Re: Stauffenberg's Ardennes Campaign AAR
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 12:19 am
December 30th:
Let’s cut to the action—the Battle of Huy. Yes it sounds like ‘Nam doesn’t it? But the temperature is 20 degrees (-7 C) and there is some 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. It’s not Vietnam Martha, it‘s the frigid Ardennes in late December and five German panzer divisions are charging on Huy (45,17), worth 10 much-needed VPs and Bradley has clearly decided to fight for this town to the last British soldier. I'm sure Montgomery is not happy.
Of course Peiper is on the north bank of the river leading the charge with the FBB as back-up, but his nemesis Harmel and Frundsberg are below it and attempting to clear the north-western part of the city. Das Reich and Hohenstaufen are closing from the south but it is clear the dug-in defenders are far too strong to directly assault and so the plan, after an initial costly recon in force, is to surround and throttle the place. But the British 51st Highland Division has made Peiper’s approach, the northern prong of the encirclement, ahem difficult, attacking and cutting off his pioneer btn along the river (and incidentally the Highland Division was referred to as the "Highway Decorators" by other divisions who became used to discovering the 'HD' insignia painted wherever the Highlanders had passed through). In Huy city centre are four British battalion stalwarts dug in, including the 1st Black Watch Rifles. ‘This really does not look good’ thinks Peiper, cursing the fact that his Tigers are long gone due to combat losses and breakdowns:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1145471
In the north Denkert’s 5.PzG Div crashes in and takes Imgenbroich for 2VPs and moves on to invest Simerath.
18.VGD has advanced into Verviers and makes an all-out assault on the city centre which fails. The 12.SS Jugends drive NE towards Liege, slowed by the British who take stiff tank losses.
Lehr grinds on towards Ciney (33,42) but the Brits are dug in and, while they take stiff losses, Bayerlein is still some 6 kms from this 5 VP town. British reinforcements just seem to keep appearing, and much to his frustration cut his main supply line to the rear causing him to divert units back to deal with this.
Further south the two green US divisions continue to cause major havoc launching numerous raids and attacks along Manteuffel’s main 5.Pz Armee army supply corridor, delaying elements of 9.PzD being diverted back to Bastogne. Hasso von Manteuffel, after a heated shouting match with his superior, the always haughty Generalfeldmarschall Model, also diverted 2.PzD back to protect Bastogne on his own initiative but it too has been delayed to deal with US 75th ID attacks which reached the outskirts of Marche and torched the major German supply dump there. By evening the supply dump is burning and visible from miles away. After learning of this latest development Model called Manteuffel and said “Verdammt Hasso, du hattest doch recht!“ (Damn it Hasso you were right!“).
The hard-marching and exhausted men of 9. and 167.Volksturm Divisions are now digging in between Patton and Bastogne as there is a pause in the American advance for now, likely as a result of a number of diehard 5.FSJ surrounded units hedgehogged behind the American lines and delaying their advance. And so for now Generaloberst Werner Kolb personally lays out defensive lines for his 9.VGD infantry, supported by the remaining five Tiger Is of the 301.Tiger abt, finally assigned to his command after 5 FSJD disintegrated under Patton’s attacks.
And the last VGD reinforcement is hard-marching through the night towards Ettelbruch (114,97: 5 VPs) in the deep south as the US 6th Arm D is pushing towards it and Schmidt‘s 352.VGD is very hard-pressed. They can take heart perhaps as Major Eberhard Lange’s 506.Tiger Abt is part of this VGD and is also en route. [And I am going to discuss this with Davide as my sources indicate this unit was in the battle much earlier than this, facing off with Patton’s drive on Bastogne on the 19th for instance. While Peiper and the SS had their own Tiger abt (the 501st), the 506th was the only Tiger abt from the Heer (main German army) but I’m sure Davide has his reasons].
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1145332
Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 506 insignia
And back in Huy an all-out assault on the NW of the city failed against an unexpectedly heroic defense by the 7th Black Watch Highlanders. The Germans were frustrated with this… and 10.SS Frundsberg's Heinz Harmel was very impressed, just as he was with the amazingly stubborn defense by the British 1st Airborne ‘Red Devils’ at Arnhem. And I am just going by memory here but I believe it was Harmel, when severely pressed as to why he had not rubbed out Lieutenant Colonel John Frost and his men at the north end of the Arnhem bridge (probably yelled at by Model who was in overall command here too), replied “Listen to me, these are real men we are fighting here ok?” And as an aside after my slap at Montgomery, the Germans learned the hard way that neither the Brits, the Canadians, or the Americans on the west front were in any way ‘soft’ as they had been lead to expect (my grandfather certainly wasn’t: he was wounded at Vimy Ridge in 1917 and invalided home with a 'Blighty wound'. He never had anything bad to say about the Germans--”they were just like us and had a job to do”). But the comment by the Germans about the Brits in WW I comes to mind: “Lions, lead by donkeys.” But not in this war I hasten to add, at least not in the case of Auchinleck, or Archibald Wavell for that matter. I digress.
Peiper‘s attempt to relieve his engineers was repulsed but von Wietersheim's 11.Pz managed to open a supply corridor for them from the south across the Meuse. Peiper is also marshalling assault boats and pontoon bridge elements to assist on the attack on Huy tomorrow. Overnight Peiper’s completely surrounded engineers withstand concentric attacks and barely survive, suffering severe losses as they had been set to "fight to the last man."
Tomorrow is another day as they say, and it will be the last in this Ardennes AAR. Total VPs: 197: VPs needed for a Major Victory: 200.
