von Marwitz
Forum Guru
HS32 A FEW ROUNDS – AAR
Set in March 1945, this action is part of the huge but yet for some reason little known battle for the bridgehead at Wesel, objective of the British/Canadian operations Veritable and Blockbuster and the U.S. operation Grenade, in which more than a million Allied soldiers and awesome amounts of materiel were involved. The U.S. operation was delayed by some 13 days by the Germans sabotaging dams which resulted in the prolonged flooding of the Roer river making a U.S. crossing impossible. Thus, for that time, the British/Canadians had to fend for themselves under adverse weather conditions and terrain which channeled their advance. The most costly tank battle of the war for the Canadians happened at the Hochwald Gap, where they attempted to push trough at all costs and in which they eventually succeeded, albeit at very high losses.
The Villa Reichswald is located in the said Hochwald Gap. I had selected this scenario to play with Bruce Probst, who I had invited to stay for a couple of days at my place during his trip to Europe, where he also attended Arnhem Tournament. The Hochwald Gap is not far from where I live, so I had recruited a historian for a battlefield tour to this place. A number of years ago, this battle was covered in a TV documentary in which this historian was involved, which has become quite popular in the internet. Here is one of the links to that TV documentary:
I tried to get some more information by the scenario designer Kenn Dunn on his sources, as I could not find anything specific in the internet. Alas, to date, I got no response. I can state that there is no location closeby named „Hufscherberg“ as specified in the scenario card – merely a „Hufschen Weg“ and „Haufschen Hof“. I am also not sure if Villa Reichswald was „completely flattened“ by the detonation of an ammo depot. Given the date on the scenario card, this ammo depot would most likely have been of German origin before they retreated from the area. Today, there is a Villa Reichswald building, but I do not know how much of it has been rebuilt after the war.
After this current contemporary on-site report, let us get back to the scenario itself:
The German objective is for the Germans to have no Good Order British MMC in any board 43 building.
The Canadians are the Scenario Defender and have eight 458 Elite squads led by three leaders (9-1, 8-1, 7-0). As SW they have one MMG, two LMG and two PIATs. A powerful ATG, a 76LL 17-Pounder with Crew round off their outfit.
The Germans have13 squads, half 467s, half 447s led by three Leaders (9-1, 2x 8-0) and a meager SW support of three LMG. The attraction of the scenario are the three Sturmmörser Tiger with their massive 380mm tube firing rocket projectiles.
An SSR gives special instructions on what happens, if one of these 380mm projectiles hits the ammunnition depot in 43N8. The effect is basically, that everything in and in 1-hex range around the ammuition depot will be attacked by 36FP plus a varying Heavy Payload modifier. So obviously, this is what the German should want to see happen. With 7.5 Turns, the scenario is quite long, but time will be needed by the Germans to cross a lot of Open Ground and Plowed Fields while getting all British MMC to non-Good Order is also no small feat.
ROAR has the scenario pro Canadian at 38 wins to 29 German wins as of October 2024.
The Terrain:
Altogether, looking at the historical terrain, it is reasonably well reflected by the geo-boards. There is much Open Ground and Plowed Fields along with some patches of Woods, while Orchards are out of season. The few buildings on board 19 are only single hex and isolated. Some Woods on the borders of board 19 and board 43 in the middle of the playing area will shield some approaching German units from LOS from board 43 buildings. The board 43 buildings are somewhat dispersed, but mostly concentrated around the ammution depot and its vincinity.
Canadian Considerations:
Looking at their OoB, the Canadians are superior in morale which is paired with them defending the more favorable terrain with higher TEM, while the numerically superior Germans must cross considerable swathes of Open Ground. However, they have quite a large area of enemy approach to cover. And to force the German attackers to divide their force, the Canadians will want to set up some units in outlying buidlings and not merely around the walled compound, which may be pulverized along with anything in it, if the ammo depot gets hit by a Sturmmörser.
