This letter was written as an after-action report based on the experiences of
one of the German commanders in the preceding scenario. Kevin was tasked with
defending the village of Danville and this letter home to loved ones describes the
action in detail.
15 November 1944,12:21 AM
1st Battalion, 11th PZG
Just behind Danville
Dearest Alicia,
If this letter finds you, you will know that I am alive and well on 15 November 1944. By the grace of God we held at Danville, but Doc was overwhelmed in Rambouillet and was forced back.
I am grieved by my casualties, and severall men I have told you about have fallen.
I have enclosed a small map of the town I was defending, and I will tell you of the battle so you will know that I am not taking any foolish risks. My plan was to hit the enemy as he came into town and to pull back into successive positions. My men started in the houses, would fall back into the foxholes behind, from there into the rear houses, and finally over the ridge and away.
I had used the reconnaissance unit, what was left of it, to set up an ambush in the woods behind the farm. I expected the Americans to simply drive forward toward the town until they took fire, as they had so often done in the past, so I positioned the 2 Pumas to fire on their rear as they came past. I set up the scouts' infantry in the woods behind the armored cars in case the enemy sent infantry into the woods, but I did not expect it. It was a good thing that I did, because the American commander had learned caution. They arrived en masse, as the Americans always do, and pulled into positions around the fork in the road. Five Shermans with the short 75, 2 M10s, a Sherman with a 105 mm. howitzer, a small 57 mm gun, and several half-traks. The enemy commander immediately dismounted some of his infantry and sent them into the woods behind my ambush and into the woods across the fork in the road. Very cautious this American; I prefer them the other way.
His subcommanders were not so cautious. Two of the short Shermans pulled up past the house, offering side shots to my Pumas; and his infantry, about 10, charged into the woods at a run. My 5 man scout platoon was in foxholes and armed with the wonderful MP 43s. The enemy were cut down before their eyes could adjust to the darkness of the woods.
When the gun fire started, Kruger fired his Puma into the side of a Sherman, and it ground to a stop. Schuller did not fire, and I shall never know why, though I think that he thought that the Americans could not spot him in the woods, even after Kruger had fired. They did. The American M10 on overwatch put a round into his turret, and whether he was killed or captured I do not know.
Kruger, always a sensible fellow to the odds, pulled out of the woods and headed for the town. Minter and the scout squad, after firing another burst at the American infantry, jumped into their half-track and followed.
American artillery began to fall and destroyed house A- The American sat, his guns covering the town, and waited while his infantry cleared both sets of woods.
More American artillery fell, this time on house B where Willie and his squad waited. A house is a bad place to be when the artillery comes down. Better a foxhole, or the rubble of a house already destroyed. Willie ordered his light machine gun to try to kill an American tank commander who was standing in his hatch trying to observe. I think he was hit, maybe not, but the purpose was served--all the American tank commanders closed their hatches and lost a good portion of their visibility. Willie then ordered everyone out of house B and into the foxholes behind.
The Americans, glad at finally having a target, fired on house H, but the troops had already left. The American 57 began firing on house C, but it is a small gun, and Sgt. Meese remained there with the 2nd squad.
My artillery finally came down. The fork was a bad place to stop, because I could call down fire directly on it, and with so many targets there I knew it would land to good effect. It did! I saw one round land on the back of an M10; it continued to fire, but never moved for the rest of the battle.
An 88 from the anti-aircraft battalion far to our right had been engaging 2 American Thunderbolts to no effect. Now it turned its attention to the tanks in front of us. I saw a shot go home into the Sherman 105, and the Sherman began returning fire. The 88 stopped firing, hit by the Sherman, but the Sherman must have been immobilized because it never again moved.
The American must have felt frustrated. He had lost three tanks, one destroyed and 2 immobilized. He was sitting under MY artillery, and still he had no real idea of the disposition of MY troops in the town. Unwilling to sit under the artillery any longer he made his move, but not where I expected. He did not assault the front of the town, but moved around its left edge toward the orchard. I suddenly realized that because of my placement I had only one gun that could fire in that direction, and that was the medium machine gun in the church tower.
