This was played ftf and skype over 3 sessions with Wayne Baumber and is my 9th battle from the Westwall pack. Getting quite used to the role now of having to defend small towns over tracts of German land against bigger than I'd like enemies, this one on initial glance looked tougher than most. Far too many GI's, tanks and OBA and far too much terrain to cover. Worse still, most of the German force is Volksgrenadier. Onto battle !

Grosshau had been garrisoned by men from the Volksgrenadier Division and some mortars and AA flak guns, but were promised some reinforcements from the nearby 3rd Grenadier Division before an American attack came to Grosshau again. The Americans were advancing from the west, a whole regiment of them designed to overwhelm the scant and inexperienced defenders. Orders for the day to the defenders was ‘Fight to the last’ in order to stop this US steam-roller. The Germans had posted a StG platoon forward to put off US armour, but other than that, only an artillery OP and the reinforcing 3rd Grenadiers to the north were out of the Grosshau area. Mines, albeit very few of them (2pts divided amongst 4 counters) were scattered to the north of Grosshau‘s perimeter. The idea being to channel the Ami attack to advance to come from the west and south over the more open and boggy ground. Strongpoints had also been placed where possible in important sectors of the town.

At 0800 hours the Americans launched their advance. Within minutes, an accurate OBA mission had disrupted the forward StG platoon, placing the German defenders on an unexpected early back-foot. However, their own OBA and and the mortars and AA guns in Grosshau were managing to take an early toll on the US advance too. But at no point were they able to hold the Americans back. The StG was taken out by the US armour very quickly for the loss of an M10 step. The Americans slowly positioned themselves to envelop the town, whilst at the same time, to the north of it, they had troops fighting it out with the 3rd Gren. Division that was trying to reinforce. Here the Americans proved very successful as they completely stopped these veterans from reaching Grosshau AND inflicted heavy casualties. Also, another, and the final StG platoon was demolished for the loss of the same amount of M4’s.

At the town itself, the battle was now being fought in earnest. Americans were all round it, with HMG’s and infantrymen pouring in their fire. And, when the Volksgrenadiers were able to pop their worried heads over the ramparts, they likewise poured plenty of fire out at their attackers. Over 3-4 hours, these greenhorns held their line as their morale proved stronger than the Americans expected. At the same time, the Americans had plenty of uninterrupted time to carry out their operations against the town. This meant that by 1215 hours, neither side could safely say they would be victorious. American casualties were mounting unacceptably, but the town defence was slowly being whittled away.

With the German line failing to break easily, and with time edging on (one battalion commander had bet Grossahau would fall by 1245), the Americans would need to press even harder. American GI’s edged nearer closely supported by tanks and engineers. The Germans shot out engineer troops where seen and continued to cut down some of the GI infantry. But they struggled due to a lack of hardware to do much against the enemy tanks. This combined attack finally entered the town and began taking out the defending troops. Success was eventually wrought in the main town, but the casualty count for the attackers had been too high. To pay that off, they would need to report a bigger success and so, other detatchments were sent north to clear up remaining defending positions.

Even here, progress was slower than hoped, but the Americans were able to continue grinding forward along the road and through the woods. With the attack planned to be called off within half hour, the last throes of the battle involved these detachments manically scrambling to take out remaining German hold-outs. Using OBA to assist, this was achieved at 3pm on the dot (turn 30). The American’s had gained a last-gasp victory in the final minutes. In the end, there was a US Major Victory versus a German Minor Victory for an overall US Minor victory. Losses were high for the Germans: 27 Foot, 10 leaders, 4 AFV and 9 Guns. The US suffered 16 Foot, 4 leaders, 4 AFV and 2 Guns.

A thouroughly exciting battle all-in-all. And with varying trains of thought from me on it. I think Wayne is being generous saying the Germans can not win. To be honest, I think they can and I didn't ? Our result came about through many ifs and buts, and in a game comprising 1000's of dice rolls, things level out and each sides gains plusses and minuses in their fate

For example, I might say that there was barely one of the whole 30 turns that ended early. However, to balance that, I have got to say that my Volksgrenadiers morale held out uncannily long as they showed great spirit (via dice rolls) against a higher moraled enemy and I was also pleased with the amount of enemy I took out, which I did not expect to be that high. Then there are the variables. The value of the mines and strong points drawn and the leader quality. I had some good leaders, poor mines and a real spread of strongpoints. Some games each of these will be weaker or stronger than others. Maybe tanks will perform better or worse and what about initial deployment and where reinforcements are sent ? In the end, all these variable landed in a final, last turn loss.

No, I think upon reflection, there will be German wins, just not this time. Wayne's attack was good, but if only I could have snatched just one early FOW in the last 5 turns then that may have thwarted the final push into a draw. Good win Wayne