Assault on the Sauer

[Guy Miller]

next up is the scenario "Assault on the Sauer." MY Grenadiers are crossing the Sauer while light bridges are being built for reinforcing AT equipment.

I am certain to be facing some armor from the American 9th, so I am going to try to avoid that for as long as possible as I don't have much AT capability yet. I do have plenty of ART though, so hopefully I can slow down any Allied armor assaults/strong points with my heavy guns.

There's a lot of objectives AND I have to exit my forces, so, I have decided that I cannot take all the objectives. You can see my planned attack route below - Heavy on the Eastern flank, right down the highway. Just flanking movements to the West and little activity down the middle in all the woods. I figure American defenses are there and ready to ambush my tired Grenadiers.

Taking Echternach is the first main objective, mainly to keep the enemy off my bridge builders. After that I plan to move in Regimental Strength due south in a straight line. During the nights I will bring up my ART to stay in support range. As soon as the bridges are built, get those AT support units across and take on the expected armor.


I took Echternach from two sides and with HEAVY ART support. I then used ART to keep the persistent Americans away.



The Regiment moving down the West flank encountered no opposition beyond Eppeldorf. Regiments 986, 987 & 988 all slide to the East a bit and get ready for their southern assault to provide flanking cover for my main assault.

 

[Kurt]

Nice , its my favorite scenario .

 

[Guy Miller]

here's where I'm on the morning of the 3rd day. I've included pics of my two main areas of conflict along with plans for the day.



Here's where I made a mistake. I wanted to ad-hoc group (ENG, AT, FLK) to take an avoidance path to meet up with the 987 Reg, but I told it to go "quickest and fastest" instead of avoidance. So...it met with some meaningless resistance at Beaufort. The group has no INF except and ENG Bn so I will have to use ART to free it up. I changed the orders to "bypass" as well.

 

[Guy Miller]

as Day 4 dawns, here's the situation: All quiet on the Western Front, just holding objectives; lots of action down the main assault lane. I gave my forces plenty of rest last night so we should be good to go. I also moved all the necessary ART south into position. Hopefully today I will take all 3 objectives as seen below. I haven't run into much armor yet, so I am expecting that to be a problem soon. My AT units are in place though to help out.

My INF seems pretty weak, retreating quickly from any engagement. My heavy ART really saves the day. My advance is cautious though, maybe TOO cautious. I have a lot of ground to cover before I can exit the map safely.

 

[Guy Miller]

day 5

well, day 4 proved once again that no plan survives contact with the enemy. All in all not bad, but, I finally ran into the America 9th. Only heavy ART worked against the Shermans. I did a poor job bringing up my AT support units, but still, exiting the map without getting mauled by tanks is going to be tough.

On the West Flank, the 986 Reg has been quiet. they are going to make a cautious probe towards Christnach and grab it if they can. otherwise they will simply exit the map. If nothing else, it will be a diversion and keep some Allied units from reinforcing the main advance to the East.


At the main point of attack I still have some work to do to get ready for the final day and the exit I hope to make. I also want to keep these objectives against the counter-attack I know will be coming. The 988 REG can hopefully keep Allied units from reinforcing from the West.

 

[Guy Miller]

well, my main advance got held up in a major way. All day bombardment and repeated assault from multiple sides could not crack the allied defense. Day 5 was not a good day for the Germans. My troops are exhausted, some not even responding at all. My ART is spent. Time to start stealthily exiting if possible.
On a positive note, the entire 988 REG in the West exited the map without incident.

 

[Guy Miller]

wow, there were a lot more Allied units than what I thought. No wonder I couldn't get through. I obviously got way too reckless on the last 2 days. My idea of having a main line of advance was good, but too large. A narrower point of attack might have got me through.



An excellent scenario. it's tough to take on those Shermans with just GREN. With some more experience under my belt I think I can come back to this at a later date and do better.

I learned a lot about paying attention to which paths I am sending my units on (use those tools!!) and about the importance of not exhausting my virtual troops.

 

[Takoda]

Keep these coming mate, I really enjoy reading them.

 

[Guy Miller]

thank you!