Oberembt Pictures

 This game was played 16/10/11. Dave hosted. We used Dave's Americans (except the 105 and Flail which I provided) and my Germans. I was defending with the Germans; John and Dave took an American battalion each and attacked

2 Kompanie 50 Panzerjäger Abt behind the minefield SE of Oberembt (Matchbox/Revel JgdPz-IV/70 and a IV/48 conversion)

German artillery at "Point A", placed to act as a back-stop should everything go horribly wrong. I made an error in deployment of the 105mm. At night you can target gun flashes and there was no cover between the 105 and the US side of the board. (leFH-18 by Fortress Models, SdKz-4/1 by Britannia)

Sturmtiger to the NE of Oberembt. To its right the Panzerkampftruppe makes it attack on the extreme flank of the 2nd Bttn 117th Infantry Regiment. (Dragon Armour - pre-made Sturmtiger)

Remember the game is played in the dark so the battle actually looks a lot more like this...

Panzerkampftruppe attack the Americans. This attack pretty much took a US company out of the game; but the US machineguns shot up the halftrack and the gruppe failed its morale and fell back to Bettenhaven. That wasn't too much of a problem as it was pretty much what I'd planned anyway. (Panther is re-pained IXO/Altaya, SdKfz-251 is Cromwell)

SdKfz-251 burns

Panzergrenadiers before Oberembt awaiting the Americans. They are dug in but we hadn't put the markers out at the time of the pics. All were deployed within 6" of the town so if they got forced back they got forced into cover.

1st Battalion 117th Infantry Regiment in their jump off positions

HQ elements and the regimental cannon company outside Lich (Academy truck, Hasegawa (?) Jeep and SHQ M3 105mm)

C Coy 743rd Tank Battalion advances on Bettenhaven.

Shermans advancing. Shermans are a mix of Italeri, Revel and Dragon (I think). M10 by SHQ

1st Battalion 117th Infantry moves towards Oberembt

JgdPz-IV's face the 1st battalion

Sturmtiger flees its initial position

British flail tank (Airfix) breeches the minefield

The Panther of the panzerkampftruppe accounts for an M10 and a Sherman. However HVAP from the Sherman 76mm proves fatal

The Sturmtiger continues to falls back until its a kilometre behind Oberembt. The plan is to have it fire on muzzle flashes form long range. This plan was pretty much stymied due to the fact that by the time the US forces were in line of firer they had nothing left to shoot at

2nd Battalion 117th took heavy casualties in attacking Bettenhaven. Only one company came through largely intact. Here they push north between the two villages

50 Panzerjäger Abt counter attack.

3:1. Luckily for the Germans only one Sherman is within the 8" spotting distance.

Sturmtiger moves into spotting distance of Oberembt. Fortunately for the Americans it can't move and fire. It was subsequently seen off by the Shermans, failing its morale check

1st Bttn 117th enters Obermbt. By this time there were very few Panzergrenadiers remaining to defend the village. However time is running out for the Yanks.

Desperation was setting in on the Germans side. They committed the commander of the nebelwerfer battery as their final reserve. Although the Sherman would blow the halftrack to smithereens, the presence of the remaining panzerjäger on the tanks' flank would cause a morale failure and the US tanks would fall back shaken

Shermans run away!

...as do the Panzerjäger

On the very last turn 1st Battalion 117th makes objective Y. Out  of the picture the 2nd Battalion has taken objective X

So a US victory but only at the very last minute. All the players agreed this was one of the best games they had played in a while. It went down to the wire and was far from a US push-over

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