Hell's Crossroads

Hell's Crossroads: US and German Armoured Forces Clash in the Ruhr with Mike Haught, Sean Goodison, & Victor Pesch An American column has crossed the Rhine and is now spearheading a bold advance into the heartland of Germany. In order to make the most of their time and road space, a platoon of armoured rifle troops have boarded up atop the task force’s tanks. The way seems open and final victory so close… Meanwhile, the legendary Otto Carius’ 512th Heavy Tank-hunter Battalion lies in ambush at a vital crossroads, waiting for the hapless Americans to come into the sights of their powerful 128mm guns. Nerves are on edge as they see the vanguard of an American column trundle into view…

Sean's Tank Company - 3rd Armored Division - 2330 Points (Reluctant Veteran) Headquarters   Tank Company HQ   with two M4A3E8 Easy Eight. 270 points Combat Platoons   Heavy Tank Platoon   with two M26 Pershing. 400 points Tank Platoon   with three M4A3E8 Easy Eight & two M4A3 (late). 595 points Weapons Platoons   Light Tank Platoon   with four M24 Chaffee. 295 points Support Platoons   Armored Rifle Platoon (Dismounted)   with HQ Section, LMG Squad, 60mm Mortar Squad & two Rifle Squads. 240 points Armored Recon Platoon   with one Armored Recon Patrol. 115 points Armored Field Artillery Battery   with M7 Priest HMC & M4A3 (late) Sherman OP. 235 points Air Support   Limited P-47 Thunderbolt with HVAR rockets. 180 points Total Points: 2330 points

Sean and Victor’s forces in this battle report are from the new Flames Of War intelligence briefing, Bridge At Remagen.

Victor's 512. Schwere Panzerjägerkompanie - 2330 Points (Reluctant Trained) Headquarters   512. Schwere Panzerjägerkompanie HQ   with two Jadgtiger with Otto Carius 620 points Combat Platoons   512. Schwere Panzerjägerkompanie Platoon   with four Jadgtiger. 1075 points 512. Schwere Panzerjägerkompanie Platoon   with one Jadgtiger. 270 points Weapons Platoons   512. Panzer Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon   with four Wirbelwind. 150 points Support Platoons   Volkssturm Platoon   with HQ Section & four Volkssturm Squads. 105 points Air Support   Sporadic Arado 234 B 110 points Total Points: 2330 points

Before The Battle

German civilians take up arms in order to join in the defence of their country. They take cover inside the village buildings and wait for the enemy to arrive.

A large platoon of Jagdtigers settles into a cornfield. With some time to spare, they camouflage their tanks and prepare to ambush any American who dares cross their path.

A flight of Arado bombers has fuelled up at a nearby airfield and readies their explosive payload.

With a company of American tanks on its way, a request is made for support. A platoon of Wirbelwinds makes its way to the front, but will it arrive in time to assist the Jagdtigers?

The Battle Begins

Reconnaissance troops begin scouting the woods near town, signalling the Americans’ approach.

On the other side of the village, a mixture of Shermans comes into view, their engine decks covered with armored riflemen who have left their half-tracks behind.

Soon enough a platoon of M24 Chaffee light tanks comes racing down the open left flank. Following close behind are a pair of the new Pershing M26 heavy tanks.

Before Oberleutnant Otto Carius and his second in command have a chance to fire on the advancing tanks, a pair of P-47s swoop down and fill the corn fields with fire and smoke.

A whistling sound is the only warning the Volksturm militiamen receive as the dreaded American artillery ranges in on their homes and begin firing.

The left flank is suddenly ablaze as four hidden Jagdtigers make their presence known to the unprepared Chaffee platoon.

With Carius and his crew still shaken they are relieved to see a flight of Arado aircraft bearing down on the approaching Shermans. But a flurry of fire from the Americans’ .50 cals forces the bombers to pull out.

The large platoon of Sherman tanks continues to close the gap to Carius’ position.

Another pass by the P-47s keeps the pressure on but the Jagdtiger crews sit tight.

When a lucky artillery strike forces two Jagdtiger crews to bail out the Pershings see their chance and race forward, knowing that a flanking manoeuvre is their best bet.

