Grenadiers Advance at Halfaya 8/1/41

[robot]

Halfaya Egypt
August 1 1941
2000 Hours

8:00 Oclock at night and we are begining our move on the British emplacements around Halfaya. It is now rather cool what with the slight breeze you feel that comes in off the ocean to our north. It is a clear night with some moon light. Visability is about 600 yards. So they will be able to see us as we move forward. Have asked all men to take any thing loose off and leave it behind in the hope we can be somewhat quieter. All officers where to remove there swords and scabberds for the same reason.

A Co is on the north flank with B Co to there right and there two lines will be within 50 yards of each other. C Co is in the far south down near the very southern map edge.

The midle objective sits about 200 yards SE of the northern one. A CO will have to move 950 yards to reach there objectives. Each company has in front of them low hills to climb over first these are about 400 yards in front of there lines. So for the first 400 yards the enemy has no way to sight us but as soon as we crest these low hills I expect all hell to break out.

HQ has been kind enough to put on call for us at least 15 batt of 150 and 4 of 105s. So as soon aa we begin our advance they will start laying in as heavy a barrage on suspected enemy emplacements and continue until we reach the area. Hopefully this will take some of the starch out of there gunners and troops.

Every one is in high spirits with no doubts that once again we will whoop the hell out of the Brits. Plenty of ammo has been handed out with the orders to use it freely. Should be a hell of a fight as our men are now becoming veterans and some of the toughest fighters I have ever seen.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding

[robot]

Halfaya Egypt
August 1 1941
2040 Hours

40 minutes into the battle and all goes well for our side. We have moved over the low hills and are fast approaching the North and middle objectives. Both A co in the north and B Co in the middle have moved to within 350 yards of both there objectives. C Co in the south has taken one of there four objectives and will soon have them all in there possesion with in the half hour. They have encountered at least five tanks sitting just 600 yards east of there area. And are right now trying to figure how to dispose of them. They have taken out one of my recon cars and are trying for the other two leading C Co. We have managed to take out two of the tanks with a heavy bombardment from our 81mm morters.

Mean while A in the north has encountered very heavy resistence in the form of well over two companys of infantry. We are pushing them back slowly but surely with only slight casualties to our side while inflicting heavy losse to them. There again the close support of A Cos 81mm morters has been the key factor.

Our losses are still relativity low in comparison to what we are doing to the enemy. We have taken out well over 10 of there tanks while we have lost 2 AA 2 ATG 1 MMg plus 2 231-8 Rads. One being just out of commision at the moment while the other one was torn apart by a direct hit from a 4.5 gun. Maybe less then 100 men lost so far havent really got a very comprehensive report as yet. The losses to the enemy has to be staggering must be getting up close to a 1000 men.

We are now begining to move thru the area our big guns had been laying in there shells earlier in the battle. Big gaping holes all over the terrain in this area and we are encountering a lot of dead and dying. Have saw numerous pieces of bent and mangaled ATRs plus 50mm morters laying around. Even seen a couple ripped apart and burning crusader tanks in amongst all the havoc.

C CO has had the easiest job today. They saw nothing until they reached the objectives and these five tanks suddenly appeared out of nowhere. While A and B in the north have been under almost constant small arm fire.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding

[PimpYourAFV]

This sounds like a slaughter.  Using mortars to take out tanks is like trying to open a can of sardines using a pencil.  And you sure got a lotta arty.  I usually go with 4 barrels of big ones or mortars and leave it at that to give the enemy a chance.  Do you have your arty cranked up in options?  I put mine up quite a bit.  I just reinstalled this game again and dropped in my saves and custom OOB's to go with the last patch.  I'm gonna play some of Wild Bill's stuff like Deadly Diversion and a longer campaign.  Have you heard from Bill?

[robot]

No I have not heard from bill for a ling time. Saw him a few years back when we all went to aberdeen proving grounds. Sure miss him coming in and giving his opinion on different things here. A grand old man by all means. Been thinkin about your suggestion on putting the campaigns together. Such as italian and just keep it running in sequence I assume what you mean. Guess it does seem as tho I jump around a lot. But i just do the battles as the game sets them up. As I am running at least 8 campaigns at one time it even becomes confusing to me some time.