He also sent two empty half-tracks into the town, to feel out MY positions, and perhaps to divert me from noticing where his real thrust was. Unfortunately for him, the half-tracks drove right up to the church hedge, where my 4th squad was dug in. In fact, one drove up directly in front of my one panzerschrecks.
Zimmer (you remember Zimmer) took careful aim and fired a round directly over the top of the half-track. How anyone could miss at that range I do not know. The rest of the squad had better luck. Two grenades fell into the half-track on the left and one into the half-track on the right. My men then jumped back into their foxholes as American artillery began to fall in the church courtyard.
The Americans continued their drive around to the left, dropping off infantry into the orchard. How could I have left that flank so completely open? I was about to have enemy tanks, half-tracks, and infantry swing around the church to my rear, and my plan of a systematic retreat ground to dust. All I had left was Kruger's Puma and Menter's scouts. Kruger and Minter had pulled up behind my building, building E, and I yelled my orders out the back window to them. Just as I did, those damn American fighterbombers came back!
Where is our Luftwaffe! How can we fight when anything that moves during the day is immediately bombed, strafed, and rocketed?! It is impossible. The Thunderbolt strafed the Puma with its 8 50 cal. machine guns. The shells shredded the Puma's poorly armored top and forced my head back inside. When I looked out the Puma was a charnel house, Kruger and his crew all dead.
But not unavenged! Minter grabbed the light machine gun on his half-track and gave a long burst into the American's belly as it passed over him. It began to smoke, and pieces fell off of it. It was the most pleasing sight I have seen in many days. The pilot jumped, but he may have been too close to the ground. I hope he was.
My defense was falling to pieces. Minter's half-track raced to the back of the church just as two American half-tracks came around the church from the left.
I could not tell if they were armed with the American 30 cal. medium machine gun, or the horrible 50 caliber, which would shred the front of Minter's half-mck as easily as they had shredded the Puma.
They were 30s. Minter and one of the American 30 caliber gunners exchanged fire and wounded each other. Two of the scouts, Nimer and Jung, leapt out into the church courtyard, while Pvt. Krup took over the light machine gun. The medium machine gun in the tower finally started up, killing the gunner of the second half-track.
Back in the church courtyard, the light machine gunner and his loader realized the danger to the left and ran into the church. They set up in the bottom level of the church's stone tower, to cover the church front door. The half-track that Zimmer had missed with the Schreck started up, and Cpl. Plummer and Pvt. Bernke left their foxholes behind the hedge and leapt into the halftrack. The American driver and gunner, though groggy from the grenade blast, still managed to put up a fight. Plummer and Bemke ordered them to surrender, but then attacked the gunner who was pulling a pistol. The gunner wounded Bernke before being killed. The driver, who was trying to back up, demand surrender, and pull his pistol all at the same time, was quickly subdued.
The good news was that we had captured a half-track. The bad news was that it was sitting in the field, in plain sight of a Sherman howitzer and an M10, and Bemke was badly wounded. Plummer decided to "sit tight."
The American had very sensibly laid smoke on the left side of the church, and now he charged his men into it and up to the church. They all threw grenades into the great room, and I thanked God I didn't have any men in there. Some Americans moved around to the front of the church.
Two things won the battle for me yesterday, and I think one of them happened here. I had seen his move toward the left of the church and had moved my artillery target to there. Now a salvo of 120 mm mortars came down and killed several of his men. In the smoke, fire, and artillery, they began to waver and then broke. The infantry unit by the church, which I think was an engineer unit, took off for the woods to the left of the fork.
At the back of the church, things went from bad to worse. The American half-tracks disgorged 2 infantry squads, and 2 Shermans pulled around the comer. Krup, Minter's replacement as the gunner on the scout half-track, spent a few moments wondering what was the best place to aim his light machine gun on a 33 ton Sherman. He was saved from this futile endeavor by the driver quickly throwing the half-track into reverse, throwing the wheel hard right, and backing through the hedge into the church courtyard. For a brief instant it looked like the truck would get stuck in the hedge, but with a screech, it rolled over the hedge and out of sight of the Sherman.
