Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

Lets finish the AAR by looking at the final positions of the German forces. I’ll start with the 7th Army. The map is a bit 'busy' I'm afraid as I've added as much information as possible.

Cesar has done a fine job. The 7th Army stretches from Warnach to Lintgen and on paper appears to be in a reasonably condition. The Divisions of 7th Army appear almost in the same order as their starting positions of the 16th December, except that he has brought across the 212th VGD to a more central position and of course the Panzer Lehr from 5th Pz Army has been added to its OOB. The addition of Lehr was a decision made by Michael early on in the game and Cesar has decided to keep it here in support. The movement of the 212th VGD I think was an opportunistic move he made to move a good B quality unity from a strictly defensive position in the Mersch area to an area where it could be used offensively and exploit possible US weaknesses.

Interestingly most of his units are subordinated to one Corp HQ, the LXXXV Corps. LXXX Corps has no units subordinated LIII has only the Fuhrer Grenadier Bde subordinated.

9th Panzer division appears to be on the move? North? Its subordinated to XLVII Pz Corps of 5th Pz Army. Cesar must have set this up on the midnight turn a few turns ago.  This possibly means he was sending it north towards Bastogne or he was going to move it up behind the right wing of 7th Army (Grevils area) where it would be within range of XXLVII Pz Corps but still available for 7th Army? Who knows? Well Cesar I guess?

The position of 79th VGD and 9th VGD is finally revealed. The 79th is in a reserve position just by Pratz. Fatigue is in the 50 range so they possibly have just arrived there recently. 

The 9th looks to be moving up on Menningen. Fatigue is in the 20 range and they are in T mode so it looks like they have just arrived on map and are moving up.

I’ll look closer at the condition of Cesars Divisions when I do a close up map.

In the map I’ve added a screen shot of German 7th Army strength 16th Dec and its strength on 25th Dec. Its not easy to check strengths as the PzC strength report seems to take reinforcing units into consideration when showing totals for Corps and Armies.

For example on 25th December I can see that AOK 7th Armee has 33,256 men 875 guns, 170 vehicles. But I know 340th VGD (3,590 men 69 guns, 9 vehicles) has not arrived so I can deduct their strength. The reinforcement schedule doesn’t show any Corps or Army units arriving so I think that the 340th VGD are the only deductions.

However the 16th December position looks a bit more difficult to unravel. It shows 39,993 men, 1109 guns, 334 vehicles. But that includes LIII Corps which has yet to arrive (which interestingly includes 15th PzGD which went to 5th Pz Army) and the 340th/79th VGD’s. It also probably shows Army and Corps units which have yet to arrive but I’m not going to check the reinforcement schedule.

So below shows my rough comparison based on the PzC strength reports.  9th PzD is included in the 25th Dec total as its still in 7th Armys area just now.




I'll do a close up of 7th Army units now.