Charleroi AAR

On the 22nd November, mid afternoon, the Battle of Charleroi raged. As per my post in the Barracks, here's my AAR.

"Just logged off as I need a break after that battle. It truly was a battle, too! Wanted to say to all - on both sides - who were there, what a fun, enjoyable fight!

Starting off with an ATG line to the South and South West, the Allies opened with a heavy assault and had capped a few CP's within the opening four to five minutes. Our spawnables, however, remained firmly within Axis control for that period, and in fact for a while into the fight. The Somzee depot fell, giving us a solid line of infantry in town, and the Sambreville depot not long after. The Axis fought back with Armour and Infantry - suppressing our depots and costing us dearly. The NW CP's falling Allied were a great moment, but again the Axis managed to really scare us as they pushed against them with great force. Luckily a last minute scramble saw us hold on. The Docks swapped hands numerous times, as did the Brewery (beer!) and City flags. In the end, we were able to grab the NAB and finally the SCP - after a last minute fight back from the Axis.

It was, from my perspective, a fantastic fight. It lasted about three to three and a half hours, from set up to final cap, and the Axis had just placed an AO on the town as I logged. It was a fierce battle, and at no stage did one side really control the town. The Allies did have supply and numbers on our side, but communication was superb and teamwork brilliant. I must compliment the Axis on the co-ordinated paratrooper defences, their relentless assaults on FBs and the fact up until the final "Allies now own" we were under constant pressure. The Luftwaffe were absolutely amazing, and while our valiant RAF/FAF fought bravely, they were outnumbered hugely.

Well done to everyone (as the French Country CinC, especially to the Allies...heheheh), it was a battle of epic proportions which I thoroughly enjoyed!"

Check it out here!

The Hasselt Salient

The attack on Hasselt Salient was cause for celebration for the Allied side. Division XXO Nobipure wrote a great AAR from his perspective. Thank you to Nobipure for permission to post this AAR.

He wrote, "AAR written from my perspective as Map XO during the breakout around Hasselt.

Prelude:

I logged in today to play a bit on my day off, and as I logged in I noticed there were HC asking to be relieved as Map OIC. Zippo6 quickly stepped up and I offered to XO, Air and Navy following shortly as they logged in. We began in a pretty good position and a quick scan of the map showed that most FB's were Allied in our main areas of concern. The sides were balanced when I logged in, so it looked like the recipe for some intense battles.

Priority one:

There was already an AO on Hasselt, but not a lot going on. 2 of the 3 FB's were Allied, so Zippo decided to make that attack our P1. With links from Genk, Bilzen, and Tongeren, the tough attack seemed possible with good coordination and teamwork. The players were already rallying up to get into town, we just needed to get everyone on the same page and it would take us on to victory. With the help of an Allied squad the last fb (Bilzen-Hasselt) went Allied and the MSP's rolled in to surround the town. Great coordination between the players and HC made the last push on the town very successful, and the Axis started pulling Brigades from the 33rd Inf Div around Waremme up to support, leaving the vital river-front towns around Ramet for the taking. The players responded well by holding the St. Truiden depot and allowing the infantry to move in and overrun the city.

Opportunities taken:

After the fall of Hasselt, major opportunities for the Allies were evident, and Zippo jumped right on the best approach by declaring Paal and Diest the dual Allied P1. 33id was very attrited from the defense of Hasselt, and supported by a Naval brigade they only held out in Paal for about 30 minutes. The liberation of Paal was followed in short order by the liberation of Diest, securing a two-town wide breakout right towards Brussels/Antwerp.

Immediate rewards:

As of this AAR, the Axis northern push has fallen back to stop our advance, breaking all of their recent gains in the North allowing us to capture towns up to Eindhoven and threaten to cutoff the Naval stronghold in Nijmegen. Regardless of how far this breakout pushes, the fact that in a few hours the Allies have nullified several days of hard-fought Northern advances by the Axis will mark this event as a great day of gains for the Allied cause.

Congratulations:

In closing, I wish I had more names to personally thank for making this work out to the degree it has, but as I said this is from my point of view as Map XO, so I was quite busy! The HC filling the roles of the map as listed certainly deserve appreciation, but as always the players getting the job done down in the trenches deserve the most thanks by far! Of particular note was the fact that a lot of people seemed to be taking it upon themselves to do the less than glorifying tasks of fb defense, resupply, MSP driving, etc. without any real direction, they just found a way to help and did it. Very nice!

My personal thanks also goes to catfive, who maintained constant communications with the players and HC during the turning point in Hasselt. He did a fine job in the overall attack but his coordination in the North was fabulous. His special way of 'motivating' the players when things go a little off-cue helped immensly in achieving success in this operation."

Devil 505's Aachen

On the battle of Aachen, Devil 505 wrote: "I logged on at around 19.00 GMT to find the current OIC just leaving and asking for a map oic replacement at which i volunteered little did I know my next 5 hours would be as hectic as they were.

The situation when i took over was that we had lost Maastrict forcing a hole in the line and axis were attempting to push elements of 33rd and 16th inf div through the hole to exploit the breakthrough by pressing on to Aachen Maaseik and Elsloo were also under assault as was Vise.

ARFR 1ere div was located all on the west side of the Meuse south of namur and axis had brigades from 16th ID in Andenne Boulliet and Namur whilst 33rd had its flags in wareeme tongeren boulliet and Maastrict It was initially decided to pin the tail of the axis donkey by AO ing namur to prevent them moving further east with that division and enlarging the gap in the maastrict area.