You can see on the map that on the ridge behind the town there was an anti-tank gun emplacement. This was manned by my last, and therefore best, anti-tank gunner Karl Nimst. You are wondering why it has not fired, even though the immobilized American M10 is clearly in its sights. This is because it is a German 75 mm. It could easily hit the M10 at that range, but it cannot penetrate the front of that tank no matter where it hits. It will, however, make the crew of the M10 mad, and they will not have such a penetration problem with the camouflage netting around the anti-tank gun.
You may now wonder what good an anti-tank gun is that cannot penetrate the enemy tanks. God knows I wonder that myself often enough. At least with these American tanks it will penetrate the front at about 33 meters. (With most of the damn Russian tanks you have to pick the gun up bodily and shove its barrel down the tailpipe!) The problem is that you have to wait until the enemy tank gets within 33 meters. This takes some courage. Nimst had waited about as long as he could and fired at the Sherman behind the church. It was still too far, of course, and it would have taken a miracle to penetrate at that range.
A miracle occurred. We later found that the shell had struck at a vision slot where the armor of the tank is less thick. It penetrated and turned the tank into junk. The American M10 was again "on the ball" and acquired the anti-tank gun as soon as it fired. Two HE rounds put it out of commission and killed one of Nimst's crew.
The American infantry began to fan out. Krup wounded another half track gunner, and the medium machine gun killed an American team trying to set up a 30. Krup had just finished congratulating himself on surviving the Sherman encounter when the immobile Sherman, armed with the howitzer, put a round into the half-tracks left rear suspension. A moment later it put another round into the right rear suspension, and the half-track fell back with its front wheels 3 feet off the ground.
Off to the right, on the far side of the ridge, a Tiger from the reserve came out of the woods and put a large hole through one of the American half-tracks. Because of the ridge, it would not be able to fire on the Shermans and probably did not even know that they were there. But the American infantry from the first halftrack were on the near side of the ridge. Having no wish to stay under the fire of the Tiger, they moved over the ridge to the left and rear walls of the church. The other group of American infantry assaulted the side of the church the same way the first hadgrenades through the windows. By this time my artillery had adjusted to the open ground in front of building 3, expecting a charge from American infantry we could see in the north woods.
Another Sherman came around from the left of the church and parked next to its wrecked friend. The unhurt American Sherman moved down along the back of the church and the hedge and pointed at the wreck of the half-track. Pvt. Jung fired his panzerfaust over the hedge at the Sherman, but it glanced off the side and did no damage. And Zimmer, dear Zimmer, came running up and let loose a quick shot of the Schreck that flashed into the hedge, hit some stout branch, and deflected into the ground. So much for anti-tank weapons.
The gunners of the medium machine gun in the church tower could not depress the gun to reach the Americans at the foot of the walls and so took to dropping grenades out of the window instead. This killed several of them, but for some reason the Americans just stayed there. I do not know why the Americans did not assault the courtyard of the church at this point. Perhaps they simply did not know the fix I was in.
With 2 tanks at the front of the town, and 2 tanks at the back, I could not extract my men from the church. The one mobile M10 had driven around the front of building C, and that building was becoming untenable from the constant fire of that damn 57 mm gun. With tanks behind and in front, I would now have a hard time pulling even squads 1, 2, and 3 out of the town without heavy casualties. I had 2 panzerfausts and one panzerschreck in the hands of a man who seemed to forget all of the training he ever had on it. But the Americans did not attack.
The tank by the hedge moved along it and turned the corner. The men in squad 4 were now completely surrounded.
Salvation came in the last form I would have ever expected: Zimmer. The second Sherman moved along the back of the church and down the hedge.
I could see Zimmer from my position; his loader tapped him on the helmet. The Sherman turret turned toward him, and the coaxial machine gun began to search for him. Zimmer looked for all the world like a man who had all day to do this one job. He set the fuse, aimed, held his breath, and slowly squeezed the trigger. The rocket flashed into the side of the Sherman's turret, just as the bullets from the coaxial found Zimmer. The Sherman shook, and smoke blew out of the hole the rocket had made. Its firing stopped. Thank you, Zimmer.. But Zimmer..
