The Road to Elsenborn, Part 3
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
June 2008

A few years ago, we entered the role-playing game market with a series of historical adventures/sourcebooks. They brought us both critical acclaim (an Origins Award in 2002, and many finalists) and sales were also very good. They also still bring us a trickle of e-mail responses damning the company, and me personally, for "betraying" wargaming by publishing "that RPG crap instead."

I've always been closer to role-playing designers and publishers in my business friendships and associations than to those who make wargames, probably because of the generational issue. And I've come to view game publishing more from that perspective than that of a “real" wargame publisher. I don't really see Battle of the Bulge2: Elsenborn Ridge as a game so much as part of the much larger game that is Panzer Grenadier. Gamers should be able to play it in many ways, in many different theaters with many different forces and scenarios. But it's all one game.

Elsenborn Ridge has everything in it you need to play all by itself, and it has far more small and short scenarios than any other game in the series. That wasn't intentional, but instead driven by the nature of the campaign. It will likely become it one of the most-played games in the series, as it also benefits from years of developmental experience.

As part of the larger whole, it also will yield more opportunities for the book supplements that I certainly enjoy producing and fans seem to like. There are at least two I can see doing in the very near future. One would add additional scenarios that mix boards and pieces from Elsenborn Ridge and its sister game Battle of the Bulge. And I'd like to look at the 1940 battles in the area, drawing on those two games and a third we hope to publish later this year.

But that lies in the future. For now, here's a look at the final segment of Elsenborn Ridge scenarios. (The first two parts are here and here.)

St. Vith: The Devil's Own
20 December 1944

Ordered to attack St. Vith, Col. Otto Remer of the Führer Escort Brigade had his own ideas — a political soldier, he hoped to attract even more of his adored leader's favor by reaching the Meuse River before any other unit. He therefore brought his brigade around the town's northern perimeter and attacked a weak spot in the American lines. If successful, Remer's brigade would bypass St. Vith completely and race into the rear areas.

Conclusion
Remer's dreams came to a crashing halt in the form of 90mm shells from the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The new, speedy M36 vehicles ambushed the German tank column and shot up its leading vehicles. The German attack fell apart and Remer pulled back to wait for the rest of his brigade to arrive before making a renewed (and unauthorized) dash for glory.

Twin Villages: Finale
19 December 1944

During the night of the 18th, the American command decided its troops had held the twin villages for as long as necessary to disrupt the German timetable. The defenders could pull out the next night. Meanwhile, the German command had decided that the Hitler Youth had had enough; the SS division would assault the twin villages for one more day and then give way to an Army panzer grenadier division from the Army Group reserve. Hugo Kraas was determined to redeem his command with success, whatever the cost to his young fanatics.

Conclusion
Both sides remained relatively quiet during the night, but when daylight came fighting again erupted in both villages. Massive American artillery barrages again claimed many German infantrymen's lives, and in the early afternoon 2nd Infantry Division ordered its troops to pull out as soon as darkness fell. Fighting died down as the Americans prepared to leave, and rather than press their advantage the battered Hitler Youth and Volksgrenadiers gladly let them go.

Crossroads: Hunting Panthers
20 December 1944

After their repulse, the Hitler Youth pulled back and replenished fuel and ammunition while keeping up a desultory bombardment of the American positions. The SS division's poor march discipline wasted hours while reinforcements made their way to the front and supplies finally reached their destinations. Not until midnight was the new assault ready to step off.

Conclusion
Once again the German tank destroyers made it into the farm buildings, and once again the American artillery fire and infantry defense drove off all their supporting panzer grenadiers. American tank-hunting teams tracked down and destroyed all the German vehicles wandering through their positions, including several of the gigantic Hunting Panthers. Enraged, SS Gen. Hugo Kraas of the Hitler Youth division ordered a fresh attack a few hours later.

