The Purist
Elder Member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2004
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- Location
- In my castle by the sea, Trochu, AB
- First name
- Gerry
- Country
The Defense of Pont la Moon
Someone once said that “a line cannot be strong everywhere” and this was the case in the defense of Pont la Moon. Taking into account that the US already had a bridgehead in the town it seemed the likely place for the main US assault. The defense was designed to screen the town and then retreat to the bridge and hold for as long as possible. With some luck ‘M’ and ‘N’ platoons could reinforce the outskirts before the defenses collapsed. It was not to be.
‘O’ dashed forward and ran into the main US assault while ‘P’ platoon retreated to la Moon to reinforce ‘I’ Platoon. ‘O’ platoon was quickly overrun but managed to inflict some decent casualties on the US forces as well as knock out one of the US halftracks. The forward observer for the supporting 81mm battery was lost just as the first shells began to fall. ‘I’ and ‘P’ platoons put up a stiff fight against the US infantry that assaulted through the forest in front of the town but were unable to delay the US armour. Greyhound armoured cars, Stuart and Sherman tanks and mechanized infantry, despite numerous panzershreck and panzerfaust shots, simply rolled up the road into the German rear areas with the loss of only a single armoured car.
The remnants of the Pont la Moon defenders, 5 men in two squads, hid in the woods and with a battered squad from each of ‘H’ and ‘J’ platoon, made a late game attempt to retake Pont la Planche. While it was hoped the US would suffer more losses in armour in the crossing of the Elle River at this point the defense did as well as could be expected considering the forces thrown against it. The spotter from the 105mm battery spent the entire battle at the crossroads in an upper level directing the shelling of the US forces who had penetrated the defenses and, later, at the force attacking Pont de la Pierre. He survived the battle and reported in the next morning.
Someone once said that “a line cannot be strong everywhere” and this was the case in the defense of Pont la Moon. Taking into account that the US already had a bridgehead in the town it seemed the likely place for the main US assault. The defense was designed to screen the town and then retreat to the bridge and hold for as long as possible. With some luck ‘M’ and ‘N’ platoons could reinforce the outskirts before the defenses collapsed. It was not to be.
‘O’ dashed forward and ran into the main US assault while ‘P’ platoon retreated to la Moon to reinforce ‘I’ Platoon. ‘O’ platoon was quickly overrun but managed to inflict some decent casualties on the US forces as well as knock out one of the US halftracks. The forward observer for the supporting 81mm battery was lost just as the first shells began to fall. ‘I’ and ‘P’ platoons put up a stiff fight against the US infantry that assaulted through the forest in front of the town but were unable to delay the US armour. Greyhound armoured cars, Stuart and Sherman tanks and mechanized infantry, despite numerous panzershreck and panzerfaust shots, simply rolled up the road into the German rear areas with the loss of only a single armoured car.
The remnants of the Pont la Moon defenders, 5 men in two squads, hid in the woods and with a battered squad from each of ‘H’ and ‘J’ platoon, made a late game attempt to retake Pont la Planche. While it was hoped the US would suffer more losses in armour in the crossing of the Elle River at this point the defense did as well as could be expected considering the forces thrown against it. The spotter from the 105mm battery spent the entire battle at the crossroads in an upper level directing the shelling of the US forces who had penetrated the defenses and, later, at the force attacking Pont de la Pierre. He survived the battle and reported in the next morning.
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