Interactive History VI: Warrior's Ambition

[Flavius Clemens]

Firstly, whatever the circumstances a couple of thoughts to impress on the platoon commanders:
a) The pilot’s sighting and the intelligence report may be the best estimate of the force we are facing, but bear in mind they may be wrong or out of date. Trust your own eyes above all else.
b) They have had time to booby-trap the obvious approaches up the low road and the ditch, so no charging up the road. If all we achieve is leaving a knocked out armoured car blocking the road we’ll be doing the Russians’ work for them.

Facing Russians
As has been said earlier, it seems most likely they have deployed in the village and behind the raised road, probably with battalion mortars behind the road where they can operate sheltered from direct fire from us, but we need to double check this first.

1st Platoon remains central, just to the left of the road, to coordinate, observe the front of the village and provide supporting fire if and where necessary.
Send 4th Platoon left to recce the light wood and, if it’s clear, sneak forward on foot to observe the embanked road and village from the edge of the wood. 3rd platoon deploys scouts to check the ditch and observe the dense wood. If clear, 2nd platoon then move forward between the ditch and road, and push forward to observe the village from the right. Don’t get too close; expect risk of anti-tank rifle fire. Meanwhile 3rd platoon redeploys scouts to check the road for booby-traps.

If the Russian deployment is as expected and we conclude an attack is worth while (as implied, this is unlikely) air support would be nice. We have to either punch through the village or get over the embanked road, either of which leaves the armoured cars vulnerable to a/t rifles, grenades and generally suicidal Russians. I suggest we aim to outflank and envelope on the left as follows.
4th platoon moves through light wood ready for a wide flanking move. 1st platoon, moves forward to the left of the road, firing at the buildings at the front of the village. Other platoons move forward slightly to the right of the light wood, with the armoured cars initially concentrating fire on the village then, if a shot is possible over the road, on the isolated building to the left of the village. The motorcycles dash out of the wood near the edge of the map, cross the road and turn right, enfilading the defenders with their machineguns so that the 2nd and 3rd platoons can immediately cross the road, with less risk of being attacked. All these forces then press the attack against the Russians while 1st platoon continues fire from the other side of the road.

Facing “Germans”
In this case the enemy is likely to be better equipped and to have used at least one of the woods to deploy some of the troops, allowing a cross-fire.
Keep 1st platoon central as before and use 3rd platoon to check the ditch, observe the dense wood from there and then redeploy to check the road. If the motorcycles can operate in the dense wood and armoured cars in the light wood then use 4th and 2nd platoons accordingly to check these. If they encounter the enemy in the woods it’s unlikely we’ll be able to get any further, but if possible get as close to the village as the cover allows to observe troop deployments there.

As for attack plans, simple answer is don’t bother. We’re not the right force to try and root out determined, well-equipped defenders from woods and our casualties would outweigh any benefit, leaving the recon capability seriously weakened for the next phase of the advance.

[Franconicus]

Russian style would be to cover the town and the road from the south; Gernab style maybe having more in reserve an covering the bridge.

I suppose that Iwan has some infantry in the northern wood and a guard at the bridge. Maybe some artillery in the northern wood, too.

The bridge may be the key. I guess, that is the supply line for the enemy and that is his retreating route. So, like James Brown used to say, TAKE ME TO THE BRIDGE.

We should have one detachment marching through the western wood. It is dense enough to pass it unseen. They should target the road between town and bridge. There they can recon the traffic. If there is none, the town is propably empty. If there is a lot - we should not attack!!

If there is none or little, they should try to recon towards the town. Maybe they find out how many Russians there are.

If we find out that there are nit that many, we start a major attack. Our forward detachment starts firing on the guard of the bridge. This fire in the rear, at their retreatment line may cause confusion. We use this to take our main force (mobile!!) to rush along the road and attck straight to the town. Speed is armor. I guess we will be able to take the enemy by surprise. Attacked frontal and in the back, I assume that the Russians will pull back and get on the other side of the river. We should follow them and take the bridge. Then we are secure and can clear the forrests!

