Battle of the Bulge: Fighting in Bleialf

This post is a supplement to Part II of the Bulge Series and compliments the one on the fight for Krewinkle and Afst.  The supplements are necessary as the scenario being used as the vehicle to study this battle either starts after the fighting has ended (Krewinkle and Afst) or has the front line further east at game start (Bleialf).

The game map from Part II is copied below to remind the reader on the location of the villages.

With Krewinkel and Afst taken in the north, followed by the loss of Auw and Roth, and a successful assault on Bleialf, the encirclement of the 422nd and 423rd infantry regiments begins.

Battle of the Bulge: Fighting in Krewinkle

Introduction

This post is a supplement to Part II of my Bulge series and highlights the fighting for Krewinkle and Afst, a rare American success on the morning of 16 December but not simulated in the scenario.

Situation Maps

This screen shot from an earlier version of the scenario.  Manderfeld is west and in the game we are playing the Germans start off map to the west.

The map below is an update from this post showing German positions at the end of Turn 1, adding place names for Afst and Krewinkel.  The Americans are long gone and Tigers roll through.

Battle of the Bulge: Weapons of the 106th Infantry Division

Just like its Volks-Grenadier counterpart, this post will be updated with more weapons as the series moves on.

                                                       Infantry Weapons

This link describes what is on display at various museums around the Ardennes and I will use this as a reference until I find a reference for the 106th's specific weapons. 

M3 /M3A1 Sub-machine gun

M3/M3A1 from Infogalactic article.

The M3 was developed using a design study of the British Sten and the first models were in development at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack.  The development project was then given higher priority and the M3 rushed into production. Nicknamed the "Grease Gun" due to its unusual design the newly issued guns were easily damaged, especially the cocking handles breaking off and bending stocks. The M3A1 was produced in 1944 using a simpler design that was easier to use (for example getting ride of the easily broken cocking
handle). 

The M3 used a 9mm round, weighed 4.65kg/10.25 pounds and had a relatively low rate of fire at 350-450 rpm. The M3A1 was phased out of front line service by 1957 but remained in inventory for tank and truck drivers up to 1992.

Front line troops in Europe preferred the Thompson M1 or captured MP38 or MP40 guns allowing insight into its effectiveness versus other infantry weapons.

Bazooka

Note: I cannot recall first person accounts of bazookas being used by 106th ID infantrymen so, for now, listing the bazooka as a comparison with the VG's Raketenpanzerbüschse (Rocket tank rifle) 54.


First used in North Africa, this simple weapon (open tube and electrical firing mechanism) was used by the Germans to develop their Raketenpanzerbüchse after one was captured on a North African battlefield in 1943. Despite the Germans answering with larger caliber weapons, the bazooka used the 60mm caliber rocket to the end of the war.

The length of the tube was 1.384 m / 4ft 6.5in and weighed 6.01 kg / 13.25 lb while each rocket weight 1.54 kg / 3.4lb.

Maximum range was 594 meters.

                                                  Overall OOB for the 106th

Note: to be used to add equipment notes to units.
From Nafziger OOB (944ULAA).

106th Infantry Division: Major General A.W.Jones

422nd Infantry Regiment 
423rd Infantry Regiment
424th Infantry Regiment     

589th Field Artillery Regiment 
590th Field Artillery Regiment 
591st Field Artillery Regiment   
592nd Field Artillery Regiment     

81st Engineer Combat Battalion
820th Tank Destroyer Battalion (towed) 
14th Cavalry Group, Mechanized         

275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion
634th AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion 
563rd AAA Automatic Weapons Battalion     
333rd Field Artillery Battalion (155mm howitzers)
559th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm guns)   
561st Field Artillery Battalion (155mm guns)     
578th Field Artillery Battalion (8" howitzers) 
740th Field Artillery Battalion (8" howitzers) 
770th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm howitzers)
771st Field Artillery Battalion (4.5" guns)       
965th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm howitzers) 
969th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm howitzers) 

Index to the Battle of the Bulge, V Panzer Series

The following is a series of links serving as an index to my V Panzer / St. Vith series of posts. When complete, this wills serve as an e-book of sorts. I can foresee one weakness of this format will be orphaned links as time goes on but for those interested in military history and the discerning wargamer can enjoy this potentially ephemeral format as the samurai looked upon blossoming sakura.

