XXX Corps breakout with NQM, Corps level

 I've been mulling over the previous NQM solo game and re-read the rules. One problem I think was that the scenario I based it on was aimed at producing a fairly even brigade sized game of Command Decision, which isn't quite the same thing as putting a whole motorised Corps down a road. 

So, I thought I'd have another go, but this time basing it on the southern portion of the map for Victory Games excellent 'Hells Highway'. The maps were based on WW2 era US Army 1:25000 maps of the region and are fairly accurate, so I realised that in the CD scenario the ground scale had been compressed by a factor of four, which accounted for some of the oddities.

So, here is the new terrain. These are 2.5km hexes, each of them based on four of the Hells Highway 1.25km hexes. The Meuse Escaut Canal is in the foreground, Neerpelt being the village to the right of the highway, the River Dommel (completely absent from the CD scenario!) snakes down the valley, with Kolonie and woods south of Valkenswaard in the centre. Valkenswaard itself is the town on the far side of the Dommel bridge, and Borkel is off in the centre right. This represents an area 15km x 25km.

The woods are very boggy, so vehicles can only move one hex in them. The River Dommel is fordable by leg infantry (takes the whole move) but impassable to vehicles unless at a bridge

Once more we meet Kampfgruppe Walther, dug in around Joes Bridge (the empty three hexes are the British Bridgehead).  I went back through 'It Never Snows in September' with a fine toothcomb to figure out the actual German OB. So on the left we have Von der Heydtes 6th FJR with two FJ battalions and a command/support battalion. The Regiment was missing one battalion but had a powerful 4th weapons battalion. I rated these guys as 'trained' as VdH reckoned they had been committed far too early. All the German units are very weak, so only start with 2SP each.

On the right is SS KG Heinke from IInd SS Panzer Korps, a battalion each of panzergrenadiers from 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divs, the 10th SS Panzerjaeger battalion, a company of 10th SS engineers and a motorised 105mm battalion from 10th SS Panzer artillery regiment. These were all 2SP as well (perhaps a bit generous to the SS panzerjaegers as they only had 15 Jagdpanzer IVs), and according to Kershaw, they were also supported by a 20mm Flak platoon and a pair of 88mms guns, so I did these as two infantry battalions (they were very short of transport), a support/HQ with Flak and a 2SP Jagdpanzer IV. Veteran morale 4.

Finally in the centre down the road we have the mysterious KG Hoffman, ranging in strength from a company to an entire Regiment, depending who you believe. Hoffman himself said most of the personnel were rear area combings and many hadn't even held a rifle before, let alone fired one. They did have attached a company of 75mm AT guns from 6th FJR and also the mighty 6th Luftwaffe Penal Battalion, still in tropical uniforms. In the end I gave them an infantry/AT battalion, another infantry battalion, a command/support unit and the unfortunate penal troops. The latter were so bad that along with only being 2SP, I also gave them a hit to start with. The SS engineers were also attached to Hoffman. Unlike the film, the 75s were actually in Kolonie, which the German had recaptured a few days earlier in counterattacks on the bridghead. So Hoffman is deployed in depth with the 75s and Penal guys in Kolonie, the two trainee FJ units dug in behind that, and the SS engineers even further down the road. Although they are 'poor' morale 2, their bit of front is the most heavily defended, with five units on a 1 hex frontage(!). 

By actually modelling Valkenswaard, the German rear area guys have a bit more legroom than the previous game. The KG HQ is in Valkenswaard, the artillery on the road and the LOG stuff parked up in sideroads in the woods. Field gun range is 5 (12km) so they can cover the front line from here. The SS Panzerjaegers are in Borkel. This is about as close to the historical setup I can manage, and I also gave each Regiment their historical orders, essentially, defend their bits of turf, something both Heydte and Heinke complained about.

And at the other end we have the lead elements of XXX Corps. Guards Armoured Division, 231 Brigade from 50 Div, the artillery of three entire divisions and four medium Regiments from the 2nd Army AGRA. A bit more artillery than the previous game.

The Neerpelt Bridgehead. The Irish Guards Group are deployed in the centre (1st and 2nd Irish Guards) with the Welsh Guards just behind. 231 Brigade is deployed either side of the main highway tasked with expanding the corridor. The Guards and 231 Brigade will have their own artillery to support them plus the XXX Corps medium guns, the attached 43 and 50 Div guns will only fire the opening barrage.

The other brigade of Guards Armoured is further back, as is the engineer Regiment, AT Regiment, Div HQ, fuel column. I gave each Armoured Brigade an attached engineer company, the remaining company stayed with the bridging train.

Deployed behind the canal is all the artillery. The 5.5s (each one represents a couple of medium regiments) have a range of 7 and I'm planning on using them for counter battery fire. Sadly the German HQ is just out of range in Valkenswaard.

Quite a column! Their aim, as historically, is to reach the River Dommel in front of Valkenswaard by midnight, and ideally clear Borkel and Petter on the left and right too. I'm going to use 3 hour turns or there just isn't going to be time to cover the ground. That will be four turns of play starting at 2pm, so the last two will be dark with no air support.

