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RAF -> Aftermath (7/31/2006 6:33:31 AM)
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Aftermath
Our military objective was the Oerthe River just a few kilometers west of Chebrehez. With the enemy AFVs destroyed and the infantry in retreat, the road to the Oerthe was clear.
This does not mean that the fighting was over. Some enemy units came down from Odeigne on our right flank. They did not attack us. Instead, they went into the woods in an attempt to get behind us. Major Wolten had the 2nd/7 Motorcycle Company and 1st Company I/25 Panzer Regiment extend our right flank and block their advance. We destroyed another platoon of enemy tanks and drove the infantry back. Then Wolten sent both units to Odeigne to make sure that we were not surprised by an enemy attack from that direction.
In the mean time, Wolten also decided to capture Chebrehez. He did not need to; the village was off the main road. However, they had artillery in the town somewhere and they would be a threat to our convoys until they were cleaned up.
Three companies were sent against the town. 2nd Company I/25 Panzer Division went down the center. The enemy had dug in across the road, so this was not going to be particularly easy. 2nd/58 Engineering Company accompanied them and filled out the right flank. 1st/7 Motorcycle Company went through the woods on the left.
We were effectively approaching the town from behind, but the enemy was better dug in than expected. 1st/7 Motorcycle Company made it through the woods, then had a few hundred meters of open ground to cross to reach the town. However, they did not even make it out of the woods. Just as they got to the edge of the trees, the enemy defenders opened up.
Enemy fire discipline was amazing. Soon, Major Wolten started getting reports of heavy casualties. Our soldiers were doing little more than hiding behind the best available tree. Then, the enemy brought down artillery, which did not care what side of a tree a soldiers was hiding behind. Two of the platoon leaders decided that they could not take it any more and ordered a retreat. A third ordered a charge. However, finding itself alone, it was soon in retreat as well.
Major Wolten ordered 2nd/58 Engineers Company and 2nd Company I/25 Panzer Regiment to push ahead all that much harder. If he took the town, he did not need to worry about the disintegration of 1st/7 Motorcycle Company. The tank company and engineers simply rolled into the enemy’s improved positions on the edge of town without stopping. The enemy retreated.
By then, we had learned that the enemy artillery was in a clearing on the right, behind a major chateau that we had every reason to assume was being used as an enemy headquarters. There were no infantry left to defend these positions. The tanks and the engineers overran the artillery batteries easily and captured the chateau without much of a fight.
In the end, the attack on Chebrehez proved to be just as costly as the attack on the intersection. 1st/7 Motorcycle Company was down to half strength. Colonel Rothenberg would end up putting it on reserve until he could get some reinforcements.
By the end of the day, we had suffered 84 casualties. However, we had lost no vehicles (except for some trucks caught in an artillery barrage). These were heavy casualties – heavier than expected. Plus, we had suffered the effects of being behind schedule.
As a result of our action we trapped a few enemy units behind our lines for our rear units to clean up. The fighting went on throughout the night in small units – a squad or two of enemy soldiers against a company of Germans sent to clear out a village or chasing a rumor.
I was asked to make a report on the situation with an assessment of Colonel Rothenberg’s command capability. I thought that Rothenberg was too cautious, and just the type of person the Germans needed in the front lines if Hitler was going to be stopped. Therefore, I excused Rothenberg’s mistake. I wrote in my report that he took a guess, as soldiers need to do, that the enemy would be defending the town from a direct attack. Rothenberg’s assumption that he could get around the town was wrong, but it was not unreasonable.
I did, however, have some unkind things to say about Major Wolten. He had captured the intersection and broke through the enemy defenses almost without a loss, except for a few casualties on his left flank. I decided to place responsibility for the decimation of 1st/7 Motorcycle Company on his shoulders in the hope that I could cause his superiors to look suspiciously at his accomplishments.
However, it would do me no good to make it appear as if I were a total incompetent. I gave Major Wolten credit for his capture of the intersection.
After the fight, I struggled to find some way to get information about the German army that I had written up into the hands of the enemy. However, I could not think of a plan that had much of a chance of working. The major problem was that anybody I gave the paperwork to would have to travel west. In doing so, they would have to cross a bridge. No German soldier would be allowing Dutch citizens to travel across the bridges until the area had been secured.
I asked to see the civilians and to talk to them one by one. I was looking for a special type of person. I found it in a woman about 30 years of age, wearing a wedding ring, whose husband did not seem to be around. I asked her if her husband was in the military. She lied to me and said that he was not. She was not trained to lie. She did, however, appreciate the fact that we were invaders who were conquering her country. I gave her my notes, gave her a few quick seconds to look at them, and said, “If you care about the future of Europe, you will get these to the British.”
I hoped that she could find a way to do something that I could not see how to get done.
In the mean time, Colonel Rothenberg's office relayed new orders. Apparently, the 1st Panzer Division would be entering Neufchateau, and I was supposed to watch.
[image]local://upfiles/20894/38A4608BF0C84B1DA25C178B2BA447B2.jpg[/image]
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