Battle of the Bulge: Approaching St. Vith Part II

Last post's screen shot was from turn 27.

Turn 34 (7 turns or around 24 - 32 hours later)

1: Kampfgruppe Telkamp initially attempted to reach Rodt and cut the highway to St. Vith.  The 7th Armored was there in force as can be seen by the many wrecks.  I destroyed a company of Shermans but at great cost and decided to head directly for St. Vith instead.

2: 7th Armored holding a line just north of the paved highway. I don't have enough force to attempt to cut the road and simultaneously advance towards the vital VP hexes in St. Vith

3: The surrounded remnants of what Intel is telling me is the 424th Infantry Regiment (playing "fog of war" I cannot access unit information on my opponent's troops but I believe this is the 424th as it starts the game in St. Vith along with a couple companies of engineers).

The enemy held a strong position on this ridge and was dug in but my troops were able to remain in LOS and call in heavy rocket fire, disrupting the enemy and allowing them to be encircled.

4: Steinbruck and the 500 vp hex is just south west of the numeral 4.  My 62nd VG Division is slowly approaching.

Remember that historically, the 424th Infantry Regiment was on the front line, south of its sister 422nd and 423rd infantry regiments which were quickly surrounded and destroyed. The 424th was able to pull back to St. Vith, and then forced back further west before taking part in the eventual counterattack.  They have an interesting history and will rate their own dedicated post.

Turn 38

St. Vith will not fall easily.  After overrunning the 424th I thought I may do the same to isolated defenders at St. Vith but the 7th Armored Division is here in force, along with quite a few engineers that cause havoc with my panzers at close quarters. They hold a continuous line and I hear armor behind their lines waiting to strike.

There is nothing to it but fight a battle of attrition: move forward, take the heavy op fire, try to force the defenders back so their artillery will not devastate my advance, and if I fail in that, lay smoke and hope I can hold on until my artillery takes effect.  Even the Tigers (on the right of the screen shot) are taking casualties from engineers fighting in the town hexes.

Battle of the Bulge: Approaching St. Vith

German Forces Approach St. Vith.

Newly captured Schönburg is on the far right of the screen shot below.  I recommend clicking on the picture below to see the detail. A clump of volks-grenadier stragglers, artillery and transport, clog the narrow Schönburg streets.

A mix of engineers, volks-grenadiers and the Führerbegleitbrigade have entered the first line of woods after capturing Setz.  I thought the enemy would make a stand but, so far, no opposition.

In the top left, north west of St. Vith, Kampfgruppe Telkamp approaches.  This battle group was part of the 9th SS Division and was involved with the action around St. Vith.  If you look closely you can see the wreck of a scout car that was hiding in the woods. The scouts were from the 7th Armored Division who stood in the way of the 9th SS Panzer Division, preventing it from surrounded St. Vith from the north and north west.

Historically, the 9th SS struck further to the west, (off the map above), around Poteau. In this scenario I just have Kampfgruppe Telkamp and by playing past versions of this scenario I found that despite packing a punch, attacking the 7th Armored Division alone is extremely costly, therefore, I head directly for St. Vith to join up with their comrades approaching from the east.

Kampfgruppe Telkamp Links

There's not much information online on Kampfgruppe Telkamp.  In fact, when searching I found that an old "during action report" relatively high up in the search results (click more results to find 1st Chronicles post).  The report was from a very early version of this scenario and I'm glad to say, the Germans may take St. Vith this time.

Not much but a book available online on the 9th SS Panzer Division and an article on the 9th at Globeatwar.com. Both the book and article focus on the war history of the 9th SS and there is not a lot of detail on the Bulge.