St. Vith: First Assault
18 December 1944

While the Americans milled around in confusion within the St. Vith perimeter, on the other side of the uncertain front lines things were little better. It took a day and a half for the 18th Volksgrenadier Division to bring its infantry into line to attack, and even then some of its artillery remained trapped in the massive traffic jams clogging the narrow roads. Ordered to attack anyway, the division launched its planned night assault in mid-morning.

Conclusion
The Volksgrenadiers made some progress against the American 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, but lost all their gains thanks to a timely counterattack by a nearby engineer battalion fighting as infantry. Troops on both sides proved very skittish under enemy artillery fire, with the greater American firepower making its weight felt.

Elsenborn Ridge
22 December 1944

No map included the label "Elsenborn Ridge" in late 1944; V Corps commander Leonard T. Gerow coined the phrase to indicate the line of hills near the Elsenborn Barracks where he wished his troops to establish a fallback position. After the bitter fighting for the Twin Villages and Dom Bütgenbach farm the Americans made an orderly withdrawal to the new line. Soon afterwards the Germans threw a fresh division into attempt to widen their breakthrough.

Conclusion
An experienced division that had fought in Italy and Alsace, 3rd Panzer Grenadier nevertheless sent its troops forward in brutal frontal assaults and suffered accordingly. The next spring, Belgian villagers would find German bodies stacked three and four deep in front of the American positions. Massive artillery fire again made the difference, as the gunners fired at well above rates their weapons' manuals said was physically possible and rained thousands of shells on attackers with deadly accuracy.

Night of the Long Knives
20 December 1944

As the "All American" Division joined the fight against Peiper, its staff found the Germans holding the key village of Chernoux. The 504th Parachute Infantry detailed two companies to capture it, but the attack faltered as night fell and the Germans poured fire on them from the many light anti-aircraft guns present in the town.

Conclusion
Deprived of artillery support, the paratroopers pressed captured German weapons into use but could get nowhere until a berserker fury overcame Sgt. George Walsh. Screaming "let's get those sons of bitches!" he stormed forward alone, tossing grenades and drawing his fighting knife to tackle the German "flakwagons" punishing his company. One German crew died in a grenade blast, another in a flurry of knife slashes, and soon the troopers were swarming over the Germans. But American losses were so severe that they could not hold all of the ground they had taken, and it took reinforcements in the morning to finish the job.

People's Grenadiers
28 December 1944

On the northern flank of the German Ardennes offensive, the stout American defense of the twin villages and other locations totally disrupted German plans. The German command removed all panzer and panzer grenadier divisions from this flank, but the American salient at Wirtzfeld jutting into the German lines remained a danger due to the heavy American artillery concentration on the Elsenborn Ridge. After a delay of several days, Gen. Otto Hirtzfeld sent the remains of his 67th Corps forward.

Conclusion
The American artillery on Elsenborn Ridge was not packed wheel-to-wheel as junior officers told their men, but it came close. Without the proximity fuze it had been deadly to Germans in the open, but now the snowy fields between the twin villages and the Elsenborn Ridge became a killing ground. The Volksgrenadiers lost hundreds of men and did not come close to the American positions.

The Sad Sack Affair
29 December 1944

Not quite ready to abandon their offensive, the Germans launched a night attack into a gap in the lines of the green American 289th Infantry Regiment. The attackers apparently became disoriented, and found that their radios would not work. The defenders also got lost in the dark, and their radios would not work either. A confused fight broke out around the tiny crossroads of Sazdot, known to the American soldiers as "Sad Sack."

Conclusion
The fierce firefight known as the "Sad Sack Affair" erupted in the wee hours of 29 December and continued until late morning, when American paratroopers finally closed a ring around the SS companies that had penetrated to Sazdot. Daybreak brought improved communications, and artillery fire rained down on the SS who were eventually wiped out.

St. Vith: Help Arrives
18 December 1944

While three German divisions jostled for position to attack the vital crossroads town of St. Vith, two American armored divisions tried just as hard to jam reinforcements through the tidal wave of retreating men and vehicles streaming to the west. The two American divisions had little coordination, and when separate task forces found themselves heading up highway N23 to battle the advancing SS they joined-up to give Hitler's favorites a nasty shock.

