Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 75 Ferman -Stoumont 



At Stoumont, Peipers Panthers continue their stand off with my 34th Tank Bde. During the long range exchange (2 hexes) he hit and disrupted C Sqd 147th RAC.  The Sqd lost a VC Firefly bringing it down to 15 runners.

In total he fired 3 times (1 hit (D), fatigue, fatigue) and of course the 6 units of 34th Tank did not reply once. My artillery did fire twice and killed 2 pioneers stacked with the Panthers.

The 34th Bde on paper is a formidable force. The Firefly offensive stats are actually better than the 75mm Panther but as you would expect the Panther defensive strength is much much better than the Firefly. In fact the 12 defensive strength is pretty woeful. Good enough to take on 20+ Panthers in TRENCHES?

I’m a bit puzzled why US M4 mixed tank Bn’s have a better defensive strength? 20 versus 12? That’s a considerable difference? Anyonr know why? US M4/M4 76mm better than British M4's?

Just arriving from Stoumont you can see more VG units. Indragnir says that this is a Division he has been resting behind the front line???? Well I realise that he sometimes puts a bit of spin on his emails but this could be true. The 62nd VGD hasn’t been seen for a while so this could be it? So he is playing that well that he can afford to have a Division out of the line resting?????

At Chession the 5th Bn Duke of Cornwall was hit by werfers. The unit disrupted but recovered. Stiff upper lips or what. The 7th Bn Somersets were not so lucky. He spotted them digging and treated them to some artillery and they disrupted and didn’t recover. At Chession he brought up more Pioneers. They lost 6 to my tank fire. I looked at the stats for his Army level Pioneer units and they are 400 man C morale units so quite respectable.

The 31st Tank Bn came under long range 75mm and 88mm fire fronm his dug in guns but survived this turn without losing a tank. (I think they lost one last turn) My artillery did reply though.

And that was his turn in this area. He appears happy with his ground and it look like he is set to see the game out where he is. The 116th Pz Div’s armour is sitting somewhere just behind his dug in PAK line. So its the usual film palm wave....come and have a go............Marvellous!

If anyone can see any tactical moves I can make in this area feel free to chime in............I wish someone had told me not to bring the 5th Division onto the map. Even Indragnir now refers to this area as Stalag IV.