Excerpt from War Diary 24 April 45
As we rolled into the town of Longue (N of Samur) and secured it my hunch (and Rommels') paid off. My Forward Recce Element -FORE- my HUBZ Gp, spotted a large Panzer force in an echelon left formation. I ordered the FORE in for a closer look and to harass the enemy. Closer inspection, showed a force of largely panzers, with infantry riding on top, no trucks or halftracks. My HUBZ hosed off a few panzers of their infantry. As a plus they also took out a few panzers, including at least two M26's. I was able to walk my 122 Bttys into the main concentration. The resulting barrage had the effect of turning the main force south, instead of running to my north most flank security screen; they would be hitting the town where most of the KG was waiting for them.
A small panzer group with accompanying infantry struck first and was dispatched and a hail of MG's Mortars, arty and panzer cannon. Meanwhile the south flank Security Element ran into another similar size force. It eventually was forced to withdraw, with help from a Tornado and several Tigers including the new Tiger II's.
The first of several air strikes I called in materialized in the form of a couple of our 262’s. They came in fast and delivered their bombs and rockets in amongst the Yankee panzers and men, causing much chaos in damaged panzers and human suffering. They were something to behold, I had never seen jet airplanes in person before. This left a fairly battered force of which to attack our position in town. The first panzer to emerge from the smoke was a M26, a Panther 100m in front of the beast, fired and the shot bounced off the front, the return fire from the M26 almost vaporized the Panther and it’s crew. The second two Perishing met with long-range death as my Tiger II D’s knocked them out at 2400m from south of the town.
The last part of the battle, the death blow was dealt with 4-5 Panthers and several Tiger I’s, under a continuous rain of fire and several passes by the Swallows. I lost two more Panthers, 2 StuG to Sherman 76’s in the resulting melee.
We remain victorious.
[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Lightning.gif[/img]Obersturmbannführer PanzerBob
