Bulge 16.01s alt

[Plain Ian]

2nd Panzer at last -



2nd Panzer led the way in the early days of the campaign. From Clervaux to Bastogne, then on to Bertogne. 

Clervaux was defended and required assaults to clear, but Bastogne was taken after a token fight. The advanced elements of the 101st had raced to the town and did their best to slow down the advance. But the best they could do was to cover the retreat of the battered 28th Divison and CCB and CCR of 9th Armoured. US defenses then withdrew to Flamierge.

After Bastogne 2nd Panzer was shifted north to the Bertogne against my arriving 82nd Airborne and the Fuhrer Begleit took its place at Flamierge. However the Division was then shifted north of Houffalize. Its infantry was sent to Nadrin to halt my probes by 82nd and its armour was sent to the Samree area to bolster 9th SS.

Both of these sectors have been pretty quiet so on the 25th of December we see 2nd Panzer is reasonably refreshed in terms of fatigue and reasonably well paced in defense. 



I/Pz Regt 3 (Panthers) has been pulled out from Samree and is sitting in a reserve position north of Houffalize. The Battalion has lost an amazing 28 Panthers??? I’m a bit amazed to see this.....again..... as I genuinely can’t recall too many occasions I scored against his Panthers (at Donnange  west Of Clervaux my Tank Destroyers did manage a few hits in an ambush) so most of these are due to breakdowns and German assaults.  

As you can see above the campaign has taken its toll of 2nd Panzer armour in general. II/Pz Rgt 3 (Pz IV) and  Pz Jag Bn 38 (StuG IIIg) are both down to 50% and his Aufklarungs unit has been vaporised.

The infantry are a shell of their former strength on the 16th, apart from the Pioneer Bn. However they are A rated and would have put up a stiff fight. However if I had sent 2nd US Armoured here then I think it would have been 2nd Armoured versus 36 Panthers.

Now that I see Cesars defences and look at my forces I can see that I’ve played this game too timidly.