To fulfill General Dawley's request to close the gap between the Sele-Calore Rivers, General Walker sent his divisional reserve to plug the hole. The 2nd Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment was deployed to cover the frontage with the company's HQ in the small village of Persano, two companies in reserve and G Company to the east. They failed to dig in properly and the defenses were not inspected. This lax behavior would soon be punished, as less than an hour after settling in, F Company reported hearing tank noises to the front and left. These Germans, which had defeated the 157th Regiment's 1st Battalion on the opposite bank, barreled into the American positions firing from halftracks and tanks.
Attacker: German (Kampfgruppe Kleine-Limburg, Panzergrenadier-Division 29)
Defender: American (3th Infantry Division, 189th and 158th Field Artillery Battalion, Battery B, 27th Armored Field Artillery, 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion and Company A, 751st Tank Battalion)
10 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Both Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:34.5 D:41.5
AFVs: A:32
PzKpfw IVH x 6 PSW 222 x 3 SPW 251/1 x 18 StuG 75/18(i) x 2 StuG 105/25(i) StuG IIIG x 2 Buessing-NAG x 3
AFVs: D:7
M4A1 x 2 M10 GMC x 2 M7 HMC x 3 2 1/2-Ton x 3 Jeep x 5
Guns: A:0
5cm leGrW 36 x 3
D:8
M1 57mm AT Gun x 3 M2A1 105mm Howitzer x 3 M3A1 37mm AT Gun x 2 M2 60mm Mortar x 6
Misc Rules:
D: on-board forces may set up Entrenched in suitable terrain
Right off the bat we both made two big mistakes. I tried to ram my way to the 44X1 building by charging straight ahead like a bull and paid the price badly to the tune of 3.5 lost squads, a Panther, two burned DCs, two stunned HTs, and a broken MA. I lost a further 2 squads during his part of the turn. I would've been much better off making directly for the grainfields to the north and/or the buildings to the south and consolidating for a future attack. For his part, John let me on almost completely unopposed in the west, allowing my motorcade of HTs to reach the safety of the wooded road en route to their mission of grabbing the SW village. Turn 2 saw one of my precious ACs recalled from a sniper hit, the only consolation being he had already busted his MA. The Americans lost two mortars to permanent malfs. My second motorcade also made for the SW village, but I sent a rogue Panther to try and glean out the OBA observer. When a BAZ shot dudded against him John got desperate and dropped the boom not only on it, but also himself. And so ended that threat, to my great joy. John will be the first to admit his phone was very poorly placed to begin with. Turn 3 saw my men who had been wading through the shallows across the island be joined by some of my second motorcade to entirely secure the HQ outpost, grabbing the first of what would be a plethora of POWs (the only chance the Germans have to win this). I lost my second HT to a big stun, and another to a MG shot (a constant nuisance throughout the game), but he lost another mortar and two BAZ. In the east my men were lining the hedgerow, waiting for their brethren in the west to get in position to begin the encirclement process, and I had almost entirely secured the SW village. Things were looking up, but he of course got his reinforcements; and thus would begin the 3-board LOS headache of constantly watching my flank. Turn 4 saw more Amis rounded up and me lose another two HTs (one to stun and one to knockout), but was otherwise fairly quiet as I prepared my forces for full-on assault. Turn 5 saw two Ami AT guns go down, another lost mortar, and the first German infantry casualty in three turns when a berserk HS was shot down by the sniper before he could even cause havoc. 44X1 finally fell, and the pincers were beginning to close on Board 16. Turn 6 saw another German HS lost, more Ami POWs rounded up, and Board 16 and 44 begin to be assailed in erneast. Turn 7 saw a gaggle of POWs taken as Board 16 was secured and the 44M3 area just about. Next was R7-S7-S8, which was now enshrouded in smoke and feeling some OBA love. Turn 8 was yet another beatdown for the Amis, but R7-S7-S8 was still holding tight, and the last house on the left was going to be a tough nut to crack in only one turn. One big complaint I have about this scenario is that, by the end, just about every single German infantry unit will be toting POWs, and they simply cannot spare a single one (let alone 5-6) to run them off the board. If just one of these manages to escape and re-arm they could grab a bunch of unprotected buildings. Anyway, I digress. Turn 9 saw me secure R7-S7-S8, but John had wisely been able to ring 40R1 with a wall of bodies. None of my options were good. If I smoked him in I'd have to drive through Ami defenders and face CC with two Ami squads and a 8-1; if I dropped OBA I'd not only have to hope it did the job, but also quite possibly have to weather it myself. After much consideration I decided for the latter, thinking if I got lucky enough to clear even a one hex path I might have enough to throw at it and have somebody survive. When OBA did almost nothing I threw in the towel. A bit of an anticlimactic finish since I foresaw this seven turns before when the Ami reinforcements hit the map. It was a fun experience, but neither of us would be in any hurry to play this one again. For John's part it just couldn't have been very fun being a pincushion for 8/10 turns; for my part it made my head hurt pushing around the scads of vehicles all game long (and then having to watch their backs). We played it in 32 hours, just slightly under the estimated play time. Not an exact count, but VP were roughly Ami=100 (about half south of the river), Ger=140 (about 100 POW).
2022-10-29
(D) John Garlic
vs
Brian Wiersma
German win
[Imported from ROAR]
2019-12-01
(A) Ron Garcia
vs
Darryl M.
German win
2019-03-17
(D) Ulric Schwela
vs
Lorenzo Marinaro
American win
Even giving the Germans the balance didn't make any difference, as the key difficulties for the Germans were American defensive FP as well as the American OBA blocking the northwestern approaches. The German had lost four of his best AFV by turn three, another three SPW had succumbed to MTR/MMG/BAZ fire, while infantry casualties were mounting fast. American casualties were limited to the AT Guns and a couple of green squads. One thing was clear: the German needs to move and move fast to capture those buildings, and can't go toe-to-toe with e.g. Americans in foxholes behind grain as they're too well protected and up close the Germans get whacked. It looked very difficult for the German.
