles. But I know 340th VGD (3,590 men 69 guns, 9 vehicles) has not arrived so I can deduct their strength. The reinforcement schedule doesn’t show any Corps or Army units arriving so I think that the 340th VGD are the only deductions.

However the 16th December position looks a bit more difficult to unravel. It shows 39,993 men, 1109 guns, 334 vehicles. But that includes LIII Corps which has yet to arrive (which interestingly includes 15th PzGD which went to 5th Pz Army) and the 340th/79th VGD’s. It also probably shows Army and Corps units which have yet to arrive but I’m not going to check the reinforcement schedule.

So below shows my rough comparison based on the PzC strength reports.  9th PzD is included in the 25th Dec total as its still in 7th Armys area just now.




I'll do a close up of 7th Army units now.

[Plain Ian]

7th Army – south/east

Here are the most southern units of the 7th Army.

Festung Bn 999 – started off in Pillboxes on the Sauer River but has been used for front line duties during the advance. Two companies are still more or less up to full strength (105 men) but two are Broken and have about 60 men between them. 2./Fest Bn 999 is actually cut off.

MG Bn 44 – was very active during the initially push. It started off with 400 men but is down to 216. Still a useful unit though with 12/2 soft attack factors....once it recovers.

276th VGD – has taken less casualties than the 352nd VGD but it started off at a lower strength than the 352nd. Its Bn’s start with an average strength of 542 men on the 16th.  Therefore its current strength is now comparable to the 352nd’s. The majority of its losses have come from I/GR 986 which is off map at Pratz. This was sacrificed to protect the 5th FJD. The 276th Pioneer Bn appears to have spent its war bridge building at Bollendorf.
Despite the fierce fighting and assaults against the US 5th Division the 276th appears to be in reasonable condition in terms of fatigue and numbers. It is however a poor quality unit. 50% of its units are E which means that when they Disrupt or take moderate fatigue they quickly fall to F or worse.  

352nd VGD – has suffered over a 1,000 casualties. Fairly evenly spread out over its 7 main fighting Battalions. (Battalion strength was 622 men on 16th, although FEB 352 was 580 and the Pioneer Bn 442)  It did have an assault gun unit attached but these have been destroyed along with a significant portion of its 75mm ATG’s. Its artillery is intact and doesn’t appear to have suffered counter battery fire. (The 276th appears to be 4 down?)

Looking at the situation it would appear that Cesar had things in hand. Despite the obvious problem he has in keeping them in good order and undisrupted, the two Divisions teamed together were enough to deter me advancing with the 5th Division. Not that I considered this. Even if I had planned things properly and had made sure I had an engineer in place before I brought 5th Division onto the map I was aware that 9th Panzer was available.

[Plain Ian]

7th Army – centre and right wing

Fuhrer Grenadier Bde – this unit arrived at Surre and contributed in the push to Warnach. Its been lightly engaged so has had few casualties. I think he has lost several armoured cars and Marders at best. The I/PzGR 99 is at 95% (526 men) and the II/PzGR 99 is still 100% with 540 men.
Interestingly the II/PzGR 99 seems to be in a detached reserve position near Grevils. The rest of the Brigade is static at Warnach watching the crossings at Martelnge. It has 24 Panthers, 8 Pz Kw IV’s and 17 StuG III’s to do this.
 
212th VGD – has fought a long 10 day campaign from Echternach-Consdorf-Mersch-Bouch then ended up being deployed at Pratz. Its suffered over 1,100 casualties, most of them I suspect in the bloody battles of the 24th at Pratz. The Division is a good quality unit and its Battalions start on the 16th at 95% of TOE. (612 men)  As you can see most of them are now below 500 with one or two exceptions and the Diviison is requiring some rest. I am not quite sure why Cesar persisted in the battles of the 24th, however perhaps the answer lies in the condition of the Pz Lehr and 5th FJD?

5th FJD – has suffered almost 1,400 casualties. Its battalions were 700 strong on the 17th (82% of full TOE 850 men) and now most of them average 500. Interestingly the Pioneer Bn has actually gained strength so it must have been sitting idle in the rear for most of the campaign. This probably explains the NO BRIDGE status of the unit. However in terms of fatigue the 5th appears to be in good condition. It was never fully committed on the 24th but had been engaged extensively the few days prior to that. Cesar has probably been resting it behind the 212th.
The I/FJR 14 and III/FJR 14 were detached fighting further north. (Michael) Cesar has finally reunited the Division.