[Marshal Murat]

The Russian arrangements would be as linear as possible, with more control over their forces, not allowing the men too much independent control. Russians are fanatical in the defense, and their commanders understand this. They would more eagerly bunker down and wait for the Germans to rush at them. A German commander, would try to use his terrain to force the enemy into an unfavorable position. If the German commander were flexible, he could easily defeat my plan by shifting the reserves to the eastern embanked roads, and then await the "German" attack.

I do agree that reconnaissance is the most obvious role for the forces. My options afterwards were simply if I was to attack, either force. Armored cars would have holes punched through them if hit by AT-rifles, but that depends on if the armored cars were moving slowly enough to be punctured by a well-aimed round. That is why the embanked road should be cleared before the armored cars run over, so they don't expose their under-belly to the aforementioned AT-rifles. Mortars are only useful if the gunners can see where their rounds land. I'm not familiar with Soviet mortar/platoon cooperation, but not everyone has a radio, and if we move fast enough, the mortars can be destroyed before they can bring effective fire.

The 'bridge' isn't essential. Were it essential, I'm sure our "commander" would've assigned that as a target to 'recon'. Seeing as it isn't mentioned, I can only assume that the commander cares not whether we capture it or not.

[Kraxis]

Excellent people...

Analysis, planning, execution. And it looks like you are more or less reaching points of common acceptance.

[Gurkhal]

Although I might be wrong. Gurkhal's plan is however, excellent.

You flatter me.

[AggonyDuck]

Anyway lets try to summarize what we all agree on to make this easy for Kraxis.

[Franconicus]

Let me explain, why I think the bridge is the key:

There are two options. First, the town is empty. If this is it, then we should avoid wasting time. However, we cannot rush into the village. However, by observing the supply route, we should get a first idea, if there are Russians.
Second, the village is occupied. Let’s pretend I was the Russian commander. I expect the Germans to come, I do not know exactly when and how strong, but I assume that they will come soon and that there will be more than just a pair of recons. And I am rather sure that they come straight from the south.
My order is probably to hold the town as long as possible – that means long enough until I get reinforcements. If they do not come in time, I will retreat.

The connection to the division goes eastwards – via the bridge. That means that my supply goes over the bridge, that reinforcements will come over the bridge and that my retreat line goes over the bridge. If this line is cut – no supply, no reinforcements no chance to retreat!

Therefore, if there is a sudden attack against this bridge, it is confusing, because the attack comes from the wrong direction, and it is frightening, because loosing the bridge would leave me in this dirty village, cut off, waiting for superior German forces!

So, as soon as I hear, that someone attacks my bridge, I would send my best reserves to free the lane. Then I hear the major raid from the south – the German army! Attacked from two sides from enemies I don’t now, but which might be superior, threatened to be cut off, I will pack my bags and rush over the bridge as long as it is still possible.

Further more, shooting at the bridge will surely attract the attention of ATG crews in the eastern and western forests and support our main attack.

So here is my proposal for the timing:
We send one group to the bridge. There main focus is observing the street and reconnaissance. The second group advances along the street in the eastern forest. They have to recon Soviet positions there.
If we receive the message, that the village is occupied, but only with weak forces, we attack.
The group at the bridge opens fire. The main group rushes north on the road – first the motorcycles, then the tanks. The second group, attacks ATG positions.

Then we raid like Ziethen`s hussars!

[Marshal Murat]

The mission of the recon troops is

Your objective is to scout out their positions, determine their composition and if possible drive them away. The latter is only a distant third objective."

I will agree that there are merits to taking the bridge, there are alot of assumptions being made.
1st - Why is the Russian division to the east, across the bridge? Sure 'Russia' is east, but the headquarters could be the northwest, and this is a force tasked with holding the river as a flank. There is a possibility of the Russians being to the east, but that's going on a general assumption, and it might be erroneous.
2nd - The Russian forces need not be annihilated. They only need to be 'driven away', in the broadest terms possible. We could try to destroy the Russians, but that's if everything goes to plan. We are facing an overwhelming enemy force, whose quality and size are unknown.