In order to delay the attacking Germans and to take advantage of their having to cross Open Ground, the Canadians will likely want to set up some of their Infantry in the patches of woods in the middle of the playing area. But this is not easy: The Canadian Infantry is not really numerous, and - as aforementioned – some of it will likely set up in outlying buildings and some in the walled compound. That leaves not that much for the patches of Woods. On top of that, it will not be trivial for the Candadians to fall back from forward positions. Likely, he will lose some units in doing so. Thus finding the right balance in the number of forces and the time to fall back while this might still be possible has no sure recipe, and luck will also play into the outcome.
The nature of the Canadian setup will likely mean, that their three Leaders will also set up dispersed. Losing a Leader in one of the three areas will be a hard blow. Luckily, the same is true for the Germans, who also only have three Leaders. Trying to eliminate these or at least to break them should be a priority, because it will be the Infantry in the end which needs to win the scenario. Having German units break in the middle of the Open Ground surely is a fine thing.
Against the Sturmmörsers, the 17pounder ATG is a powerful Gun, which has also a considerable amount of Special Ammo. At the same time, though, it does not have much HE to be used against enemy infantry. The Canadians should carefully consider where he can place this Gun to affect a good part of the playing area while at the same time trying to stay out of reach of enemy Infantry Firepower for a while.The two PIATs only stand reasonable chances to harm the Sturmmörsers if they hit them non-frontally, so not unlikely, they are more a nuisance to impede their movement rather than a most serious lethal threat.
The Sturmmörsers may be more of a threat to the Canadians by cutting off or interdicting Rout Paths rather then managing to have one of their rocket projectiles hit. If one hits, however... The best chance they have to hit is the ammo depot, but they have to gain LOS to it first. A most important hex for the Canadian defence will be 43O10, as this is outside the blast-radius if the ammo depot blows up and also very likely out of LOS and/or out of range of German Infantry until the very last stages of the game.
As the Germans will need to cross a lot of open terrain, the Canadians will have their chances to take advantage of negative modifiers for FFNAM and/or FFMO. That said, they can make low FP shots count. By deploying, the Canadians can multiply their fire opportunities, increase the number of targets for the Germans (which also have to move), thus dividing the attacker's firepower per defending unit. Deployment makes it harder for the Germans also because just one Good Order Canadian MMC in one of the board 43 buildings will be sufficient for a win.
German Considerations:
Some of the German units will need about half the time provided by the scenario merely moving to reach the most distant buildings they require to control even if not a bullet were shot. Unfortunately, bullets will be shot, and most likely so, while the Germans hasten to cross Open Ground. Because the danger for the Canadians is too high to be cut off from retreat if they set up too many units up front (or rather more in the middle of the playing area), the Germans will make it into the middle, albeit at some losses or broken units. The Germans need some of the Woods in the middle to rally and as a jumping off point for the buildings. So what is true for the Canadians is also true for the Germans: They should deploy to spread out and present (too) many targets for the Canadians. Some unlucky „volunteers“ must surge forward to impose Target Selection Limits to help their following comerades.
The Sturmmörsers can be very useful to use their Nahverteidigungswaffe to lay some covering Smoke, especially, once the enemy ATG has revealed its position. It might be used to quickly transport Infantry as Riders – at considerable risk or to provide cover by Armored Assault at the price of not getting behind the central Woods patches in a timely manner. Likely, one Sturmmörser will go down on the occasion of the Gun's relevation, so the others should be prepared for a quick escape out of LOS to avoid sharing that fate. The hedge running from 43L1 to 43L5 nicely divides the playing area providing cover for the vehicles on the „other side“ in relation to the Gun. Remember that the Canadian ATG can be a real pain if you are unable to reach or affect it, so having two halfsquads ready to charge it might be worthwhile. The BMG of the vehicles is very nice to interdict even to blast retreating Canadians forced to cross open areas. Actually hitting anything with the BIG tube is a challenge – your best chances are the ammo depot or enemy Infantry falling back over open terrain. Besides that, you can play the mindgame with your oppenent: That 380mm surely looks threatening in any case: „Feelin' lucky, German punk?!“ Take into account that by chance he might very well elect to stare down your Sturmmörser, which takes an entire extra turn to reload.