The real attack was preceded by medium bomber attacks the length of the road, and the attack was supported by both Typhoons and Spitfires equipped with bombs. I gave the Allies a couple of flights of Mitchells (2 x Heavy dice each), one Typhoon (1 x Heavy) and 1 x Spitfire jabo (1x Medium).

The attack opens with air attacks, medium bombers plaster KG Hoffman around Kolonie and the Sptifires take on the Jagdpanzers in Borkel (everyones favourite move on turn 1 of Hells Highway, how dare the Germans have any armour!). I'm keeping the Tiffies for the breakout.

Naturally the bombing is almost completely ineffective, scoring one hit on the second line of Hoffman and one hit on the Jagdpanzers. The 300 gun bombardment makes up for that though, the field guns hammer the German front line and the 5.5s take on the German artillery while the Tiffies strafe Kolonie.

That is more like it. The AT guns and Penal troops in Kolonie take 2 hits each, and the 9th SS panzergrenadiers take another one. The Irish Guards and Devonshires assault the three hexes due east.

And all three German units are driven back. Amazingly the AT gunners and Penal guys actually survive but are shot to bits and retire through their own troops to reorg. To avoid the infantry advancing through the German defensive barrage, the Irish Guards put their Shermans into Kolonie. No Allied casualties at all that turn, but the German artillery fire on the road is extremely annoying.

The German LOG prioritises Hoffman and the damaged FJ and Penal units reorg to one permanent hit each. The SS are left out on a limb.

Next turn the 43 and 50 Div guns are withdrawn along with the Mitchells, but the remaining guns and tactical aircraft pound the next German line. The German defensive barrage manages to hit some of the Shermans in Kolonie though.

6th FJR and SS Heinke both fall back a couple of km to straighten their line and block holes. At this point I had to re-read the rules section on how long it takes to dig in, but the Germans certainly couldn't move and entrench on the same turn. 

The Devonshires redeployed to focus on the right flank, which was better infantry country, and the Welsh Guards fanned out to the left of the Irish Guards in the better tank country leading to Petter.

Further back in the traffic jam, the AT Regiment and Engineers move on, as does the attached Household Cavalry armoured car Regiment. I've modelled this as a single R3 unit, as the table is very congested already. Very wisely the other brigade stayed back for now.

The Devonshires and Guardsmen attacked again. The flank attacks managed to overrun an entire battalion of FJ and one of the panzergrenadiers, and in the centre the Irish Guards finally destroyed one battalion of KG Hoffman and the HQ fell back in disarray to the German gun line. Losses were now mounting for the British though, and a plethora of sixes meant no less than five units ran out of ammo, including the Typhoons and two artillery regiments! The lone supply column was going to struggle with that a bit.

The Germans reorganised Hoffman again. This reduced their morale to 0 so no more reorgs and no more attacking. The Allies focussed on resupplying and reorganising the front line combat units to maintain the momentum of the advance. This may have been an error. I planned to move the out of supply guns next turn to concentrate them and be able to resupply them more easily.

It was nightfall now, so no more air support. However, the Household Cavalry took advantage of the collapse of 6th FJR to dash into Petter and recce the German artillery! Are there ZOCs? I'm not generally a fan of units running past each other, but that was quite funny. 

The battered remains of SS Heinke fell back across the Dommel and the Jagdpanzers crossed the bridge to hold the left flank of Hoffmann. This was also a silly move as it ended up with the armour in close terrain and vulnerable to infantry assault from 231 Brigade who were pushing up in fine style now.

5th Guards Brigade now manouvered into unoccupied Petter while the Divisional AT Regiment covered the left flank. There wasn't much threat from  the remains of 6th FJR, but best to be careful. The Irish and Welsh Guards could now attack both the crossroads and AT gun line to the south of it. 

The Germans were already pretty beaten up and the survivors were pushed off to the northeast. The Jagdpanzers seem to have vanished at some point, so I presume they were knocked out by 231 Brigade, but now the AT guns and SS engineers occupy the bridge exit to Borkel.

After reorganising, some of the Germans are left disorganised as they are out of contact with their HQs. I suspect I've been a bit generous with reorgs, I need to re-read the rules on the restrictions. 6th FJR have made it to the cover of the woods anyway.

There isn't really anything left around Valkenswaard though, the KG Hoffman support/HQ and 105mm Artillery both have one casualty and one hit, they daren't reorganise as if the hit becomes a casualty, they will be destroyed. The Germans are fought out and the Allies have made it through the woods to their objective. 

The corridor is firmly in Allied hands, as it is now 2400 hours, time to call a halt.

That was a much smoother than the more tactical game and the extra legroom meant the logistics units could operate more freely. It was still very congested around the Allied bridgehead, and I should probably have moved the features north a hex or two as we I didn't really need to use the area north of Valkenswaard. I think I got in a bit of a mess with reorgs, I kept forgetting that units under bombardments can't remove disorganisation, and presumably can't resupply either. I also only realised towards the end that hits are applied in the combat outcomes phase, not as they happen, which I think means they can still fight, even if they get obliterated by the opening bombardment. Is that right? I didn't actually miss ZOCs after a while, but that may be due to the small table size. I'm hoping to chat to Chris about some questions I have, so I'll do a list as things come up.

There still seems to be an awful lot going on, I suppose I'm playing both sides, so effectively running a Corps on my own, but it does rattle through quite quickly.