Combat Mission Downfall: Ride on Riede AAR

 

Troops of the 7th Armoured fighting through a German town, 1945.

Reminder - click on images to see them full sized.

Introduction: Battlefront enters the 21st century...sort of.

It's been a transformative few years for Battlefront. For the first time in a long time they're under the wings of a large publisher, namely Slitherine/Matrix Games (I'm somewhat confused on which is a subsidiary of which). Perhaps more importantly, with pigs having finally learned to fly, the games are now on Steam. I like Slitherine, and quite a few of the products they publish, but they also seem to have a bad habit of throwing everything at the wall with the hope it will stick. This has led to some true stinkers and not a few completely dead on arrival games; such as "Check your Six!" It has me somewhat worried for the long term viability of such a giant wargaming entity, and by extension Battlefront, but on balance I do believe it's a net positive. 

I've also been playing Battlefront games for far, far too long, and recall the utterly disastrous release Shock Force initially had under the thumb of Paradox. I'm therefore not entirely sure what wore down Steve Grammont's resolve to never work with a publisher again, but am glad he has something of an open-mind on these sorts of things, given I've witnessed him tell us for about a decade he knows the state of the business better than anyone participating in the conversation (which, in barrister speak, is what we call a nonsense). 

But I digress. I recently purchased the module for Final Blitzkrieg, Downfall, which along with "Fire and Rubble" and "Rome to Victory" brings the war to its closure and, in my view, the most dynamic tactical situation from the allied perspective. Now, my jotted-down outline for what I wanted to write here says "launch into a Hitlerian rant on how underwhelming the module is", but, on reflection, I think I'm a victim of my own expectations. What is in Downfall is good; some of it very good. Readers who are considering its purchase may be more upset by what is not in it. I think that is sufficient page space dedicated to my thoughts on the direction Combat Mission is taking overall, for now. 

Ride on Riede

Is one of the larger standalone scenarios, designed by Combatinman, who has an excellent series of scenarios across all titles to his name. I was also intrigued at how he would capture the fighting, as like him, I too once thumbed through the 8th Kings' Royal Irish Hussars' war diary that described this fight. 

I'll spare suspense: he does a cracking job, and it's an excellent scenario. 

" During the day reports had been received of an enemy SP and tps in RIEDE 8086.  A careful attack using maximum fire sp was planned with "B" Sqn to move to area 8282, "C" Sqn to area 8284, and "A" Sqn to provide close sp for two Coys 1/5 QUEENS adv on RIEDE from the EAST and SOUTH.  “K” Bty, "B" Sqn and "C" Sqn fired a large number of rounds into the town which was soon in flames.  

 

In the meanwhile "B" Sqn were machine-gunned from the NORTH and devoted some of its attention to obliterating opposition in the area 8189.  The town was cleared at last light and occupied by 1/5 QUEENS, "A" Sqn and "B" Sqn.." - War Diary of the 8th KRIH

We join a battlegroup from the British 7th Armoured Division, in the midst of their rapid, swansong advance to Hamburg. We're rapidly approaching Bremen, and the two-regimental battlegroup has been tasked with clearing Riede and opening the road to Bremen. A Squadron, 8th Hussars is tasked with the intimate support of the assault companies. The Germans are resolved to make a stand for Bremen, and the Heer's 84th ID is attempting to establish a defence here. So, that's the situation, broadly. 

It is now 1500 hours and the two companies of the 1/5 Queens slated to attack are now debussing, to attack from the south and east. The balance of A Squadron is already forward, having been covered by the regiment's fire. 

Scheme and Terrain Analysis

Riede is a typical north German city, it is well-built up and consists primarily of well constructed, sturdy buildings. It has buildings that are obviously commercial and industrial in nature in certain quarters, and is dominated by a central cathedral or large church.  Typical of the north of Germany, the approach to the city is flat agricultural land, broken up by low lying creeks and irrigation canals. The only high ground here can be found in the farmhouses that form a natural outpost line south of the city itself. 

