Yeah, I know what you mean. It does take awhile for the pre-set arty to arrive. Once it finally does though it's worth the wait. Ka-boom!
Another problem was finding a way past the first trench-line. There were so many dragon's teeth and mines that it took awhile to determine a breakthrough area. As it was my first panzers didn't make it across until turn 12.
Plus it took several turns just to get the Mk IV's out of the woods with the new MP penalties for vehicles. They're needed to blind defenders as infantry gets close, since the arty smokescreens leave some gaps. The grunts and light tanks were obliged to huddle 3 or 4 hundred meters from the first trench for several turns waiting for the bombardment and smokers to arrive.
Sorry but I don't see your problem with the artillery "names." Each of the 4 battalions of 3 batteries each are designated with a letter, H through K, and each battery has a separate number, 0 through 2. If you're still confused you can left-click the battery designation on the bombardment screen and it'll take you to the specific hex it's either going to fire on, or last fired on (if it doesn't you'll have to start plotting from the beginning). Then you can shift fire, leave as is, or cancel and re-plot.
Anyway it was fun after I "figured it out." Once the panzers got through it was mostly clear sailing; had there been one more turn I could've had a DV, since all objectives were seized save one. Assault scenarios can be intimidating but usually there's a solution if you're patient and keep at it with a will.