BFTB AAR: The Losheim Gap

[simovitch]

Having the need to set up some screenshots for the Reference Manual, I figured I would take the opportunity to provide an AAR that will showcase some of the new features for BFTB using the last build that was released in October. It should be fairly stable and has most of the features that will make it into the final build. I will try to post at least one update every day.

I've selected one of my favorite situations from the Ardennes Battles; The envelopment of the Schnee Eifel and the advance to the Our River Bridges at Schönberg, Steinebrück, and Andler. If all goes well I will attempt to secure or at least contest St. Vith by the time the scenario ends on December 20.

Below you see the general plan of attack. To begin, I will more or less follow the historical advance routes of the 62nd and 18th VGD and deviate as necessary to achieve my goals. The scenario begins at 6 a.m. on December 16 - after the initial bombardment. After some playtesting we decided that it would be best to do this to preclude the ahistorical use of the German Corps and Army artillery by the player during the opening bombardment. So most of the large caliber artillery begins the scenario depleted of it's ammo stocks (modifying at start supply levels is a new feature.) There is not much stock available at the Corps Base either, so the German is advised to use his artillery wisely.

The bulk of the 62nd VGD will arrive along the south edge of the board throughout the morning and attempt to sieze the crossing at Steinebrück. The 18th VGD will attempt a drive for the bridge at Schönberg from the south and Andler from the east, and in the process isolating the 2 American regiments dug in on the Schnee Eifel.

[elmo3]

<Sets up cooler and bags of munchies by the computer> OK, I'm ready now; let the battle begin.

[simovitch]

Around 9 a.m. December 16:
The northern pincer has started to move into place. I/294 of the 18th VGD is bypassing Roth to the north, headed toward Auw. Meanwhile the US defenses in Roth itself are disintigrating under pressure from II/295 and advance elements of I/295 have entered the first houses in Kobscheid.

The weather is light fog and the ground is normal (meaning too close to freezing to qualify as muddy.) I may change this setting to "Ice" for December 16th since there was patches of snow on the ground and the temperatures were near freezing. Using historical weather patterns, mud will set in from December 17th-20th.

[simovitch]

Around 9 a.m. December 16:
The southern pincer has made progress as well. II/190 from the 62nd VGD is forming up for it's assault on Grosslangenfeld, while II/293 from the 18th VGD has grabbed a fairly strong foothold in Bleialf. More reinforcements are being thrown in from both the 62nd and 18th VGD and Generalmajor Lucht is confident that the crossings over the Our will be secured by nightfall.

[simovitch]

Just before sunset (3:59 p.m.) on December 16:
In the south, elements of all 3 Regiments of the 62nd VGD have entered the fray and are pushing Northwest. I/164 will hopefully push aside the scant US resistance and grab the bridge intact at Steinebrück during the evening.

[simovitch]

The hetzers of the 162nd pzjg Bn overwatch the valley of the Ihren creek nowrthwest of Grosslangenfeld:

[simovitch]

In the north, the 244th StuG Bde breaks loose along the Auw-Bleialf road to close the pincers behind the Schnee Eifel, while II/295 closes in on the bridge at Andler. This group will push on to the west and hopefully secure the bridge at Schönberg later in the evening.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: BftB - Hetzer's unit description (general tab)

The unit description of the Hetzer tank translates Hetzer with the word "troublemaker".

The German verb "hetzen" has 2 meanings:

1) to agitate (against enemies or minorities or other races)

2) as in a dog hunting/chasing a rabbit, for example. "Hetzen" then refers to the dog exhausting the rabbit by keeping him on the move, pretty much like the dogs hunting foxes in Britain. "Jemanden zu Tode hetzen" would translate to "fatally exhausting someone", i guess.

I am not sure about the english translation for Hetzer, it may be "baiter" ??, in case you could say "to bait a fox or a bear" in English. Or maybe "badger", as I think "to badge" refers to hunting/pushing someone as well?

