Command Decision; Guest AAR

 My friend, Richard sent this AAR of our game yesterday. The pictures are mine.


We had a really good game Sunday with the Americans schooling the Germans in the art of war.  American commanders were Mike and Jim, German commanders were Jeff, Richard, Brady and Jonathon.  The game got off to a late start (around 12:30 or so) and we had to end around 4:30, so we barely got into the beginning of Turn 4 before having to pack it up.  I've drawn up a sketch map of each turn - more or less, and only very generally - which is attached as a PDF to go along with this:
After Action Report: Operation Franz (U.S. Operation Springtime), as told by Feldwebel Schultz, KG Fraz HQ motorcycle recon
“Yes, Herr Generalleutnant, the Americans have broken through on our left flank despite Oberst Burnett’s best efforts.

At the outset of the battle, a veteran American infantry battalion assaulted and rapidly overran the surviving members of a Volksgrenadiers battalion of company plus strength initially suppressed by U.S.interdiction and harassment artillery fire.The impetuous American assault drove the Volksgrenadiers out of their foxholes and back toward the destroyed town.  That unfortunate VG battalion’s StuG.assault guns were unable to assist, and the American infantry – supported by a fast-charging armored reconnaissance force of M5A1 Stuart light tanks and Greyhound armored cars - rushed toward the rubble and an open door into our rear.  Our reconnaissance forces – SdFfZ 250/1’s and 250/9’s as well as a heavy reconnaissance armored infantry company were probing from the left of our “at start” positions, but reacted to the surprise attack quickly.

However, the racing American light armor ran into our advancing PzKw IV’s and a quick but brutal firefight ensued outside the town on our right while the American infantry advanced into the rubble of the town, finishing off the surviving Volksgrenadiers. Three Stuarts and a PzKw IV brewed up as the StuG’s and our reconnaissance troops maneuvered to get into the fight. The Panzergrenadiers accompanying the PzKIV’s also rushed to assist, maneuvering around blocking forests. The American infantry battalion had nothing between it and a breakthrough but the rubble of the town and our kampfgruppe HQ troops while the light armor tied up our Panzers.

Perhaps too late, our Panthers and their two Panzergrenadier companies arrived at the left of the rubbled town, slowing the American infantry assault and destroying the American armored cars that had swung over to engage and delay them.  The reconnaissance 250/9’s plunged into the American positions supporting the infantry attack as the Panzergrenadiers and StuG’s maneuvered to support them and take the Americans in the rear.  Suddenly, our far left flank was seriously threatened by the rapid advance of American Sherman tanks and accompanying armored infantry up the road.  The Americans had successfully drawn our attention and the bulk of our forces to the fight around the rubbled town on our right.  Weakly guarded by PAK 40 ATG and the heavy reconnaissance armored infantry company, our left was open.

Despite the American infantry’s ineffective attack on our HQ troops behind the rubbleof the town, our Panzergrenadiers’ gun halftracks and infantry counterattacking also had little effect.  Our Panther company and one PzKw IV company advanced to support the StuG company now turning to face the new American threat on our left.  Our SdKfz 250/9’s managed to silence the American 57 mm ATG with their concentrated 20mm fire, but all hope was lost when a second American combat group with nine Sherman 76’s and an armored infantry company advanced into the battle, reinforcing the American push at our weak left flank.

Seeing that there was little to no hope of stopping an American breakthrough (for even if we could stop the American infantry battalion pushing past the rubbled town, we had no hope of stopping all of the American armor and infantry at the far left of our line), Oberst Burnett sent me to you with warning, these dispatches and his sketch map of the battle.”

Advance of the Stuarts and Greyhounds

zInitial infantry positions; Germans dug in on left, US just out of picture to the right.

Results of the fire fight between Stuarts and Pz IV's

Rolling to victory

Shermans press the German right flank

German flame thrower attacks; and misses