The majority of opinion, if I read it correctly, is to send the motorcycle platoon on a broad sweeping movement to seek out the Russian flank. This would then be supported by the mechanized and a platoon of armored cars. A final armored platoon would distract the Russians by attacking the town, if we were to attack the town.
We only need to figure out which flank to send the motorcycles and follow up. I am in favor of a western swing.

[Flavius Clemens]

Giving the map a second look, I do like the idea of infiltrating observers to the corner of the dense wood near the bridge as this gives the best angle to observe village and maybe the rear of the embanked road, so I’ll change my suggestion for the ‘Russian’ version observation to this:

1st Platoon remains central, just to the left of the road, to coordinate, observe the front of the village and provide supporting fire if and where necessary. 2nd platoon begin between road and ditch, initially to provide supporting fire if required.
3rd platoon deploys scouts to check the ditch and observe the dense wood. If edge of wood looks clear, 4th Platoon goes into the wood and heads north searching as they go. 2nd platoon then heads towards the light wood to observe the edge of it and the view of the village from the south-west. When 4th platoon is close to the edge of dense wood they sneak forward on foot up to, but not beyond, the edge and observe towards the village / embanked road and towards the bridge. (One point to check, if they can see, is whether the bridge is wired for demolition.) Meanwhile, 3rd platoon redeploys scouts to check the road for booby-traps. 4th platoon then return the way they came and go check inside the light wood on the west, covered by 2nd platoon who also continue to observe the village from south west.

I don’t think it’s worth attempting to attack the bridge, as hardly any of our forces can get to it through the dense wood, so no change to my attack plans already stated. However it’s worth suggesting this strategy to the main force.

[Peasant Phill]

Great to have this IH continued after months of hiatus.

All this debating is very interesting and productive but we'll have come to 1 strategy soon.
Someone needs to make a list of choices out of everything discussed so far in order to see what the most supported strategy is . I'm willing but it'll have to wait a few hours until I'm at home from work.

[Peasant Phill]

Apparently most of us are in agreement on certain aspects:

- A Russian enemy would deploy in the village, while a German enemy would spread out and mutual support each other.
- The 4th platoon should scout the light woods, while the dense forest on the other side should be scouted on foot.



Issues at hand:

- The distant third objective
We're eager to prove our worth to hauptmann Jannsen but we're only a recon force. Furthermore our more armed and armoured elements are restricted to a path that'll probably be heavily guarded. I see no reason to risk most of our forces for something so trivial as to impress a senior officer, we have our main force to do the fighting.

- The bridge
Franconius has a good point about the importance of the bridge. We should definatly try to scout it or at least try to get an idea through observing the traffic.

Questions:
If our main force is to succesfully attack, we need to give them the right information. This means knowing if and where certain weaponary are deployed. Do you care to guess so we can go ahead with our plan in further detail:

- Mortars
- AT guns
- local headquarters
- advanced positions

[Flavius Clemens]

The 4th platoon should scout the light woods, while the dense forest on the other side should be scouted on foot. I'll stick with my (revised) view posted on 09/10/08 00:32 if it's feasible.


Third objective: I think the point to emphasise is that we may have a plan but its only one we'll use if we have a very good reason to. And as I said previously, facing the 'German' enemy I'd say I can't imagine the reward from us attacking possibly outweighing the risk.

Bridge: From the scale Kraxis has described, the bridge isn't far from the edge of the wood, something like 50 - 75m, so I think observing from there is the best bet. They need to get back alive to pass on the info, so no point in risking sneaking any closer.

Questions: There's no substitute for the recon troops' own eyes, but some guesses.
Depending on the exact type of unit we're facing their anti-tank capability may well be no better than a handful of a/t rifles and whatever they improvise (hence my assumption they will boobytrap the road). To be of use against panzers the rifles will have to be operating from very close, so deployed in the best cover available around the end of the ditch and in the village. If it's feasible for the 82mmn mortars to be placed just behind the embanked road with the officers / spotters sticking their heads over the bank to check their fire that seems to be the obvious place to put them.