The smaller town of Heilingbruch reaches out towards Riede, and offers a potential covered approach for dismounts. 

This terrain, the lack of on-map motor transport, and the confirmed presence of at least one enemy self-propelled gun, has my initial scheme of movement looking like the following: 

Based on the briefing, I've templated the following enemy: 

As events would transpire the templated enemy force is decently accurate (the product of good intel provided through the briefing) but the scheme basically is thrown out the window by the end of the first ten minutes. 

Advance to contact - 3rd Troops' engagement (1500-1507)

The lead troops of A Squadron are motoring into their intended support by fire positions when the No. 3 troop identifies a StuG in ambush on the outskirts of Riede. Quite typically, the opening shot from the troop is defeated by the trees that act as windbreaks at the edge of the fields. The StuG soon realises there is a threat, and returns fire, shooting well high. The engagement opens up at approximately 1300 metres range, so the gunnery is far from awe inspiring to either side. 

Nevertheless, when the troop commander notes no secondary or alternate positions opening up on his troop, he elects to move forward and engage. Ample use of defensive smoke and main gun smoke allows the tanks to bound forward to a more amenable range to engage.

Which, in turn, allowed the Challenger to get a good firing solution on the StuG. It brews up following a large explosion. 

The StuG fighting forlornly throughout the six minutes is not gone unnoticed by myself, and it had me suspecting that the majority of the enemy anti-tank defences consist of what the infantry can carry by hand, and there may be little need to move my infantry dismounted and cautiously through Heiligenbruch as a result. 

The plan is changed then, to take advantage of this, with my new intent to bypass Heiligenbruch entirely and use A Squadron as the spearhead to break into the village. 

Phase 1: A Squadron Group assaults towards Bridge 1 and Riede outskirts.

Phase 2: Infantry companies assault to clear objectives astride a road

Bombardment of Riede and Assembly (1507-1520)

The above will take some time to organize, particularly the fire support from K Battery (25 pounders, towed). That intervening time isn't spent idle, as A Squadron brasses up suspected positions. This depletes their HE shell reserve sharply, but, as the AAR reveals, would cause fairly significant losses on the enemy. At the time, my main concern was making the impending sprint across open ground as hazard-less for the infantry as possible. The first structure in Riede to draw the ire of the Hussars is, naturally, the spire of the cathedral.

Equally vitally, the CO of the 1/5 Queens and the FOOs have established their artillery observation posts, and in addition to the planned smoke mission, the Battlegroup's three inch mortars get to work putting down some fires in Riede. 

Soon, the lead two platoons of B Company have assembled and begin climbing up on the engine decks of the Cromwells and Challenger tanks. A final, squadron level volley of HE kicks off the attack, conducted on line across about a 800m frontage.

A Squadron's shoot does prompt a few of the enemy defenders to break fire discipline as the infantry emerge from the growing wheat to mount up, but the fire is inaccurate. Pinpointing the fire at that time was not possible, but a brisk marching fire is put down as the squadron advances with coax and hull machineguns. 

Seizing the outskirts (1520-1550)

Smoke billows in the background as A Squadron moves forward.

The smokescreen provided by K battery has done its job, and the only enfilading fire taken from Heiligenbruch consists of some desultory rifle fire that is not even remotely on target. 

C Company, on the right, does not have the benefit of riding with the tanks, having only a troop in direct support. The terrain to their front is a lot more complex, however, and they're able to mount a more traditional advance without great trouble. They initially strike out for a small wood, where they can attack a farmstead on their own terms. Said farmstead is taken without incident, the only sign of the enemy being three dead Germans who must've fallen afoul of A Squadron. The lead platoon's entrance, however, does draw attention from enemy machinegun nests at the eastern end of Riede. 

C Company begins working its way up the tree line and across a short open field in an attempt to flank these HMGs. Even with the supporting fire of a troop of tanks, who have stuck to their infantry like glue, the enemy seem uncowed. It's perhaps inevitable that some casualties are taken then. 

