valos german adventure

[valo2000]

So here starts my minimalistic campaign. the first battle was an assault against poland. my core consisted of the HQ and an aty VB.

I was given temporary command of a gorup of infantry with mmg scout and sniper support.

their mission was mainly to find targets for the 6 mortars and the 4 Guns.

The Luftwaffe gave me some Schlachtfliger and Stukasupport.

The first airattacks were fruitless and only triggered aafire by some mgs that forced one Schlachtflieger to return to base.

The infantry infiltrated through the weakly held line routing one polish squad in the process and my aty started to pound the aamgs with little substantial effect.

The scouts moved forward to the map edge while the infantryzug fought it out with some poles.

in this battle the Hq squad singlehandedly routed 2 enemy infantrysquads with only "little" help from the Aty that was directed precisely by Observer Moehlmann and his helper.

The polish resistance was weak and after some fighting in a woody area the battle enden with 198 polish causalities vs 9 germans wounded and 2 killed.

The Luftwaffe proved that it is pretty worthless in Assaults

After this Draw iam ordered to take command of a Group of Sicherungstruppen to hold this sector. It consists of two platoons of second line Inf, 4 MGs, 3 8cm mortars with ammo wagons a marksman and a reserve of 2 mark2 tks. The Luftwaffe has send 2 me 110 into this sector to strafe the attacking polish inf hordes and a storch.

My core has been enhanced by a sniper that maybe later trained for longrange recon drops if he shows some talent.

The terrain consits of a large wood area in the south and a crossroad in a village in the north. this village is the place to hold.

note: why are paratroop snipers not freely purchaseable?

[PanzerBob]

Guten Tag, Kommandeur Valo.

Interesting concept for a campaign, one I've never tried. Did I get this right? you just started with a HQ and and a Arty FO, and are using points granted to buy your force?

What size maps are you using?

Awaiting your next SITREP.

Eternal War(gaming) PanzerBob

[valo2000]

i will buy a new unit every other scenario or every second scenario. And i will try to go with a relatively realistic core setup.

My delay battle is so far going relatively good the polish attack seem to be stoped and my 2 infantry platoons are stil at 75%. but i have lost 2 mg. after they had nearly shot all their ammo off.The poles have lost all their tanks one too 2cm shells from a tank and 4 to close assaults. their infantry is largely retreating and i am thinking if i should chase them but there might be a reserve.

currently the map is 60x60 what makes the battle more fighting and less maneuvering and it seems to be easier.
i used to play on a 200x200 map but that gets boring with a small force.

[PanzerBob]

Tanks, Valo

PanzerBob

[valo2000]

my counterattack met the second polish wave and had to retreat. one mark2 was immobilized in front of probably 60 poles and the crew tried to get away because there was no way holding their position.

But the poles showed no mercy and concentrated all their fire on the fleeing crew.

the second mark2 triedt to protect the crew but only caught an atrifle bullet. the damge was only cosmetical so this one could retreat to help the sicherungstruppen.

The polish second wave didnt get as far as the first one before it was stopped by rifle mg and mortarfire.

my new sniper shoot away 3 ammoloads and almost singlehandedly stalled a companysized attack.

the ammowagons were a really forcemultiplier because they made continious mortarfire possible and the other units also did run low on ammo near the end of the battle and without supply i would have had to retreat.

[valo2000]

the next battle was a meeting engagement between a cavalry recon troop commanded by me and a reeinforced polish infantry company.

My core will be a recon troop for this period of the war and so i added a Kavalleriezug with dismounts.

My mission was to secure a bridge before the poles could go there and destroy it.

For this i had another troop of dismounts,2xMGs 3xMortars 3 lmg squads 3 Panzerbuechsen and ammo supply.All with cavalry transports.The Luftwaffe provided Schlachtflieger and 2 me109s as support.

as the battle commenced i took my mgs and lmgs to ridges overwatching the river and my dismounted cavalry platoons took reverse slope postions covered by the mgs.

the poles tried to take the ridges on the eastern bank of the river an were surpised that my men already overwatched thoose positions.

Most of the battle consisted of polish infantry trying to go through mg fire and mortar bombardment. that didnt work for them.

the cavlry transports flanked this attack and took out the enemy aty at turn 20 or so. with the aty gone there was no chance at all for the poles to ever gain a foothold on thoose ridges or to take the bridge.

at the end of the battle 100 poles were causalities and 400 taken prisoner against only 12 wounded and 4 dead on my side.

i have asked hq for some armoured support to my recon group maybe an armoured car.But as Panzers are needed everywhere i dont know if i will get something.


My sniper covered the road leading to the bridge

[PatG]

Great idea Valo!

[valo2000]

My next job was to delay an expected polish conterattack on a bridgehead a recon platoon established near the town of Broszki. As can be seen on the map (hopefully) i deployed my units in the cornfields on the easter bank of the river.

the Poles tried some platoonsized attacks that were beaten of relatively easy with aty support.

unfortunately all 3 spw221 were lost or immobilized one to a close assault near the highway jaworow krakowiecz.

the other 2 were badly dameged by continious aty fire.

my platoon held the northern part of the map and had an easy time only the sniper and the mg saw some firing.

Why the poles had fixed me with thoose peacemeal attacks from the front a large tank force bypassed my positions by going through the large wood and on the last turn they appeared an took a few vh unfortunately also the bridge.

then the scenario ended lucky me. because of this attack all units were withdrawn to save them from encirclement. that means we have to take the bridge again. My stay in this sector will be prolonged.

[valo2000]

After the loss of the bridgehead it was decided another comannder should take brozki and i was sent to rearguard actions for the rest of the polish campaign. During thisoperations i managed to lay my hands on apolish HMG that will give my team a great firepower improvement.

I was also promised two beutepanzer but they were still o in repairs when my assignment to ardennes started.

Our job this time was to spearhead the adance through the ardennes and this placed a little panzergroupo under my command for the second time. Hq seems to have forgotten how i lost one mark2 and had another one badly damaged in poland.

in this battle my platoon served as flanl security in the south and was set up to defend a bridge over the Sure in the village of ..... "Sure"!?

the new hmg was positioned in one of the hoses as well as the sniper and the light infantry.

the local fernch commander here decided he would take the initiative and destroy my forces with a massive infantry attack. he had 2 formidable S-35 and lots of inf and reserve inf under his command.

i had 2 mark3b and 2 pz35(t) with a panzergrenadierplatoon and a heavy weaponsplatoon that had my only 8cm mortar and a2 mgs.

the frenchmen came in huge numbers hroug on the middle road and where cut down by the panzersmgs. lots of courage and little brains here.

the 2 tanks he had were destroyed by my dismounted cavalry. one took 10 assaults to be cracked open. he was warned but he ran back into my ambush 3 times.

my new MG manned by schlesiers from the liberated polish regions caught a bad start as the gunner got a bullet in the
triggerfinger the whole squad pancked and ran away. As zhey were leaving the building one tripped and fell down the stairway leaving him with a broken arm.

Duricng the whole battle a french company tried to get across the bridge at sure and got ponded by mgs and aty. when the were on the other side they were greated by small arms fire and not a single squad was able to cross the bridge.

after a while the french courage was over and my tanks broke free taking all the flags and kiling some mortars and
stuff. 2 tanks were lost to nasty 25mm aa but in the end it was a total defeat for the french with 93 dead 176 wounded and 380 prisoners. i had only 4 dead and 14 wounded.

[PatG]

Don't despair about your HMG - at least the Schlesiers will get their wound badges. Besides - in a couple of years they can make up for their poor performance on the Russian front.