[Gurkhal]

For the AT guns I think that they are a bit spread out and most likly conceled from view of the road. I would put my money on that the enemy must likly intends to open up a cross-fire with their heavy weapons from the two forest areas on any unites advancing along the road. There maybe a few guns in the village, but I actually doubt that there are.

[Flavius Clemens]

For the AT guns I think that they are a bit spread out and most likly conceled from view of the road. I would put my money on that the enemy must likly intends to open up a cross-fire with their heavy weapons from the two forest areas on any unites advancing along the road. There maybe a few guns in the village, but I actually doubt that there are.

Certainly likely there'll be a/t guns in one of the forests when we're against a 'German' enemy.

[Kraxis]

Next chapter incoming... You have made your decision.

[Kraxis]

"Our chief strengths are speed and initiative"

Walter read the assignment a few times and scrutinized the map for any hidden clues. But the lack of detail hurt badly. There was no way he could just come up with a brilliant plan from that, this needed more attention than he could give it right away. Graebner walked past him and a few steps ahead he stopped and turned around.
"Sturmbannführer, I'm heading for the messhall to get something to eat, I don't work well on an empty stomach, would you care to join me?"
Walter wasn't certain he wanted to go with the chatty junior officer, but his stomach certainly did act up. Some food should focus his thoughts better. "Sure, I'll come. Don't work while hungry..."

Naturally Graebner kept on talking about his previous commands and where he had gotten his Iron Crosses, Walter merely nodded and made small comments while his thoughts were on the job at hand. Finally he asked Graebner. "How do you suppose the layout of the enemy is?"
"Well, for the Russians I would say it is typical for them. The surrounding area isn't exactly to their liking. Not that they don't like to sit in woods and ambush, it is just not what they do when their objective is to defend something else. They want close contact between their forces."
"Agreed on that. They are likely well concentrated. Forces?"
"Infantry... A few AT guns and AT rifles, perhaps a number of mortars. At worst a platoon of tanks. We really shouldn't hope for that."
"I really doubt the tanks. The pilot should have spotted them. He saw the trucks, and given the Russian tendency for central planning the tanks should have been with them. No, they aren't there."
"Perhaps, but being ready is never bad. And I plan on taking advantage that Russian tankcrews are particularly lax when it comes to vigilance on occupation."
It was clear Graebner thought in the lines trying to catch the enemy by surprise somehow. A fools errand, but it could work. Walter moved on.
"A German enemy?"
"Ahh... here we have to think what we would do on the defensive. Assuming some AT guns and the rest infantry I would position ambushing forces in the light wood, but no AT guns. Too cumbersome for an open wood. But I would have at least one guarding the embanked road from the western house, there it would be somewhat protected from artillery and riflefire, as well as being eaiser to camouflage. I would have at least another gun in the village itself, just not at the edge. I would let the enemy get in and block his advance by killing the first vehicle inside the village. The infantry could then flank the attackers. Obviously a couple more guns in the nothern wood with any support weapons, like mortars. The eastern wood would hold even more AT guns and a strong infantry force."
"Seems logical, and I would do something similar. In fact I once did outside Tula in '41 when Ivan tried to drive us from Moscow. The bloody T34s were the only reason they did. Wasn't fun..."
"I could imagine."

The two officers kept on talking while they ate, slowly forming their plans in their heads, while getting a better idea as to what they were facing. After an hour or so they went to their rooms to being to write the plans down.