It's not enough to pin any of the sections down for long, and the Brens are able to cover both the further advance and the evacuation of the wounded. Soon enough, 7th Platoon's leader has organized an assault party made up of breach teams, riflemen and his fighting headquarters. He also has dispersed his Brens and God's gift to the rifleman, the 2 inch mortar, in an orchard to cover this final movement. 

Commonwealth infantry platoons lack the firepower of contemporaries, but can still produce results.

The platoon is well covered from the front, and is not taking any enfilade fire from their right, allowing for a series of sharp assaults from across the east-west road through the outskirts. Ample use of grenades and satchel charges sees them clear out a group of light machineguns and riflemen from a row of homes. These appear to be from an SS unit of some kind; so clearly Riede's defenders have been stiffened by a menagerie of alarm units. 

This is, reflecting in hindsight, in fact the first unit to break into Riede itself, and done so in style and with no losses.

A Squadron and its riders are, concurrent with C Company's attack, able to close to the first scrap of cover in the open drive to Riede. It's a small rivulet or irrigation ditch of some sort that provides a measure of defilade. This allows the tanks to renew their direct fire onto Riede, while the infantry dismount into effective cover from small arms fire. The left-most platoon peels off and launches an attack on Bridge 1, finding it devoid of the enemy. 

Several hundred metres to the rear, the battlegroup reserve, being a trail platoon from B Coy, march up to the original assembly area and await tanks to come and collect them. 

The advance, in short, goes exceedingly well. B Coy in particular has crossed perhaps the most hazardous zone without any losses. Without their lorries or a carrier platoon for sustainment and replenishment of ammo, I was keen to avoid an extended firefight to advance either through Heiligenbruch or across the open fields. It almost goes without saying that casualties would've been much higher as well, and survivors would've been in a far less ideal condition to fight for the actual objective. 

This sort of tactical situation is the reason why Downfall as a module has interested me, despite my severe misgivings. It appears capable of showing the total maturation of Allied tactical doctrine after the initial bloody attrition. For once, you have a form of ascendancy and can be reasonably confident that bolder schemes won't end in heartbreak. Though, a scenario's historical literacy is only as good as its authors. 

In any event, the stay in this piece of cover is only short enough to allow the platoon tasked with taking Bridge 1 to peel off. The remaining platoon, with its attached breaching teams and flamethrowers, remounts on their assigned troop of tanks and presses on. The Squadron leader orders his two close support tanks to link up with the forces on Bridge 1 and support their further advance to Bridge 2.  

This pause produces the only black mark on the attack by A Squadron. The Queens' Pioneer Platoon, hanging back with the Squadron command until they are needed, is hit by an accurate mortar stonk, having been unable to displace in time, and is functionally made combat ineffective. It's a bitter pill, and the presence of dedicated assault engineers will be sorely missed when we come to grips with the enemy in Riede. Flexible, reactive German mortar fire remains a constant throughout the fight hereafter. 

A few minutes later the lead units of B Coy are assaulting the first of the farmsteads, clearing out the last German defenders without much trouble. The leading units will repeat this feat over the next small while, leapfrogging forward from farmstead to farmstead, until they are close enough to Riede that enemy defenders in the interior of town have begun to put them under rifle fire.

Enemy snipers seem to be the majority of the contact at this stage, and our own sniper sections are kept busy while the platoons reorganize for the main action on objectives. 

A small digression, but I think its worth a detour to yet again heap some praise on Combatinman here for showing what a late war Commonwealth unit can do. One of my pet peeves with a great deal of Commonwealth scenarios is the curious lack of any supporting assets for the infantry. I suspect it stems from a lack of knowledge of higher organization. Rarely, if ever, do I see attached Vickers or 4.2 inchers from a brigade's machinegun battalion (or, in the case of an armoured division, company), which should in fact be rather ubiquitous. Likewise, the dearth of attached specialized assault teams such as flamethrowers and breach teams are often lacking. It forces players to over rely on armour in closer quarters. We lack the HMGs here (for they appear to have been equally absent in relaity) but we lack for little else when it comes to clearing out a built up area.

