Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Turn 80 –Night 10pm – Mersch



At Mersch I have only made a few moves.
 
(B) The 1-11th and 2-11th fell back onto the D/735th. Surprisingly there was no opp fire? The D/735th then went to T mode and ran away across the engineer bridge built by the 55th Engineers. Unfortunately as I predicted it was hit by opp fire and was disrupted. It lost 2 tanks (M5’s). However it had enough MP’s to allow it to get away.
The 1-11th (582 men) and 2-11th (613 men) are left to their fate. Hande hoch time. 

(A)  The 2-2nd (315 men), 3-10th (278 men) and 3/10 Cannon (3 guns) were taken off the map.

I moved the 5th Div artillery a hex as I want them to be out of sight before day breaks in case the visibility is 5 hexes.

And that was that. I did not move any other 5th Division units west as I wanted to take advantage of night to rest them. I also did not move any 10th Armoured units as the road is blocked by the 5th Division.....
 
Now in Indragnirs last email he said “the situation in the south is interesting”. This has made me think. What does this mean? What is he planning? I can see from the offensive he has launched with the 212th VGD that he seems to be trying to block the crossing north west of Redanges and put the 5th and 10th Armoured Divisions in a tricky position. Of course he might just be going for a ‘small solution’ and wants to gain possession of the wood hexes and force me back into clear terrain? Which ever one it is, I think it clearly suggests that he has reserves (79th VGD arrived on the map 22nd Dec 6am? 9th VGD arrived 24th Dec 6am?) on hand.

He also said in the email that “9th Panzer is free to move anywhere now”. But will it? Yes it can now instantly reverse its direction and go back to Ettelbruck/Diekirch and operate north of the Attert River but that will take it at least 2 turns and increase its fatigue. However with the 9th Pz division (40+ Panthers) I think he will easily be able to smash through to Attert town and effectively bottle up the 5th/10th..... if they are still down there.

What if he leaves 9th Pz Div here and waits on me stripping the 10th armoured and the 5th, then attacks over the Attert? He has 2 VGD’s here which probably have incurred low to moderate casualties, plus he probably has plenty of pioneers and lots of Corps/Army artillery. I think this is also a realistic possibility?

A few things to ponder. What should I do with the 5th and 10th and when should i start moving them?  The next allied reinforcements in the south (6th armoured Div/35th Infantry Div) are scheduled for 6am, 26th December which is almost 36 hours away. I can’t afford to waste any more units sitting in non active area. I need every unit on the front line or available in reserve.