TM BATTLE GROUP • WACHT AM RHEIN BATTLEGROUP WACHT AM RHEIN TABLETOP WARGAMES SUPPLEMENT FOR 15mm & 20mm MINIATURES by WARWICK KINRADE BATTLE GROUP • WACHT AM RHEIN 2 BATTLE GROUP • WACHT AM RHEIN 3 BATTLE GROUP • WACHT AM RHEIN CONTENTS Introduction .....................................5 DRIvE FAST AND HOLD THE REINS LOOSE ...49 THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE ...................6 Kampfgruppe Peiper ..........................50 Breakthrough at Lanzerath .....................52 DUELS IN THE MIST Ambush at Ligneuville.........................56 Special Rules for Battlegroup Wacht am Rhein ....25 Crossing Stavelot Bridge .......................59 US Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop...............26 Assault on Stoumont...........................61 Armoured Reconnaissance Infantry Platoon ......29 Stoumont Halt ................................66 THE ARMY LISTS..............................30 St Edouard Sanatorium ........................68 Unit Availability Table .........................31 La Gleize, the Battle of So L’Hesse . 70 vOLKSGRENADIER ARMY LIST ...............33 BATTLES IN THE BULGE.......................41 Ardennes Terrain .............................41 Roadblock....................................43 Roadblock at Antoniushof Farm.................45 Battle of Wallerode ............................47 CREDITS Terrain Models shown from the following manufacturers: Lancer Written by ............................ Warwick Kinrade Miniatures, Last Valley, Hovels, Woodland Scenics, Battleield Models Archive Photography from ..........US National Archive and a large tub of baking soda. With special thanks to all those that Miniature Photography by.............. Warwick Kinrade helped out, in large or small ways, including Piers Brand and Will Art and Sketches by...................... Dave Pentland Townshend at Plastic Soldier Company. Production by ....................... Artorus Games Ltd Proof Reading ........................ Andrew Hubback Produced by Iron Fist Publishing Ltd. First published in Great Britain, in 2016. The contents are © Iron Fist Publishing Ltd and may not be Playtesting by: Warwick Kinrade, Ken Kinrade, Russ Mason, reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher. Andy Fox, Andy Edwards, Sean Allen. The book contains models from a number of companies, including All archive photographs are used under licence and with permission, AB Figures, Elhiem Figures, Battleield/Blitz Miniatures, Wartime except where they are recognised as being in the public domain. The Miniatures, CP Models, Lancer Miniatures, Wargames Foundry, The copyright of all images is recognised and no claim is intended. Images Plastic Soldier Company, SHQ Miniatures, Grubby Tanks, MMS may not be reproduced without the prior permission of the copyright Models, Armourfast, Dragon, Airix, Zvezda and Hasagawa. holder. Miniatures and models from the collections of Warwick Kinrade and Printed in Lithuania, 2016 ISBN: 978-0-9573132-7-9 Ken Kinrade. Battlegroup TM Iron Fist Publishing Ltd 4 BATTLE GROUP • WACHT AM RHEIN BATTLEGROUP WACHT AM RHEIN elcome to Battlegroup Wacht defence. Also, the winter weather No apologies are made, here, because Wam Rhein, the irst of a new has a big role to play (especially in the Overlord book is really the basis format of supplements to the lying conditions for the important for gaming all the ighting in north- Battlegroup rules; a shorter format to American air support), as does the west Europe in 1944 and into early deal with other (secondary) theatres close nature of the terrain amidst 1945, until we reach the end of the or periods of the war. This isn’t the the hills and woods. This book war and Germany’s last desperate full Battlegroup treatment, mainly incorporates these factors into the stands (covered by the Battlegroup: because the forces involved are main rules to create a WWII game Fall of the Reich book). On the positive so closely related to ones we have with a very different feel, even side, those with the miniatures to already covered in earlier books. compared to those closely-related play Normandy games already have In Wacht am Rhein’s case, that book battles in the ields of Normandy the right collection to play Wacht would be Battlegroup Overlord. ive or six months earlier. In the am Rhein games without changing meantime, the Germans had anything. They can jump right in. Between summer 1944 and December introduced a new formation to their 1944, very little had changed with the order of battle, the Volksgrenadier If this book proves a success, then Allied armies in north-west Europe. division. Although in some ways we’d eventually like to look at other American and British divisions still little more than an updating of ‘secondary’ theatres or operations used the same orders of battle and the the infantry divisions, a new army that offer a different character same equipment, with the addition of list is included here because the and feel, including such battles one or two new vehicles and pieces Ardennes offensive was the new as Operation Market Garden or of kit. Also, the