Having spotted the Volksturm taking cover at the crossroads the American recce troops open fire with their machine-guns and claim two kills.

Carius manages to rally his crew and they open fire on the Sherman platoon. One tank goes up in flames and several nearby infantrymen are caught in the blast.

The infantry dismount from the tanks and dash for cover in the woods while the tanks keep pushing forward.

Carius and his 2iC find their rhythm and claim three more tanks. They are soon joined by a platoon of Wirbelwind FlaK tanks, which come rumbling down the road just in time to fire on the moving infantry.

The captain of the infantry platoon wants some vengeance and calls in the artillery, which successfully destroy two Wirbelwinds.

The Pershing tanks pounce on the floundering Jagdtiger crews and two of the beasts go up in smoke. The rest of the Jagdtiger platoon however, returns the favour, their shells tearing through the Pershings.

The single Jagdtiger arrives from reserve and joins Carius and the 2iC on the firing line. Together they disable the last three Shermans and clear their flank.

With their armoured support gone and many of their own teams killed the American infantry is barely holding on. An ominous sound is heard overhead as a full flight of three Arado bombers seals the infantrymen’s fate. The few remaining troopers are forced to withdraw.

Victor's Thoughts

Well, that went pretty much according to plan! I’d originally planned to ambush my Jagdtiger platoon in the central forest which is why I had my platoon of Volksgrenadiers nearby (just in case Sean tried to assault them with his infantry) but his recon killed that plan. Other than that I was happy with how everything went. I still learnt a few things that I’ll carry through to any future games when I am playing Jagdtigers, or any of the other heavy hitting German tank hunters for that matter: Watch Your Flanks Jagdtigers, Elefants and Jagdpanthers are all pretty hard to defeat front on. They have massive amounts of frontal armour which will negate the majority of your the enemies fire. However, as Sean’s Pershings showed if you can get around the flanks the armour of these vehicles is nowhere near as impressive. On this particular table it was not a huge problem because we were playing lengthwise I had some artificial protection that gamey players can use to their advantage. If we were playing across the table it would have been harder for me, especially since I only had one platoon of infantry to limit the ability of enemy tanks to skirt round my flanks. Don’t Get Bombed! With Typhoons, P-47s and a host of other bomb laden aircraft around you cannot afford to have an Anti-tank 5; Firepower 1+ or 2+ bombs landing on your head. Careful use of Anti-aircraft protected my Jagdtigers in this game from Sean’s aircraft, and also performs valuable double duty to keep enemy infantry at bay. Knock Out Their Guns With the Jagdtiger's Breakthrough gun special rule, you can snipe out enemy heavy artillery if your opponent does not have a hill to hide behind. Even if you only kill a couple of guns you will seriously hamper the ability of your enemy to hurt you. In this game I didn’t knock out any of Sean’s Priests but that was mainly because I was not short of tanks to kill which was a higher priority at the time. ~ Victor.

Sean's Thoughts

The one shot – one kill ability of the Jagdtiger meant that it was in a race to get around Victor’s flanks before he broke my company. Going into the fight my plan was to push my recon up the middle of the table to reduce Victor’s ambushing options; with tanks driving hard to close the gap, flank him, and kill him. I was also conscious that I could not afford to bunch up all of my vehicles as his ambush and reserves would be able to just shoot me up. By splitting my force I hoped to split his fire and then use my artillery and P-47s to open the door by bailing or hopefully killing some of his vehicles. This would reduce the amount of incoming fire and allow the surviving vehicles to pass through and flank him. I only needed to roll-up on one flank and my infantry would be able to secure the town and woods in the middle of the table, effectively stopping any potential counterattacks. I did think about pushing up through the cornfields, but the reduction in speed would have meant that I would have been taking incoming fire for at least another turn; potentially increasing the number of casualties and increases Victor’s probably of getting reserves onto the table. In the end I gambled; and it did not quite work out as I hoped. Now that I have seen how nasty Jagdtigers can be I’ll be on the look-out for some suggestions on how to deal with them. ~ Sean.