I think the best bet for the German is to catch the forward Canadians before they can fall back to eliminate them by failure to Rout. Furthermore, putting any of the three Canadian Leaders out of comission – even temporarily – will help you a long way in the attempt to gain the upper hand in one area of the attack. At least one Sturmmörser should make sure to blow up the ammo depot. It's somewhat scripted, yes, but clearing the walled compound by Infantry alone will likely cost too much time for the remaining German Infantry to do on itself. That said, it is the German Infantry, not the Sturmmörsers, which has to win this scenario.
How the Game Played Out:
Canadian Defensive Setup:
I was playing the defending Canadians in this one.
The first thing I thought about was the placement of the 17pounder ATG. I selected 43FF2 with CA towards 43DD2. From this position, the Gun can overlook almost the entire western approaches of the playing area including two very probably entryways for the enemy AFV, namely 19X2 and 19K2. With the Gun's CA towards 43DD2, firing at the Sturmmörsers right after entry without changing CA is not possible, but this seemed not important to me as I hoped to have the entering German Infantry somewhere far out in the open without being able to react when I fired my first shot. Furthermore, firing too early at the Sturmmörsers would possibly enable some of them to evade, while firing late might nail one while leaving the other in a difficult position. If they were deciding to enter on the side I anticipated, that is... If not, I still might get a difficult shot at one when it would try to approach the walled compound from the east – as the Scenario Defender, Bore Sighting allowed me to check some LOSes with the Gun, which I Bore Sighted to 43J6. My general plan was to open fire when a Sturmmörser would show the side target facing to me without me having to change CA. At that point, I would have seen the vehicle long enough to hit with an 8 or less, i.e. with a 72.2% chance of a hit with a subsequent chance of 97.2% chance of a kill even using only regular AP. Another advantage of the Gun's position was, that it was very hard to get at: The vehicles would be guaranteed to try to avoid it rather than closing in to engage it because their chances of hitting it were just too low. Any German Infantry would have to cross Open Ground to get closer to it, which would present the Gun opportunities even to have chances to stop it with AP rounds in case HE would run out. Furthermore, there was no building which the Germans needed anywhere near, so German Infantry committed against the Gun at its far off corner would likely be out of the game for any other purpose. And such Infantry would very unlikely have any support of one of the scarce three German Leaders in case it broke.
With three squads, the 8-1 Leader, a PIAT and an LMG committed to the central 19O8 Woods area, I was at the upper limits of what seemed reasonable. My plan was to deploy two of the three squads, sacrifice not more than 1.5 squad equivalents in delaying the Germans crossing the Open Ground to the south while falling back with the rest and the Leader, leaving a HS behind in 43P1 to force the Germans to designate more forces and to spend some time to evict it. The surviving squad with Leader and a SW would fall back in the direction of the walled compound to hopefully make it into the end-game.
Another half-squad was committed to the 43F2 building simply because it has an upper Level in which it might be able to rally one time before going down while requiring more than just an enemy halfsquad to deal with it.
With two squads, a PIAT, an LMG and the 7-0 Leader, I set up quite strong on the eastern edge of board 43 to defend the 43B3 building and to contest the Open Ground to the south and west. Once more, my plan was to deploy one squad and to eventually fall back with one squad equivalent, a SW and the Leader through the Brush screened by the Hedge towards the north, maybe to be able to cover the Plowed field while doing so and/or to reach the buildings near the walled compound. Until then, the Germans would have to commit a significant amount of his forces to root me out, which would hopefully be missing somewhere else.
At last, the walled compound would be held by 2.5 squad equivalents, the MMG and the 9-1 Leader. One of these squads would be deployed. Their task was to cover the retreat of other units and to stall the German advance across Open Ground with the MMG being able to reach out with Leader direction to quite some long range and across the central hedge from an upper building level. The 9-1 Leader would also take care of all Canadian brokies which might make it back.
If Sturmmörsers would reach the walled compound and threaten to blow up the ammo depot, the Canadian Alamo would be the building in 43O10.