Walter sipped at his mug of coffee, real coffee for once. While never a fan of it before the war, the stuff had a great effect on his concentration. He heard that the Amis had another wonderdrink, Coca Cola, said to keep you awake when you most needed it. A few pilots had already been captured with bottles in their pockets. He wondered what it was... But his thoughts were drifting and he slapped himself across the cheeks. No more!
So the plan was simple enough:

4th Platoon is to advance up through the light wood. Their light construction and small size make them perfect for navigating a wood of that density with any sort of speed. At the same time 3rd Platoon advances up the ditch some distance, then disembarks the infantry to scout through the dense wood and if possible scout the bridge and village from the northern edge, perhaps even take the bridge if it is lightly guarded. Depending on what could be expected from the village of course. 2nd platoon supports 3rd platoon from range and will drive to flank any response from the village, but overall hang back and observe the village. Possibly rustle the houses with some 20mm fire. 1st platoon, being lighter supports the MC plantoon in it's advance, being more confined it will hang back until the motorcycles have scouted the woods for enemies. If any are encountered it will support as needed. If and when both woods are cleared 4th platoon rushes across the embanked road for the safety of the house. There they will eitehr encounter enemies and fall back, or occupy it with their MGs. Good observation post overlooking the village for artillery. 1st platoon follows if 4th doesn't encounter heavy resistance and drives towards the northern wood to lurk at it's edges. Heavy engagement are to be discouraged unless serious surprise is possible.
The plan doesn't differ for either Russian or German opposition.

Having scetched out the routes and plans and contingencies for opposition and enemy dispositions, Walter dropped on his bed for some sleep. He didn't even notice the other officers going to the messhall for some small meassure of partying.

The next day Janssen enteerd and took their papers. "I will review them and give the results later today. And so you can all learn from any mistakes, or good thoguht I will critique a few select choices. Don't fret that yours might be chosen, for better or worse on your part, it will help the rest of the students." He scratched behind his ear. "But today we will look at the various gear and vehicles you will work with. Let me first introduce Leutnant Koch, a mounted scout." At Janssens beckon a tough looking burly man entered. He was entirely kitted out for combat, thought clearly not very heavily. As he spoke his voice was soft and almost a whisper, a man so used to sneaking and being silent that his voice had taken on a natural sneakiness.
"I'm what you could call a classical scout for the Heer. What you should know is that my boots are softer, rubbersoled, not many have these since we are a little pressed for rubber, but if you can get them for your scouts, they will love you for it. They are silent, good for climbing and you can run faster in them as they aren't as heavy." As he spoke about the boots he picked one off and let it pass down the tables for inspection. Then he went on about the rest of his kit. "As you see I have but my MP40, a pistol, four handgrenades, eggstyle, not stick. And of course the long bayonet. We generally don't have an entrenching tool as we don't dig in, that is why we use the long bayonet to have an advantage in melee." He drew the long blade, almost a short sword. "In a pinch it can serve as an entrenching tool, but if we have to dig in, then someone somewhere has made a grave mistake. Most of us carry a small dagger as well for the wrestling situations where the long bayonet is too big, but it is a personal choice and not part of our kit." Then he turned to the audience with an almost accusing stare. "We don't carry any messkits, food, tents or blankets. All that is carried in our vehicles. So don't leave us out in the open as we are simply not equipped for it. At most we have a camouflage smock. We are not frontline troops and can't be expected to carry out such duties. Be sure to remember that."

While Koch had been giving the overview of the scouts Janssen had been readin and taking notes. After Koch left he turned to the class. "You should know one thing. The scouts have all been picked for their intelligence, stamina and initiative. That makes them very volatile, and believe me, they will disobey an order they consider foolish. Treat them like little babies and tell them why their orders are important, and they will carry them out. Also, let them carry them out how they see fit unless it is clearly against other orders. If it is because they might run into trouble, then you have failed to inform them properly. They are possibly the best light infantry in our fine armed forces. Lets move on out onto the parking lot."