Conclusion
As often happened during the Battle of the Bulge, the wandering American troops were perfectly willing to fight — as long as someone pointed them toward the enemy. Lt. Col. Leonard Engeman picked up some anti-aircraft halftracks along the way and tasked the 7th Armored tanks with providing fire support while his own went right at the SS. Stunned by the sudden violent resistance, the hardened Nazis fled in panic. Their division commander, Col. Wilhelm Mohnke, decided that he really didn't need to pass through St. Vith after all and turned his troops to the west.

Goering's Elite
19 December 1944

Expected to play a major role in the offensive, the 3rd Parachute Division failed to make much progress against very weak opposition. At one point, an entire Fallschirmjäger regiment was held up for a day by a single American platoon, suffering hundreds of casualties. No longer "the best damn soldiers I ever saw" as one American colonel had called them six months earlier, the division dawdled along behind the SS panzers until ordered to resume attacking a newly-arrived American unit.

Conclusion
Third Parachute Division made only what the U.S. official history called "desultory attacks" on the American position, showing little enthusiasm. Massive casualties during the Normandy campaign had led to the division being rebuilt with an infusion of surplus Air Force ground crews and raw recruits, but nothing could replace the experienced junior officers who had been lost. The Big Red One's 16th Infantry Regiment easily fought off their attacks.

How Green We Are
4 January 1945

In a series of emergency night flights, the 17th Airborne Division was flown to Rheims, France and then trucked to the front lines on Christmas Day. After a few days on a quiet sector of the Meuse River the fresh unit relieved the 28th Infantry Division at year's end. In the midst of a blinding snowstorm the paratroopers were ordered forward against the German armor still holding positions just west of Bastogne.

Conclusion
Not expecting to see combat for months yet to come, the 17th's two new regiments suffered horrible losses in just a few hours — over 40 percent in some battalions. "How green we are," lamented one regimental commander. The attack actually seized its objective, the village of Pinsamont, but a prompt German counterattack took it back and the operation was a disaster for the raw division. Parachute wings and jump training did not, by themselves, make a unit elite.

Return to Parker's Crossroads
6 January 1945

While the panzer divisions grew steadily weaker, the American armored divisions still at the front restored their strength as scattered task forces returned to the combat commands and repaired and replacement tanks arrived. The 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, larger than the other American divisions, lined up side by side to grind the Germans under their treads. One fervently desired objective for the Americans was the crossroads of Baraque de Fraiture, where Maj. Arthur C. Parker had organized a courageous but futile stand in December.

Conclusion
Maj. Ernst Krag's battle group was about the only combat-worthy remnant left of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, and the Spearhead Division smashed them with gusto. "The SS were a bunch of murdering bastards," a veteran recalled 60 years later, "and we just devastated them." The Americans took the crossroads and crushed the SS group, unhinging German defenses to the west and causing even Hitler to realize that the two armies in the "Bulge" were in danger of encirclement.

The Small Solution
27 December 1944

While top American generals like Omar Bradley, George Patton and Matthew Ridgway urged Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to attack out of the Elsenborn Ridge area and cut off the two German panzer armies, Ike chose a more cautious approach. The counter-offensive would take place farther to the west, with less risk but of course a lesser potential reward — a choice derided by Eisenhower's counterpart, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, as the "Small Solution." One of the first of these attacks fell on the 9th SS Panzer Division. A favored unit, the division had meandered through the German rear areas since the offensive's start and suffered many more losses to American planes than in ground combat.

Conclusion
The 9th SS lost both villages and reported that one of its grenadier regiments had been "cut to pieces." Even though the paratroopers lacked tank support, they had powerful artillery behind them and considerable attitude. The SS corps commander informed army headquarters that 9th SS was no longer capable of combat operations and requested that it be withdrawn. The request was denied; for once, even the favored SS would be left in the front lines just like the regular army divisions.

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