German Turn 1:
The Germans entered their Infantry first. One group mainly consisting of 447s along the 19X1 Road area towards the Wooden Building and east of it in a spread out formation. These were fired on by my 458 and LMG separately from 19P8 with only minor effects. The second group entered around the area o f19K1 heading towards the Stone Building of 19K7, as well in a spread out formation. The third, somewhat smaller group from 19A0 towards the 19A7 Woods.
Then came the Sturmmörsers, the first along 19X1 northwards along the road to 43Y1 with a 467 Rider into the beads of my 17pounder, which I fired when the vehicle reached Y9 at its side target facing using regular AP. Needing an 8, I rolled a 9 to just miss it and its rather unnverved 467 Riders before it scurried of of LOS behind the cover of the 43AA1 Woods area. Damn it! At least further movement from there would be not as straightforward as the Germans may have hoped. The second Sturmmörser came in via 19K1 and moved towards 19J7. Still, I was sort of content, as the Germans had entered two Sturmmörsers on the flank which I had covered by the Gun. The third Sturmmörser moved up along the eastern board edge of board 19 in support of the German Infantry, likely with the 43B3 Stone Building in mind as its objective.
Finally entered his kill-stack consisting of the 9-1, 3x 467 with two LMG via 19E1 to end up in 19J6 next to the Stone Building. At this point, I had already exhausted my fire options.
Canadian Turn 1:
Deploy, deploy, and deploy I did, turning the 43N0, 43M7, and 43C5 squads into six halfsquads. The central PIAT squad shifted back to the 8-1 Leader for future Deployment, the 458+LMG pulled back out of LOS of the many Germans spread out in the Open south-west of 19P8. The MMG manned by a halfsquad moved to the upper Level of 43O7 accompanied by the 9-1 for some longer range shots with some more other shuffling of units in the compound. A bit of repositioning of the new halfsquads also took place on my eastern flank. Altogether, I tried to avoid enemy fire. I advanced into postions from which I intended to harass the upcoming German movement of Turn 2.
My 8-1 with one of the halfsquads fell back to the Stone Building fo 43P1 in order to pull out when there was still time and to receive any friendly surviving brokies from up front later.
German Turn 2:
The Sturmmörser carefully tracked its way away from 19Y10, just barely staying within the cover of Woods against my 17pounder ATG to end up in 19T8. The German Infantry roughly east of 19X6 shifted their movement towards the 19R9 Woods.There was nothing much I could to to prevent it. Instead, I waited for the German 8-0 Leader to make his move who had to cross one or two hexes in Open Ground in LOS of my 17pounder. When he jumped up to make the run for the Woods, my gunners were ready: They found a HE round and sniped a Critical Hit on the Leader, which was duly killed. I was very content with that result, because now the number of German Leaders was reduced to only two very early in the game.
In the 19O8 Woods area, my delaying halfsquads up front could not achieve much to hold the Germans back, but on the other hand, they also did not break in the German return fire. The second Sturmmörser pulled up to 43L1 to cut off my path of retreat from the woods, laying Smoke during the way to cover the approach of the German killer stack. It arrived unscathed in 19L10.
Some more Germans moved to capture the first victory building in 43I2 and put some pressure on my halfsquad holding the 43F2 building.
Along the east edge, the third Sturmmörser moved boldly next to 43B3 held by my 458+LMG to place Smoke into the Brush of B2, which covered the advance of two Germans halfsquads towards that said building. The vehicle stopped in 43A3 ADJACENT to the Stone Building taking aim with the 380mm tube for my squad within.
The Germans tried to initiate CC in 19N9 at a 3:1 advantage against my sacrificial halfsquad. But luckily for me, I managed to Ambush the Germans and declined CC to infiltrate into 19M9. I was not really expecting to survive there, but for sure my 248 was a nuisance there with the potential to even rout away into the Stone Building of 19K7 in case it should be broken to eventually rally there and possibly causing trouble.
