Miracles do happen!

[Jim von Krieg]

Fighting a defensive battle on the western front attempting to hold on to a French city against large Free French forces. Rows of Shermans and M10s are pushing me hard. Its becoming a close range fight where infantry rules the streets. I'm pinned down after failing to break through with my relief column which was overwhelmed by all those Shermans.

A lone Stug platoon moves out to engage some M10s and slink away, or so I envisioned. I misjudged the movement and my Stugs remain exposed unable to get back under cover. Well they won't last through the next turn because I don't have enough movement left to pull back.

Expecting to see them die under a hail of enemy fire, I open the turn. To my amazement, round after round does no damage. Even after getting shot by a nearby engineer in addition to all the tank destroyers, my Stugs are only disrupted.

Well it's my turn and they beat feet for the safety of friendly lines. I need what's left of my armor to make my foes liberation of this city a Pyrrhic victory at best.

[Warhorse]

Kick-ass!!!

[Jim von Krieg]

For this battle, the scenario is Die Befreiung von Marseille and I was so sure I was going to get stomped. Especially after my armored relief force was overwhelmed. Lots of Shermans, 76 Shermans, and M10s zipping across the battlefield. My infantry heavy force has little ability to maneuver quickly.

Yet, I have a solid layered defense in the city with multiple pillboxes and trenches along the approaches. I've occupied those positions which I think can slow the enemy advance and attrit his forces. On the city perimeter, I have a string of manned defenses with several company strength infantry formations waiting to be thrown into the battle once I identify where he's going to enter the city.

I have some units defending VP hexes away from the city, but I'm positive than their only chance is to run like hell to the defense of the city. I'm correct in that observation, but only a lucky few get away.

From the northeast, I identify a fast moving formation of scout cars, light tanks, and infantry as they move towards Marseilles. Once they hit the outer perimeter of the city, I pinned them down and then pummeled them with artillery as they attempted to enter the city from the march. As the situation develops, his forces skirt to the southeast just outside of range. His forces assemble and attempt to push along the beach into the southeast portion of the city. Artillery, AT guns, and MG fire break up the attack.

Along the northwest approach to the city, its a little tougher as a much larger infantry attack with supporting armor and tank destroyers develops. My opponent bypassed the pill boxes up there and drove into the western suburbs of Marseilles. Well, so much for wearing him down in the fight for the pillboxes. He ran into them, then skirted away to get into the city.

Yet, his bypassing those positions would hurt him further into the battle as they had the approaches covered with MG fire and valuable LOS for artillery spotting. His infantry push ran head long into my dug-in infantry which mowed them down and called for fire. Its turning into an Allied bloodbath, as the enemy infantry attempts to approach my main line of resistance. They are getting pinned in the open and shot in the back with MG fire with artillery falling all around them. This is near where my Stugs were caught in the open as the M10s zoomed through the open ground to support the infantry attack. Luckily for me, I was getting disables from arty, kills from infantry up close, as well as kills from shoot and scoot Stugs.

In the M10's wake is another column of infantry/engineers moving along the outer perimeter from the northeast to the northwest. They appear to be attempting to concentrate on a single point of attack, but are not quite in synch. I push some of my infantry and MGs out a little further to cover this avenue of approach, then lay down very heavy artillery barrages. My infantry I pushed out is behind a few minefields, but with good LOS the MGs and steel rain break up the attack. I think I've broken the back of this column as the MG fire and artillery have them running away in the direction they came from with very heavy casualties.

Just to the left of his push into the city, his Shermans have a solid line in the outer buildings along the beach and are blasting what they can see across the open ground. They drove my MG and mortar team out of there. Yet, when the Shermans attempt to move deeper into the city, my infantry is reducing their strength. These German platoons are real tank killers. His tanks slink back to get out of range of my infantry.

In addition, my Stugs and JagdPzr38s are slowly whittling away at the Shermans that are blasting away at my infantry and like ghosts pull back deeper into the city to preserve their strength. After my relief column was slaughtered, I have to take care with just how I hazard my most valuable mobile reserve. I use them to slowly bleed his Shermans. So far, it seems to be working.

If my opponent had pushed quickly in a southerly direction once he entered the city, it could have been a disaster as he was very close to flanking my defensive line which at that point wasn't anchored very well. I saw his push coming and quick marched troops into position to create a block. They arrived just ahead of his first pushes deeper into the city. For now, he's hit a brick wall.

At this point in the fight (I think about 17 of 25 turns, but I could be off a turn or two), I sense his attack is exhausting itself. Most of his infantry is significantly reduced and driven off. In addition, each turn leaves more of his armor burning. I'm bleeding, but the exchange rate seems to be substantially favoring me at this point. Of course, I have little clue as to what he has left so there just may be more out there I haven't seen yet.

I have this slight bit of optimism that my troops are winning, but I think that is just about when the trap door opens and I fall to my doom. A lot of my soft vehicles and artillery are bottled up in the city and if any of my defensive lines rupture it could turn ugly real fast with all the easy pickings having nowhere to run.

My last order is defend at any cost. No retreat authorized.

[Warhorse]

Nice DAR, Jim, I enjoyed the read, it was kind of like watching a movie!