I concede that the Spec Ops were a decisive factor in this battle. My starting force was purely infantry and guns, since I was mortally afraid of having my tanks taken apart by the U.S.A.A.F.
I therefor put 24 Sdkfz 6/2 SPAA´s on the field but not a single tank. When Jess opened up with three platoons of 155mm SPA´s I knew I was in deep trouble, as these would reduce a spotted AT position in no time. But the Gods of War benevolently moved this threat into the reach of my infiltrators, whose principal mission would have been recon otherwise. I got even more lucky and destroyed half of Jess´ artillery force and even some of the Shermans send to relieve the guns. This was much more than I could have hoped for!
With the artillery threat lessened, and no air attacks incoming, I reinforced with two Kingtigers and six Jagdpanzers. Since Jess had shelled my Nebelwerfers quite liberally at the start of the battle, I used shoot and scoot tactics on all my 42 onboard artillery pieces, which placed a heavy demand on the halftracks, so I added two more platoons of four.
Often unharrassed by enemy artillery, I could put my recon patrols and Panzerschreck teams to good use. Many of the destroyed M4´s have HEAT round holes in them!:D
I badly misused the Kingtigers by sending them into close combat, the only situation where they are truly vulnerable. They should be used for overwatch, a lesson I will remember in the future..
The Jpz-IV´s were a disappointment. I underestimated their low targeting rate (remember that this is an assault gun configuration) and when they were charged after having moved in their previous turn, their op fire was extremely inaccurate (less than five percent hit probability). I lost five out of six Jagdpanzers, this shows how bad they fared.
I´ll stick to real tanks in the attack now!
Other lessons learned:
- Nebelwerfer fire should be grouped together, one target next to the other, the wide scatter and only six rockets might otherwise result in no hits in the desired area. BM-13 Katyushas with 16 rockets don´t have this problem:D
- The 105mm recoilless is surprisingly accurate and effective, I bought it to test its mettle after reading praise of it in a DAR, and wasn´t disppointed. Only drawback is that it produces a lot of smoke and will reveal its postion after 2-3 shots
- The M4A376 is dangerous! And bascically a close combat tank, this is the situation one should prepare for. On the free field, it would be blown apart by Tigers and Panthers. Also, my 75mm PaK was not always effective against its armour, I had repeated hits without penetrations against the front. Watch out, maybe go for 88mm instead.
My forces:
1 HQ
2 FO´s
3 75mm FH platoons
3 Nebelwerfer platoons
3 Med Mortar batteries
4 Ammo Dumps
5 Halftrack platoons of 4
4 75mm PaK platoons
5 105mm RCL sections
3 SS Rifle Companies w/o mortars
8 Recon Patrols á 3
10 Panzerschreck AT teams á 3
6 SdKfz 6/2 SPAA platoons
3 Snipers
Reinforcements:
1 Kingtiger section
3 JpzIV-48 sections
4 Kübelwagen MG á 3
2 Halftrack platoons of 4
4 Recon Teams á 3
Attachment: The M12 postion that fared worst;)