Altogether, the Germans had gained ground, but up to now, I had not taken any casualties.
Set in March 1945, this action is part of the huge but yet for some reason little known battle for the bridgehead at Wesel, objective of the British/Canadian operations Veritable and Blockbuster and the U.S. operation Grenade, in which more than a million Allied soldiers and awesome amounts of materiel were involved. The U.S. operation was delayed by some 13 days by the Germans sabotaging dams which resulted in the prolonged flooding of the Roer river making a U.S. crossing impossible. Thus, for that time, the British/Canadians had to fend for themselves under adverse weather conditions and terrain which channeled their advance. The most costly tank battle of the war for the Canadians happened at the Hochwald Gap, where they attempted to push trough at all costs and in which they eventually succeeded, albeit at very high losses.
The Villa Reichswald is located in the said Hochwald Gap. I had selected this scenario to play with Bruce Probst, who I had invited to stay for a couple of days at my place during his trip to Europe, where he also attended Arnhem Tournament. The Hochwald Gap is not far from where I live, so I had recruited a historian for a battlefield tour to this place. A number of years ago, this battle was covered in a TV documentary in which this historian was involved, which has become quite popular in the internet. Here is one of the links to that TV documentary:
I tried to get some more information by the scenario designer Kenn Dunn on his sources, as I could not find anything specific in the internet. Alas, to date, I got no response. I can state that there is no location closeby named „Hufscherberg“ as specified in the scenario card – merely a „Hufschen Weg“ and „Haufschen Hof“. I am also not sure if Villa Reichswald was „completely flattened“ by the detonation of an ammo depot. Given the date on the scenario card, this ammo depot would most likely have been of German origin before they retreated from the area. Today, there is a Villa Reichswald building, but I do not know how much of it has been rebuilt after the war.
After this current contemporary on-site report, let us get back to the scenario itself:
The German objective is for the Germans to have no Good Order British MMC in any board 43 building.
The Canadians are the Scenario Defender and have eight 458 Elite squads led by three leaders (9-1, 8-1, 7-0). As SW they have one MMG, two LMG and two PIATs. A powerful ATG, a 76LL 17-Pounder with Crew round off their outfit.
The Germans have13 squads, half 467s, half 447s led by three Leaders (9-1, 2x 8-0) and a meager SW support of three LMG. The attraction of the scenario are the three Sturmmörser Tiger with their massive 380mm tube firing rocket projectiles.
An SSR gives special instructions on what happens, if one of these 380mm projectiles hits the ammunnition depot in 43N8. The effect is basically, that everything in and in 1-hex range around the ammuition depot will be attacked by 36FP plus a varying Heavy Payload modifier. So obviously, this is what the German should want to see happen. With 7.5 Turns, the scenario is quite long, but time will be needed by the Germans to cross a lot of Open Ground and Plowed Fields while getting all British MMC to non-Good Order is also no small feat.
ROAR has the scenario pro Canadian at 38 wins to 29 German wins as of October 2024.
The Terrain:
Altogether, looking at the historical terrain, it is reasonably well reflected by the geo-boards. There is much Open Ground and Plowed Fields along with some patches of Woods, while Orchards are out of season. The few buildings on board 19 are only single hex and isolated. Some Woods on the borders of board 19 and board 43 in the middle of the playing area will shield some approaching German units from LOS from board 43 buildings. The board 43 buildings are somewhat dispersed, but mostly concentrated around the ammution depot and its vincinity.
Canadian Considerations:
Looking at their OoB, the Canadians are superior in morale which is paired with them defending the more favorable terrain with higher TEM, while the numerically superior Germans must cross considerable swathes of Open Ground. However, they have quite a large area of enemy approach to cover. And to force the German attackers to divide their force, the Canadians will want to set up some units in outlying buidlings and not merely around the walled compound, which may be pulverized along with anything in it, if the ammo depot gets hit by a Sturmmörser.
