Grenadiers Long campaign

[robot]

Bardia Libya
9/24/1041
1900 Hours

Wow I cant believe it 2 years ago our unit was formed and we were on our way to invade Poland. We sure have been throgh the mill since then. Have fought over 9 battles not always getting the best of them too. But I have seen the men develop into a tough hard disciplined fighting force over the two years. I am proud to be the commandant of these men.

We have been givin orders to advance against the British once again. We are to try and push them away from Bardia. We will advance in a three company front. We will be moving over a small ridge line and advance towards tthree hills guarding our objectives. We will move up to the western base and hold and wait for the British to come to us. We will then sit and pick off there armor as it comes into our view. There wil be a tank in each 50 yard wide radius with at least a squad of infantry. This is because the visability is limited today to 250 yard and the tanks siting behind the infantry will not have a shot at the advancing enemy in time to be really effective. Id rather have the enemy armor run into the infantry first then our tanks shoot over there heads in support but with the low vis this is not always viable tatics.

We shall see how this works out as the British are sure to send in there tanks first. Have zeroed the 150 on the reverse slopes of each hill in the hope of cutting them down before they get to the top of the hills. Most of our troops have about 400 yards to reach the western slope of the hills except for the southern flank. Which once again has to move further across open land to reach there hill. I have given orders to move as fast as they can and take the westrern slope of the hill. Then they are to set up a static line of defense and wait for my orders to move up and over the hills after a lot of the enemy forces have been taken care of. I must be sure it is time to move forward at the proper time. I must get reports from each company and capture enemy troops so we can question them. We even after capturing all forward objectives will have along way to go to reach and capture the two remaining rear objectives.

HQ: XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding

[robot]

Bardia Libya
9/24/1941
1930 Hours

The first contact came at 1915 Hours as the british sent in there first recon cars. Both companys in the north have reached the western slopes of there respective hills and are dug in. Has been pertty quite in the north and only slight activity in the center. Not much enemy infantry have been sighted so far. As always the British have been sending in ther armor in the forfront of there troops. As they come into view our tank gunners have been cutting them down. We laid down a heavy bombardment behind the center hill this may have cut there infantry down some.

In the south it is a different story they have been hit the hardest. Already the southern flank has taken out at least 20 tanks so far. Especially the extreme southern map edge. At least 12 tanks has hit there line so far. They have taken out at least 6 of these tanks. When reports were recieved that they had sighted this force I sent 2 more tanks to reinforce the two that were already there. This extra fire power seems to have slowed down there attack there for the time being. Have laid 81 and the companys quota of mortars on the tanks as well. So far only maybe 3 squads of infantry have been sighted anywheres along our lines they were quickly routed. I assume our 150 are doing the job they were given very well. The only losses we have had have been from the bombardment and these have been to our southern flank when they came under one of the worst artty drops I have seen in our two years of fighting. Every thing has been hitting them from 2inch morters and 18 and 25 pounders plus 4.5 raining down on them almost constantly since the first tanks appeared. How they are holding together is beyond me. Hell it even gave me the willies and im at least 800 yards away from there. I dont see how they have been able to return the enemys fire under such extreme pressure.

HQ: XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding

[robot]

Bardia Libya
9/24/1941
2010 Hours

We have managed to push the British back off the top of all the hills so far. Our advance has taken all the forward objectives and pushed at least 100 yards beyond these points. near to 1200 yards to go to capture the rear objective and we are moving slow. Still continue to run into scaterered units as we advance. Most of the enemy activity has been slowed down already. Think we have all but eliminated there armor they had.

We are stiil suffering heavy loss of life due to the constant bombardmenet from there 105s and 18 lb guns. Have also lost 2 sig 150s to this same bombardment. It is hard to get the men to move at this stage in the battle. They dont want to come out of there fox holes and move any wheres. It is taking true anger from the non coms to get them to move.

Enclosed is an aireal photo taken 20 minutes or so ago showing some of the tanks hitting our extreme southern flank. The Engineers that were holding that flank down took an awful lot of punishment in a very short time from there Armor as it tried to break thru our flank. I have to say the Engineers held very well and showed some true grit as they helped our armor repulse the heavy onslaught of tanks from the British. A couple of the squads took out at least 3 of the tanks by there selves. Lost a sig 33 here along with at least a dozen men from the Engineers. One of our tanks a Pz IIIh lost its main gun as well. It was a savage close quarter in your face type of fight that could have went either way. But thanks to the superior training of the German soldier we held and repulsed the attack with heavy losses to the British. I would like to put the platoon of Engineers from A company in for a citation for todays heroics.

HQ: XV Panzer Grendiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding

[robot]

Bardia Libya
9/24/1941
2050 hours

Less then two hours this battle took. The British have retired from the field and we are the victors. We gave them a heck of a beating this time. Also we kept our losses at a minimum this time. Losing only 192 and 9 tanks plus one artty. Most of our casualties came from the heavy bombardments from there 4.5 guns. We inflicted 1567 enemy deaths plus took out 81 of there tanks and 28 of those pesky 2 inch mortars with three 18 lb guns for good measure.

Once we had taken the forward objectives i began to fan my left flank out and down to squeeze the enemy into towards the middle. Sort of like a giant scythe swinging at the enemy flank. This drove them down and caught them between the center and the flank. Caught a lot of unsuspecting British in this move and quckly killed or maimed a hell of alot of there troops. What with the cemter pushing forward and driving them along our front they were caught in a hail of death. The rear objective was soon taken and the British gave up the fight.

We have been given new orders to set up defensive lines around Bardia next month and hold the British where they are and to allow for no advance. Hq has deemed it right to have 2 lt pill boxes constructed for us to hold the line and have sent a section of heavy 88 ATG as well. We will also have 60 mines to deploy in front of our lines. 2 machine gun nests have been built to give the pill boxes as much support as possible. If we continue to deal as much damage like we have in our previous fights against the British they will soon have to give up any hope here in Libya and go home to England we all hope.

Hope to get some time off to visit home during the constrution of our defenses. After all it was in 1940 the last time I saw my folks and im sure they would like to see me as well. We have been fighting almost every month since we invaded Poland in 1939. Seems as tho this war will never end.

HQ: XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding