I was keen to run another winter game in December and this time picked one I've had in stock for a while, the attack on Dom Buetgenbach on 20th December 1944. I managed to run it on 17/18 December 2024 so almost 80 years to the day.
This battle took place during the Battle of the Bulge, and was 12th SS Panzer Divisions attempt to outflank Elsenborn Ridge from the south and break through to relieve Kampfgruppe Peiper. As usual, I ran this with my One Hour WW2 variant.
Battlefield from the south. Bullingen is up in the top right corner (gently burning due to US shelling) and Dom Buetgenbach is the town behind the river in the bottom left. The road through Bullingen and Buetgenbach is designated as Rollbahn C by 6th SS Panzer Army. There are three north-south ridges and the Germans have to capture all of these, as well as Dom Buetgenbach.
The game scenario starts before dawn on the 20th, the day of one of the heaviest German attacks although irl the first attack was on the 19th. It is misty and the ground is bad going everywhere due to the snow and mud.
Deployed to stop the SS is II/26 Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Major Daniels battalion was reinforced with an extra rifle company, tank and tank destroyer platoons and supported by no less than four(!) artillery battalions. They had time to dig in and even lay some minefields, and as historically, have deployed in an extended line along the forward ridges with the armoured company in reserve. Minor German attacks down the road from Bullingen had been repulsed the previous day.
John and Simon commanded the US.
To break through, 12th SS Panzer despatched 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and 12th SS Panzer Regiment, the whole force commanded by SS Standartenfuhrer Zeiner, CO of the panzer regiment. All the units were understrength and had suffered heavy losses already attacking Elsenborn Ridge.
First up is I/26 SSPGR in halftracks, reinforced by armoured engineers commanded by Jerry. They are coming on from the direction of Bullingen and attacking the northern part of the US line.
Quite an impressive box of Germans!
The rest of the kampfgruppe are still moving up to their assembly areas, the darkness and bad ground conditions make their arrival a bit random. II/26 SSPGR is commanded by Tim and has been committed to a flank march around the south, with their objective the southern ridge. They also have the Regimental SP 150mm infantry gun company.
12th SS PR lost so many tanks at Elsenborn that their surviving Panthers and Pz IVs were concentrated into a single large company. The division was also assigned 560th SS Panzerjaeger battalion, equipped with Jagdpanthers and Jagdpanzer IVs. The Jagdpanthers were misidentified repeatedly as Tigers, and in AHGCs Panzer Leader Elsenborn scenario, they magically become a company of Tiger IIs!
Pete commands the tanks and plans to send the panzer company to support Jerry and the Jagdpanzers to support Tim, if they ever get to the front.
The battlegroup is rounded off by a couple of artillery battalions and various logistic and command vehicles.
The northern ridge is held by E and F companies, II/26. These are normal rifle companies but as they are US, I gave each one a jeep stand as well to transport all the Coca Cola and ice cream Minefields can be seen laid in the valley below. Simon commands these.
The southern ridge is held by Company G with 57mm AT guns and the attached Company I with engineers. Simon commands company G and John Company I. In reserve are the tanks and M10s and various logistics vehicles. The US AT gunners had managed to scrounge some APDS ammo for the 57mm guns, and the M10s had HVAP so I'm just treating the Panthers as normal tanks. The Jagdpanthers will still be heavy though.
Company I has an armoured bulldozer attached to represent the engineers. I'm sure this wouldn't normally be in the front line, but I'd painted it so....
And in support they have 3 x 105mm battalions and a 155mm battalion. This is going to pose real problems for the Germans. I've solo played this and got a German win (just), but they have to be really careful about when to expose themselves to US forces as any unit can call down a crushing barrage.
OK, well lets see what happens,
I/26 SSPGR boldly motored down the main road from Bullingen under cover of darkness. Not a great deal happened until turn 2...
When the Germans got incredibly lucky with their reinforcements and both panzer units and the engineer company of II/26 SSPGR arrived! Tim immediately put these up against the US engineers on the southern ridge as dawn broke.
Back in the north, the panzergrenadiers headed northeast, but the woods and minefields constrained their deployment so the panzers had to be content with sitting on the road southwest of Bullingen.
The US now had some targets and duly dumped artillery fire and fired both rifle companies on the southern PGR company. This inflicted enough hits to disorganise them. The halftrack armour provided some protection from shell splinters, but not from close range infantry fire.
The Germans in the south got the same treatment. The German infantry were in hard cover, so the artillery went for the Jagdpanzers, and combined with the US engineers, they inflicted two hits on the heavy German armour.
Jerry was undeterred and pressed on through the barrage. Ambulances came up to casevac the battered PGR company, but the armoured engineers moved up onto the end of the ridge while the panzers closed up to provide close fire support.
The US switched all its artillery to the north which kept the disordered company disordered but didn't do much damage to the PG engineers.
In the south the Jagdpanzers and German artillery shot up the US engineers and then the German infantry tried their hand at an assault! This failed to dislodge the Americans so they were forced back off table, but it meant the US couldn't reorganise next turn.
The battle in the north settled into 'hard pounding'. All the German units which could, halted and opened fire, but the disorganised company was still disrupted under heavy fire despite the best efforts of the ambulance crews. Company E took some hits, but being veterans remained in good order.
The Germans kept up the pressure in the south. The Jagdpanzers now assaulted the US engineers supported by all the German artillery. Again they were repulsed and fell back disordered, but the US had now taken six hits(!) and were in poor shape and still unable to reorganise. To add insult to injury, the other two panzergrenadier companies had turned up.
Major Daniels had a look at the situation and made the bold decision to pull the engineers back. They were slowed by the German barrage but still got to the edge of Dom Buetgenbach. Driving up the road in the opposite direction to cover the withdrawal was the US tank company, which took up position on the reverse slope as the ridge looked to be an extremely unhealthy place.
In the north, weight of fire finally caught up with the Germans and the disordered PGR company disintegrated, ambulances ferried away the wounded. The US were also in poor shape though, and Company E had to call up its own ambulances to help out.
Too little too late. The Germans in the valley opened fire, and the armoured engineers followed it up with a close assault which overran the US position. The survivors fell back through Company F and left the field. The remaining US troops were now in big trouble - outnumbered 3:1 and outflanked too.
In the south the entire II/26 SSPGR advanced while the Jagdpanzers reorganised. The engineers dismounted and marched into the dense woods, the SP Infantry Gun company advanced onto the road junction and the final company motored along the road to support their right flank.
In response the US focussed their artillery, tanks and the infantry of Company G on the German infantry guns, but were unfortunate in only inflicting two hits. The US engineers were able to take a break and reorganise though.
In turn the Germans pushed their third company up onto the ridge, and the reorganised Jagdpanzers moved up in support.
More slugging on the north ridge. The German armoured engineers took a pasting and needed reorganising. Conversely Company F took enough hits to disorganise it but was still hanging on.
Company F decided discretion was the better part of the valour and fell back to the forest south of the ridge. It seems to have reorganised at some point too. The Germans rushed the ridge with the tanks taking up position on the high ground, while the PGR lined the stream, possibly in preparation to make a crossing.
In the south the Germans cycled their units - the Infantry Guns fell back to reorganise while the Jagdpanzers moved up. The US tankers had been doing a great job of holding the Germans off, but faced with the Jagdpanthers, had second thoughts. The US engineers had meanwhile garrisoned Dom Buetgenbach.
Alamo! Alamo! Company F fell back across the stream while they still had the chance and the US engineers blew the bridge. It had already been prepped and went up easily. Faced with the long German 88s the US tankers wisely fell back as far as they could,
The US covered their retreat with a stonking barrage which wiped out another panzergrenadier company. Company G was still dug in at the end of the ridge covering the minefields though. The Germans here were looking a bit ragged but now firmly controlled the crossroads, and the Jagdpanthers are in a very dominating position.
We broke for the night at that point.
In the north the great artillery duel continued. Both sides pouring fire into the exposed infantry, and frantically running ambulances back and forth to keep them in the fight. This could go on for some time, it was like Verdun! The Germans had managed to get one company over the stream.
In the south, after reorganising and exchanging some ineffective fire with Company G (whose trenches completely insulated them from fire), II/26 SSPGR moved forward to attack Dom Buetgenbach. There was a bit of a traffic jam due to the poor offroad movement and it ended with the motorised engineers in the adjacent woods, the Jagdpanthers still up on the road junction and the motorised infantry and infantry guns on the road in the open. The Germans had to be a bit careful as they need to hold the road junction.
Company F finally succumbed to massed German fire, although once again the US artillery hammered the armoured engineers and once again the ambulance crews were kept busy. In an exciting move one of the armoured PG companies had made it up onto the final ridge, but not before the US tank company had occupied the southern end. The Germans needed to capture the hex the tanks were on as it overlooked the road exit.
The US concentrated their fire on the PGR on the ridge, but failed to destroy them. This gave a chance for the rest of I/26 SS to sort themselves out. The German engineers attempted to demolish the banks to create a ford across the stream but failed.
But in a shock development, the Germans managed to take Dom Buetgenbach! The artillery, infantry guns and Jagdpanzers shot the town up, and the motorised engineers close assaulted it. The US engineers had never fully reorganised from the earlier battle, and the Germans managed to weaken and then rout them.
Just one more objective to go and time running out, although the US tanks, hull down on the ridge, would be hard to dislodge.
The Germans moved up their armour to tackle the US tanks, and massed as much infantry adjacent as they could. This left the SP infantry guns to hold the crossroads, but as they had reorganised, they relied on their ZOC to block access. Seizing their chance, Company G left their trenches and pushed south along the ridge adjacent to the crossroads. They had to halt in the German ZOC, but it was a significant threat.
The Germans chose to focus everything they had on the US tanks, who came under fire from two companies of tanks and two companies of panzergrenadiers plus all the German artillery.
They were finally assaulted by the reorganised German armoured engineers who overran them and took the last objective. They wouldn't have done it without every single unit in support.
Back at the crossroads, the SP infantry guns occupied the objective and the US responded with all their artillery and a follow up close assault from Company G.
Sadly the Germans hadn't had time to dig in, so exposed to the artillery and then attacked by the veteran US infantry, the SS just disintegrated. The US had retaken the objective! This also left Tim holding them off on his own in his Kubelwagen, firing his Luger.
The Germans now had to dash back to try and kick the Americans off again. The poor terrain and congested roads worked against them, and just the Jagdpanzers and one motorised company made it in range of the Americans while the other units lagged behind.
The Americans dumped more of their apparently endless artillery on the Germans. Do they have automatic cannon?
The Germans made a desperate final attack on the US position, but would have needed every single shot to register a hit, but instead they scored a fairly average four hits. The close assault by the Jagdpanzers was repulsed and the US finished off the Germans in the valley with more artillery. So battered and bruised, Company G saved the day by still holding the crossroads.
The Germans had a firm hold on Dom Buegenbach though, even if they hadn't actually cleared any of the mines across the road to Bullingen yet!
In the real battle the Germans made repeated assaults but were eventually held off although sections of the US line were overrun in the process and then retaken. Peiper was left isolated and eventually blew up his remaining vehicles and retired on foot. 12th SS lost so many tanks that they ended up consolidating all their remaining armour into a single company, but the Jagdpanthers went down in history as the 'Tigers' which attacked both 1st, 2nd and 99th US Infantry Divs. Peipers own real Tigers didn't contribute much at all, as they lagged along at the back of the column.
That was very close and went right down to the wire, and also featured lots of frantic action and some agonising decisions. It is an interesting contrast of numbers vs quality and a good defensive position. The massed US artillery wasn't quite as devastating as I'd feared as over half the German force is armoured which gives a modicum of protection, but the Germans had lots to do and the US timed their withdrawal to perfection. I was also impressed with their defence layout which worked rather better than mine when I solo'd this last year.
It was fun to go back to the Bulge in December, but I'll resume our travels in the Western Desert next.
