Devils Hill

[springel]

Currently I am trying to master the Devil's Hill scenario as Germans.
But I failed as yet to get any better result than minor defeat.



This scenario is special to me, because I have lived for 10 years right at the central objective in the village of Beek (at the red cross below), so I know every tree of the environment (though they were a bit younger then).

And I often went to the top of the Devils Hill with my children to eat pancakes there.

Older fellow village people witnessed the fighting themselves, and I heard some horrible stories there.



In order to get some help on my playing style, I will post a bit of my actions here, so you can all tell me what I am doing wrong.

This starting post is meant to test the forum a bit wrt. picture etc., before I continue.

[springel]

What are the challenges?

- I have only infantry with short range small arms, apart from a very few StuG's and armoured cars.

- I do have decent artillery support, but I really need it.

- I have to cross very open ground that is in full view from the enemy high ground before I can start using my infantry weapons effectively.

- Canals and small lakes channel my advance to a few choke points. I am essentially limited to the crossing opposite Beek itself, the very narrow crossing at Wyler Berg, or the village of Wyler. Attacking from the South through the drop zone increases the exposed assault route with a long climb over the open fields.

- Unfortunately the scenario starts at dawn, while night time proved to be a much better time to get close. My previous assaults only reached the inside of the woods when it became dark, and then it went relatively smooth. But doing nothing for the whole day time seems a waste.

- And finally over half of my force consists of low level conscripts, something confirmed by the villagers, who said that most German soldiers there were children.

[springel]

I made the statement that those Germans had only short range small arms so are at a severe disadvantage in the open, but maybe I underestimated all the machine guns.

I have tried a lot of different approaches.

Some of the more uncomplicated ones were concentrated massive assaults on respectively the village Beek, the Wyler Berg, and the South Flank near the village of Wyler.

I have tried diversionary probes at Beek and Wyler, to bind troops over there, and a concentrated assault on Wyler. That one succeded in gaining a solid foothold in the woods.

I have tried a dual attack on the Wyler Berg, and Wyler, and infiltrating a force behind the Wyler attack into the woods Northward. That resulted in control of the woods from Wyler Berg to the South.

But in all those cases where I got a foothold, fighting on the 3rd day towards the Beek and Berg en Dal objective would always fail to gain enough terrain. At best I would acquire a temporary slight advantage on objectives, but Allied counter attacks would always take them back.

I never tried to use the Northern approach, because it seems very exposed, and the canal severely hampers the East West movement possibilities.

[Arjuna]

IIRC I won this one as the Germans by focusing in Wyler Berg with a two Bn attack. I first sent the 1st Bn STA to clear out the eng position north of Beek and then to probe south towards Beek. I also ordered the 2 FUE Bn to probe NW towards Wyler. I then ordered the 2nd FUE and 2nd STA Bns into a deliberate attack on Wyler Berg. IIRC I used successive lines formation. Not 100% sure on that but it's what I would now anyway. [:)] Once you take Wyler Berg order one of the attacking BNs to attack NW towards Beek and order the 1st STA Bn to change from a probe to an atatck ( depending on their success to date of course ). That should unhinge the Allied defence at Beek. But it's a close run thing and as you say your troops are pretty poor up against crack paras. Not an easy task and historically they failed.

[Lieste]

I'd be tempted to move as close as possible under cover, then rest up for the whole of D1.

Plot movement just before sunset, and move throughout the night. Mark up a screenshot just before dusk, showing all the unit positions known - these should get a short pasting as your infantry closes. (not a map I'm familiar with, so distances etc are obscure...) You want to keep at least a few Bn/Coy depending on formation scales as a rested, mobile reserve - they want to be 'on' the objective as well, but maybe in cover on the slope up. This will give you something that can exploit his units as they tire/retreat under fire, and will guard your units that need to retreat under pressure.

Keep a handful of units dispersed over the open/low ground. They act as diversions, spotters* for artillery etc.

*Too close to the foot of the ridge and you can't see the top of the slope well.

[springel]

As an aside, the Devil's Hill is located just East of the Wylerberg objective.

The place of the name on the game map is incorrect.

In Dutch it is 'Duivelsberg'. In German it is 'Teufelsberg', or 'Wylerberg'.
It is the highest point of the region (and one of the highest points of the Netherlands).

Until 1945 it was German territory, but since then it is part of the Netherlands.
One of the few annexations not returned to Germany, including the East part of the village of Beek.

I did play the approach as suggested by Lieste, and I almost won. Just have to be a bit more conservative with my objectives in the end. Waiting until sunset before launching the attack made a big difference, and I got a good foothold on the ridge with few losses. Which kept my Fallschirmjaeger in good condition to conquer the village of Beek, and between them and my probing force North of Beek the expelled Para's suffered very many casualties.
But when I sent my forces from Wyler and Wylerberg into an attack on Berg en Dal, infiltrating Para's denied me those objectives at the end. That should have been prevented by a more defensive stance at those locations.

Because the game runs itself, I tend to forget that tactics have to be reviewed all the time in a critical scenario.
At high speed, a minute of negligence can turn victory into defeat.

[Lieste]

There is a saying* "Dead men don't march". The same is of course true of dead-tired men, but sleep can cure that





*just possibly one that I made up on the spur of the moment, but it sounds right