Grenadiers advance msus 1/23/42

[robot]

Msus Liby
January 23, 1942
1600 Hours

We are to advance against a strong British force just outside of Msus. Our advance will begin at 4:00pm just before sunset begins. The visability is good somewhere around 1300 yards. Our gunners will be able to pick off the enemy armor at a decent range before they can get a decent shot at us. We will be moving across mostly open range with a few low hills between us and our objectives. Most companies will have at least 600 yards and the one in the extreme south has at least 800 yards to reach any of there objectives.

Co C will have the north flank with CO f and CO D on there right flank. These are two tank company made up of three platoons of light and heavy tanks. CO B will hold down the right flank of the tanks in the middle. Co A will move forward on the extreme southern flank and take the most southern objective. Each company will have a platoon of medium and light tanks as support.

We also will have as support 7 flights of planes. HQ was unable to assign us any heavy artty today due to there commitment at Tobruk. We are near a 175 miles SW of Tobruk and opening a way here today will help us when we make a push there.

The first of our troops has already begun to move forward and this battle has begun. I can hear the deep throated roar of the stug B tanks as they begin there prep to move out. Once again we face the British in a fight to the death.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding

[robot]

Msus Libya
January 23,1942
1645 Hours

The Battle goes fairly well for us. we are pushing the British back fairly easy today. About 16 minutes ago a mess of there tanks came up over the low hill in front of our center. Some where around 20 tanks maybe even a few more then that. But our two companies of heavy and light tanks took care of them. We took out over twenty tanks within a fifteen minute fight. We lost in this fight 3 231/8 rad recon cars and 2 pz IIs. Not too bad of an exchange I would say.

Most of our losses are coming from there constant bombardment of our troops. Lot of artty shells falling all over the place. I know we have lost at least 60 men and a couple of SPAA along with at least 2 SP ATG and one SPIG to this harrassing fire of there big guns.

But for our credit we are killing British soldiers at an alarming rate today. I would say they have lost well over 1500 men along with at least 40 tanks. It does not go well for the enemy. There tanks showed up about 20 minutes into the fight and have continued to come up over this low hill sitting in the middle of the battle field.

If we would have had some big guns I would have laid it all in on the back slopes of this hill. This would have cut down on all the traffic that seemed to come over this hill all day.

There is no doubt on the outcome of this battle I just hope we can continue to push forward until we take all of our objectives today. We must not get too excited and try to move too quick and get our selves into a big pickle. So far the tanks have been holding down on there speed and staying pretty well in line with our infantry troops. The only front objective not in our hands yet is the southern one. But A CO had the most ground to cover and they have met stiff resistance in the south. At least 15 tanks met them down there along with well over a company of troops. They have taken out most of the opposition and are now getting very close to taking and securing there objective.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding

[robot]

Msus Libya
January 23,1942
1730 Hours


All objectives have been taken and the British have withdrawn from the battle field. We have inflicted heavy losses to the enemy today. They lost 1933 men along with 32 artty. Also we destroyed 47 of there tanks. Our losses although slight were way more then we can afford as we don't have the men or resources to replace like we use too. 196 very brave men went down along with 4 apcs and 14 of our armor.

I don't see how the British can continue to mount any kind of a true force when we continue to blast them in each and every battle we have with them. Once again we have proven we are the better at our jobs then they were.

We are able to get some supplies thru and will be upgrading a few of our losses today. We are to move over to near Bir Hacheim next month and once again pit our might against the dreaded British. The AT guns we lost will be upgraded to Laz 762 a little more armor and power there. Also lost a couple 150 IGs they will be replaced by Stueg 33 the latest in heavy IG. Any 231/8 rads that were lost will be replaced by PZFs. Couple of PZF that were lost are being replaced by Stug Es. So we will gain some more armor and hitting power.

The men are confident we will once again take the British as we don't believe they are any wheres near us in fighting strength. HQ has issued a statement that todays batttle will go down as a minor victory. I assume it is for the losses as we really must cut back on them. Almost all our countrys resources are going to the eastern front now. We have heard things are not going too well on that front.

HQ: XV Grenadiers
Col: Karl Mueller Commanding