Scenario 40 The Dornot Watermark
Scott B
THE DORNOT WATER MARK
SCENARIO 40, G.I.: ANVIL OF VICTORY
AFTER ACTION REPORT
Links to West Front 5-Sept and Dornot Bridgehead.
Links to aerial of Dornot and the crossing under fire.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
On 10 September the US withdrew back to Dornot after crossing the Moselle two days prior. The 2/11 had crossed under enemy fire without air cover on the 8th. Advancing some 2,000 yards to Fort Blaise, they were stopped by the fort's ancient moat and iron portcullis. Unexpectedly, they were hit by the 37th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment which swept in on both flanks and filtered through to their rear. For the next three hours the US troops crawled back to the clump of woods from which they debarked, suffering heavy casualties. Just inside the woods, they dug a horseshoe line of foxholes to defend the narrow pocket of a bridgehead. The Germans launched thirty-six assaults against the line and failed to dislodge them. However, this strong German resistance prevented the US from expanding its bridgehead. They were finally withdrawn at night after US forces had established a second bridgehead at Arnaville facing much weaker opposition.
The operations around Dornot, although marked by great personal courage, were a prime example of how shoddy staff work can put large numbers of ordinary soldiers at risk. Overly optimistic reconnaissance indicated a disorganized and disheartened enemy. XX Corps failed to properly assess the marshy terrain unsuitable for armor, the enemy strength and intentions. The Germans held the heights and Fort Driant’s artillery dominated the Moselle Valley. There was a shortage of artillery ammunition and no air support. Finally, 5th ID and 7th AD had no clear idea of who was in overall command. The sole success of this operation was that it did help to distract the Germans from the better planned bridging operation conducted simultaneously at Arnaville.
NIGHT RULES ABSTRACT
Units are subject to fire only if moving within NVR (defensive fire) , revealed by gun flashes or illuminated under a Starshell. They can remain concealed while moving, even through the first melee of Close Combat. It is really that simple. The difficulty is predicting the range.
NVR was high for the game, with an average of 8.11 and a median of 8. Units were able to fire and place starshells more frequently than normal. This is especially important at the river, where a low NVR could leave the Germans with no LOS, and thus no starshells, to boats and swimming infantry and allow the US to cross unhindered.
INITIAL PLACEMENT
US Comments
In order to end countless internal debate as to which part of the battlefield my troopies will enter, I roll 1d6, and my GIs enter at bottom left. I assume that I am taking command of the river crossing at the point the units enter board 5 at bottom of map. This informs where to place the tow line (SSR 40.1), FFE barrage (SSR 40.3), as well as the ATG and MMG covering fire from across the river.
Not having any sort of NVR gauge (something like an SSR stating” it is mostly cloudy night, NVR minimum is 2, maximum is 6” or “there are thin, wispy clouds high in the sky with a full moon, NVR min is 8 and max is 12” or whatever..), one cannot plan based on what actual conditions would be expected in the short timeframe of the battle (30 minutes or so).
The mass of my forces enter at bottom left, but some screening units enter at middle and right bottom of the board just in case. I assign 1 x stack with Ldr and MMG to be “stay behind” with mission to delay or slow down the German chase. The MMG at bottom left of map is where I chose to cover some open ground that I expected the Germans to be using. That unit didn’t last long against the German firepower in a starshell or when gun flashes betray the position.
This is my first time playing a river crossing, and only maybe the 3rd time playing a night battle. My inexperience in these matters may prove fatal, as it takes some forethought to plan out the river crossing (via boat, tow-line, or swimming..all have different sets of rules and sequences) possibilities.
GAME TURNS ONE TO THREE
US Comments
It is a race to the river. I suffer casualties. And I have to say I did a poor job of reading the victory conditions and SSRs. I recommend reading them once. Then wait a few minutes, and read them again. Then wait a day or two, and read them again before doing the setup. I really had no idea how many units/leaders I could lose this side of the river in order to meet victory conditions. If I had just done the math..that key piece of information would have made it much easier to determine the size of the rear guard vs the amount of sprinters.
The flow of the river being heavy and cold- I didn’t account for that enough in the placement of the boats. If any boats were to needed to do a round trip, they would have to start way up stream. I didn’t plan for any of that.
The 57L ATGs are on the hills across the river..a simple analysis of NVR would say they are too far from the river. If the tanks do fire, which they eventually will have to do, then I have a chance vs their gunflashes..maybe.
The OBA pre-registered barrage..where to put it without hurting my own troops? I end up choosing a central-left FFE box, assuming not all the Germans will take the open ground routes, yet remain in the middle of the fray by being between my two avenues of retreat.
And the US loses its inherent squad smoke capability on the first attempt! Not a good start in that regard of course, as the US prodigious use of smoke for self-protection is now not available!
German Comments
The moon was bright making it hard to stay on his heels. It keeps me off the faster open ground and his rear guard slows me down. We illuminate each other with Starshells and fire at movement and gun flashes. I’ve eliminated a few squads but the US has widened the distance and is streaming toward the river.
