AAR 1944 Holland: Overloon by Mark Luther

Panther posing with windmill

The Germans are deployed behind the town(this side), in the woods to the left, and in the small woods in the center. Pak 40s are located on the edge of the left hand woods. A Panther is back in the large farmstead on the right center. AP mines are on the forward edge of the right woods and AT mines on the left(main) road.

From the British startline. The ground is boggy. The forward edge of the woods has been shot up pretty well along with the town and factory. Stonks are planned for the left woods, the center of the town and the factory on the right.

The victim of considerable amount of British artillery fire.

The Germans had prepared postions there that they would reoccupy after the anticipated British bombardment.

The Brits have laid some smoke on the flanks, and are advancing down the roads to advoid boging in the muddy fields. Very slow going and the smoke will have mosty dissipated by the time the Brits make it to the German kill zones.

The Brits elect to advance on the roads, fearing they will bog down in the muddy fields. Unfortunately they managed to bog down on the roads also.

The Crocodiles(we kept the trailers off board so the Germans wouldn't know they had flamethrowers) are hit with consecutive hestitant troop cards, the left hand platoon is in a AP minefield(schu mines), and the center platoon is coming under mortar fire.

Victim of a Pak40. The infantry are taking fire from dug in troops at the factory.

The Crocodiles have been stalled out (Hesitant British troop card) for THREE tuns in a row as the platoons they were to support are blasted with mortars.

The first one took a Pak hit, the second tank got clobbered by the Pz V down the road. The remaining tank is the troop leader and is returning fire as quick as it can.

The first one was KO'd by a Pak , the second one just got destroyed by a Panther.

...to confront the Churchills.

Down the road to the Panther's right is a column of Churchills under fire from the Pak 40.

Firing past a already smoking Churchill, the Panther hits the second tank before getting its gun damaged by the last Churchill.

The center and left hand platoons are bogged down under mortars and small arm & mg fire from the town, wondering what happened to their support.

The Germans use all their weapons including Panzerfaust 60s to knock out the Crocodiles before they can use their flamethrowers.

After sending several turns lagging behind the infantry, the Crocs managed to get close enough (12") to use their flamethrower.

The Crocs manage to survive several wide Pzfst shots before locating a target straight ahead in the town. Only one tank managed to spot anything.

Lucky hit from the remaining Churchill took out the 75L70 gun, so back into hiding they went.

Leaving the rest of the Churchills burning on the road, the troop leader's tank manages to pass through a AT minefield to lend support to the right flank platoon.

Using 2 squads, a Piat team and the light mortar, their right hand platoon is whittling down the German defenders.

The British infantry is in the woods firing at Germans in town and hugging the ground in the already shredded woods. Crocodiles toasting the town.

With both Crocodiles now engaged, the game is just about up for the German infantry.

Croc no. 2 finally opens up on German occuppied rubble. This is way too much for the out-of-panzerfaust Germans to withstand.

Crocodiles chasing the Germans out of town. British infantry in the woods trading shots with Germans in the easter edge of town. Burning Croc in the background.

The infantry traded small arms and Pzfst and PIATs rounds.

Bad going through rubble and possible Panzerfaust teams didn't make for quick movement.

The large group of craters is one of the pregame stonks. The town had been the target of numerous artillery missions for days.

The Brits move up to occupy the factory buildings and the German positions.

The Germans are back in their original postions, near the knocked out pak40. Down to under 50% strength since the start of the game.

Waiting to get the latest news from the front before advancing. At this point there was nothing really left of the German infantry so didn't seem to make much sense to counterattack into the town with these thin-skinned open topped vehicles.

They didn't really have a chance to do anything in the game, but would have prevented any additional advance by the Churchills. These guys weren't about to risk getting hit by British arty or AT.