My last Bulge Season game and my first game to use Tiger IIs. This scenario sees a large SS force - 15 Grenadiers, 3 HMGs, 3 81mm mortars, a 120mm mortar with tow, 2 StuG IIIGs, 2 Mk IVHs, and a King Tiger. The Germans must maneuver from north of the east-west road on board 22 and take as much of the 7 hex town on board 24, killing 8 or more steps and also kicking any US troops off the ridge north of the town on board 24. They have 14 turns to do that, and ice and snow conditions reduce movement by adding 1 to everything but light woods and woods, where the movement is increased by 2. The US have 9 Paras, 3 PMGs, 2 81mm mortars, an engineer and 2 57mm AT guns with their tows. I placed the majority of the US force in town with the AT guns front and center in hexes 0808 and 0709, with infantry and HMGs to either flank, the LTC with infantry and engineers behind so they can assist in any assaults without risking the engineers too early to DF or OBA, and placed 1 infantry with an LT to spot from the town on the ridge at 1105. The US get the VT Fused arty in this one giving their shots an up 3 against targets in the open, and the AT guns get a +3 to the first shot against an armor target. The SS lined up in 3 elements along the start line of the east-west road on board 22 with the Tigers central behind the German commander, the StuGs on the east side supporting the east element and the Mk IVs in the west supporting the western element. The slow movement meant that the US OBA had lots of opportunity to shoot at single target hexes with a 70+ column or at 2 target hexes with 42 on each. This did a lot of morale damage, which slowed down the eastern and central elements but caused no step losses for most of the game, but finally started having greater effect after turn 10. The German armor moved out ahead of the infantry, with the exception of the slow moving Tigers. AT guns in Longchamps exchanged fire with the StuGs and Mk IVs but lost the fight to DF and OBA while the German foot troops were still too far away to assist. On turn 13, the panzers got caught up in the fury of trying to take the town unescorted, and paid the price as 3 steps of StuGs and 1 of Mk IVs died in assaults, gaining the Germans nothing but a higher casualty rate. The Tiger 2 finally got into position to fire on the US troops in town on the ridge but failed to do any damage, let alone push them off the hill. Germans lost big, with 10 steps lost to only 2 for the 2 57mm ATs, and only 2 town hexes were contested at the end, and those probably would have been free of German armor in another turn with the German infantry still too far away to assist. Great little game.

Forgot to mention, if the US defends Longchamps without putting a large force on the ridge, the only way the Germans have a chance of getting into the city is to load up infantry on tanks and move quickly. A foot trek on a wide front has no chance of getting there. Put an assault force on the tanks and move everyone else on the road.

3 January 1945

The German push in the Ardennes is seriously hampered by the famous ‘NUTS’ declaration and as such Hitler is not really happy. He orders to get on with ‘things’ and that is why the Hitler Jugend and Hohenstaufen get the dirty job of clearing the road junction at Longchamps.

However the terrain looked like a badly maintained ice rink and looking at his Swiss wristwatch, the German commander realizes that time is of the essence. So he orders some footslogging units to mount the tanks, hitch a ride up the hill just north of the town and await the rest of the (iceskating) PBI .

As long as this little convoy was in the open, it got pelted with US artillery but most of them got through unscathed. The US paratroopers that were dug in on that same hill were no match for this armored assault, so they decided to use delaying tactics. They slowly started withdrawing towards Longchamps, leaving a strongpoint behind that defended the little hamlet on the ridge of the hill. However when they retreated, the paras found themselves in open terrain now and shells started bursting in their midst. Clearly the German artillery guys were better trained and paid, they scattered the US troops, whose moral broke fairly quickly.

Just before sunset, the Germans rolled into Longchamps without firing a shot. The boss should be most pleased. As for Sgt O Toole, he fired one bounce off and then left his gun behind to skedaddle out of Dodge!