In order to delay the attacking Germans and to take advantage of their having to cross Open Ground, the Canadians will likely want to set up some of their Infantry in the patches of woods in the middle of the playing area. But this is not easy: The Canadian Infantry is not really numerous, and - as aforementioned – some of it will likely set up in outlying buildings and some in the walled compound. That leaves not that much for the patches of Woods. On top of that, it will not be trivial for the Candadians to fall back from forward positions. Likely, he will lose some units in doing so. Thus finding the right balance in the number of forces and the time to fall back while this might still be possible has no sure recipe, and luck will also play into the outcome.
The nature of the Canadian setup will likely mean, that their three Leaders will also set up dispersed. Losing a Leader in one of the three areas will be a hard blow. Luckily, the same is true for the Germans, who also only have three Leaders. Trying to eliminate these or at least to break them should be a priority, because it will be the Infantry in the end which needs to win the scenario. Having German units break in the middle of the Open Ground surely is a fine thing.
Against the Sturmmörsers, the 17pounder ATG is a powerful Gun, which has also a considerable amount of Special Ammo. At the same time, though, it does not have much HE to be used against enemy infantry. The Canadians should carefully consider where he can place this Gun to affect a good part of the playing area while at the same time trying to stay out of reach of enemy Infantry Firepower for a while.The two PIATs only stand reasonable chances to harm the Sturmmörsers if they hit them non-frontally, so not unlikely, they are more a nuisance to impede their movement rather than a most serious lethal threat.
The Sturmmörsers may be more of a threat to the Canadians by cutting off or interdicting Rout Paths rather then managing to have one of their rocket projectiles hit. If one hits, however... The best chance they have to hit is the ammo depot, but they have to gain LOS to it first. A most important hex for the Canadian defence will be 43O10, as this is outside the blast-radius if the ammo depot blows up and also very likely out of LOS and/or out of range of German Infantry until the very last stages of the game.
As the Germans will need to cross a lot of open terrain, the Canadians will have their chances to take advantage of negative modifiers for FFNAM and/or FFMO. That said, they can make low FP shots count. By deploying, the Canadians can multiply their fire opportunities, increase the number of targets for the Germans (which also have to move), thus dividing the attacker's firepower per defending unit. Deployment makes it harder for the Germans also because just one Good Order Canadian MMC in one of the board 43 buildings will be sufficient for a win.
German Considerations:
Some of the German units will need about half the time provided by the scenario merely moving to reach the most distant buildings they require to control even if not a bullet were shot. Unfortunately, bullets will be shot, and most likely so, while the Germans hasten to cross Open Ground. Because the danger for the Canadians is too high to be cut off from retreat if they set up too many units up front (or rather more in the middle of the playing area), the Germans will make it into the middle, albeit at some losses or broken units. The Germans need some of the Woods in the middle to rally and as a jumping off point for the buildings. So what is true for the Canadians is also true for the Germans: They should deploy to spread out and present (too) many targets for the Canadians. Some unlucky „volunteers“ must surge forward to impose Target Selection Limits to help their following comerades.
The Sturmmörsers can be very useful to use their Nahverteidigungswaffe to lay some covering Smoke, especially, once the enemy ATG has revealed its position. It might be used to quickly transport Infantry as Riders – at considerable risk or to provide cover by Armored Assault at the price of not getting behind the central Woods patches in a timely manner. Likely, one Sturmmörser will go down on the occasion of the Gun's relevation, so the others should be prepared for a quick escape out of LOS to avoid sharing that fate. The hedge running from 43L1 to 43L5 nicely divides the playing area providing cover for the vehicles on the „other side“ in relation to the Gun. Remember that the Canadian ATG can be a real pain if you are unable to reach or affect it, so having two halfsquads ready to charge it might be worthwhile. The BMG of the vehicles is very nice to interdict even to blast retreating Canadians forced to cross open areas. Actually hitting anything with the BIG tube is a challenge – your best chances are the ammo depot or enemy Infantry falling back over open terrain. Besides that, you can play the mindgame with your oppenent: That 380mm surely looks threatening in any case: „Feelin' lucky, German punk?!“ Take into account that by chance he might very well elect to stare down your Sturmmörser, which takes an entire extra turn to reload.