Panzer Lehr – I’m surprised to see how bad things are. Cesar did mention that because Michael operated it as companies then he had a lot of work to re unite them and lower the fatigue.
To save space on the map I’ve put the unit opening and current strength on a separate chart. As you can see his tank strength is down to 16 Panthers, 10 Pz Kw IV’s and 9 StuG III’s. His infantry are mere shells of their starting strength and badly needing more resting.
 


However the Lehr Werfer Regiment is still potent having 80% of its guns still active despite my best counter battery efforts. In fact there are 3 more Werfer Regiments in this area. (2nd/21st/22nd) adding in another 100 tubes.

7th Army has 3 heavy artillery battalions with 23 pieces plus two Volks Artillery Bdes (406th/408th) with another 106 pieces. (plus the artillery of 3 Divison’s 5th/212th/Pz Lehr) Not that impressive really when I compare that to US V/VII Corps artillery attachments in the far north, but considering my US VIII/XIII Corps had only 3 Bn’s (43 pieces) in the south supporting in this area then it was pretty overwhelming.

[Crossroads]

Thank you Ian, Cesar, Michael! It has been a privilege reading this fine DAR

[Plain Ian]

So lets look at 5th Panzer Army next. Here is the left wing on Dawn 25th December 6am  which covers the area from Hotte to Compogne. Its Turn 82.  XLVII Pz Korps has a formidable force assigned to it. 


 
It has 3 Panzer Divisions (Fuhrer Begleit is effectively a Panzer Division), an SS Panzer Division, 2 Motorised Divisions and a Volks Grenadier Division. (the 26th VGD is a B rated unit) The 9th Panzer is off to the south at the moment in the 7th Armyarea.  To compensate for this  Cesar has the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division as a reserve at Bastogne. The 3rd Pz GD is still assigned to 1st SS Pz Korps 6th SS Army?  Corps attachments were set up last turn so I can only assume that 3rd Pz GD is marking time here until 9th Panzer arrives?
2nd Panzer is not shown on the map. Its actually off map to the north. We will look at that next.
So lets look at the units from south to north.

2nd SS Pz Div.

It arrived on the map subordinated to II SS Korps/6th SS Army but it has been sent to the 5th Panzer area. I think I first bumped into an advance unit of it (Recce)  on the 21st in the Hotte area but Cesar concentrated the unit on the Hompre-Hollange area by the 22nd. It effectively allowed the Fuhrer Begleit to redeploy and withdraw north. Once deloyed the 2nd SS easily pushed the 26th US Division south and west in the battles of Hollange and Warnach. After that operation it has been shifted north and is now pushing north west on Magerotte. These operations I guess are to designed to weaken US forces and take control of terrain for future defense.

The 2nd SS has lost 1,400 men from its original arrival strength on the 20th December. Its 7 manoeuvre units (including the Pioneer Bn) are averaging roughly 600 men . (They start at 750 men on the 20th) 

I’m amazed to see the Diviison has lost 108 vehicles?  Pz Aufkl Bn 2 has lost 36 armoured cars which I understand as I did hit this quite a few times. I also managed to inflict damage on his Pz IV’s/StuG III/JagdPz IV’s so I understand his losses in II/SS Pz Rgt 2 and SS Pz Jag Bn 2.

What I am surprised to see is that I/SS Pz Rgt 2 has gone down from 58 Panthers on the 20th Dec to 41 runners on the 25th Dec? I’m pretty sure I have killed no Panthers during my turns but he possibly has lost 3-4 during his assaults. I can only assume that he has lost at least 12 to breakdowns???  So I guess that tank breakdowns does work in this game after all????

15th Pz Gr Div


Arrived at the front late on the 23rd and was involved in heavy night fighting into the 24th. The 104th Gr Rgt was detached to to relieve the 26th VGD at Bertogne/Compogne. The rest of the Diviiaon fought with the 2nd SS in the Chaumont/Hollange area.

