Allied Defense of Dasburg

[Anthropoid]

Just started playing so I'm pretty feckless on this stuff . . . for example, I can only guess what the relative strenghts of a Zugtroop and a Panzergrenaidaire might be?

For now I'm playing on easiest settings (me on Recruit and the AI on Elite), and I actually find Medium speed is a bit too fast sometimes. There are a lot of stimuli here to absorb.

So I tried the Skyline Drive Operation as Germans on offensive and massacrred them. But not so easy as the Allies to defend. What is the strategy there? I gave up trying to defend the southern part of the map, and tried defending from some rear positions well on the left side of the river and north of the tributary.

Couple specific questions:

1) Why is the AI so incredibly good at honing in on my ATGs?

2) I had a German tank right in front of a .50 Cal MG squad who were hiding in a building. At 20m away, I was still geting a black circle even firing on is right side. I thought those little icons to the right of AT meant the effectiveness at 20, 40, 60 meters against tanks?