Outside the building three armoured cars and an armoured halftrack were parked. The small light AC, a SdKfz 222 was very small in fact. But looked swift and the desciption of it gave the same impression. Clearly a good choice for a recon force. The larger 6-wheeler, the SdKfz 6-rad, looked rather more cumbersome, but better for roads. And the size itself wasn't too bad given that it was more like an extended version of the small AC. The big 8-wheeler, the SdKfz 231 8-rad, however looked downright tough. With the dual controls on the two pairs in front it proved to be highly maneuverable, and the 8 wheels gave it surprising crosscountry ability. Walter noted that the larger turret and larger body gave it the possiblity to get larger weapons installed. While armour wasn't good in any of them, it was good enough to stop AT rifles rounds unless up close or at weakspots. Also the two larger vehicles protected their crews with their engines very well, and in the case of the 8-wheeler the front section housed the transmission and other mechanical stuff protecting that section too, leading to the crew having a very good chance of surviving direct hits.
The armoured halftrack the SdKfz 250, was smaller than the SdKfz 251 Walter was used to in the mechanized infantry. It was leaner, made of less sections, was faster and better armoured. Obviously it couldn't carry as many infantry, but for the scouts that didn't matter much. A perfect choice for carrying scouts.

The day went on examinging gear and vehicles. Learning their capacity and range. A crashcourse in knowledge.
Finally Janssen called the class back into the classroom.
"Alright, I have gone over your attempts to solve the issue at hand. Some of you have been ingenious, some brave, some cautious... Note that cautious isn't always bad when you are scouting. I'll start with a less successful result:

The scouting force, being fast and light moves quickly up the low road in an attempt to catch the enemy offguard. Inside the viallge the vehicles fan out and keep on moving as the mounted scouts take out key objectives, such as guns, headquaters and radios, as well as grabbing prisoners. Initially successful it falls apart when the enemy simply overpowers the scouts with numbers and regain their guns, which they then maul the vehicles with. Retreating south again the forces is then subjected to flanking fire from the dense wood and suffer more casualties. The result is that the enemy has indeed been scouted out and been bloodied badly, but with heavy losses the recon company has effectively failed."
Next to Walter Graebner grimaced and winced at the last words. It was not hard to figure out that he was the autor of that plan or at least one very similar.
"I might point out that this plan wasn't bad, if it hadn't been for the fact that the scouts tried to actually fight for the possesion of the village. Fast in and fast out could have done it, though the losses going south again could have hurt. While I commended caution, aggression isn't a bad trait either. Just don't waste your forces when other options are possible."
Janssen shuffled around the pile. "The next one up is not bad per se, just not good for this situation. The company dismounts the scouts and sneak them up the light wood while the rest hang back. The intention is to get a nice observation point to scout out the village. Problem is just that looking at the village won't help much when the enemy is hidden in there. Far too cautious."
As Janssen grabbed another plan Walter noticed it was his.
"And then we have this interesting option. I won't tell you if you did good or bad yet, I will simply play out the events.
First the motorcyscles enter the light wood supported by the 1st platoon. Meanwhile the mounted scouts move up and enter the dense wood on foot while the halftracks and 2nd platoon support them from the ditch. The motorcycles advance at a good clip northwards and get near the northern edge There they encounter an enemy force and retreats afer a short firefight. While the enemy wasn't ready for a move from that direction, he was strong enough to cause the motorcycles to pull back. 1st platoon then advance on the enemy and the 20 mm autocannons send him running over the embanked road. Prisoners reveal that it is in fact an infantry battalion holding the village, and that it was a single platoon of infantry tasked with this position. Meanwhile the dismounted scouts reach the nothern third of the dense wood and encounter an enemy force including two AT guns. They attack them from the rear, since the enemy is occupied with the shooting in the light wood. The superior training, initiative and good close quarter weapons of the scouts seal the deal. The enemy is destroyed. The scouts move north to observe the bridge.