It is not a surprise that the scenarios that buck this unfortunate trend to be by persons who are particularly literate on the commonwealth in WWII, such as JonS (who authored the first battlepack) or Combatinman. 

Seizing Bridge 2 - 4th Platoon's fight (1550-1642)

While the main effort rumbles forward, 4th Platoon of B Company begins organizing to sweep along the northern edge of Heiligenbrech and the small river that separates it from Riede. They're not allowed to do so in peace and quiet, as their initial movements draw mortar fire that forces them to shelter in the buildings around Bridge 1. Splinters still cause a few men to fall wounded. They are also put under some fire from light automatics from the positions they intended to assault. At such long range the fire is more annoying than menacing, and at least one position is silenced by return fire. 

Despite these difficulties, the arrival of B Coy's 2IC along with two close support (CS) Cromwells loaned from A Squadron allow the Platoon to finish reorganizing and begin to advance. Their cover fire silences a few more of these pot-shotting enemy positions. 

The initial push after these enemy positions are silenced is "silent", with the Platoon leader and a few picked men moving forward steadily and as stealthily as possible. This largely involves hunting forward near the river bank, using the sparse amount of trees along the road for some semblance of cover. They are able to, unmolested, press forward to the position previously engaged by the CS Cromwells, sidling up to a pair of barns. 

Here things get complicated. The men can hear obvious movement in the sturdy, multi-storey house opposite these barns. Clearly there's still enemy up and at 'em, enough to give them tentative contacts even from a building over. Unsurprisingly these are more Volkssturm, explaining the rather atrocious noise discipline. 

With a sinking feeling that just pushing the men into the barns to initiate a point-blank firefight would be a grave, grave error, I elect instead to fall back and work my way into a better position to attack from. This necessitated crossing ground that I was previously keen on avoiding. Again, the CS Cromwells and the platoon's 2 incher lend vital support by obscuring this danger zone with smoke, allowing the assault teams to cross to their intended starting point without issue. 

Falling back and rethinking the issue: 7 Platoon dashes to better positions to attack under cover of smoke.

Once in position in a series of neighbouring houses, a firefight immediately begins - and my gut feeling is proven correct. The building is practically swarming with Volkssturm, festooned with an envious amount of light automatics.

The enemy's fighting position is devilishly placed, with the barns screening most of the buildings from direct fire support from the CS Cromwells, unless I'm willing to drive them to within panzerfaust range. Which I am not. The Volkssturm, for their part, also fight with a doggedness that frankly frustrates me. Things take a brief turn for the dangerous when the enemy defenders enterprisingly begin attempting to use their panzerfausts to silence my base of fire position. They're thankfully inaccurate. 

It still takes a a few minutes to suppress these enemy positions enough for a breach team to safely move forward. The commander moves with them, and the group is able to mouse hole through a wall of the enemy position that didn't have any windows. Blindsided, they cut down the enemy in the immediate room, and cut down the remaining enemy (who, finally, attempt to flee) with their stens. 

Overcoming the enemy's stiff resistance.

Once taken, this position provides an excellent position from which to attack Bridge 2 itself. It takes time to reorganize, and frustratingly, casaulties are suffered as the trailing elements of the platoon and the CS Cromwells bound forward to consolidate on position. The time taken to reorganize allows for a brief fire mission from K Battery's 25-pounders. Ultimately, the attack on Bridge 2 is a far less harrowing affair. This is primarily due to better sightlines allowing the CS Cromwells to influence affairs much more directly. With Bren guns personally sighted and controlled by the platoon leader, the breach team and a few picked assault teams once again are able to work their way forward and mouse hole their way into suppressed enemy positions. 

