"Antoniushof Farm, December 18th 1944" Topic

Tonights game was one of the scenarios from the new Wacht am Rhein book for Battlegroup. Elements of Task Force Rose try to stop the lead elements of 2nd Panzer Division pushing westwards.

We expected this to be a reasonably easy run out for the Germans to start our Ardennes campaign, but as always with Battlegroup, we should have known better…

The German advance began rather slow and methodical, trying to soften up the defenders with artillery fire, instead of pushing forwards while the heavy smokescreen was in effect. The artillery did little to the US troops in foxholes and a fortified farmhouse, though one MG position was knocked out by a well placed 105mm shell. Sadly as the Germans finally started moving the smokescreen lifted a little too soon…

Forced to close with the enemy and having fatally split their forces in an over confident attempt to strike the US line in two places, with the smokescreen gone, was not to prove pleasant for the Germans. Poor dice all round saw few commands and pitiful firing, plus a Panther crew who clearly needed eyetests. This was then compounded by the horribly lucky early arrival of US reinforcements of four Shermans. While the German artillery did little, the US commander managed to whistle up a barrage from some 105s that further disjointed the German attack. As battle was joined on both flanks, several Shermans lived charmed lives. One had five or six rounds miss it, while another had two hits from the Panzer IVs bounce off… The Panther didnt even manage to spot the enemy and was promptly dispatched, without firing a round, by a 76mm round through the side armour…

It didnt get much better and German dice rolls got worse. However some good Area Fire saw the Germans able to make an attempt to assault the line of US foxholes, but one unit wasnt pinned down and that 60mm mortar on Ambush Fire slapped rounds into the advancing Germans and did enough to stall the advance. US reserves then came up and very soon after that the snowy ground was littered with German corpses.

The game finally ended with the German battle rating exceeded, and the shattered remnants withdrew to find a less well defended route west…

The Germans took 39 points of their 38 Battle Rating, exceeding by a single point. The US however ended the game on 33 out of 34! It had been a far closer affair than the Germans had realised but they withdrew and the US defenders breathed a sigh of relief…

Very nice and great looking figures and vehicles!

Terry

Yep – good looking game!

Top quality images & great AAR. The guy next to the bazooka man, looks to be armed with an AK 47, I'm sure its a Garand really ?

No its an M1 carbine…

That is a great looking table, and miniatures.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers dude!

Was fun to build the winter terrain last week… May do some Russian buildings to make it more 'Eastern Front' next!

Re the M1 carbine, certain sources state that at least as many carbines were manufactured during WW2 as were Garands. Some figures I have seen are 6.5 million carbines versus 4 million Garands manufactured between 42-45. Carbines saw a lot more service on the battlefield than they are given credit for.

Maybe we need more carbine armed US infantry figures.

B

Not so sure about that, I think they saw a lot of service in the cabs of trucks and rear echelon tents and offices.

Christot – Re M1 carbine use, see Tom Laemlein's book "The M1 Carbine". Judging from the photos, it saw plenty of front line action. In fact, it certainly looks like the GI positioned directly above the "G" in "BATTLEGROUP" on the cover of the book is armed with one!

B

Of course they saw a lot of action, but in frontline rifle companies the vast majority of GI's used the Garand. Carbines were usually issued for rear echelon, vehicle crews, and some Officers and NCO's (who ditched them immediately and picked up a rifle if they had any sense)- they do seem to have been popular for specialist patrol work- but everyday riflemen usually (but not exclusively) carried rifles.
Marines? God knows? probably carried 2 carbines, and a thompson, just in case their BAR jammed…

link

Gives a good breakdown on the official allocation of small-arms

"Marines? God knows? probably carried 2 carbines, and a thompson, just in case their BAR jammed…"

Best TMP post ever…

Hi Christot -
From what I have read, by 1943, TOE for a Marine division included about 11,000 M1 carbines, with 1,400-1,800 issued within each infantry regiment.

In both the US Army and the Marines, they were mostly carried by officers, specialists, members of infantry support weapons teams (MGs, mortars, etc), some armored infantry and paratroopers, and rear echelon troops. Many/most of US officers and specialists originally TOE'ed with pistols as their personal arm had them replaced with carbines (one of the original reasons behind its development).

Obviously, there were clear differences between the carbine and the Garand and the carbine was never intended to replace the Garand. I'm just thinking that carbine armed troops seem to be under-represented by figure manufacturers. For example, every WW2 figure maker seems to offer late WW2 Germans with STG43s/44s in a million poses; the US produced 16x more M1 carbines, but US figures so armed seem quite rare.

FWIW, and strictly my opinion.

B

"I'm just thinking that carbine armed troops seem to be under-represented by figure manufacturers. For example, every WW2 figure maker seems to offer late WW2 Germans with STG43s/44s; the US produced 16x more M1 carbines, but US figures so armed seem quite rare."

true enough, and a point well made…as per your example though- the MP/44 was actually the commonest issued side-arm for the Germs in the Ardennes (according to Danny Parker, who normally knows his Ardennes stuff)- which I found surprising