Index

Part 1: Map with starting positions.
Part 2: 18th VG Division Advances.
Part 2: Fighting at Afst and Krewinkle.
Part 2: Fighting at Bleialf.
Part 3: Cannae in the Schnee Eifel
Part 4: German forces approach St. Vith
Part 4: Approaching St. Vith next day

Artillery:

      German - Report on Army Group B's General of the Artillery.

Medical care:

       U.S. - general and some Bulge related material. 

       German - general medical care and veterinary services for German infantry divisions.

Volks-Grenadiers.
       Kochen im Feld - Cooking in the Field

Weather chart during the Battle of the Bulge.

Geographic locations

Afst - fighting 16 Dec.
Bleialf - fighting 16 Dec.
Krewinkle - fighting 16 Dec.
Prumerberg Heights near St. Vith - defense by the 81st Engineers 17 - 21 Dec. Go to memorial section.
St. Vith
      - tour of the battlefield.

Units

U.S.

424th Infantry Regiment, 106th ID

German

18th Volks-grenadier Division

62nd Volks-grenadier Division

OOBs for both sides here (general). 

Personalities

Col. Thomas Riggs, 81st Engineers. 

     - obituary

     - defense at Prumerberg Heights near St. Vith

References (Publications)

A Time for Trumpets Charles B. Macdonald.
Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944-1945 D.S. Parker. One of the main sources for Nafziger's OOB.
Das Heer 1933-1945, 1956 Vol I & II, Verband der Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen SS 1939-1945. Mueller-Hillebrand.  Cited by Nafziger.
Die Ardennen Offensive 1944-1945. H. Jung.  One of the main sources for Nafziger's OOB.
St. Vith: Lion in the Way, Ernest Dupuy. The 106th at the Battle of the Bulge. Paperback edition here. Note: there is a cheaper Kindle edition for 99 cents but does not contain maps or photos.
The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge Hugh M. Cole.
The Battle of the Bulge, Charles B MacDonald. Cited by Nafziger on his OOB.
The 106th: The Story of the 106th Infantry Division .pdf file of 1945 U.S. Army pamphlet
Verband und Truppen der detuschen Wermacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945. G. Tessin.  Cited by Nafziger.
Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp, Douglas E. Nash. Detailed unit history of a Fusilier Company of the 272nd VG Regiment.  Best resource available on the Volks-Grenadiers.

References (Links)

14th Cavalry in the Losheim Gap
106th Infantry Division Association.  They have a reunion planed this September.
324th Medical Battalion.  Unit history. During the Bulge they were at Jalhay, Belgium, north of Malmedy.
424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. Personal account by Sgt Maurice Kunselman
     - first hand account of fighting from 23 to 30 December.
Battle of the Bulge Memories. Comprehensive web site from Belgium. Highly recommended.
Panzerworld Self explanatory.  Good info.
Project 1944. Military historians practicing "living history".
The 106th Infantry Division.  Nice section on the battlefield today.
WW2 Armed Forces OOBs and Organizations by Dr. Leo Niehorster. Not much available for the Bulge but otherwise, an excellent resource.

 

Related Games

A Time for Trumpets  GMT Games.  Board game.
Battles for the Ardennes SPI Games.  Board game. Four games in one.  Simulations of both the Bulge in 1944 and Sedan 1940.
Battle of the Bulge.  Shenandoah Studios. Computer Game. Available on Steam.
John Tiller's Campaign Series Matrix Games. Computer game.  Using a scenario from this game for this series of posts. Currently, on sale for $9.99!
Panzer Leader Avalon Hill. Board game.  Along with Panzerblitz (East Front) on of AH's best games.
The Ardennes Offensive SPI Games. Board game.
The Battle of the Bulge Avalon Hill. Board game.
The Blitz Wargame Club Eventual home for the updated (after this play test) V Panzer Army Campaign scenario.
Winter Thunder Tiny Battle Publishing. Operational level game designed by Brian Train.

Related Fiction

Fight to Survive: A Novel of the Battle of the Bulge, Book I, Steven Wheeler.

Behind Enemy Lines: A Novel of the Battle of the Bulge, Book II, Steven Wheeler.

Battle of the Bulge: OOBs for the Battle of the Bulge

Below are copies from two of George Nafziger's OOBs.

The German OOB can be found under file  # 944GLAA and the American under 944ULAA:

German LXVI Corps

Notes from the original:
2 - The 18th VG Division was formed during 9/44 in Denmark from the cadre of a Luftwaffe field division and drafts from the Luftwaffe and Navy. At full strength and two months experience on the defensive in the Eifel.
3 - Numbers date from 12/1/44 and are "ist starke" (total), "Gefecht stärke" (action), and "Kampfstärke" (battle strength).
4 - 62nd VG Division rebuilt after being destroyed in Russia. Heavily composed of Polish and Czech conscripts who spoke no German.