A rifleman covers a breach team as they move to break into a house occupied by enemy.

By the end of the scenario at 1642 hours, the platoon has largely pushed the enemy away from the two bridge objectives, but is running low on ammunition and is busily securing its casualties taken from small arms fire and the earlier mortar barrage. For a sideshow, this turns out to be a relatively bloody, extended firefight. Not at all the mopping up action I had envisioned it to be. 

Cutting the road to Bremen - 7th Platoon's infiltration (1550-1642)

By 1550, 7th Platoon has carved out an excellent foothold in Riede, to the extent that the Battlegroup reserve are ordered to establish contact with them and place themselves under C Coy's command. 

The battlegroup reserve, based around 5th Platoon B Coy, move into Riede.

That the position 7th Platoon now occupies is clear turns out to be a premature declaration, as the Battalion reserve loses 5 men as they approach to a German diehard who sweeps the lead tank's engine deck with a burp gun. Credit where it's due: it's remarkable shooting, but a poor choice for longevity. The rest of the platoon absolutely unload on him, firing from the mount, and it's not long before the tank commanders have identified him as well. He never gets a chance to cause further mischief. 

The battalion mortar platoon leader had been riding with the reserve, but elects to dismount and organize the casualty evacuations. 

B Coy's lead platoons have, at this point, begun working their way forward into Riede but are encountering stiff resistance, so C Coy appears in the best position to continue to apply pressure on the main objective. It did not escape my attention, however, that a small creek runs parallel to Riede and offers a potential covered route into the Road to Bremen objective, which appears to be Riede's Hauptbahnhof Therefore, once 7th Platoon reorganizes and the balance of C Coy has moved forward, I intend to try and infiltrate them via this route, effectively attacking the objectives simultaneously. 

The situation and my intentions at 1550 hours.

A closer look at the planned infiltration route.

Sticking just a platoon out there was a pretty big risk, though I think my original intent was just to take effective positions near the objective and ascertain what, if any, strength it was held in. Ultimately, 7th Platoon was largely able to seize the objective itself, which was a bit of a coup. 

Pretty anxiety-inducing, the route looked a lot less concealed once men are moving through it.

In the actual event, the platoon is able to push itself right up to the Hauptbahnhof's maintenance area without incident or contact. As the platoon's point men begin to move past that, however, they spot a StuG. There was a pretty good chance of being able to move the platoon's PIAT up on it unnoticed, but with so many unknowns (such as whether the buildings around it were occupied), the Platoon leader instead suggests that C Coy try to race a Challenger up to him. It's risky, since he moved via a concealed route the tank can't safely take, but nothing suggested at the time that the enemy were anywhere except the town centre. So, a Challenger is duly dispatched from the tank troop supporting C Coy's assault. 

The white knuckle ride to link up; thankfully uneventful and unnoticed.

The clearing of the Road to Bremen becomes a rather dull affair once the StuG is taken care of (done so, easily, with a single shot by the Challenger). 

It is occupied by more than the StuG, however. A Volkssturm weapons platoon is emplaced astride the road, spread across two buildings. These are dealt with in the usual method, with the use of satchels through "blind" walls into the buildings. The Platoon only suffers one casualty in the attacks, the platoon radio operator being wounded by one of the enemy who manages to recover from the initial shock of our entry. 

The only event of note after that is, as the unit fans out to check every building in the objective area, a detachment notices a third StuG some distance away, oriented to cover the open ground between Heilingenbruch and Riede. They send a runner to pass this along to the Challenger, which once again knocks this enemy out without much fanfare. 

The end of the scenario at 1642 sees 7th Platoon spread out between the rail maintenance yard and the objective itself, having accomplished quite a bit for minimal losses. 

The assault on Riede (1550-1642)

With the actions at the periphery addressed, we turn our attention to the main effort on Riede. As I mentioned previously, by 1550 C Coy has established an ad hoc assault grouping formed around 5th platoon of B Company, 9th platoon and 3rd Troop of the 8th Hussars. Eventually, the latter's Challenger peels off to assist 7th platoon, as already discussed. 