The Division is in a reasonable condition in terms of fatigue. Its armour has suffered some losses and its infantry has lost almost 600 men or about 17% of its starting strength. Despite fairly heavy fighting at Compogne the 104th Pz G Rgt seems to have recovered and its 3 Battalions average about 60 losses each. The 115th Pz G Rgt  has taken heavier losses in the attacks at Chaumont however its battalions do start the campaign slightly lower than the 104th.
26th VGD

This unit led the advance to Bastogne along with the 2nd Panzer Division.  Its units reached Longvilly and Bras just as night was falling on the 18th. On the 19th it pushed the US 28th Division out of Longwilly and helped 2nd Panzer secure Magaret and the outskirts of Bastogne. By nightfall on the 19th the Germans had Bastogne. Since then the Division has spent the last six days in the Longchamps-Bertogne area. It currently requires urgent rest. 5 of its Battalions are medium/high fatigued with only 1 battalion and the Fusileer Bn rested. Its StuG Ko has lost 10 JagdPz 38t’s (Hetzers?) and is down to 4 runners.
 
3rd Pz Gr Div


I think this unit is here as a reserve to replace the 26th VGD if required whilst 9th Panzer arrives. This unit was heavily engaged in the Hoes Venn under 6th SS Army (Robertville-Sourbrodt 20th Dec) and I think has spent quite a few days recovering in reserve. The Division arrived on map understrength with each Battalion at 300 men. The 3 Battalions of PzGRgt 39 are now averaging 240 men which is about 40%. PZ GRgt 8 is at 60% with most Battalions now well over 300+. So Pz GRgt 8 probably was not committed. However the armour took a severe beating losing all its PzIV’s (PzAbt 103) and all but 4 of its Jagdpanzer IV’s. (Pz Jag Bn 3)

Fuhrer Begleit Bde


Just about forgot this unit. Its fought well since it arrived south of Bastogne and caused me lots of problems at Magerotte and Flamierge. Its in fairly good condition apart from Grenadier Bn 828 which is wrecked after fighting 3 US Paratroop Bns. Its armour is depleted though. Magerotte took its toll.

2nd Panzer Div is just off map to the north I’ll look at that next.

[Plain Ian]

2nd Panzer at last -



2nd Panzer led the way in the early days of the campaign. From Clervaux to Bastogne, then on to Bertogne. 

Clervaux was defended and required assaults to clear, but Bastogne was taken after a token fight. The advanced elements of the 101st had raced to the town and did their best to slow down the advance. But the best they could do was to cover the retreat of the battered 28th Divison and CCB and CCR of 9th Armoured. US defenses then withdrew to Flamierge.

After Bastogne 2nd Panzer was shifted north to the Bertogne against my arriving 82nd Airborne and the Fuhrer Begleit took its place at Flamierge. However the Division was then shifted north of Houffalize. Its infantry was sent to Nadrin to halt my probes by 82nd and its armour was sent to the Samree area to bolster 9th SS.

Both of these sectors have been pretty quiet so on the 25th of December we see 2nd Panzer is reasonably refreshed in terms of fatigue and reasonably well paced in defense. 



I/Pz Regt 3 (Panthers) has been pulled out from Samree and is sitting in a reserve position north of Houffalize. The Battalion has lost an amazing 28 Panthers??? I’m a bit amazed to see this.....again..... as I genuinely can’t recall too many occasions I scored against his Panthers (at Donnange  west Of Clervaux my Tank Destroyers did manage a few hits in an ambush) so most of these are due to breakdowns and German assaults.  

As you can see above the campaign has taken its toll of 2nd Panzer armour in general. II/Pz Rgt 3 (Pz IV) and  Pz Jag Bn 38 (StuG IIIg) are both down to 50% and his Aufklarungs unit has been vaporised.

The infantry are a shell of their former strength on the 16th, apart from the Pioneer Bn. However they are A rated and would have put up a stiff fight. However if I had sent 2nd US Armoured here then I think it would have been 2nd Armoured versus 36 Panthers.

Now that I see Cesars defences and look at my forces I can see that I’ve played this game too timidly.

[Plain Ian]

5th Panzer Army - continued



So here is the rest of 5th Panzer Army on the 25th December. 



XXXIX Pz Korps HQ with 167th VGD under command has arrived but it is is back at Eisdorf and will take 1-2 days to arrive on the front.

LVIII Pz Korps HQ appears to be in reserve in the Cheneux region with no units currently under command.

