While the swarm of Balkenkreuze in the above image is just the little joke of a mischievous GM, the blocky tank with the question mark on its turret is not. Five seconds after Turn 23 gets underway, Allied units (presumably Costner’s GIs) hear what sounds like an MBT approaching from the east. After manifesting, this grey eminence…
…trundles towards the KOed Panther…
…and a, potentially, brief encounter with a distracted M4A3(76)W.
Although the clock freezes before the menacing/mysterious ‘sound contact’ has the chance to wreak havoc, it looks like Sergeant Pyle and his crew are going to have a memorable Turn 24!
The mystery Panzer isn’t the only Kampfwagen on the move this sixty. At T+23 the Pz.Kpfw. IV reappears on the road east of the Schloss and proceeds to motor towards the corner, hosing Corporal Shanley’s rifle team as it goes. Fortunately for the American assaulters, they aren’t far from their destination – a cluster of vacant foxholes – when the moving MG 34 opens up.
At T+60, the smokescreen sown by Hawthorn’s mortar team isn’t thick enough to block the Archer’s view of the corner the Panzer IV will have to navigate if it intends to put pressure on the Tommies clustered around the road bridge’s eastern end. If the German medium tank keeps coming, it could suffer the same fate as the Jagdpanzer IV. If it keeps coming.
Almost all of the Comment Commanders’ footsloggers got some exercise this turn. Marian hurried to join his men as they fanned out on the far side of the Bogen.
Down south, Merry’s band pushed closer to the castle entrance, crossing bayonets and swapping lead with two retreaters (the remains of a Volkssturm unit) and…
…a four-man Sicherung squad as they did so. The former threat looks beaten, the latter may not be a pushover for understrength Venison and Merry.
The situation at the start of Turn 24:
From its current position, the Churchill can’t assist the infantry units on its left.
Amazingly, the German flamethrower team seems to have survived another turn. Tuck has 32 rounds remaining. Possibly delayed by smoke, his next bombardment will begin in roughly two minutes’ time.
Turn 24 orders here, please. Commenters are cordially invited to suggest moves for the following eight unit groups. First come, first served. A maximum of one unit group per commenter (Ignore this limit if order execution – usually Monday morning at 0700 GMT – is less than 24 hours away).
(See screenshots for unit locations)
– Merry’s men (Lieutenant Merry + Sergeant Venison’s rifle squad + Corporal Fletcher’s M5A1 halftrack)
– Marian’s men (Lieutenant Marian + 3 x rifle squads + PIAT team + 3 inch mortar team)
– Captain Hood (Six-man company HQ + arty spotter Lieutenant Tuck)
– Sergeant Bowman’s Archer TD
– Sergeant Johns’ Churchill VIII
– Sergeant Pyle’s Sherman
– Lieutenant Costner’s platoon (2 split inf squads + bazooka team + 1 HT)
– Captain Dale’s party (Six POWs armed with pilfered rifles and pistols) + Corporal Whitehand’s team (Two POWs armed with a pilfered Panzerschreck)
Please start all order comments with ‘ORDER’ and any later revision comments with ‘REVISED ORDER’. This will help me distinguish firm instructions from suggestions and advice.