I think the best bet for the German is to catch the forward Canadians before they can fall back to eliminate them by failure to Rout. Furthermore, putting any of the three Canadian Leaders out of comission – even temporarily – will help you a long way in the attempt to gain the upper hand in one area of the attack. At least one Sturmmörser should make sure to blow up the ammo depot. It's somewhat scripted, yes, but clearing the walled compound by Infantry alone will likely cost too much time for the remaining German Infantry to do on itself. That said, it is the German Infantry, not the Sturmmörsers, which has to win this scenario.
How the Game Played Out:
Canadian Defensive Setup:
I was playing the defending Canadians in this one.
The first thing I thought about was the placement of the 17pounder ATG. I selected 43FF2 with CA towards 43DD2. From this position, the Gun can overlook almost the entire western approaches of the playing area including two very probably entryways for the enemy AFV, namely 19X2 and 19K2. With the Gun's CA towards 43DD2, firing at the Sturmmörsers right after entry without changing CA is not possible, but this seemed not important to me as I hoped to have the entering German Infantry somewhere far out in the open without being able to react when I fired my first shot. Furthermore, firing too early at the Sturmmörsers would possibly enable some of them to evade, while firing late might nail one while leaving the other in a difficult position. If they were deciding to enter on the side I anticipated, that is... If not, I still might get a difficult shot at one when it would try to approach the walled compound from the east – as the Scenario Defender, Bore Sighting allowed me to check some LOSes with the Gun, which I Bore Sighted to 43J6. My general plan was to open fire when a Sturmmörser would show the side target facing to me without me having to change CA. At that point, I would have seen the vehicle long enough to hit with an 8 or less, i.e. with a 72.2% chance of a hit with a subsequent chance of 97.2% chance of a kill even using only regular AP. Another advantage of the Gun's position was, that it was very hard to get at: The vehicles would be guaranteed to try to avoid it rather than closing in to engage it because their chances of hitting it were just too low. Any German Infantry would have to cross Open Ground to get closer to it, which would present the Gun opportunities even to have chances to stop it with AP rounds in case HE would run out. Furthermore, there was no building which the Germans needed anywhere near, so German Infantry committed against the Gun at its far off corner would likely be out of the game for any other purpose. And such Infantry would very unlikely have any support of one of the scarce three German Leaders in case it broke.
With three squads, the 8-1 Leader, a PIAT and an LMG committed to the central 19O8 Woods area, I was at the upper limits of what seemed reasonable. My plan was to deploy two of the three squads, sacrifice not more than 1.5 squad equivalents in delaying the Germans crossing the Open Ground to the south while falling back with the rest and the Leader, leaving a HS behind in 43P1 to force the Germans to designate more forces and to spend some time to evict it. The surviving squad with Leader and a SW would fall back in the direction of the walled compound to hopefully make it into the end-game.
Another half-squad was committed to the 43F2 building simply because it has an upper Level in which it might be able to rally one time before going down while requiring more than just an enemy halfsquad to deal with it.
With two squads, a PIAT, an LMG and the 7-0 Leader, I set up quite strong on the eastern edge of board 43 to defend the 43B3 building and to contest the Open Ground to the south and west. Once more, my plan was to deploy one squad and to eventually fall back with one squad equivalent, a SW and the Leader through the Brush screened by the Hedge towards the north, maybe to be able to cover the Plowed field while doing so and/or to reach the buildings near the walled compound. Until then, the Germans would have to commit a significant amount of his forces to root me out, which would hopefully be missing somewhere else.
At last, the walled compound would be held by 2.5 squad equivalents, the MMG and the 9-1 Leader. One of these squads would be deployed. Their task was to cover the retreat of other units and to stall the German advance across Open Ground with the MMG being able to reach out with Leader direction to quite some long range and across the central hedge from an upper building level. The 9-1 Leader would also take care of all Canadian brokies which might make it back.
If Sturmmörsers would reach the walled compound and threaten to blow up the ammo depot, the Canadian Alamo would be the building in 43O10.
