‘Unternehmen Herbstnebel – 14th December 2008
The Comrades in Arms team ran their 2nd anniversary game at First and Only’s Bolton woodland site on the 14th December 2008. It was one day event with a social on Saturday night for those camping on site. The First and Only woodland site is situated next to Delp reservoir, Bolton. The wood is an old plantation full of natural features from swamp to fire bases…
Scenario
‘Unternehmen Herbstnebel’ (Operation Autumn Mist) revisited our very first game – the German offensive dubbed by the Americans as the Battle of the Ardennes but known to everyone as the Battle of the Bulge.
This time the date had moved to just after Christmas and centres around a small area in the North of the battle zone between Hotton, La Roche and Manhay. The American 82nd Airborne fighting as infantry have been pulled back from St Vith by Montgomery to neaten up the battle lines. The 2nd Battalion Oxf and Bucks Light Infantry, part of the 6th Airborne Division (again, fighting as infantry) have moved across the Meuse to assist in resisting German attempts to punch north.
Two small groups of the 9th SS Pz. Div and 116th Pz Div have been spotted on foot, desperately searching for fuel for their armour and troop transport. While a small group of Brits held off the German incursion, the US troops split their fuel and ammunition dump and redistributed it over a wider area to make German gains harder. However, following German recce the dumps were found and much fuel stolen and ammunition destroyed. Unfortunately for the Germans, almost all fuel was recaptured (only a small amount of petrol sent back to the road to fill the vehicles) so in desperation the Germans decided to continue on foot to see if they could reach the Meuse at Huy.
Without the encumbrance of vehicles they made good progress but with non-existent lines of supply their hold of one side of the river bridge was valiant but doomed to failure. Once the US and British forces combined their superiority in ammunition and firepower was overwhelming and the Germans beat a hasty retreat to regroup and consolidate.
In a last ditch ‘do or die’ attempt the Germans made a final assault on the bridge but as the weather cleared US airplanes finally were able to take to the skies and bombed the hell out of the forward lines of German troops, bringing to an end the futile ‘Autumn Mist’ campaign.
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