LXVI Army Korps HQ is just south of Rarmont and commands 2 Panzer Divisions and 3 VG Divisions. Its  area of operation stretches from Samree in the south to the Stoumont area. As you can see its a sea of green fatigue levels for most of his units apart from three areas on the map.

At Samree the 9th SS has been involved in heavy fighting over the past day or so.
Similarly at Chession a small group of Pioneers has been causing me grief but have suffered. I think Cesar did not have any regular units to fill this gap so used Pioneers.
North of the river in the Stoumont area the 62nd VGD was brought forward 23rd/24th and has been involved in battles with the British 34th Tank Bde.

Apart from that this sectorin general has been pretty quiet which is why most of his units have low fatigue. US defenses in the area for the most part were the depleted 7th Armoured and the poor quaklity 43rd Wessex Division. At Manhay the 84th Division ( agood quality unit) battled the 9th SS until some support arrived from the 75th Division.

I will run through Cesars Divisions.



18th VGD
After the opening battles of the 16th I can see from the files that this Division was at Vielsalm on the night of the 19th. From there it must have progressed to the Bra area and became involved in the battles all along this front. The fighting at Bra was probably the fiercest area at one point.
In terms of losses the Division the Division has done well despite losing 700+ men its fighting battalions are still well over 70% strength.

62nd VGD
This Division was heavily involved in fighting at Franchochamps and Spa and Cesar had to withdraw it and rest it. It reappeared again in the Stoumont area to relieve a Panther unit (I/SS Pz Rgt 1 of KG Peiper) with 15 tanks was holding off 100+ tanks from 34th tank Bde. Since then it has suffered  further losses and its total losses in men is approaching 1,000. A few units are moderately fatigued (I/GR 164 and II/GR 183) but most of its manoeuvre units are still over 70% strength.

560th VGD
On the night of the 19th this unit had passed Salmchateau and had a Battalion in Baraque de Fraiture and an A/T unit just 2 hexes away from Odeigne. (I/AR 1560) Apart from the Fuhrer Begleit Bde to the south at Bastogne these units were the furthest west units in the Army Group. At this point the Division only had 4 Battalions as GR 1129 had still to arrive. (which it finally has done as you can see from the map that they have reached Salmchateau, both Battalions are full strength at 642 men each) The Division was involved in the fighting at Bra and Manhay but casualties have been lighter than its fellow VGD’s in this area.



116th Pz Div
This has been the main work  horse. Pushing the advance to Vielsalm then pushing in two prongs. One west to Liernieux, but the main one was looping north to Trois Ponts and then Basse Bodeaux. Both were focused on Rarmont. However the Division has suffered steady losses especially in armour. It still retains 26 Panthers and Cesar has the armour grouped on the main road north west of Rarmont and its infantry spread out to bolster the 3 VGD units in the area.



9th SS Pz Div
Arrived late to the party but that is mainly due to the fact that in this scenario the Panzer Grenadier units are treated as Foot units ie non motorised...so have had to walk all the way from the map edge? Cesar has said that this is wrong historically and I’ll accept his word about this as he has done a lot of research into this battle. However I am quite glad that 6 x 750 men C quality Battalions didn’t arrive any quicker to the battlefield or else he would have taken La Roche by now. Despite walking to the battlefield and some fierce fighting at Samree/Baraque the infantry are in reasonable condition in terms of strength although two Battalions at Samree clearly need to be relieved.

The 9th SS start the campaign with a reasonably well stocked Panzer Rgt and this has been maintained. I see that he has lost 30 tanks from his starting strength including 10 Panthers? I can only assume that he must have lost at least 1 a turn whilst in T mode moving up to the front as I haven’t killed 10 Panthers.

I guess Cesars defences look pretty good although I never really tested them nor planned any major attacks in this area. I did make attacks in the Samree area and at Chession but these were opportunistic or local. I did bring the 43rd Wessex Division to this sector with an idea to attack but I realised pretty quickly that this Division wasn’t going to ‘cut the mustard’ against the 116th. So its been a quiet sector for me and I was happy to maintain this. 

Looking at the map and with hindsight the Manhay area does look like an inviting avenue to attack from.

Comments are welcome.

I'll start posting 6th SS panzer army soon.