tactics remained the Volksgrenadier divisions’ baptism of breaking through the West Wall at same. So, rather than simply repeat ire and their different organisation Aachen, in the Hürtgen Forest or for a lot of information that has already tables offer some nice alternatives to a General George Patton’s battles in been published (mainly the army standard 1944 infantry division force the Lorraine. This doesn’t have to lists), this books builds on them. (although, of course, the same models be restricted to NW Europe, either, Most importantly for Battlegroup, can be used perfectly well with both as smaller formats could cover the however, the character of the ighting lists). ighting in Sicily and mainland Italy; had changed. Unlike in Normandy, Burma and the Philippines, the Siege in the Ardennes we have the In order to play Wacht am Rhein of Leningrad or the late war battles in German Army in full attack mode games, players are going to need Budapest and the rest of Hungary. and the Americans mostly on the Overlord’s army lists and vehicle data. These smaller books won’t replace the larger format hard-back ones. It is still intended that Battlegroup will eventually cover all the major theatres/periods of the war with these, so North Africa, the Paciic, the Eastern Front in 1942 (Stalingrad) and 1944 (Bagration) are all still on the main ‘to-do’ list. But, until then, enjoy reighting the US Army’s greatest battle of WWII. 5 BATTLE GROUP • WACHT AM RHEIN THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE n autumn 1944, the German High Western Front. In the east, Germany American offensive itself was running ICommand (OKW) knew it was just did not have the forces to inlict a out of impetus, as their over-stretched facing defeat. The Battle for Normandy crippling defeat on the Russians. Even supply lines snaked back across France. had been lost and the western Allies a successful offensive that destroyed The new offensive would be a huge were rapidly advancing east, closing 20 or 30 Russian divisions would make gamble, but it was one Hitler was up to the German border. Losses had little impact on the overall situation. prepared to take to try and conjure an been very heavy and it seemed the On the Western Front, however, such unlikely victory from what was soon to German Army was on the point of heavy losses could be catastrophic for be an assured defeat. capitulation. On the Eastern Front, the Americans and British. the situation was, if anything, even In October 1944, Hitler ordered that worse. The massive Russian summer Like Frederick the Great, Hitler hoped an offensive plan be created, with offensive in Belorussia had all but that inlicting such a heavy blow on the aim of encircling enemy units destroyed Army Group Centre and his enemies would see their alliance and destroying them. At least seven torn a large hole through the German against him fall apart. Winning the war locations were considered, but the frontlines. Russian forces were now in western Europe would then free up best prospect was an attack to capture rapidly pressing west, into Poland the German armies currently facing Antwerp, the major port supplying as far as the river Vistula. Soon, the west to turn about and meet the far the British and American forces in German Fatherland itself would face larger Russian threat, where they could the region; cut off Allied units in the prospect of invasion from two then hope to at least ight the Red Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland directions. Army to a stalemate and save Germany and drive them back to the North Sea, itself. creating what Hitler described as a Wherever OKW and Hitler looked, ‘new Dunkirk’. At irst, it was known the war’s strategic situation looked Many high-ranking oficers in OKW as the ‘Luxembourg’ option. It would bleak for Germany. Their considerable saw little hope in a new attack; their be a left hook, starting in the weakest- remaining forces could still ight forces were too badly worn down and, held American sector of the front, in a defensive war and hold on for post-Normandy, tank strength was the Belgian Ardennes. as long as they could, but a purely at an all time low, with the panzers defensive strategy gave them no hope outnumbered almost 10:1 by British An initial attack would smash through of ultimate victory. In order to win, and American armour. But, by careful the thin enemy lines, drive west and the Germans had to seek to attack husbanding of forces and by directing south of Liège to the Meuse river again and reclaim the initiative. Hitler, almost all the new tank production (the major natural obstacle in the perhaps inspired by his personal hero, to the panzer divisions ear-marked offensive’s path), capture its bridges Frederick the Great (who had faced for the offensive, a force that could intact and then push on north and a similar situation, surrounded and conceivably inlict a serious defeat north-west to Antwerp and the sea. outnumbered by a formidable enemy on the British and Americans could To neutralise Allied air superiority, alliance during the Seven Years War), quickly be rebuilt.