The native speakers in here should be able to come up with a proper word. That tank's designation deals with 2) at least, and it really doesn't mean "troublemaker". [:)]

2 more things - regarding the Hetzer's gun and origin:

• 1) The (t) stands for "tschechisch" (czech), as it was based on the Czech LT-38, which was employed by the Wehrmacht 1939, before the war started. After taking over Czecheslovakia, the Germans figured that the LT-38 outclassed their Pz II and III. After conducting field tests (starting in May 1939) with nine LT-38 tanks, they demanded the Czech factory to resume production, the LT-38 was then incorporated into the Wehrmacht carrying the designation Pz38 (t). The Wehrmacht received 90 Pz 38(t) before the Invasion of Poland started. The chassis was then used for several types of tanks later on, including the Hetzer, way after the Pz 38(t) was obsolete. It would be neat if you could add a short version of this additional info [:)].

• 2) The Hetzer did not employ a modified Pz IV 75 mm gun (KwK 40 L/48), but the 75 mm PaK 39 L/48, a really powerful AT gun, which had at least the same power as the KwK L/48, as its projectiles (using PzGr40rounds) had a velocity of 930 meters/second. This gun was manufactured by the company Rheinmetall and was employed in the "Sturmgeschütz n.A." (n.A = neue Art -> new kind/type), which was redesignated Jadgpanzer IV and really suffered of a bad chassis design, and it was employed in the extremely successful Hetzer. The PaK 39 was redesignated "Panzerjägerkanone 40" later on. Some common publications on the net seem to mix up these guns.

[Prince of Eckmühl]

Very Cool. Really looking forward to the game. I still play CotA, most recently a lot of "Sidi Rezegh."

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: GoodGuy

I am not sure about the english translation for Hetzer, it may be "baiter" ??, in case you could say "to bait a fox or a bear" in English. Or maybe "badger", as I think "to badge" refers to hunting/pushing someone as well?

The native speakers in here should be able to come up with a proper word. That tank's designation deals with 2) at least, and it really doesn't mean "troublemaker". [:)]

To "hound", which is to engage in "hounding'' seems like the equivalent to Hetzer. Hounding is to follow, chase, or pester somebody in a persistent or relentless manner-as a dog would hound a rabbit. A hound is actually a type of hunting dog-(so, the hound could hound). Synonyms would be; harassment, discrimination, harrying, single out for ill special treatment, chase, hunt, pursue, and bullying.

Hounder is not a word, but it would make a good name for a military vehicle. This would be the closest to Hetzer.

[simovitch]

12:30 p.m. December 17th:
I have managed to secure all 3 of the major crossing sites over the Our in this sector without a single bridge being blown. However I'm starting to feel some pressure from the 2 trapped regiments who now seem to have left their positions along the Schnee Eifel and are trying to make their way westward out of the trap (the likely path of the 423rd and 422nd Regiments is shown as dashed lines on the map.)

I think I will concentrate on holding the bridges and containing the trapped regiments, but send some screening forces from the 18th VGD west from Andler and the 62nd VGD north from Burg Reuland toward St. Vith. The Führer Begleit Brigade is due to show up on the 19th and I will most likely send them west to invest St. Vith while the remainder of the Volksgrenadiers mop up east of the Our.

[simovitch]

Here's a good example of the new feature where the map textures have changed now that mud has set in on the 17th. You can compare the texture below with the sceenshots from December 16th:

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: 06 Maestro

Hounder is not a word, but it would make a good name for a military vehicle. This would be the closest to Hetzer.

Hounding rather translates to "hunting" (jagen) in German, maybe it's "to rush someone"? While in multiplayer RTS games the word Rusher refers to someone storming the enemy base with "loads" of low quality troops or light vehicles, where the opponent still tries to enhance the production tree to produce/field heavy equipment, i'd say "Rusher" might fit, as it would describe a situation where a victim is being exhausted by chasing him/it across the territory, too. No?

Sorry for interrupting your AAR, Simo, pls go ahead.[:)]

[simovitch]

According to Wiki (which I am usually loath to reference) the name "Hetzer" was proliferated by post war historians and was not even used by the German troops. But we will leave the name in since it is a popular contemporary reference.

