After Action Report Feldwebel Brasche, Eastern flank
Taken over positions in St Pierre which endured a strong British attack 2 days ago. 75% of the village is in ruins. Our platoon was to hold and defend the village for as long as possible, and guard a possible crossing of the river. The bridge leading to Tilly-sur-Seulles was not our responsibility.
I deployed my men in the ruins facing the river and the forest. I deployed the PaK covering a opening in the forest which could be used to send armour through. The Stugs were put on reserve on my Eastern flank, but we were limited in ammo for them. Our spotter joined the unit in the Eastern most house of St Pierre for a good field of view over the river and a clearing in the forest. High command sent us a armoured car and cleared us for the use of a 105mm battery. We managed to scrounge up a 2nd HMG and built a bunker for it guarding the bend in the river, this had a clear line of sight to the river.
Listening in on the radio net we could hear the enemy making a move for the farm on the Kampfgruppes Western flank. My platoon then got hit by British artillery, targetting the last intact house on my Eastern flank. This destroyed the PaK and its crew plus the unit inside the house. Their MMG and the spotter survived unharmed, though their transport was riddled with shrapnel. (5.5 inch artillery hit the building, the PaK deployed next to it got the full brunt of it and was destroyed, I failed the save for the infanry unit but saved the MMG and the FAO. Their vehicle got supressed)
Recovering from shock, the spotter informed me the British were deploying a bridging unit towards us and he would ask for higher up artillery support. This was granted and a 210mm Nebelwerfer battery fired a barrage at the bridging tank. The barrage went wide and hit a position to the west of it, behind a wood. I spotted large secondary explosions and what appeared to be a Sherman turret flung high into the air. (High command used a messenger to get Corps level support, we targetted the bridge but the round scattered…. right on top of an British Infantry and tank unit. I rolled 4 direct hits and 3 supressions for this one and destroyed 1 Shermans and the entire British Infantry unit. Of course the Firefly made its save)
We assume shrapnel did hit the bridging unit as it caught fire, but this was quickly put out again (we pulled the Mechanical Breakdown chit, put it on the bridge and rolled a 6. The British ARV was parked right behind it and in their turn promptly rolled a 6 as well!)
We could make out British units moving up through the forest so brought down several rounds of artillery, and also sent out Panzershreck team towards the forest gap (For a few turns I brought down 105 artillery on the forest, managing to nibble off 1 or 2 infantry men at a time but never supressing them)
The radio gaves us many updates about the strong attack on the central positions of our Kampfgruppe, and British units has already made it into town. I was about to send out more orders to my men when we got slammed into the wall of our hideout by a massive blastwave. Several of us passed out. (The British used their messenger to get Navy artillery support and put that straight onto the bridge. This cost my fellow commanders a Stug and most of the infantry around it. Gamewise, it propably should have ruined the bridge as well, but we decided to keep it up)
Our Stugs, already low on ammo, were about to run out so I requested resupply. This made it as far as the bridge before being vaporised (My Eastern stug had a running gun duel with a Churchill and survived all it got thrown at it, it got supressed a few times and finished the game with 1 HE shell left. The 2 Western Stugs ended the game with 1 AP and 1 HE left. The enemy targetted the bridge again (it was their RTP) and wasted the supply truck)
We spotted the British trying to bring up more infantry and this was engaged by the HMG bunker. When they brought up more infantry they shielded them with their tanks. (First try the HMG kills 2 british including their Bren. Second try they move up the Firefly and use it to cover the troops. The Firefly fails to destroy or supress the bunker)
I would like to commend our HMG team in the bunker as they stayed on their post and managed to supress a Firefly, that was then targetted by a Panzershreck and destroyed (Rolled to supress the Firefly, achieved this, then Warwick moved his Panzerschreck next to it and blew it to smithereens. The Firefly had been resupplied the turn before so it must have been quite the fireworks :grin: )
I would like to request a posthumous Iron Cross for my Panzerschreck team as they had enemy infantry on their right and front but still moved forward and targetted the bridging unit just as it was to deploy their bridge. They managed to destroy it, survive the attention all fire aimed at them but sadly never made it back to our positions. (I had been moving the Panzershreck team forward every turn after the destruction of my PaK and with the Churchill at almost max range spotted it, hit it and destroyed it (10+ needed, rolled 11). They then survived the fire of a full British unit before succumbing to the fire of another British unit. Definately the man of the match for my army)
We then received the call to withdraw and left our positions.
Total casualties for my platoon:
1 PaK with 3 crew
5 infantrymen
1 Panzershreck team
And the AOP Beetle has lost about a 50 kilos in weight due to all of the holes.
Commendations for the HMG Bunker crew and the Panzershreck crew.