Night-time screenshot, morning of December 31st:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1145333
Let’s cut to the action—the Battle of Huy. Yes it sounds like ‘Nam doesn’t it? But the temperature is 20 degrees (-7 C) and there is some 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. It’s not Vietnam Martha, it‘s the frigid Ardennes in late December and five German panzer divisions are charging on Huy (45,17), worth 10 much-needed VPs and Bradley has clearly decided to fight for this town to the last British soldier. I'm sure Montgomery is not happy.
Of course Peiper is on the north bank of the river leading the charge with the FBB as back-up, but his nemesis Harmel and Frundsberg are below it and attempting to clear the north-western part of the city. Das Reich and Hohenstaufen are closing from the south but it is clear the dug-in defenders are far too strong to directly assault and so the plan, after an initial costly recon in force, is to surround and throttle the place. But the British 51st Highland Division has made Peiper’s approach, the northern prong of the encirclement, ahem difficult, attacking and cutting off his pioneer btn along the river (and incidentally the Highland Division was referred to as the "Highway Decorators" by other divisions who became used to discovering the 'HD' insignia painted wherever the Highlanders had passed through). In Huy city centre are four British battalion stalwarts dug in, including the 1st Black Watch Rifles. ‘This really does not look good’ thinks Peiper, cursing the fact that his Tigers are long gone due to combat losses and breakdowns:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1145471
In the north Denkert’s 5.PzG Div crashes in and takes Imgenbroich for 2VPs and moves on to invest Simerath.
18.VGD has advanced into Verviers and makes an all-out assault on the city centre which fails. The 12.SS Jugends drive NE towards Liege, slowed by the British who take stiff tank losses.
Lehr grinds on towards Ciney (33,42) but the Brits are dug in and, while they take stiff losses, Bayerlein is still some 6 kms from this 5 VP town. British reinforcements just seem to keep appearing, and much to his frustration cut his main supply line to the rear causing him to divert units back to deal with this.
Further south the two green US divisions continue to cause major havoc launching numerous raids and attacks along Manteuffel’s main 5.Pz Armee army supply corridor, delaying elements of 9.PzD being diverted back to Bastogne. Hasso von Manteuffel, after a heated shouting match with his superior, the always haughty Generalfeldmarschall Model, also diverted 2.PzD back to protect Bastogne on his own initiative but it too has been delayed to deal with US 75th ID attacks which reached the outskirts of Marche and torched the major German supply dump there. By evening the supply dump is burning and visible from miles away. After learning of this latest development Model called Manteuffel and said “Verdammt Hasso, du hattest doch recht!“ (Damn it Hasso you were right!“).
The hard-marching and exhausted men of 9. and 167.Volksturm Divisions are now digging in between Patton and Bastogne as there is a pause in the American advance for now, likely as a result of a number of diehard 5.FSJ surrounded units hedgehogged behind the American lines and delaying their advance. And so for now Generaloberst Werner Kolb personally lays out defensive lines for his 9.VGD infantry, supported by the remaining five Tiger Is of the 301.Tiger abt, finally assigned to his command after 5 FSJD disintegrated under Patton’s attacks.
And the last VGD reinforcement is hard-marching through the night towards Ettelbruch (114,97: 5 VPs) in the deep south as the US 6th Arm D is pushing towards it and Schmidt‘s 352.VGD is very hard-pressed. They can take heart perhaps as Major Eberhard Lange’s 506.Tiger Abt is part of this VGD and is also en route. [And I am going to discuss this with Davide as my sources indicate this unit was in the battle much earlier than this, facing off with Patton’s drive on Bastogne on the 19th for instance. While Peiper and the SS had their own Tiger abt (the 501st), the 506th was the only Tiger abt from the Heer (main German army) but I’m sure Davide has his reasons].
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1145332
Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 506 insignia
And back in Huy an all-out assault on the NW of the city failed against an unexpectedly heroic defense by the 7th Black Watch Highlanders. The Germans were frustrated with this… and 10.SS Frundsberg's Heinz Harmel was very impressed, just as he was with the amazingly stubborn defense by the British 1st Airborne ‘Red Devils’ at Arnhem. And I am just going by memory here but I believe it was Harmel, when severely pressed as to why he had not rubbed out Lieutenant Colonel John Frost and his men at the north end of the Arnhem bridge (probably yelled at by Model who was in overall command here too), replied “Listen to me, these are real men we are fighting here ok?” And as an aside after my slap at Montgomery, the Germans learned the hard way that neither the Brits, the Canadians, or the Americans on the west front were in any way ‘soft’ as they had been lead to expect (my grandfather certainly wasn’t: he was wounded at Vimy Ridge in 1917 and invalided home with a 'Blighty wound'. He never had anything bad to say about the Germans--”they were just like us and had a job to do”). But the comment by the Germans about the Brits in WW I comes to mind: “Lions, lead by donkeys.” But not in this war I hasten to add, at least not in the case of Auchinleck, or Archibald Wavell for that matter. I digress.
Peiper‘s attempt to relieve his engineers was repulsed but von Wietersheim's 11.Pz managed to open a supply corridor for them from the south across the Meuse. Peiper is also marshalling assault boats and pontoon bridge elements to assist on the attack on Huy tomorrow. Overnight Peiper’s completely surrounded engineers withstand concentric attacks and barely survive, suffering severe losses as they had been set to "fight to the last man."
Tomorrow is another day as they say, and it will be the last in this Ardennes AAR. Total VPs: 197: VPs needed for a Major Victory: 200.
Night-time screenshot, morning of December 31st:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1145333
