*North of Elsenborn, scenario #9: On the Donnerberg

*I was looking to play something from North of Elsenborn and something not too long and I ran across this scenario and it included a M12 155mm SP unit, which I have never pushed across a map board yet and the scenario looked interesting, so I went for it.

• Map 23 is kind of odd, as setup is on Map 12 for the Americans and map 14 for the Germans and all the victory objectives are on map board 14 as well, so the only need for map board 23, is maybe to retreat demoralized units.

*The German setup on the big hill on map 14, with Infantry, support weapons, Strongpoints, AT-guns and dug-in with off-board artillery. The Americans Have Infantry, armor, SP’s, Mortars, APCs and Airpower but more important to this scenario, SMOKE! The M7, M12 & the Mortar can all fire it. In fact, without it, this would have been a difficult scenario to play offensively, as the Americans had to come out of the forest, right into the face of the large defended hill hexes.

*The Americans were able to use the smoke as cover and close fast, the use direct fire of a powerful armor and Infantry force for it’s size, then throw in their on board SP fire (M12 24 points + M7 18 points = 42 points of Bombardment power) and with airpower, they were able to drive to Germans from the hills. They had to regroup a couple of times and took some losses but the Germans took more losses, and left the battlefield with the American in control with a Major victory.