Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

German Turn 49 southern front



Well nothing happened here. The 317th at Chaumont were not cut off by the 5th FJD Bn that I discovered last turn, and he has made no attacks in the far south at Brouch.

I'm quite happy to have a 'quid pro quo' approach at Brouch. If he makes no attacks on me here then I will reciprocate. I'm not a fan of advancing a spotter unit to bring down a shed load of artillery then skipping it back. So if he doesn't do it to me, I won't do it to him.

I had a quick strategy rethink here. The 26th Division has arrived and its subordinated to III Corps. What to do with it. Its a fresh unit and well up to strength with average Battalion strength of 765. BUT its D Morale. (its TD Bn and Tank Bn are C) In MUD it cost 25MP to move along secondary roads. A D rated Motorised Battalion has 64 MP's......so they will get 2 hexes a turn at best.

So if I choose Option B and insert them in north of the Alzette River and aim them east, they will take a long time to get there and won't be a stellar attacking force. Using them to replace the well trained 4th Armoured is another option BUT it will take probably even longer to get them there. In the meantime 80th Division could begin a drive east from Chaumont and possibly also from Martelange?

Option A could be to send 26th north using the main roads to replace 80th and bring the 317th/318th down to concentrate and drive along the Martelange - Grevils road. The 80th is a C rated unit and probably suited for this plus its a good axis of attack. I'm kind of leaning towards this.

Option A is a bit convoluted and I'd really just go for Option B but secondary roads are treacle and its going to take for ever to get this Division anywhere near Redanges or Bekerich. Now if I had been given the option of bringing the 26th Division onto the map along the Attert road, then this would have made it an easy choice.