Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

7th Army – south/east

Here are the most southern units of the 7th Army.

Festung Bn 999 – started off in Pillboxes on the Sauer River but has been used for front line duties during the advance. Two companies are still more or less up to full strength (105 men) but two are Broken and have about 60 men between them. 2./Fest Bn 999 is actually cut off.

MG Bn 44 – was very active during the initially push. It started off with 400 men but is down to 216. Still a useful unit though with 12/2 soft attack factors....once it recovers.

276th VGD – has taken less casualties than the 352nd VGD but it started off at a lower strength than the 352nd. Its Bn’s start with an average strength of 542 men on the 16th.  Therefore its current strength is now comparable to the 352nd’s. The majority of its losses have come from I/GR 986 which is off map at Pratz. This was sacrificed to protect the 5th FJD. The 276th Pioneer Bn appears to have spent its war bridge building at Bollendorf.
Despite the fierce fighting and assaults against the US 5th Division the 276th appears to be in reasonable condition in terms of fatigue and numbers. It is however a poor quality unit. 50% of its units are E which means that when they Disrupt or take moderate fatigue they quickly fall to F or worse.  

352nd VGD – has suffered over a 1,000 casualties. Fairly evenly spread out over its 7 main fighting Battalions. (Battalion strength was 622 men on 16th, although FEB 352 was 580 and the Pioneer Bn 442)  It did have an assault gun unit attached but these have been destroyed along with a significant portion of its 75mm ATG’s. Its artillery is intact and doesn’t appear to have suffered counter battery fire. (The 276th appears to be 4 down?)

Looking at the situation it would appear that Cesar had things in hand. Despite the obvious problem he has in keeping them in good order and undisrupted, the two Divisions teamed together were enough to deter me advancing with the 5th Division. Not that I considered this. Even if I had planned things properly and had made sure I had an engineer in place before I brought 5th Division onto the map I was aware that 9th Panzer was available.