B Coy's mission is to apply frontal pressure and put forward at least a platoon to establish a base of fire. This requires the first sustained advanced across open ground on foot, as it would be too risky to bring the tanks forward to their intended position. The slow drip of casualties inherent to this type of fighting begins, and every section in the platoon suffers at least one man wounded as they bound forward. Nevertheless, they're able to break into one last farmhouse that provides good sightlines into the Riede objective using that now tried-and-tested method of mouse holing. German fatalities litter the floor following the breach. 

The attempt to establish a base of fire position, perhaps predictably, stirs the hornet's nest, and the platoon finds itself in a savage firefight. Despite rising casualties, including two of the Bren gunners, the platoon is able to maintain a brisk fusillade. 

The CO of A/8th Hussars is able to witness the potential disaster unfolding and, despite taking machinegun fire himself, remains unbuttoned to better identify enemy positions. His Cromwell's fire is vital, and manages to silence at least one of the homes bristling with fire. 

Arguably more vital than his tank's fire is his awareness of these enemy positions, which he disseminated throughout the squadron. I choose to push up a Cromwell directly into the position occupied by the infantry. It's not knocked out or fired upon by anything heavier than a machinegun, which I interpret into a good sign, and slowly but surely push the rest of that troop forward. This proves decisive for gaining fire superiority. It does result in two tank commanders wounded or killed by fire, but it likely spares the infantry a much higher final butcher's bill. The fire superiority is by no means supremacy, however, and the firefight in Riede continues until all enemy positions are silenced. 

C Coy's assault from the right flank is pressing forward all the while. Initially, it goes well and requires little finesse. 9th platoon kicks off the advance through clearing out some SS who had occupied a home intended in our scheme to cover the deployment of 5th Platoon.

The pace begins to slacken, however, as their forward movement begins to draw fire. There's a building which appears to be a hotel or manor of some kind that is utterly crawling with enemy infantry and at least two HMGs; this position makes any dash through back gardens a hazardous and time-consuming prospect. Ample use of smoke is required, and still losses among 5th and 9th platoon accrue. 

It isn't until 1610 that the two assault platoons have secured a frontage appropriate enough to deploy on. By this time, C Coy HQ has also moved forward with the sniper section and two flamethrower teams, who are distributed amongst the platoons. 

Situation as of 1610 hours, with previously described actions also shown.

The attack into the objective is, in a word, intense. The 1/5 Queens fight hard to carve out a safe space for their intimate support tanks to deploy, and some sections begin to run out of grenade, munitions and satchel charges alarmingly fast. Quite a few enemy only reveal their positions a detachment approaches, and invariably inflict losses upon me when this occurs. By 1630 the firefight is focused almost entirely on the previously mentioned strongpoint. Though not in the objective itself, it dominates any movement around the cathedral, and proves to be intensely resilient to direct high explosive fire. 

Stubborn resistance.

9th Platoon becomes well and truly pinned, and an attempt by their flamethrower team to move forward and break the stalemate merely results in the operator suffering a severe wound and having to be evacuated under the cover of tank-delivered smoke. It takes 5th Platoon on the right flank swinging out quite recklessly past buildings not determined as clear of the enemy to finally put the infantry close enough to do something about this last enemy position. 

There's a few adjacent and satellite buildings all around this strongpoint that surviving enemy, usually in groups of one or two, have taken up positions in. In an unprecedented moment in my lengthy combat mission experience, I'm able to successfully attack four successive positions with infantry-borne flamethrowers, who tend to live extremely short lives with most players as I understand it. 

5th Platoon's attached flamethower team proves vital to the success of the assault.

Their efforts clears out a section of houses that provide good cover, and a safe approach, to the enemy's main position. Once again, a picked group of assault troops lead by the platoon leader break into the home with the use of a satchel charge. This is all covered by the single unwounded Bren gunner still left fighting in the platoon - a clear sign of the difficulties this fight gave me. 