I have always heard "agitator" was the English translation. I'm tempted to just take out the translation though.

[06 Maestro]

simovitch

Can you give us a shot of the AO wth the map grid on?

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: simovitch

According to Wiki (which I am usually loath to reference) the name "Hetzer" was proliferated by post war historians and was not even used by the German troops. But we will leave the name in since it is a popular contemporary reference.

I have always heard "agitator" was the English translation. I'm tempted to just take out the translation though.

No, sorry, agitator is as wrong as troublemaker.
And why would a tank destroyer be called (i.e. racist or political) agitator, if it belonged to that set of weapons whose role was to pursue tanks or at least fend them off? [:D]

An agitator is a rabble-rouser: Quote from Merriam-Webster online dictionary explaining the word rabble-rouser: "one who stirs up the masses of the people (as to hatred or violence) : Demagogue".
German communists and Nationalsocialists (Nazis) alike used the term "agitate" (same word in german) when they were referring to win over the masses for their (violent) course.

This term doesn't even come close to the original meaning of the word Hetzer.

Few publications point out that it's still disputed whether Hetzer was an officially used designation or just an inofficial nickname. Guderian claimed before Hitler that the troops would call this tank "Hetzer".
It's possible that Guderian just made it up, especially since the troops in the field invented names and abbreviations for ineffective or cheesy weapons, nicknames which kind of undermined the morale - so he might have searched for an impressive/aggressive nickname for the Jagdpanzer 38(t) to make sure it wouldn't end up with a derogative nickname: as it was a low cost tank with confined space for the crew and really thin side armor - rather disliked by the troops, although this tiny vehicle had a firepower similar to the Jadgpanzer IV and the Pz IV and a really good kill ratio, if operated by well trained crews.

A good example for derogative nicknames invented by the troops in the field would be "Panzer-Anklopfgerät" (tank door knocker or tank door knocking device) for the "small" calibre PaKs (ie. Pak 38) used early in the Russian campaign and the nickname "Guderian-Ente" (Guderian-"duck") for the Jadgpanzer IV, a tank that was very top-heavy and slow, due to the weight of the gun and the design of the glacis/gun mantlet.

Wiki isn't the best source here, really. Still, in the german Wiki discussion of the German Hetzer article, a user states that his grandfather commanded a Hetzer and that he and his crew were using that nickname. The term had been used, question is whether it was an official tag or just a nickname used by the troops.
I haven't seen anyone coming up with proof on the net (original field manual, written Wehrmacht orders, etc) that it was an official tag, yet.
Also, the english Hetzer article doesn't even have a discussion, nor does it provide a list of sources (books, data tables). A wiki-entry without reference to proper source material is 1.) useless 2.) not very trustworthy.

The french and the dutch articles are pretty much copies or excerpts of the English article.
The German article didn't take over the alleged nickname-history and mentions that it's still disputed who invented it and whether it has been used officially or not, due to the state (or lack) of source material.

Common literature covering the Hetzer keeps taking over "Hetzer" as official tag from earlier publications, so this really doesn't prove that Hetzer was an official tag, true, but the fanbois insisting on it to be a pure post-war thing totally ignore the veteran accounts - and there are quite some, on- and offline (tv).

Anyway, I guess you should take out the current translation.

[simovitch]

Sure:

[06 Maestro]

Thanks for the grid shot-it puts it into perspective. The terrain looks tough, but there are a lot of paths for the Americans to cover.
I imagine that German (game) losses were small at this point.

[Deathtreader]

ORIGINAL: simovitch

Here's a good example of the new feature where the map textures have changed now that mud has set in on the 17th. You can compare the texture below with the sceenshots from December 16th:

Hi all,

I like this feature as it adds some immersion -- for me at least. Will it also change from mud to snow?? And back again??
Can't wait for this puppy.......
Thanks.

Rob. [:)]

Rob.

[Arjuna]

Yep, sure does.