Back in the light wood the motorcycles dash out and head for the lonely house, there they encounter a section of infantry and fall back across the road while 1st platton once more moves in for the kill, now that it appears the enemt have no other troops guarding the road. The infantry is quickly silenced with a barrage of 20 mm fire. Both platoons hold position until further notice.
From the dense wood the scouts observe around 10-15 enemy infantry and a comouflaged AT gun near the bridge. The infantry has gone to ground in their prepared positions and the AT gun commands the approach to the bridge from the house by the road. An attack is impossible by the light forces since they have no weapons able to hit the infantry at the range they have, so they hold back. The supporting 2nd platoon beat back a force trying to move from the village to the dense wood to root out the scouts. Then mortars begin bursing near the positions of the dismounted scouts and they pull back further into the wood, their task completed. 1st platoon, noticing the mortarfire move north to the edge of the northern wood and is taken under fire by AT guns from that wood as well as from the village. Seeing the futility of trying to stay there, it falls back to the safety of the house, before finally retreating south again. A prudent move as enemy artillery arrive on the scene and pummel the house and nothern edge of both woods. The motorcycle plantoon is however caught in the middle of it and they lose all their mounts and several casualties. Effectively they are out of the game as scouts. By now it is impossible to move up any more, and we can consider the mission over.
The results are that around two enemy plantoons have been eliminated with some more losses to the force trying cross from the village. Estimation: 80 losses overall and two AT guns. Recon forces losses: 5-7 losses and all the motorcycles as well as two damaged ACs. But more importantly the company managed to determine that the enemy has forces covering the bridge from the nothern wood as well as behind the bridge itself, and that the main force is dug in in the village. Enemy composition unknown besides that they have at least 4 AT guns left, some mortars in the northern wood and enough infantry to make up a battalion. Estimated at 500 troops remaining. I would say that the mission is completed to satisfaction, if not perfection. What could have been done better was to use 1st or 2nd platoon to lead the move up the light wood at best speed possible. Skirt the embanked road with a vehicle or two to scout the village a bit more. Meanwhile the scouts or motorcycles could have sneaked up the ditch into the village itself as the AC distracted the enemy. The engagement in the dense wood was good though as it saved a lot of trouble later. Don't be afraid to engage the enemy eventhough you are merely there to recon. You have good troops and they are adept at taking advantage of surprise. The removal of the AT guns there helped the advancing regulars quite a lot.
Good work." Janssen smiled at the last comment, then continued.
"As you might have noticed, there were no Russian or German forces. There was one combined force. You know that the Ruassians learn from us, but they will never just copy our tactics, they don't fit their ways. They will adapt them, and here they did. They covered the southern approach but only with enough forces to make it costly to move up. They also assumed the attacker would eventually win, so their position is made from a strictly 'hold as long as possible' notion, not from a real desire to hold the village. That means the village will remain the center of resistance as a fast heavy push up the road could be costly but worth it if the village was weakly held. So they had to weaken the woods."

