Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 47 US north



I have continued my withdrawal into the Hoes Venn. The 535th leads a charmed life so I withdrew it north to block the road. I’ve also moved the 1-394th so its ZOC blocks the road hex which is also Swamp so he won’t be able to leave T mode. Michael has shown no interest in exploiting up here.

I have 3 Regimental HQ’s and a FA Bn trapped in Marsh hexes so I will try defend this area. The 23rd/38th belong to 2nd Division and the 39th is a 9th Division HQ. The Divisional HQ for the 9th is not on the map at the moment? I’m not 100% sure if it appears?

At Sourbrodt I continue to juggle forces.

The 3-9th (30 men) are pulled back.
The 3-18th (fresh 750 man unit) edges closer to the battlefield and swaps places with 3-26th.
The 2-16th moves up to support the 2-18th.
The 1st/2nd Combat Engineers are pulled back. The 1st are in a Marsh hex which is not a great area to defend. The 62nd FA Bn (M7 Priests) are stuck here. However if Michael moves forward he will be in Clear (Improved +10%) so I was happy to defend back here rather than stay put.

The 1-26th is recovering well and will be ready for use soon. The problem will be finding space to deploy it. This is a terrible area to defend now that the Mud has turned the Clear terrain to Marsh, and I am watching stacking limits to ensure that I can retreat if I lose any assaults.

If things get too hot I will pull back to the yellow line marked and use the Marsh for defense. Unfortunatley I have yet another stuck HQ (9th of 2nd Division) which would be vulnerable.

Lastly some good news. The 703th TD Bn (33xM36’s) shot up the adjacent Assault guns of 3rd PGD. I then used the M4’s of the 745th Tank Bn against his infantry. He has another group advancing up the road from Sourbrodt though.