Reconnaissance In Force

Schmidthof 13th September 1944

Scenario completed : 23rd April 2010

Due to inter-Allied politics, 3rd Armor Division’s attack on the Siegfried Line was officially listed as a reconnaissance in force. But privately, Task Force Doan was instructed to breach the line at any cost. Around Schmidthof they found out what that meant.

This was a prime example of Patton’s ‘Rock Soup’ theory, and the Americans advanced to the German positions backed by armour and a preponderance of M3 half-tracks. Facing them was an array of defensive obstacles. Wire, mines, AT ditches and pill-boxes galore. The defenders were also determined that the ‘Amis’ would not get an easy ‘pass’. The same kind of defiance could be expected here at Schmidthof as had been shown earlier in the day some miles further north outside Aachen (see AAR for A Bitter Irony – battle fought on the same date in 1944 but earlier in the day) where US troops from the 1st Infantry Division had been held up on their advance towards the Old Roman Spa City.

On this section of the Schmidthof encounter, there were around 56 US Tanks and no less than around 100 M3 half-tracks backing up some 700 foot soldiers. To the American’s front-left was a long line of deep AT ditches impassable to the AFV’s, and to their front-right a continuous line of minefields. Behind this formidable sounding defence was around 600 German grenadiers ensconced in entrenchments, pill-boxes, towns and woods accompanied by attendant AT guns, mortars and HMG’s accounting for another 200 men. The American commander was bold however. At 1400 hours he sent forward his engineers and M3’s, he had the sappers attempt to fill-in an AT ditch under fire, clear through mines and get volunteer M3 crews drive through in an attempt to find a path. This initially led to an I+R platoon taking some losses as well as a good number of the M3’s either becoming unstuck in the mines or being taken out by AT guns sighted to stop them. Nonetheless, the American engineers braved the incoming fire and worked feverishly on an AT ditch and helped find a way through a wide section of the minefield though the M3’s suffered losses . At the same time, US artillery was called in to pound the defenders. In little under 2 hours, small breaches were being made and US forces began trickling through. On the American right just behind the minefields, the first German entrenchments were reached and, even though the defenders were vastly outnumbered, they still surprisingly fell very easily to a textbook combined arms assault ? To balance this, in the centre, one staunch German 50mm AT gun platoon that had survived the heavy bombardments took a severe toll on the allied units as they attempted to advance through the gaps. Knocking out some 6 tanks and 15 half-tracks, sometimes at 1.5km range, the platoon eventually fell silent when a direct hit from the omnipotent US artillery finally found them !

But still the Yanks pushed on their right and towards the 2nd line of entrenchments populating the all encompassing wooded areas. This turned out to be far more of a proposition than the first line. This time, the enemy grenadiers fought both courageously and fanatically against the invaders that were armed with engineers and numerous tanks. What also made it difficult for the defenders was the aggressive use of the vast number of M3’s that were giving an overwhelming fire support on all combats. This did mean that they were targeted by AP shots as well as close-range infantry fire in order to knock the more than useful .50cal MG’s upon them. As the Germans held up the advance, 12 StuG’s and a company of German infantry arrived to the US left at 1600 hours. This would mean the American armour would no longer have free reign on an enemy composed at present entirely of infantry. The battle was becoming a slow but advancing toil for the Americans. Gaining ground they were, and very methodically too, but their AFV inventory was taking the brunt of the defenders fury. The Germans however were losing far too many soldiers and their situation was slowly crumbling. The defence was costing them a high price in human sacrifice too. Around 300 of them or more had lost their lives in the defence of Schmidthof by 1700 hours.

As the 2nd line of entrenchments on the right was finally taken, the battle became a form of stalemate. The Americans were trying to regroup their disrupted and sometimes not surprisingly, demoralized infantry, and the Germans holding their line, with the assault guns placed to inhibit American movement. German losses amounted to around a startling 575 soldiers by 1815 hrs and Doan had to make a stark choice. Either, camp down for the night and await more troops on the morrow (much against Patton’s desire) or get on with it and to hell with the losses. With the pressure of his senior’s wishes to get things moving against the Siegfried Line, Doan reluctantly chose the latter and ordered what was nothing more than a 50/50 gamble. His M4’s would attack the StuG’s positioned in the Schmidthof’s farming area. They were busy holding off American infantry attacks. If they spotted the tank attack before it got near enough, the M4’s would probably be turned into scrap metal. To assist the attack, 2 platoons of M5’s would press behind the StuG’s.

The sixteen M4’s took off forward with their target the eight assault guns. The M4’s sped into the farmland area with the M5’s rounding the rear of the enemy AFV’s. As they reached 200m distant, cries from StuG tank commanders could be heard frantically shouting “Achtung Panzer, feind am recht! ” (or words similar to). The StuG’s began to pivot right to face their enemy. Tank crews of both sides loaded their AP shells and attempted to zero in on their target. With 75mm & 76mm guns facing each other, it was the American commanders that first shouted the order to ”Fire” and it was the US tank crews that had readied fastest.Out screeched the metal projectiles from the 16 Shermans towards the enemy assault guns, and through the skins of six of the behemoths ripped the US shells. The gamble appeared to pay off as the M5’s finished off the remaining two StuG’s. In a counterblow by the one remaining StuG platoon positioned further back, the M5’s reaped the enemy anger as they were all blown away in an instant soon afterwards. But the move had been pivotal. German defenders could see there was little else to fight for around the town and they began to leave hastily or simply throw in the towel. Victory was the Americans. But how bloody and hard gained it had been? For the Germans, the loss in lives had been high over the 5 ½ hour battle. 857 soldiers had fallen, been wounded or were missing along with 8 StuGs destroyed. Doan’s task force, with far lesser men killed, had been severely blunted with its equipment lost. 180 men killed, but this did not include the crews of the 22 tanks, 4 armoured cars and 60+ M3’s wiped out! Nonetheless, by breaching this part of the line and inflicting this many losses, Doan could count this as a major victory.