By 1642, most sections have around 100 .303 rounds in total, and are exhausted from the rapid series of high speed dashes between cover. The objective itself is clear, though there are several known enemy positions that are clearly still extant; lack of ammo prevents any serious effort at mopping those up.

With final confirmation that the Riede and Road to Bremen objectives are clear, I end the scenario and am awarded a total victory. The only objective I failed to achieve, it seems, is the destruction of a fuel truck. Can't say I recall seeing one, though I imagine there must've been one scurrying away early on that I may have seen with a different route of advance. 

The end report.

Debrief

I was somewhat gratified to see that Heiligenbruch was occupied, and my bypassing of that town was not done in vain. The enemy defenders appear to have been a local Volkssturm unit, more of the same of what I fought at Bridges 1 and 2. Normally the Volkssturm isn't a problem, but I must admit the ones encountered in this scenario fought quite well, and appeared to be festooned with light automatics. At least one squad dealt with by 4th platoon had managed to scrounge up 5 pieces of semi or light automatic equipment. In short, I doubt the enemy in Heiligenbruch would've been fatal to my efforts, but it would've certainly inflicted needless losses of fighting manpower and consumption of ammunition. The latter was sorely needed at Riede, and I'm quite happy with my decision to risk tank riding and spare infantry an open-order advance and all the ammunition consumption that would have entailed. 

As usual, I think, enemy artillery was the greatest menace. German mortars, despite the relatively rapid pace of the attack, were accurate and rapid. They knocked out the Assault Pioneer platoon, which was a bit of a coup for the defenders. For my own part, though I had difficulty showing it, my artillery did yeoman's work. Particularly K Battery. The final approach to Bridge 2 was quite well cratered by their shifting fire in support of 4th platoon, and no doubt assisted greatly in trivializing the latter parts of that platoon's fight.

Some of K Batteries handiwork; the excellent 25-pdrs were rarely idle throughout the battle.

Obviously, the greatest contribution of the artillery to my fight was the provision of obscuration, with K Battery's concealing of Heiligenbruch being the prime example. 

My main point of self criticism was the inevitable dissipation of my attacking strength as we advanced. I was a victim, I think, of my early success and lack of real contest from the defenders. The original plan was to save Bridge 1 and 2, if able, for after Riede had been secured. Infiltrating 7th platoon, I think, was the right decision, but I am less certain sending 4th platoon in, even reinforced as they were, was a wise application of combat power. They took quite a few losses and routinely struggled to put enough fire down to move up assault elements safely. Bridge 1 and 2 was probably a job for a company (-), rather than a single platoon. The result of all this, of course, is that when I really needed more man- and firepower for the action on Riede, I couldn't produce it and had to make due with risky flanking and overexposing my armour. I view it as lucky A Squadron got off with a few TCs hit, rather than entire callsigns destroyed by panzerfausts and panzerschrecks. 

Enemy casualties in their original positions: a scene repeated all over Riede.

The use of extremely small assault elements is something I often make a habit of, and I think it paid off once again here. Four to six men can do quite a bit to an enemy position if the approach is concealed and the enemy sufficiently distracted with a robust base of fire. Platoon leaders leading a rifle detachment, a breach team and maybe a flamethrower often proved more than enough to unstick positions held by an equal or slightly greater number of defenders. The flamethrower attached to 5th platoon, unsurprisingly, had quite a few enemy losses to their credit. The breach teams across all platoons even more so; with at least one team having claims for a double-digit number of enemy. 

Combatinman had stated he wanted a scenario that captured what the final campaign of the war felt like, and I believe he can rest assured in having accomplished that. The fight in general had a sort of freneticism and dynamism that appears unique to the "end of war" titles released. I heartily recommend the scenario, if only for the long overdue and much appreciated presence of Cromwells in significant numbers.