Higher Ground - After Action Report

Page 1 of 4

Saint Lô & Falaise, France, August 1944 - Light US forces press forward against the encircled Germans...

John was attacking with the U.S. and Kieran was defending with the Germans and we played that woods & orchards provide no cover from indirect HE fire.

The Battle

Looking at this photo, you will see the objective of the US attack - the high ground at the right rear. It's the time of Falaise and US forces are streaming across France... The light armour and mechanised infantry are way-out in front... It's expected there will be light German resistance in the area, and the high ground dominates a town and river crossing further North (behind the German position).

This photo shows the view from the German side...

Here is a shot from early in the game, two US platoons have advanced up the centre (on the left edge of the photo), while on the right the tank platoon has gingerly advanced up the road. A platoon has dashed across the open on the extreme right heading for the hedged fields, however the first German defenders are about to open up on them before they reach the safety of those hedges! German troops appeared from the small copse beyond the farm on the right (at the end of the road), and promptly shot up the group moving US troops by the hedge!

This frustrated the U.S. as their main plan was to screen the centre and push round the right, but it turned out to be too exposed. To try and get at the enemy platoon covering the right they decided to risk rushing the main apple orchard in the middle... The picture on the right shows the poor sods sent to their deaths - part of a platoon having dashed into the crop field adjacent to the orchard blunders right into the front of a position occupied by a platoon of tripod mounted MG42s! Ooops, sorry boys...

 
Heck! The U.S. player was struggling to get his head around attacking - having spent most of his previous games defending! More Germans appeared at the right end of the orchard. There was part of a platoon plus a PAT team... Having seen off the U.S. infantry they starting lobbing Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck rounds at the American light tanks!

Best policy - ignore the issue! The attackers decided to go over to their left flank and bought 2 platoons from a fresh company on - they crossed the stream into the wood alongside, and promptly came under heavy fire from multiple locations! This photo shows the platoons coming under heavy fire initially, and you can see one group of Germans in the orange orchard in the centre of the picture. There is another German platoon out of shot to the left of the US Platoon...

NEXT PAGE >>