US Defence of Elsenborn Ridge

[MikeJ19]

Good day all,

Having successfully conducted the attack on Elsenborn Ridge, it was time to try the challenge of defending it.

I started out with a look at the German forces:

The Germans have two divisions directly to my East and have a third in reserve. Behind that, they have elements of two SS Pz Divs ready to exploit. Their intent is to exit forces off the West edge of the map

EN Course of Action (COAs)

Blitz
Two pronged attack driving for Objs in depth, followed by pushing SS Pz forces through to exit and Elsenborn Ridge

Southern strike
Focus atk in South with both lead div
Push SS Pz forces to exits
Ignore northern Objs

Constant Pressure
Both forward divisions strike across their front to find a hole, then exploit with SS Pz forces

[MikeJ19]

Now a look at the Friendly Forces:

2nd US Div spread out across front
Two Regts fwd

Lots of Arty units in depth

Lots of reinforcements
Mostly coming in from the North
23 Regt is due to arrive on D1 between 1030-1550

Tasks
Hold Objectives
Prevent exit of German forces

The Objectives breakdown as follows:


Objective Start Time End Time Occupation Points Completion Points Total Points

Destroy the enemy 16
Wirtzfeld D2 1600 End 4 8 12
Losheimergraben D1 0600 D2 1230 8 8
Hunningen D1 1600 D3 0029 4 4 8
Muringen D1 1900 D3 0029 4 4 8
Bulligen D2 0600 End 12 12
Krinkelt D2 0830 End 4 8 12
Rocherath D2 0830 End 4 8 12
Butgenbach D2 2000 End 4 8 12
Elsenborn D3 0200 End 4 8 12

[MikeJ19]

US Courses of Action

Option 1 Defend forward
Trying to delay the enemy and force him to fight in the woods -this prevents them from being able to deploy their full weight of force

Falling back to first line of towns when pushing becomes too hard - this will be hard to time and may result in extra casualties

The concept here is to slow them down as much as possible and get them to spend time, ammo and troops in attacking defended positions

Option 2 Force Enemy North
Strongly block in the South
Fall back early in the North
Try to draw enemy towards the North - the idea is to get the enemy to atk where I want them – in the North, as this is where the majority of my reinforcements come in and this more restrictive terrain.

This may disrupt the German plan forcing them to re adjust it.

Option 3 Defend along line of cities
Weakly delay and quickly fall back on first line of cities after forest - this should preserve US combat power
May unhinge German plan - as it may move too quickly
Reinforce defences in cities early
Follow on forces will be used to counter attack German columns

Thoughts
I’m leaning towards Option 2 – the benefits are very good
Draws enemy near my main reinforcements
Draws them away from the southern exits

Problem is that I’m not sure how to do the block in the South

[rickier65]

I'll be curious to see how this goes.

Thanks
Rick

[MikeJ19]

Decision

Be Bold. I want to do option 2, so we will give it a shot.

If at D1 1800, it is not working, then I will fallback onto Option 3

[MikeJ19]

The Situation at D1 1420 in the North

[MikeJ19]

The situation in the South

[MikeJ19]

Update at D1 1524

[MikeJ19]

Update D1 1524 Front line

[MikeJ19]

D1 1524 Plan

[MikeJ19]

Thoughts
I should have thought of decision points for when to move back forward forces. This would have assisted me in some of my recent decisions reference reinforcements and moving back off the forward defensive line

I should have identified indicators that would help me understand what the enemy was doing - ie where their main effort was going. Some indicators include:

Where is main artillery support going
Where are the SS PZ forces deployed

[MikeJ19]

D2 0700 RK

[MikeJ19]

Things to add to Game

A replay feature at the end of the game, so that you can see how the AI plan unfolded
This would be very beneficial for those of us trying to learn

Intelligence being added during the game
It would be nice to receive intelligence from higher sources during the game – sort of like the info we get from our forces

Weather
A forecast would be neat
It does not have to be correct….

[MikeJ19]

D2 1145

[MikeJ19]

D2 1145 North

[MikeJ19]

D2 1145 What Now?

So, the enemy has deployed its SS Pz units trying to take the row of cities (RK M, H and H).
This is good news as it makes it harder for the Germans to push them through to the exits.

I think that I can hold those 5 cities
This gives me time to bring my reinforcements in to play without rushing them.

If I lose RK, I may have to launch a quick counterattack to retake it and it remains a key for now.

Losheimergraben stops giving me points in about 45 minutes. However, the Germans get points for taking it.

I think that I should hold onto it until darkness and then withdraw my forces
Ditto for the forces to their south west.
These two forces could be better used to provide depth to my defences.

[MikeJ19]

D2 1314

[dazkaz15]

Great AAR Mike [:)]

Looks like you need to reinforce Bullingen and pull back the depots from there as Murringen is about to fall I think.
If they take Bullingen, Honsfeld and Hunningen will be surrounded and wiped out.

I would start to pull everything in the south back to Bullingen I think.

[MikeJ19]

Thanks Daz,

It was interesting to see how quickly the situation changed. I thought that I had everything in control at 1145 and less than 2 hours later, it had all changed.

Here is the situation in the south at 1652.

[MikeJ19]

And here is the situation in the North....