Move, Shoot, Assault: US 3rd Infantry Division dismantle Gustav Line

Gwen and I decided to give the new lists out of Battlefronts Italy compilations, Road to Rome and Fortress Italy, a go. Gwen was excited that her Gebirgsjäger company could now be fortified and I was excited at the prospect of matching that up with some of my engineers. So we decided to play a fortified engagement where I would use US 3rd Infantry with an assault platoon and engineers and her a super secret Nazi mountaineer company.

Gwen's German's.

Gwen's stuff is always expertly painted.

The infantry portion (with attachments) of my Rifle Company from 3rd Infantry Division. You can see my Field artillery battery here if you like.

Infantry, recon, and an experimental borrowed AOP. I forgot to bring mine.

HQ (15) + 2 Bazookas (40) 55

Rifles 2 Squads + 1 rifle 165

Sharpshooter & SMG 15

Assault Platoon 2 squads 180

MG Platoon + 2 bazooka 170

A&P Platoon 3 squads + 2 Bazookas 205

Intelligence & Recon 85

Cannon Platoon 2 Priests 125

Field Artillery 105mm 185

AFAB: 3 Priests, Sherman OP, half tracks & MG 230

Stuarts qty 4 210

AOP 25

Grand Total 1650

I attach as follows:

Rifle Platoon: 7 Rifles+cmd+bazooka+2MG+1MGBazooka = 12 teams

Assault Platoon: 6 Rifles+cmd+bazooka+2MG+MGBazooka+HQ Bazooka = 12 Teams

Ammunition & Pioneer Platoon: 6 Rifles+cmd+2 Bazookas+HQ bazooka = 10 Teams

Gwen attaches her HMG's.

The battlefield:

Gwen's terrain is always beautiful..

We roll up Breakthrough and Gwen selects the left near and far right to deploy in and I select the near right vineyard to deploy in.

Obstacles go down:

Followed by objectives.

The Americans are a little blurry from the vineyard.

My Rifle platoon goes in reserve. Gwen deploys on the two hills:

6 Heavy Mortars, Italian Tanks, and Infantry on the left hill.

88's and medium mortars on the right hill.

One platoon ready to race to the Objectives.

I set up my artillery batteries and infantry ready to push off toward the 88's on the right. Stuarts behind the wall (middle left) to challenge the heavy mortars and Semovente's.

I push out truscott trotting my assault platoon and moving the A&P platoon through the woods.

Stuarts move up the left side.

Recon sneaks up the middle looking for something to reveal.

The Americans open with a devastating bombardment against the heavy mortar and tank position but fail to range in. The big template does not come out again.

Recon draws first blood knocking out a stummel near the 88's.

Gwen races to the objectives.

Her x2 shooting from the 88's pins the Assault platoon, the HMG nest pins the A&P platoon, and the recon gets bombarded, takes a casualty, and gets pinned.

The A&P platoon proceeds to spend all but the last turn pinned in the woods.

The semovente's score some hits but fail to destroy any Stuarts.

Back on the right the Assault platoon unpins with the help of the CiC, clears one minefield, surges up the hill toward the 88's, and gets pinned again from shooting. The Cannon platoon of 2 Priests take shots at the 88's and knocks one out but subsequently get obliterated from the remaining 88's return fire.

105's pound german infantry making for the objectives via an air observer and repeatedly target the German armor and heavy mortar positions to small effect.

On the left the Stuarts work over some heavy mortars with shooting and a successful assault followed by a consolidate up the hill toward the German armor.

The Gebrigs Assault platoon moves to dispatch the Stuarts but fails to connect with the speedy light tanks. All the practice in North Africa and Sicily has taught these veteran tankers how to effectively use their stabilizers and the lightly armored Italian tanks start to burn.

Back on the right the US Assault platoon takes casualties but continues it's surge up the hill, with the help of a Sherman artillery observer, eliminating the threat of the dreaded 88's.

Where are those damn Engineer's?

Low and behold the flanking Rifle platoon must have found a way to sneak through the line and arrives in the most timely fashion (turn 3) to shoot the German's before they can complete their foxholes. The AOP continues to call in strikes against infantry on the move.

Who is that lone man (bottom center)? Is that the German commander?

The causalities start adding up fast for the Germans. Artillery is really sticking it to the German's constantly pinning them down and whittling away at their fighting strength.

Veteran US riflemen unpin the following turn and surge across the poorly constructed defenses pulling off a successful assault on the mountaineers guarding the objective. They win the assault but are unable to push them off completely. The objective remains contested.

Back on the right the Assault platoon is mopping up the German strong point and making its way to the objectives. The terrain and obstacles have these guys way behind schedule even with the CiC driving them forward (unpinning) each turn.

On the left Semovente's and Stuarts mix it up as the first US tank goes up in flames.

Back at the objective the German's plan a desperate close combat counter attack but the American defensive fire is too much and the German will to live is kaput.

Things look pretty bleak for the lone German commander. One German infantry platoon is destroyed.

The armor duel rages on with the Germans knocking out another Stuart and US bombardments evening the score.

The field of battle is strewn with dead from both sides and in the chaos the German CiC sneaks away continuing to hold the objective.

The Americans are pushing on all fronts now. After the Assault platoon did all the hard fighting on the right the Engineer's and Recon finally decide to get moving again. 2 more Platoons (88's and stummels) have been destroyed at this position.

Like the Engineer's the unarmored recon spent multiple turns pinned.

The combined effect of multiple turns of bombardments from one or two howitzer batteries and stabilized Stuart main guns finally finish off the Italian tanks. The Germans have lost over half their force.