It might be better to just title it as Grenadiers in africa say and put all there battles there. Think maybe with my next battle I will begin to keep the campaigns together in one dar.

And no I never kranked up my artty but I did crank up the battle to hard x 2 and upped the ai to 150. It seems to give them a hell of alot more artty to blast my troops with.

[robot]

Halfaya Egypt
August 1 1941
2130 Hours


We have been running into a lot of british armor as we attempt to advance on the rear objectives. All forward objectives are ours and under our control. The continued bombardment by the enemy artty is begining to take there toll on us. First in equipment and then in suppression. Our troops are strung out all over the map. Some troops are still moving good but there units are almost the same as lost with mmg and morters way behind the line. Some lead units will not get up and move forward no matter what our noncoms do. No pleading or threats will work now.

C CO in the south continues to plod forward with out much damage to there units. They are still in pretty much good shape. Not much in the way in losses to them at all. Still good cohision amongst the troops. Good leaders there I would say. Actually its just more that the enemy did not have the troops congregated there as they did in the north and the middle.

A CO in the north have taken out at least 5 25mm guns and plus at least 8 tanks on there advance. But they are still at least 600 yards from the rear objectives. With at least 2 more 25mm aa and two Matilda II sitting in there way.

B CO in the middle has moved all the way up to within 200 yards of there objectives. They two have been in a hell of a fight trying to reach them. At least 25 tanks were sitting on or around the objective. They have taken out at least 25 tanks with the help of our armor. And still we see at least 4 more tanks left guarding the approches to the objective.

Have been at this ever since 8 oclock this evening and I dont see any end to it any time soon. I would say we will still be trying to take the north objective for another hour at least. Our losses are begining to mount up as we run into more and more armor of the enemy. I would say almost every one of our recon cars have been lost plus several of our SPIGs and ATG. Have lost at least 3 complete squads of troops plus at least 2 HMG. At least 7 231/8 Rads have been blown to pieces most of the crews survived tho.

The enemy tho has to have lost well over 50 tanks plus well over 1500 troops. We are still taking it to them and will continue no matter how long this takes.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding

[PimpYourAFV]

Good story.  Nice clean-cut battle description.  Those British tanks don't seem to have much chance against you.  I recently read the Osprey stories about the North African battles and Rommel always had a tough time with British tanks.

I'm playing Wild Bill's campaign now and fighting in Paris as US Army against the SS elite.  I should write up a story.  I wish Bill was here to see it.

[robot]

Halfaya Egypt
August 1 1941
2155 Hours

At last this battle has ended and once again we have gotten the best of the British. But it is to our sorrow that we lost way too many men and way too many armored vehicles. Our losses today were 237 good men and 24 afvs. Most of these were our recon cars and 231/8 Rads. They were out in front all the way. And when we got close to the north and middle objectives the British tanks kept coming at us. Dont know where they got all the tanks they threw at us today. But they dont have as many now. We took out 92 tanks plus 1618 of there men. Also found and blew to bits 34 of there aggravating artty guns. Which seemed to give the men a very profound amount of joy.

It was a no holds bloody fight but there men fought gallantly as well as our men. They had held most of there tanks back until we tried to take the objectives and then they pounced on us. It was a very bloody and prolonged fight but our tank gunners got the better of them in the end.

We are to stay here in Egypt and begin to set up defensive positons and hold the British here at Halfaya. So we will stay in Egypt until next month anyways. The battle next month will be our 10th battle since we went into Poland in 1939. Most of our troops are now veterans and will soon be elite im sure. But we still keep getting very green replacements which makes it very bad when we lose some of our old hands in these battles.

There will be no new updates as we hear every thing new is being shipped to the east front to fight the Russians. Well at least we will have over a month to regroup and maybe get some training in before our next battle.

Rommal has sent down a unit citation for the job well done here in August. And we also got a shipment of Schnaps in last night so tonite will be a big party nite.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding

[PimpYourAFV]

That's a good kill ratio especially for the Romans against the UK.  Let's see how you do in Russia.