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While the battle of Longvilly rages, Noville
is bypassed.
Battle of Bastogne.
On the 16th December, 1944 the German
army began Unternehmen:
Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), which
was to become known as The Battle of the Bulge.
The town of Bastogne lay right in the
center of the German offensive. However, the sparse
american forces in the town were able to defend it and
were reinforced just in time by the US 101st Airborne
division to hold the town.
The 101st, along with combat commands
from the 9th and 10th armoured divisions, held the town
for several days while the German army attacked them
from all sides. Finally, on the 24th of December the
first elements of the 4th Armored Division fought their
way through to Bastogne to relieve the besieged town.
TIPS
First, make sure you have at least played
the free tutorials up to tutorial
2 before playing this battle. And there is no airpower
in this scenario due to the bad weather at the time.
The first stage of this scenario has two
smaller battles, one for the town of Longvilly and the
other for Noville.
As the German player you have the 2nd
Panzer Division and 26th Infantry Division arriving
in a somewhat confused mix in front of the US defenders
at Longvilly and Oberwampoch.
You need to disperse your forces as quickly
as possible before the US drops artillery all over them,
while quickly clearing a path to Bastogne to allow your
fresh reinforcements through. If
you can get behind the US defenders with your armour
it may cut them off and not allow them to retreat. At
Noville you have to either dislodge the defenders early
or bypass the town and use a later column of reinforcements
to attack it directly.
At some point in the battle all supplies
to the US forces will be cut off due to strategic events.
Then you want to reduce as much of the US forces as
possible, pushing them into higher densities and then
drop artillery on them. At the same time you have to
get ready for the arrival of the US 4th Armored Division
to the south.
As the US player you
should concentrate your artillery barrages against any
large concentrations of German forces. With your forward
troops you have to decide how long to hold this
ground, without losing your men in the process.
At Noville you should try and hold the
Germans off as long as possible. This will allow the
advancing 101st Airborne to reinforce this position
and build a defensive perimeter. The hard part is knowing
what to do with the additional armoured forces at Foy,
as they can help prevent the Germans from bypassing
Noville but are not suited to fighting in the woods
without proper infantry support.
When your supplies are cut off you have
to ration out your artillery but still maintain a steady
perimeter. If possible try to keep a path open from
Sibret to Bastogne to make the 4th Armored's approach
easier.
Once the 4th Armored Division arrives
the game dynamic changes and it's the German players'
turn to be on the defensive. Much will depend on how
well the US forces have been able to hold their position.
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of Bastogne. All rights reserved.
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