Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 71 Allied 10pm Night (Mud) – Warnach (Little Bighorn)




The call went out to the 28th Cav Sqdn to attempt to rescue its sister squadron the 6th which was cut off and partially surrounded 2 miles north of them. The 1-317th (80th Div) and elements of the 3-112th (28th Div) were also cut off along with the 318th Regimental HQ.  Despite the atrocious ground condition and the fatigue of the unit (122), the unit struggled the 2 miles distance and arrived in good order at the perimeter.

The break out code was issued and the survivors started to withdraw. The 3-112th drew the short straw and was left to hold the ground. Despite losing 380 men (85 casualties) the unit had a fatigue level of 56?? With hindsight this was a poor command decision by the allies.

The withdrawal was too much for the 318th HQ and they disrupted due to night conditions. All seem to be going well............until flanking fire from the area of the 15th Panzer Grenadiers broke out! Cunningly they had held their fire and waited for the rescuing unit to show itself. The 28th lost two Greyhounds in quick order and became disrupted!!!

NUTS!!!!!!!!! Thank you AI for targeting the one unit I didn’t want to be hit! I guess I should have tried to draw the 15th Pz Gr’s fire but I had no units available for this. Well I did move A company of the 1-110th up adjacent to the enemy Panzer Grenadiers across the river, but thankfully for this unit no fire was triggered. (The other two elements of this Battalion were destroyed on the 1st day)

Panic in the allied High Command was now setting in. Should I move the 101st Combat Engineers in? No. It’s a D morale unit and will disrupt when moved, or possibly trigger fire and disrupt. What about B company 103rd Engineers who are C morale.  Mmmh a bit pointless moving them plus I need them where they are.
So in the end I left things as they were and decided to move a unit in behind the disrupted group as a ‘backstop’ to allow them to retreat. (something that would have saved me last turn) So I detached a company from the 1-104th and moved it up tactically.......and it disrupted! If I had used T mode it would have not been affected by night disruption......but it would not have had enough MP’s to come out of T mode.

And that was that. I did pull back the 2-318th which was already disrupted and moved the 610th TD away as it was about to be used for target practice by his armour.

I moved the 158th Engineers over the stream hoping they would stay undisrupted, but they didn’t. It shows he has the 15th Pz Grenadier Divisions recon unit in Hollange. Not sure if he will go for the assault which will be an automatic winner, or stay in the safety of the village with his armoured cars. Possibly he may use the 2nd SS infantry?

North of Hollange the 2-501st/2-328th/1=318th (3 different Divisions) fired at the 2nd SS unit earning some return fire but hopefully wearing it down. The 2-501st will have to pull back next turn.
The only fresh units arriving is the 2-112th at Witry. This has recovered enough and is a decent C morale unit.



So the rescue attempt at Little Bighorn will go another week......but I can’t see any happy endings looking at the situation above..


 
Last thoughts. Looking at the situation I see that I could have played this better. Much better.

After moving the 1-110th and pulling out the trapped troops, I should have pulled back 1-317th/103rd Eng south east and also the 101st CE south. 

This would have left him with only one assault option plus still kept a retreat path for anything that survived the assault..........rats too late.