DAR: Sant' Angelo, Italy

[RERomine]

Germany vs US Army

Mission: Assault, Sant' Angelo, Italy, 10/1943 - grouped objectives.

Enemy: Reinforced Battalion - 1-2 Armor Co., 2-3 Infantry Co., 4-6 Artillery Btry, plus ATG, AAA, field fortifications and obstacles. Average force experience, ~65.

Terrain: Map = 100x100; hilly, wooded terrain with elevations ranging form -2 to 50. One large hill is located forward in the enemy deployment area near the South edge of the map. There is a town tucked in the Northwest corner of the map. Two objective groups are positioned on the South edge of the town along an East-West line; one objective group is located in the Southeast corner of the town and another about 600m West of it. The third objective group is about 1500m North of the first two and pretty much in the center of the town. There are three paved roads that enter the town from my side of the map and a one dirt road that passes the town to the South by about 600m. A stream enters the map roughly in the center of the top of the map angling Southwest. About a third of the way down, the stream branches. One branch meanders South and the other branch meanders off to the Southwest. There is approximately 100m of rough on either side of the stream. The roads that cross the streams have bridges and are very close to the enemy deployment line. There is limited rough elsewhere. Some hills and ridges near the stream have impassible terrain. Visibility = 32.

Troops: 1 Armor Co. (PzKw IVh), 2 Infantry Co. (SS w/tracks), 13 Artillery Btry (On board, 32 tubes towed w/o transport, 4 track mounted 81mm mortars, 18 Off board tubes), 2 Heavy Tank Pltn (PzKw VIe), 2 ATG btry. (75mm PAK 40 w/tracks)), 2 MG Pltn (MG42(2) w/tracks), 2 Eng. Cos (w/tracks). 2 SS PzGren cos. (w/tracks), plus recon, AAA and ammo supply. Average force experience, ~90.

Time: 51 Turns

Analysis

This assault is going to be a bear. Having to assault a town is bad enough, but the placement of the stream just complicates it more. Getting to the FEBA will be easy enough. Unfortunately, easy ends there.

There are lots of roads, but on the defend, the enemy loves to mine roads. Look at the picture below if you need proof. The two bridges on the Northern part of the stream are on or behind the enemy deployment line meaning those might be mined or have mines around them. On the other hand, the two bridges that cross the East branch of the stream are 100-150m East of the enemy deployment line. At least I could get across these bridges before having to deal with the mines.

Of those two bridges, the Southern bridge is screen more by the terrain. Just West of this bridge, there is a small ridge, some houses and trees. There are some small hills that might be able to observe activity on this bridge, but it's difficult to say. There could also be enemy units on the small ridge, but there wouldn't be many. The ridge isn't that big. One major concern is this bridge is wooden. The big guns used by the Americans are very likely to drop it into the river.

The Northern bridge of the East branch is concrete. This bridge is more exposed, however. There is a small hill 500m West of the bridge and another one about 1000m to the Northwest. To the Southwest of the bridge, there is are some woods. That might allow units getting across the bridge to duck into the woods and clear mines in relative concealment. The concrete bridge can still be destroyed by large artillery, but should be more durable than the wooden one.

A problem associated with a route involving both of bridges across the East branch, is West branch. More bridges to cross. The West branch has seven bridges across it. There are lots of options here and lots of choke points and lots of places for mines.

About the two Northern bridges before the branch in the stream, aside from the potential mine problem, they are both at the foot of a large hill on the Eastern side of the town. These bridges are 300m apart and within 100m of the foot of the hill. It's not impossible I would have to fight just to get to the bridges and have to clear mines under fire.

Once I clear the bridges, I would have to move through streets in the town to get to all the objectives. Either the tanks move slowly behind engineers clearing streets or I leave them behind. Tanks might be able to zip around between buildings to avoid the roads, but would still have to be escorted by infantry and mines would still be a risk. The route across the Southern bridges allow my forces to reach two objective groups without having to deal with many roads. They can be approached to within 200m without having to enter the town. Either way I go about it, I will have to fight through at least a click and a half of town to get to the objectives in the middle.

The hill on the Southeast corner of town seems to be a key feature. After crossing the East branch bridges, I could take that and position my tanks as overwatch for capturing the objectives on the South side of town. Infantry could do the dirty work here. They can cross streams without risk of bogging down, so the second set of bridges might not be a factor. Six leg companies should be able to do that, then four more could push forward and take the last group of objectives.

I'm starting to picture a plan, but I'll put that in another post. Below are two screen prints. One shows how the AI loves to mine roads. It shows roughly 24 East-West road hexes and 16 of them are mined!! Roads on assaults are bad!!! The only reason I am even considering them is I need the bridges or have to plan on leaving 10-20% of my armored force bogged down in the stream and the rough. The other screen print is a zoomed out view of what I have to deal with. I'll flesh out the plan soon.