Walter was satisfied that he had done so well. Though he felt annoyed that he had wasted the chance to do better by using the MC platoon ahead of his main forces. He vowed to never to make such a mistake again. 1st platoon could have destroyed the enemy infantry faster and more efficiently if it had been up front, giving him better time to move across the road. Possibly giving the scouts a chance to capture the brudge and unravel the defensive plans... Oh well, not the time to dwell on it. Graebner however was furious, if at himself or at Janssen was not possible to tell, but he didn't look at either Janssen or Walter.

Several days passed with more instruction in tactics and maneuver. Then finally after a week a big wargame is set up and the studens are handed out to the various recon forces on either side. Walter gets assigned to red team, the attacking team. And he is to lead a platoon of light armoured cars. The wargame starts and the company commander, an old hand at this orders Walter and his AC to scout the enemy positions near a crossroad with woods covering it. Obviously there is no village at the crossroads, but the are are a few houses. Being confined to the leftmost wood Walter needs to find a way to get across the road ahead of him, and how to do so fast, but not dangerously so.

What is Walter to do?
1) Head into the wood, there the ACs are practically invisible from the enemy, and should surprise them when they burst out on the northern edge, granting them the advantage to move swiftly across. However moving deep inside the wood costs a lot of time, and the deeper you go in the denser the wood, meaning more chances of getting stuck, and in case the slower you are overall.
2) Make a quick dash out in the open. The frozen ground makes for a perfect choce to go fast without being confined to the road. Obviously this is not only visible but also loud with no trees to soak up the noise of the engines.
3) Skirt the edge of the wood, move a little ways in, giving the option to look out and stay in cover at the same time. Should provide safety and stealth, but of course moving inside a wood is hardly speedy. Also blue force might not miss Walter's force anyway.
4) Don't even try to head for the woods, take the road and take up positions around the houses, one AC per house. This isn't waht the order was about, but the houses might hold infantry ambushes and who is to say the woods are safe anyway? The road is obviously being watched, perphaps even covered by AT forces, so don't expect to be able to move up without some serious opposition.

[Flavius Clemens]

Option 3.
If we rush in at speed we might simply miss things. If there are AT guns covering the approaches I imagine they won’t blow their cover by engaging the scouting force unless they’re spotted. “Don’t waste your forces when other options are possible.”

[DemonArchangel]

We're only a platoon of armored cars. Attempting to take the cluster of houses against what could be an entire defending company? Bad, bad move. Option 4 is straight out the window. However, Option 3 is too slow. Recon needs to be fast, given the fast pace of warfare. Too much time scouting means that the attack happens to slowly for the attacker to gain initiative.

Thus, I take the 5th option, divide the platoon up into 2 parts, and have one part move up the road, while the second part moves through the woods and covers the retreat of the first part should anything happen. Since the AT guns won't blow their cover on scouting forces, we can have a fast element and a slow element at the same time, allowing our forces flexibility.

[Lord Winter]

I'm hesitent about deviding though and it leaves to much danger of something going wrong if we don't guess the enemies composition correctly the first time. I think we have to try to bypass the houses if at all possiable.

[DemonArchangel]

Yes, however, the two units hanging back will be providing overwatch for the lead armored cars, so they can cover the leads if something goes wrong. If needed, the leads can switch to overwatch while the follows maneuver. We have to stay flexible. Our job is to determine the enemy's assets, and it has to be done quickly so that the main force can position itself better to attack.

You're forgetting our weapon is speed and initiative. We lose both if we stick to the forest and move slowly, and attempting to skirt those houses altogether is an act of cowardice and dereliction of duty, especially since our job is to find out what's in them.

[Peasant Phill]

Option 1: too slow.
Option 2: very dangerous. This manoeuvre is the quickest way across the road but will most likely be costly for no apparent gain.
Option 3: a loss of speed for more stealth and safety.
Option 4: Not our orders. we are scouts, not an occupational force.
Option 5: A slow and a fast element. I'm very hesitant to split our small group which will impede immensly on our fighting force. If the distance to cross is to big, the faster group would have to slow down to keep the support of the slower group. This would mean that they threw away there advantage.

So i vote option 3 unlesssomebody else comes up with an option 6.

[King Kurt]

Option 3 for me I think - a mixture of stealth and speed. We are facing Germans, not Russians, so they will be a bit more of a difficult oppolent. Option 3 gives us the best position - some cover, but not stuck in the depths of the wood - for us to react to any threat encounted.

[Franconicus]

I agree with PP and KK. Speed and cover is our best protection.
Running through the forrest is to dangerous; rushing without cover is too dangerous, too. Do we really trust that no Russian (or enemy`s) soldiers looses his nerves and opens fire?
Firther more, we are not an Vorausabteilung, but Aufklärung. No need to risk our men in combat!

[Gurkhal]

Forgive me, but is the terrain that we are operating within basically the scenario with the map but with no village, or is it entirly different?

But based on what I cna see I would recomend that we take either 2 or 3.

2: I can see the benefit in that if we move fast it'll be over before the enemy gets the chance to react. But then again we might actually run straight into the guns and get shot to pieces without achiving anything. Still, sooner or later we'll have to cross the damned road.

3: While this could allow us to get a better glimps of the enemy without being spotted, it could also mean that we get discovered and then we could be in big problem.

The other one is probably to slow and the last one means that our little force could get drawn into an extensive fight with an enemy we have no knowledge whatsoever about.