German Turn 1:
The Germans entered their Infantry first. One group mainly consisting of 447s along the 19X1 Road area towards the Wooden Building and east of it in a spread out formation. These were fired on by my 458 and LMG separately from 19P8 with only minor effects. The second group entered around the area o f19K1 heading towards the Stone Building of 19K7, as well in a spread out formation. The third, somewhat smaller group from 19A0 towards the 19A7 Woods.
Then came the Sturmmörsers, the first along 19X1 northwards along the road to 43Y1 with a 467 Rider into the beads of my 17pounder, which I fired when the vehicle reached Y9 at its side target facing using regular AP. Needing an 8, I rolled a 9 to just miss it and its rather unnverved 467 Riders before it scurried of of LOS behind the cover of the 43AA1 Woods area. Damn it! At least further movement from there would be not as straightforward as the Germans may have hoped. The second Sturmmörser came in via 19K1 and moved towards 19J7. Still, I was sort of content, as the Germans had entered two Sturmmörsers on the flank which I had covered by the Gun. The third Sturmmörser moved up along the eastern board edge of board 19 in support of the German Infantry, likely with the 43B3 Stone Building in mind as its objective.
Finally entered his kill-stack consisting of the 9-1, 3x 467 with two LMG via 19E1 to end up in 19J6 next to the Stone Building. At this point, I had already exhausted my fire options.
Canadian Turn 1:
Deploy, deploy, and deploy I did, turning the 43N0, 43M7, and 43C5 squads into six halfsquads. The central PIAT squad shifted back to the 8-1 Leader for future Deployment, the 458+LMG pulled back out of LOS of the many Germans spread out in the Open south-west of 19P8. The MMG manned by a halfsquad moved to the upper Level of 43O7 accompanied by the 9-1 for some longer range shots with some more other shuffling of units in the compound. A bit of repositioning of the new halfsquads also took place on my eastern flank. Altogether, I tried to avoid enemy fire. I advanced into postions from which I intended to harass the upcoming German movement of Turn 2.
My 8-1 with one of the halfsquads fell back to the Stone Building fo 43P1 in order to pull out when there was still time and to receive any friendly surviving brokies from up front later.
German Turn 2:
The Sturmmörser carefully tracked its way away from 19Y10, just barely staying within the cover of Woods against my 17pounder ATG to end up in 19T8. The German Infantry roughly east of 19X6 shifted their movement towards the 19R9 Woods.There was nothing much I could to to prevent it. Instead, I waited for the German 8-0 Leader to make his move who had to cross one or two hexes in Open Ground in LOS of my 17pounder. When he jumped up to make the run for the Woods, my gunners were ready: They found a HE round and sniped a Critical Hit on the Leader, which was duly killed. I was very content with that result, because now the number of German Leaders was reduced to only two very early in the game.
In the 19O8 Woods area, my delaying halfsquads up front could not achieve much to hold the Germans back, but on the other hand, they also did not break in the German return fire. The second Sturmmörser pulled up to 43L1 to cut off my path of retreat from the woods, laying Smoke during the way to cover the approach of the German killer stack. It arrived unscathed in 19L10.
Some more Germans moved to capture the first victory building in 43I2 and put some pressure on my halfsquad holding the 43F2 building.
Along the east edge, the third Sturmmörser moved boldly next to 43B3 held by my 458+LMG to place Smoke into the Brush of B2, which covered the advance of two Germans halfsquads towards that said building. The vehicle stopped in 43A3 ADJACENT to the Stone Building taking aim with the 380mm tube for my squad within.
The Germans tried to initiate CC in 19N9 at a 3:1 advantage against my sacrificial halfsquad. But luckily for me, I managed to Ambush the Germans and declined CC to infiltrate into 19M9. I was not really expecting to survive there, but for sure my 248 was a nuisance there with the potential to even rout away into the Stone Building of 19K7 in case it should be broken to eventually rally there and possibly causing trouble.
Altogether, the Germans had gained ground, but up to now, I had not taken any casualties.
