Running AAR: Pattons Favourite

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I suddenly found myself with a whole morning of free time. It was all to long ago I played around with BFTB and I decided that it was time to change that. I just picked a random scenario, the grand AAR thread I started previously will have to wait, it looks more like a chore than fun at the moment[:)]. Besides, it would be nice to be on the winning team for once.

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This is the situation at the start of the scenario. The picture of the opposing forces are rather lacking. Out there is at least a FJ division, hopefully not just waiting for me.

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D2 0500

Six hours into my advance...
The darkness has worked to my advantage, at least that is the feeling I am having. My forces has not yet stumbled upon any unwelcomed surprises. The FJ units encountered did not put up much fight and have mostly been scattered. Neither has any serious AT threats been encountered.

The only thing that have giving my forces trouble is harassing artillery fire. This has however not effected the speed of my advance. 10th bn used initiative when they realised in what dissorder the german forces where in, and started to make a daring dash against CHAUMONT, and seize som vital road junctions controlling the area.
They have left some units behind as rear guard, to prevent them from being cut off. The brigade enablers are also tasked with supporting this.

The 8th Bn reached the Hwy in good order and have only encountered light opposition.

My main questions now is on what enemy formations that I have managed to bypass in the cover of darkness. Have I made a breakthrough that I can exploit, or did I just got trapped in some kind of clever encirclement? Since I have the momentum and initiative I find the last very unlikely.

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D2 1100

Shortly after 0500 enemy arty started to get real bothersome. Even rockets where heard flying through the air, crashing down all around my now deployed units. Hit especially hard where the boys along the Hwy. They had setup defensive positions and would now just have to dig in even faster. Miraculously I suffered very low casualties from all those rockets and grenades. A few trucks are burning and some minor cuts and bruises all around, but nothing serious. I guess I am lucky somehow.

The enemy however managed to cut off my troops as soon after they unopposed seized CHAUMONT. Airstrikes and a hasty attack, widen my defences to cover any dead ground and vital avenues of approach. It was with ease that I managed to repulse a whole FJ Bn. Good fields of fire and tanks can

I have not bothered advancing further north on the hwy since I am expecting a counter attack, or at least some serious defences.

I aim to in turn counter attack any enemy attack this with the CCA when they arrive from the south, and push as far north as possible. Any other venture north will need to be supported by heavy artillery, and I am starting to running low on ammunition at the moment.

I feel that there is a risk of me getting overrunned if I would be unable to use my superior fire-power. Because of that its vital to keep my supply lines open. I will have to focus more on this and not risk being cut off again.

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D2 1500

The enemy artillery has really picked up in efficiency and intensity. I have all of a sudden whole companies that effectively are shattered, and will be no use for me any more. Realising this, I have suddenly realised that I better push on, since my men apparently are dying anyway.
The advance had begun along both my axis, supported by frequent air strikes. Down south the CCA has finally started to show up. They are ordered to head as quickly as possible up along the hwy to give support.

Intel are now starting to show that the enemy main effort is concentrated along the hwy. I need to consider to abandon using that route and instead use the smaller roads to reach north and BASTOGNE. If I send up units in piecemeal the road network should be able to manage. The last thing I want is traffic jams as ripe fat targets for the enemy artillery. Another reason to avoid the higway is that risk for getting caught in the wooded parts, where my the range of my guns suddenly becomes useless.

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D2 2300

The night brought a well wanted stop on the enemy artillery.
The going along the highway did not go as good as hoped. The bug with the formation leader taking point occured, and with a routed commander the whole formation soon came to a halt.
Now everything is moving again, but it did cost both time, men and equipment.

My brigade CP has come under threat from FJs that have managed to infiltrate my defense somehow. This is of course not good, and has diverted my reserves from where they really where needed better.

My lead elements setting up defences in GRANDRU up north just encountered an enemy armoured recon bn. It will be interesting to see what follows in its tracks. The plan is that I will have CCA in full strength up until at least noon in order to engage any enemy counter attack. Until then its defense that is main priority, especially since the troops are beginning to tire.

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D3 1200

My assessment of the enemy has changed a lot during the past 12hrs. The Enemy 5th FJ division is defeated, its divisional HQ overunned and there just remains some scattered units, however mostly behind my own lines.
The new threat is the enemies armoured elements that have crashed into my forces with full strenght from the north and north west. The result from this is that my 10th Bn has been hit hard and just barely managed to fight its way out from being encircled. I had to order them to withdraw to be able to save them. It however looks like the enemy also got hit hard in the engagement, and there are indications that their units also have begun to withdraw. In hindsight I would have been better just to push on, but the situation looked very bleak when the call was made.

Along the highway things are however looking good. The highway itself is open and four of my units have all ready been able to exit to BASTOGNE. Two reduced FJ companies are still conducing some ambushes along the most northern part of the road, but they are easy to bypass with armoured vehicles.

I will soon have filled up the exit objectives and can turn my full attention towards securing the two northern objectives of ASSENOIS ans SIBRET. My initial plan seem still to hold, with the exception that CCR will now support CCA instead of just heading for the exits.

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D4 0000

Nothing extraordinary has happened. The boys of CCB that has been fighting for two full days now are beginning to be rather exhausted. I have refrained from do any attacks with them until their fatigue levels has gone down. The 8th Bn on the left have however been hard pressed and two companies has been disbanded, merged with others in the bn. They have however repulsed any attempts for counterattacks and has gotten ample support by artillery in doing so,

Along the highway the situation is under control. A whole bn has allready exited and another will do the same in a couple of hours. The enemy has put up some defenders along the exit I use, so they will have to be dealt with first.

The last two reinforcing bns where on foot, and it is remarkable how slow they are in comparison with the mechanized forces already deployed on the battlefield. Never the less, one of them will do a left flanking manoeuvre and create a opportunity for the CCB bn (8th) to do a final push against the last objectives. My main goal with the operation is the relieve BASTOGNE, and that has been completed.
The scenario however also want me to seize ASSENOIS and SIBRET as well. I will do this rather careful, emphasizing security in order to not risk losing any more men.

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END

I was not quick enough to capture all objectives, which led to that the enemy scored quite few points. I also lost quite a lot of men. This mainly happened the last 12hrs when the CCR reinforcements came in from the west. I did not bother to tend to them that much, since they consisted of a fresh very capable fighting force. They however managed to get into all kinds of trouble early on, and it took me to much time to fathom the extent of it. They for example crashed head on with their support companies in the lead against deployed German AT and artillery guns. This together with their HQ units being up in the lead as well (damn bug, never noticed it as much before as now), created a serious traffic jam in a very dangerous kill zone.

I must admit that I also was rather careless when it came to upholding my supply lines.
I am still more used to play airborne operations in COTA, where its the norm to be cut off from supply, and things mover more slowly on foot in the heat. Armoured battalions are easy to spearhead right through the enemy, effectively cutting themselves off from communications and resupply.

Btw, does losses in supply columns somehow factor in on the results on KIA and destroyed equipment? I do not remember myself... better look that up.

It was a nice reunion with the series, and I am really looking forward to the HTTR add-on and updates. [:)]