Melee at Mill: Day 1, 2000-Day 2, 0400

2000

Guderian’s plan goes into effect. 476th Regiment HQ, II Battalion, and III Battalion will be lining up northwest of the woods across the river from Mill. III/456, at Peel-Raam 2, will be attacking up between the woods and the river.

454 Regiment will march south of the woods where I/476 is right now, and then march through the gap.

2045

Although the attack at Mill has obviously been stalled for a little while, the commander on the scene now agrees, and the units involved prepare to fall back toward the staging area at St. Hubert.

2130
II/481, now moving from its positions at the Gennep crossing, is marching to St. Hubert to aid in the attack there.

2200

It’s fully dark now, and the flanking units are getting on the way. At Cuijk, the security units have pushed back a Dutch probe. II/481 is on the march.

At Mill, III/456 is in position to begin its attack.

2230

I/476, having pushed the Dutch off of the Peel-Raam 2 objective, now moves to defend the southern flank of our push past the Dutch lines.

The 481st Regiment HQ, using both battalions at St. Hubert and the incoming II/481, plans a new attack on Mill, as the 454th Regiment gets under way.

2330

The attack toward Mill from the southwest is doing well, assaulting a Dutch position in the fortifications and driving the Dutch infantry off of it quickly. Over the next half-hour, they’ll kill or capture fifty men.

0000

In this image, both elements of the flanking force are well on their way. In a few minutes, they should be crossing the Peel-Raam line.

0140

To my admitted surprise, this is working rather well.

0300
I jinxed it. As I and II Battalions of the 454th Regiment receive their orders to move off the map, the column grinds to a stop spread out between the Peel-Raam line and the exit, while the leading elements of I Battalion run into a huge base formation: seven hundred men between us and the exit.

0330
As a consolation prize, elements of the 476th Regiment come across the Dutch artillery which has been pounding us all along, and engage it in close combat.

If, at the beginning of the scenario, III/481 had gone east instead of south, we would have come across it early in the fight, but we probably wouldn’t have gained and held the Peel-Raam 2 objective to make the gap we’re currently pouring through.

0400

The situation as it stands, with eight hours to go. The 454th Regiment has a little bit of opposition in its way. The new, ad-hoc 481st Regiment has an attack planned through Mill and up to the positions currently being attacked by II and III Battalions, 476th Regiment west of Mill, but is currently not engaged.

Here are your options to carry us through the end of the scenario.

Guderian – Cancel the 481st Regiment’s attack, and march them through the gap behind the 454th Regiment toward the exit northwest of Graspeel.
von Rundstedt – Let the 481st Regiment’s attack free elements of the 476th and 456th Regiments, which will then proceed to the exit.
Paulus – Let the 481st Regiment’s attack distract the Dutch, while withdrawing the I/476 toward Graspeel and the exit, exiting it along with the 454th Regiment.