I had been well briefed by desouzaj whom i had taken over from and my intentions were to pull back the 1ere div to emplace it in nandrin ramet and the profondville area keeping 16th id pinned at namur. then attempting to close off the maastrict gap from vise and elsloo. whilst freeing up units in the S area to allow a possible assault on their weakest line of defence which was beaumont and push through to Mauberge At this point Axis were still moving units into maastrict and had not Ao'd Aachen at this point.

Eventually the situation in maastrict became such that it was inevitable with 3 brigades in maastrict that axis would not try and push further East and they made the decision to AO Aachen. At that point Aachens defence consisted of paras and 3 air units. I outlined the concerns around the key defence points of tha AF and spaawnables needing guards. however due to increasing pressure first the spawnable and then the AF fell effectively dismissing the defending units to training. I had already started moving northern units into a shorter defensive line in the Panningen area freeing up 75% of 12e div from Maaseik and Roermond areas to move south on timers to relocate in aachen if possible of if aachen fell its task was to disrupt axis LOCs and cut off the head of the snake had they pushed through.

The situation deteriorated in Aachen as the timers dragged on however due to some brilliant team play by certain unknown officers and players a 2 pronged attack was formed and we recapped both their only aachen spawnable the FB and the linked depot in maastricht whilst para toopers from Verviers were deployed over aachen It was touch and go as at this point we were down to having no link to allow defensive flags in and all ABs were axis owned , in fact we were at this point down to just one flag in Aachen!. we had by this time completely stopped the flow of axis inf into aachen and i had moved 12e hq and 106e to Geilenkirchen with the 12e armoured unit also in position at heerlen. ready to drop into Aachen we needed the 2 n depots back and the Abs if i was going to be able to move anything in I am pleased to say that the paras arrived from Verviers in an incredibly well and finely cut timing they recapped all abs and the n depots in short order and i was able to move 12e hq and 106e into aachen whilst moving the associated armoured unit 1 town further nw to bolster sittard . the time had flown by i had also managed to get the 1ere into nandrin in time to defend against a soft cap and i had also managed to emplace 1.5 dvis in position to attack Beaumont I handed over map oic to salador at 2359 Z after 5 hours of non stop unit movement safe in the knowlege aachen was secure and we could threaten Maastrict and Mauberge.

Devil505 3 Cdo CO"

Allied Officers Needed!

The Allied Side is in need of new and returning officers now more than ever. There are many positions open within the French and British commanders, in the Armies, Navies or Air Forces. If you are, or think you might be interested, head to the Allied Open Forum post here for more information, or directly to the OCS Application here (using IE) to sign up today!

OCS is a relatively quick course, and you are able to complete the written component before a practical field training to ensure you are ready and able to become an officer. Once it is complete, placement is quick and you can be in game supporting the Allied cause from within the High Command. It's a great experience for those who are yet to try it.

If you have any questions about the HC, pm any one of the Senior Commanders with any questions, or ask HC online about it. So, join the HC today - I look forward to seeing you there.

New Allied CinC, and Senior Commanders

While I was away the Allied High Command CinC Badger77 retired after a very successful 3 wins and Ltibbs was promoted to the CinC position. Subsequently, Joker007 moved to Allied CoS and Igor was promoted to the position of Allied DCoS. We have two new BEF Country Level officers - Silky as BEF CinC and Speed68 as BEF CoS. CE remains French CinC and I remain French CoS.

Ltibbs wrote, "Greetings fellow Allies

I want to take this opportunity to thank Badger77 for a job WELL DONE as CINC these last 3 campaigns.

I look forward to the challenges of this new position and the opportunity to play with all of you as we continue our successes against the Grey Horde ..."

Read the rest in the Allied Open Forums, here!

Tongeren Teeters - before terrific outcome

Well after what was an extended period of time away from WWIIOL I jumped back in the seat tonight and 'got my game on,' to say the least. It was a bit quiet on the Allied side with very few HC online and not a great deal of players. Nonetheless the communications between those online were great and we accomplished a lot!

Tongeren was the first of the night. While Masseik continued throughout (and even as I write this the battle still rages), I jumped into the no-man's-land Tongeren to fight it out with SLR, Nobipure and myself against the onslaught. We had help from Isl... (I can't rememeber the rest of your tag, sorry mate!), and it turned into an epic battle. As the FB fell and depots went Axis we scrambled to re-take the FB, and lucky Isl... was on the ball, because the FB was back Allied in the nick of time. After that, Pacifict's MSP provided a way for SLR, Janus, Pac and myself to enter town, and with a dozen other Allies liberate depot by depot until the AB. With only the AB Allied when we re-entered, it was not expected to re-take, so it was an occasion for celebration when Tongeren was liberated and an Allied Brigade shuffled in. Great work guys!

We then took the fight North to Mook, where MSPs rolled in and the town fell Allied reasonably quickly. There was not a great deal of defence and the Allied attackers - 10 to 20 in all - did a great job capping, guarding and taking the AB and docks simultaneously. There was very limited Axis response despite the fact they held the numbers advantage. Another well executed operation saw us advance further and pull Axis troops out of Masseik - which was still holding!

As I logged for the night, the AO on Wyler had just been placed, the Ramet raids were going strong and Masseik and Panningen were holding out nicely. A great night overall, a fantastic way to return to the game after a break; working together with squaddies, HC and players alike with great communications and a sense of teamwork to accomplish goals and have a tonne of fun. Brilliant work tonight guys!