Autumn Fog - Allied

[MikeJ19]

The situation in the North

[MikeJ19]

The Germans in this sector are feeling the effects of 10 days of fighting. There are only a few units with good health in this area.

The 83rd is going to entrench and hold the northern flank for the 8th, who are going to continue to push South with a view to take Gemund from the East.

The German line West of Hofen is slowly being pushed back. The 9th, 78th and 3rd Armd are going to continue to push South. I am slowly regaining the ground lost in the initial attack.

The 2nd Inf and the 7th Armd are going to push East. Hopefully, the 2nd Inf can push past the 257 VGD that is anchoring the northern end of the German line pushing near Robertville.

Elsenborn remains the objective for the 2nd Inf.

[MikeJ19]

For the first time, the Germans withdrew, I think, forces from their main westward push. They have moved a bunch of units – I think at least a division’s worth – into the St. Vith area.

At the same time, they continued to attack North along the River near Malmedy and West past Fraiture. The majority of German units have a yellow health status.

I’m confident that my line will not be pierced. The 82nd and 10th Armd need a break, so I will pull them back again this afternoon, but the 30th, 75th and 5th Armd are ready to take over.

I would like to attack South near Robertville, but do not really have the strength at the moment, so this will wait.

I will address the 4th Armd and 80th on the next post.

[MikeJ19]

The situation in the South

[MikeJ19]

I got caught up and missed a morning of slide shots. So, we are now onto the afternoon of the 27th.

[MikeJ19]

The northern sector

[MikeJ19]

The last 24 hours has seen some good advancement for the Americans. There is a big hole for me to exploit and I have been moving South grabbing key road nodes and bridges.

That being said, my forces are overextended in a couple of spots. I have to decide if I need to pull some of the 8th Inf back towards the main body, or to leave them where they are at the moment.

The 83rd and 84th will finish the destruction of the German Artillery units SE of Duren.

The 8th will consolidate around Gemund. The 78th and 3rd Armd will continue to push South towards Elsenborn and Krinkelt. The 9th Inf is regrouping this afternoon.

The 2nd and 7th Armd are going to continue their push as well – heading East for the most part, this should put the Germans around Hofen in a very tenuous position.

[MikeJ19]

The Germans have moved some forces to defend my advance towards St. Vith. They have also continued to push North near Malmedy and West past Fraiture. The commanders must be concerned about supply, but they continue to push hard.

The 1st Inf will conduct some counter attacks, trying to push the Germans back over the river.

The German push South of Manhay looks like it has been thinned out a bit. I’m going to try to counter attack with the 5th and some of the 10th Armd Divs. It would be awesome if I could push them back towards Fraiture.

The 101st is going to continue to hold tight. As is the 9th Armd, who I will launch back into the fray soon.

The 4th and 11th Armd Divs and the 80th Inf will push slowly towards St. Vith. I have a lot of units here, but I need to watch their health levels.

The 5th is going to push NE towards Bleialf and then Schonberg.

The 35th is going to push NE for a bit more, before turning NW towards Loshiem (which is about 10 Ks NE of Schonberg). This move should really threaten the Germans in this sector. Furthermore, it will threaten the supply lines of the entire German force – when combined with the current positioning of the 8th Inf (see last post)

[MikeJ19]

The South

[MikeJ19]

Morning brief to the commander

[MikeJ19]

Here is the situation in the North

[MikeJ19]

The German position in this area is in trouble. There is already a pocket of surrounded units West of Gemund. The units in the Hofen area are in danger of being cut off as well. Things are progressing well here.

The Germans have responded by bringing the 11 Pz Div into the area facing the 8th Inf.

The 84th and 83rd are going to continue to destroy the German artillery units in the NE corner of the map.

The 8th Inf and 78th will start working on the Germans trapped West of Gemund. The rest of the 8th will hold tight.

The 2nd Inf and 7th Armd will work on completing the encirclement of the Germans near Hofen. At the same time, the 3rd Armd and 9th will continue to push South.

[MikeJ19]

My counter attack in the West has started well. It helps that the Germans had withdrawn some forces, but the 5th and 10th Armd were able to gain some ground.

As can be seen, the Germans have a lot of units in the St. Vith area. I had pushed to the outskirts of the town, only to be pushed back earlier this morning.

The 1st SS Pz Div is in the Beho area and 10th SS is in the area around Bleialf. There are elements from a bunch of divisions around St. Vith. I have to be very careful that I do not out run my resources.

My intent is that the forces in the North hold – they may conduct some local moves, but for the most part they entrench themselves.

Same goes for the 30th, 106th and 82nd AB.

I am going to move the 75th to follow the attacks by the 5th and 10th Armd Divs. I want to be able to push towards Fraiture and then Salmchateau.

My forces South of St. Vith are going to pause and regroup this morning for the most part.

I’m going to move the 9th Armd towards the 35th Inf, to reinforce this success.

[MikeJ19]

Last post until next week. Here is the situation in the South

[MikeJ19]

I had some time to think...

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Mike: Why would you not want your most powerful
formation(s) to confront his most powerful one?

[MikeJ19]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for the question - I had to pause and think before responding.

Overall, I thank that this is something we often do naturally. We look for weak areas in the opposition's plans and we attack them. In a football analogy, if the defence is really good at stopping the run, we pass until we get them thinking pass first.

In The Art of Maneuver, Robert Leonhard talks about many different issues around combat. He uses the terms dislocation, disruption and pre-emption to illustrate a better way to fight. He discussed "like versus like" where he says that it is likely not the best idea to have your artillery trying to take out the enemy artillery - instead you want to get your tanks and infantry to take out the artillery. As a gunner, I was usually more worried about tanks coming over the hill in front of my gun position than about counter battery fire. (I still would not have liked being on the receiving end of counter battery fire). I can reduce my exposure to CB fire, but a lone tank on my gun position would wreak havoc.

I think it was Leonhard that also talked about keeping your main effort away from the enemy's main effort. In this scenario, I had a lot of divisions deployed to slow down the German westward penetration. But when I felt that I could counter attack, I attacked not against his main effort, but against the weak points. My feeling was that his main effort would run out of steam hitting my divisions as they slowly pulled back.

My attacks on his weak points, in this case both flanks, has triggered a slow down of his westward attack and forced him to redeploy to stop my advance. He has moved forces towards St. Vith and adopted a defensive posture. I do not want to fight a fair fight nor to have to try and roust him from these prepared locations. So, if I can swing East and cut off his supply that will make things easier for my forces.

Of course, there are times when I have to hit my opponents strongest forces. In these cases, I want to set as much in my favour as I can. Defend if possible, lots of artillery and air support. Better ground and supply - etc. Attack from an unexpected direction. In my Normandy campaign as the Allies, the Germans had their two best units defending in front of Caen. I closed up to them to try and restrict their movement, but my main attack was on their flanks. I stood a better overall chance of success that way.

I hope that this is clear. It was fun going through my reasoning again. I really enjoyed the books by Robert Leonhard and learned a lot from them. I try to apply his ideas in my game play.

All the best

[larryfulkerson]

Wow, that was really good. I like your verbage a lot. Thanks for that.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

You are welcome. Your question was very good and made me think.

Have a good day,

[MikeJ19]

Here is the situation on the afternoon of Dec 28th