GAME TURNS FOUR TO SIX
Before defensive fire
US Comments
I get my forces to the river, but not enough of them. As I dig further into the rules (which requires countless looks at fording, then swimming, then back to fording, then to night, etc etc) I didn’t plan for the hazardous trip using the tow line due to the cold water, didn’t plan better placement of boats vs unit movement, etc.. Does the tow line following fording rules..or swimming rules? SSR 40.1 had the opportunity to clarify that, but it doesn’t. Very frustrating. Bottom line is I used too many squads and leaders to try and slow the chasing Germans, and didn’t get enough to the river. But thats ok, I went into this battle assuming command of the situation at start of game turn 1. My planning for river current, boats, swimming, fording, unit stacking (in hindsight should have 6-6-6 squads together, keep 5-5-6 squads together for FP purposes), long range fires, etc was relatively minimal (since I have little-to-no experience with these little-used rules).
My 57L ATGs got into the action and destroyed both PzIVs with highest-roll-possible to-kill DRs. This was only due to a SS scout revealing the presence of German forces near the river, allowing US leaders in boats to fire off starshells illuminating the iron beasts. They were quickly turned into scrap metal by the ATGs. Scouts can help find the enemy of course..but there is a counter-side to that..the enemy can detect friendly presence when a scout is seen!
German Comments
I stay on his heels as best as possible. The squads are stacked to utilize the Leader’s movement bonus, but that means they are vulnerable to a single US squad while moving in the open. The NVR was above seven all game, including eleven, ten and twelve hexes, leaving little opportunity to bypass the US rear guard. I had to engage them instead and watch the Germans fall behind the main body of US troops.
A full stack was lost to an FFE.
GAME TURN SEVEN TO NINE
US Comments
The covering fire from across the river is helpful, but not as consequential as hoped. There are some results of breaking units and leaders, but not enough to protect the boys in the boats and on the wire. I probably placed the MMGs and their squads too far, they should have been right up against the far shoreline in buildings to get within 6 hexes of what I should have expected to be the German battle positions. But the LOS issues with the hills and buildings on the German side of the river was a consideration for the MMG placement to allow some long-range covering fire through the open ground.
German Comments
The Germans reach the river bank under starshells and fire. The maneuver (and US OBA) is complete and now only gunfire is left to resolve the game. The Germans will fire at withdrawing troops in the river and US covering units at them.
The German armor never fired a shot before it was eliminated by the ATG at the river’s edge.
AFTERMATH
US Comments
Tough one! I did get some units across, which was satisfying. If I had dug further into the rules and setup, I might have selected a different crossing point, but I decided to have some fun and roll a die to give me some battle-situation direction. So be it.
Planning the OBA was difficult, as you have no idea where the Jerries will chase from. I was fortunate to get some SSR 40.3 results with KIAs and breaking a unit. But there was a good chance when the battle started that I may have been blasting empty woods and farmland.
A tough scenario for both sides..they have their separate, difficult challenges in planning and execution.
German Comments
Night Rules play the relationship between Starshells and Night Visibility Range. One is trying to illuminate the enemy while avoiding illuminating one’s self, especially while moving. The furthest illumination range is eight hexes (Starshell range of five hexes plus three illuminated hexes). The variability of NVR each turn (a range between two and twelve hexes) creates opportunity and misfortune that changes with each turn. This unpredictable, influential, unknown variable is a good measure of any Squad Leader’s abilities and provides the challenge of night scenarios.
In Dornot, the German hopes to get ahead of the retreating US troops and stay out of the pre-registered OBA. Low NVR rolls would allow him to stay outside the visible range of US rear-guard units and reach the river as quickly as possible. There he can interdict the vulnerable boats, swimming units, and any straggling US infantry. It is a run to the river where anything can happen that settles into a fire-fight at the river’s edge.
My opponent was not familiar with Night Rules and suffered the learning curve for the first few turns. This is a very technical scenario and throws infrequently used rules at the player - River, Fording, Boats, Swimming and Night Rules. He had his hands full of rules in this game, and was occasionally frustrated by all the trips to the rule book. However, the hard earned experience with Night Rules left him a better player when dawn finally broke.
Unpredictable, fun and on the “play again one day” list.
RESOURCES
“The Dornot Water Mark”. G.I.: ANVIL OF VICTORY. Baltimore MD; the Avalon Hill Game Company, 1982. https://storage.googleapis.com/archivesqlt/DAO00040A.pdf
MacDonald, Charles B and Mathews, Sidney T. “Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, & Schmidt”. Military History Department of the Army. Washington, D.C. 1952.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-SS-Three/USA-SS-Three-I-1.html
“Deep Re-examination of the Dornot Bridgehead, 8-11 Sept 1944”. U. S. 7th Armored Division Association.
https://www.7tharmddiv.org/dornot-prior-understanding.htm
Major Thomas, William. “The Moselle River Crossing”. Combat Studies Institute. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 1985.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA156949.pdf#page=55
Cole, Hugh M. “The Lorraine Campaign”. Center of Military History, United States Army. Washington D.C. 1993.
https://history.army.mil/html/books/007/7-6-1/CMH_Pub_7-6-1.pdf#page=161
Major General Krause, Walter. “Defense of METZ. 1 to 18 September 1944”. History Division, Department of the Army. Washington, D.C. 1947.
https://www.7tharmddiv.org/docrep/images/German-FMS/N-FMS-B-042-E.pdf
“Lorraine Campaign”. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_campaign