And a couple of additional notes at the end of the document:

Jung provides a statement at the bottom of his return for 12/1/44 that indicates the "Ist staäke" (total strength) of a Type 44 infantry division would probably be at 54% (6,708 men) and that a Volksgrenadier division would probably be at 58% (6,410 men) of their total authorized strengths.

Note on Equipment:
Jung and Parker are frequently at odds about the numbers of tanks, sturmgeschutz, and guns assigned. Jung is using official records and appears to be more accurate, but there is no apparent reason as to why Parker indicates a Jagdpanzer IV and Jung indicates only heavy anti-tank guns (PAK).

Parker, D.S, Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944-1945, 1991, Hong Kong, Combined Books Inc.

Jung, H., Die Ardenne Offensive 1944-1945, 1971, Frankfurt, Musterschmidt Gottingen.

American 106th Infantry Division

No notes.

Sources:

Stanton, S.L., Order of Battle, U.S.Army, World War II, Presidio Press, Novato, CA, 1984.

Parker, D.S, Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, 1944-1945, 1991, Hong Kong, Combined Books Inc.

Battle of the Bulge: 18th and 62nd VG Divisions Day 1

Intro

This post is the second in a series covering the advance on St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge.  This post will discuss the starting positions of the opposing forces and the terrain.

Start Map and Terrain

I have created the map below using satellite imagery. No doubt, there are differences from the 1944 battlefield but the hilly and wooded terrain remains relevant if you choose to drive, hike, or decide to invade Belgium with an mechanized force.

The blue line is the Google Maps direction feature for a vehicle between the key villages of Krewinkel, Weckerath,Manderfeld, Schönberg (and its vital bridge), then St. Vith. This is not necessarily the main axis of my intended advance but serves to give the reader an idea of the distance to be covered to the main victory point hexes at St. Vith.

The 18th Volksgrenadier (VG) Division is in the northeast corner of the map and scenario starting positions are show for its three regiments. The 62nd VG Division is concentrated just west of Prum on the bottom of the map. They are opposed by the 423rd Infantry Regiment.

Update 1/1/19: The bottom most VG Regiment, was actually the 183rd.

The 422nd and 423rd Infantry Regiments were stretched thin across the front line and are in entrenched positions along a diagonal line between the two green regimental icons. They hold a good portion of the Schnee Eifel; the dark green wood covering a high ridge.

The Führerbegleit Brigade (Fuhrer Escort Brigade) lurks n the NE corner, ready to exploit any opportunity created by the VG regiments.

Hard to see unless you blow up the map but two red marks at Schönberg (middle of the blue line) and to the SW at Steinebrück designate vital bridges over the Our River. The Americans have many engineers available so it will be a race against time to take the bridges before they are blown.

My overall strategy is simple and has been dictated by the terrain. The 18th VG Division will attempt to get to the bridge at Schönberg the fastest with the mostest while the 62nd VG Division will push towards Schönberg and Steinebrück.

The blue car route on the map also gives a rough idea on the course of the Our River near Schönberg. On the game map the river is impassable to the east of Schönberg.  My engineers can build foot bridges but not vehicle bridges. If I send any armor to the north of that blue line from Manderfeld south west to Schönberg they will not be able to support any force south of the line until Schönberg is taken. There are fords in the town and elsewhere but the two bridges in red are key for relatively fast mechanized movement.

From Hugh M. Cole's book The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge a chapter on the initial dispositions of the 106th Infantry Division can be found here.

Update 1/7/2019: As research continues I discover differences between the scenario's start positions and the historical deployment.  For the map above the 424th Infantry Regiment was actually on the front line further to the south and not in St. Vith.  In the scenario the 422nd Infantry Regiment has about half the regiment stationed in the Losheim Gap, especially in vicinity of Roth. Actually, the 14th Armored Group was spread thin throughout the Losheim Gap and according to Charles B. MacDonald in A Time for Trumpets the Germans found an undefended area of more than a mile between Weckerath and Roth. A battalion of VGs pushed through this gap in the defense towards Auw, cutting off the defenders.  In the scenario there is at least a company of infantrymen in those woods who do a good job of holding back the attackers.

Next 

Orders of battle (OOB) for the forces involved and I hope to draft a side bar on the Volksgrenadiers.