I suddenly realized what position the American was in. He had only two mobile tanks left out of his entire force! He was still blocked on the left side of the church. The grenades from the tower had stopped when several 50 cal. HMGs had opened up from the orchard, killing one of the gunners. But the enemy did not know what I had in the church. He did not know my anti-tank situation, only that I had just demonstrated my ability to kill tanks that were not protected by infantry. He had still not found most of my infantry. He was in a pretty bad spot too.
The deciding factor was a very strange thing. I am not sure that it was needed, but the event decided the American.
Remember, I told you that his mobile M10 had driven in front of building 3? Well it now moved on to a position in front of squad 3's foxholes. It stopped, and I thought for a moment that it had seen them, even though the camouflage was very good, but no. It moved forward again, this time stopping about 20 meters from the foxholes. Trying to see anything through periscopes and vision slots is very difficult, impossible on a moving vehicle. The M10 is an open topped vehicle, that is, it has no armor on the top of the turret. This makes it very vulnerable to infantry. So, why was he out there all alone, no infantry to protect him?
Do you remember my speaking to you of a sergeant in my command, a strong National Socialist Party member, who should have joined an S.S. unit but ended up in the Wehrmacht? This was Sgt. Peiper, leader of the 3rd squad. Suddenly he leapt up from his foxhole and charged the tank Pvt. Buntz leapt up and followed him. I was stunned. I stood frozen, waiting for the machine guns on the M10 to cut them to pieces. Then I remembered what Sgt. Peiper already knew. The M10 has no machine guns. No coaxial, no bow. This one didn't even have an AA machine gun, not that one of those would have helped. Did the Americans have so many vehicles that they could send an unarmed tank destroyer out to find infantry foxholes? Well, they had found them, and they were about to pay the piper.
Peiper and Buntz charged up to the tank. The driver must have been stunned to see them leap out of the ground because he didn't even start to back away until they were on top of him. They climbed on the glacis and primed grenades. They would both be alive today if regiment had sent me the magnetic AT mines that I asked for. I have seen the Russians use them: run up, slap it on, and run away. But Peiper and Buntz had to stay on that tank while they primed and threw. The M10 is open topped as I said, so both went in. One grenade came back out, but one was sufficient. The M10 shook when it went off; and a tanker helmet flew out and bounced along the ground. But as the two men were jumping clear, an American automatic weapon opened up from the north woods and killed them both. Sgt. Peiper died a hero of the party. I shall miss Private Buntz.
The American now had I remaining mobile AFV and perhaps 2 half-tracks. The Sherman in the town drove back down the road to the fork and turned to face the town. The American infantry, realizing that they no longer had direct armor support, pulled back to the orchard and then to the woods. We had held.
I called in artillery on the woods and caused them to pull back further, but I was in a hurry now; I had fought the Americans enough to know what was coming. I changed the artillery to smoke, smoked the immobile tanks, and ordered a general pullback. I had men try to burn the remaining American vehicles I could reach, and I brought out the wounded in the captured American half-track. I was amazed and delighted to see Krup, Minter, and the driver crawl out of that junk of a scout half-track although Minter is very bad. It is lucky we had the captured halftrack, or we would never have gotten out in time. The American 150s started to come down even as my rear guard came out of the town.
I am writing this by a candle in a shelter half, but I could as easily open the flap and write it by the light of the American artillery plastering Danville. God in heaven, they have so much! Tomorrow, they will walk into Danville and begin clearing the rubble. The day after that they will continue down the road and discover us here, dug-in, in the woods. Only this time I will not have two Pumas for an ambush, or a half-track for a getaway, or a 75 mm gun for a miracle shot, or a Kruger or a Buntz or a Zimmer. But we will hold, for a day.
Now I am sounding hopeless; I should not. Now that I am on the western front I really believe I will survive this war one way or another and come home to you.
All my love, believing in a final victory, Kevin
Task Force Brown: The Approach to Germany A Battalions in Crisis Scenario
Task Force Brown Scenario Write-Up
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© Copyright 1995 by Mike Vogell and Phoenix Military Simulations.
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