This game was played against Alan Sawyer over two sessions via skype voice. Alan chose this one and did so as to further the 'mini-series' of Hohenstaufen v Brits we had been doing from Black SS. He wanted to use them in the Bulge theatre as well as go towards his completion of that module. Once again, and for a third consecutive time, it gave us an attacking force about twice the number of the defenders with a mission to take one or two villages. Pretty standard stuff really. It was pitting the high moraled 8/8's of the 82nd AB versus the constantly engaged in battle 9th Hohenstaufen 8/6's. Here's how it went. Hope you enjoy.

At 1600 hours, the two battalions from the 82nd Airborne Division began to trudge forward through the deep snow. Their morale was high, for at last they could now get a chance at hitting back at their enemy after the previous 11 days of battle. They would be well-supported by OBA and numerous local mortar support. Their objectives were the two villages to the south, manned by the tough troops from the SS Hohenstaufen. To defend these two villages, the Hohenstaufen had about a battalion of troops backed up by a couple of PzIV platoons and accompanying mortars. Their dispositions were standard doctrine for just such an attack and therefore, though they realized the exchange would be tough, they were confident of holding their ground.

The start of the battle kicked off with some very accurate OBA from both sides. An SS Scharfuhrer spotted for his guns from a forward position and had in short time damaged two Para platoons. The Americans had also hit an SS foot platoon on the west of the larger village taking out half that platoon’s number. Despite this, the defenders held their positions and the Americans kept advancing. By 1645 hours, the Americans had come within infantry fire range of the villages and gun-fire began to be exchanged between the two sides. The German commander couldn’t help noting the rather ‘Zulu’ attack doctrine nature of the American formation, with the butt of the head holding German troops in the village to its front whilst two ‘horns’ flanked round the extremes of the two villages.

About 1715 hours, as the night-time gloom began to set in, both sides were well engaged in these gun-battles around the village with neither side budging. An American leader in this vicinity called in an artillery strike on the west-side of the larger village, little knowing he had just begun the process of the most pivotal moment of the battle. It seemed to me pivotal at the time and events would bare this out. What happened ? Well ...As the bombardment landed on the platoon and a half of SS Grenadiers, the impact on these troopers far exceeded the actual damage. These grenadiers, veterans of the continual 6 months of battle from the D-Day campaigns in Normandy, the battles across the flats and bocage of Northern France as well as the Arnhem campaign that erupted and fell upon them during their RnR period in Holland inexplicably broke down completely and suddenly when hit with this bombardment. Initially their officers believed they could rally them in the cover of the village, but they ignored these calls to recover and to a man, they all fled in the face of the enemy and deeper into the village. The west side of the village was now bereft of any German troops and the US Major leading the US right ‘horn’ could not believe what he had just seen. Was this a trick, or was it real. The Major ummed and arred for some minutes, first looking through his binoculars at that part of the village, then back at his waiting men, then back through the binoculars. Was this part of the village REALLY clear of the enemy he kept asking himself. After a lot of vacillation due to his disbelief, he finally led his Paras into this part of the village to secure a toehold, fully expecting at any minute multiple bursts of MG fire to cut his men and he down. It never came. One in the village, they then pushed forward into the next blocks of the village and engaged the defenders there in house-to-house assaults.

At this stage, the local German commander feared not. He had his two platoons of panzers to oust these Ami soldiers and as such, the panzers were immediately sent into the village where their ‘punch’ would inflict high casualties on any would be American attackers. Or would they ? Over the next two hours or more, these tanks, despite their potential hitting power, failed to seek out the paras effectively, and instead came off second-best as the paras used bazookas and fresh troops to gain a battle winning advantage. That said, it had been a tough scrimmage here. In fact, about half the time of the whole engagement (9 turns). Whilst all this was going on, the American paras had delivered large numbers of troops into assault battles all round the village.

The struggle that was occurring in the larger village was putting a huge amount of pressure on the beleagured grenadiers there. Where were any reinforcements? Well despite there being around 6 untouched SS platoons of grenadiers, MG's and an AT platoon in the smaller village a kilometre away, it was impossible for any of these SS platoons in the neighbouring village to come to the aid of or offer support to the main fight as they would simply have been cut to ribbons by VT fuse OBA. Movement in the open was not an option. The battle had swung the Americans way for good.

As stated, with the eventual loss of the panzers and about 60% of the village, the battle could be claimed a major US win. As a side show, the US mortar teams lost half their number to enemy artillery fire, and though it neutered these as a force completely, it had little if no effect on the main village fight.

By game end, the Americans claimed 28 pts for 3 village hexes (12 pts), 4 tank steps (8 pts) and 8 other steps. The Germans could only muster 14 victory pts consisting of 3 village hexes (6pts) and inflicting 8 steps of casualties.

An enjoyable if somewhat standard scenario situation. For me, I think it is probably totally balanced and despite my loss here, it is certainly one the Hohenstaufen can win. How did they lose today according to my autopsy ? Well, the sudden and complete collapse of morale on the west side of the village really was the killer blow for the German defence as it immediately let the Americans into the town unopposed by any fire or indeed even an assault ! But the Germans did offer one more hope for me in the guise of their panzers. These had been kept available for just this situation. But alas, they flattered to deceive and for all their fire-power numbers, they probably only achieved 20% of the damage that they could have inflicted on the enemy. This failure by the tanks to seek and destroy the limpet-like 82nd paras was the final page in this particular village's defence for the Germans. A good game, rated '3' for me.