Dragon’s Teeth:
Scenario Preview, Part Three
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
March 2024

We’ve taken Panzer Grenadier to five continents (all of them except North America and Antarctica) and every front of World War II. Some of those have been less than universally loved (Japanese campaigns in China, Peru vs. Ecuador, India vs. Hyderabad). But everyone, at least among Panzer Grenadier players, wants to lead American troops against the Nazis.

So given the chance to insert a complete game with American division smashing their way into Germany, I had to take it. Panzer Grenadier: Dragon’s Teeth is based on the American assault on the German West Wall (known as the Siegfried Line to the Americans) in the autumn months of 1944.

By this point, three months since the Normandy landings, the U.S. Army has learned a great deal about how to fight on the modern, mechanized battlefield. And they’ve got the enormous firepower that is central to the American way of war. The Germans have had their asses kicked all the way across France and Belgium, but now they’re fighting on their home turf and the German war machine has finally geared up to re-equip their shattered divisions with the newest tanks and weapons.

All of that makes for intense combat situations, where both sides get to attack and defend. Let’s have a look at Chapter Three.

Chapter Three
Assault on Aachen
Located a short walk from the German border with the Netherlands and Belgium, Aachen had little military significance in 1944. No important war industries were located there (Aachen’s factories made railway locomotives and carriages, as well as pins and needles). It did hold significant symbolic importance, however, as the first large German city encountered by Allied forces and the historical center of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne ruled from Aachen, and for seven centuries his successors would be crowned there.

PFC Richard LaRock plays the piano in a shattered beer hall in Übach, 8 October 1944. He would be killed in action two days later.

Allied bombing savaged Aachen in the spring of 1944, inflicting massive damage on the old city and its suburbs (though sparing the ancient cathedral). As the American First Army approached, the Nazi Party ordered the city evacuated, and most of the city’s 165,000 people complied. When the Americans arrived at Aachen’s doorstep, only about 4,000 civilians remained.

The local commander, Gen. Gerhard Graf von Schwerin of 116th Panzer Division, initially planned to surrender the city without fighting, but orders to immediately counter-attack superseded that plan and the Americans advanced very cautiously toward the city despite the under-manned defenses.

When the Americans failed to immediately capture the city, they began a series of advances south of Aachen, which failed to make great progress. The American divisions needed artillery ammunition, and they needed replacements. By mid-September the American First Army had called for a pause to replenish its front-line divisions and consolidate their positions, while bringing XIX Corps into position north of Aachen.

The new arrivals lacked training, and the divisions of XIX and VII Corps used the next two weeks to try to make them more efficient and improve their odds of survival in combat. The Germans made use of the respite to transfer in additional units from all over Germany and German-occupied Europe, and try to mend the deficiencies of their own new guys.

In early October, the American offensive resumed, with a fairly simple plan. XIX Corps would push its 30th Infantry Division from the northern flank of Aachen around the city, while 1st Infantry Division of VII Corps pressed to the north-west from the other side. They would link up and then First Army would resume its drive eastwards, while a small force remained behind to reduce the pocketed city and accept its surrender.

That was the plan, anyway.

Scenario Fifteen
Old Hickory
3 October 1944
The Old Hickory Division – National Guardsmen from Tennessee and North Carolina - had surged forward and established positions across the Wurm River, making the German positions north of Aachen untenable. The Germans promptly made the situation worse by ordering Col. Gerhard Engel of 12th Infantry Division to assume command of three infantry battalions from two other divisions and attack. Looking for any familiar faces to help, he managed to add his own division’s assault guns and engineers to the mix.

Conclusion
With the mixture of formations and people who had never worked together before, the attack was doomed to failure before it started. Both sides reported that the German troops attacked with surprising vigor, but enthusiasm couldn’t overcome a near-total lack of coordination. The American artillery racked up a frightful list of German casualties, with the engineers particularly hard-hit.

Notes
The Germans are on the attack, with a mass of scattered infantry lacking much in the way or armor or artillery support, considering the breadth of their objectives. The American defense is tough and backed by plenty of artillery. This will be a tough one for the Germans.

Scenario Sixteen
Withdrawal From Übach
4 October 1944
The previous day’s fighting had ended with a confused situation in the town of Übach, just north of Aachen. Possession of the town would give the Americans a breach in the West Wall and unhinge Aachen’s defenses, making it a crucial objective for both sides. Opposing forces held adjacent houses, and tanks of the 2nd Armored Division stood by just outside the town waiting to exploit any opening. That night, XIX Corps commander Charles H. Corlett once again ordered 30th Infantry Division to clear a path for a planned armored assault the next morning.

Conclusion
The badly-depleted Volksgrenadier division pulled out of Übach during the night. The Americans began a well-organized looting of the town’s shops loading up shoes, furniture, bedding and other goods into trucks and taking them to distribute to Dutch and Belgian civilians rendered homeless by the retreating German Army.

Numerous German counterattacks (aided by fog that grounded US aircraft) slowed the American advance to a crawl. Near Palenberg things became so desperate that a Technical Sergeant had to assume command of his infantry company after all his superiors were wounded or killed. The attack there was only driven off after he called down artillery fire on his own position. Despite these problems, the Americans doggedly pushed on to the outskirts of Beggendorf.

“As it later turned out,” McDowell wrote, “the 2nd. Armored Division really did have to break out - I wasn't able to take all the commanding ground to the north and south of Übach.”

Notes
The Americans are on the attack, and it’s probably going to be slow going until the armor arrives – a great deal of armor, as the Hell on Wheels Division is going to make its own breakthrough if the infantry can’t do it for them. The Germans have a stout defense, and it will have to be to withstand all of that artillery fire.

Scenario Seventeen
Hell on Wheels
6 October 1944
Combat Command B of 2nd Armored Division was having a difficult time subduing Waurichen, on the northern shoulder of the American penetration around Übach. The muddy conditions restricted all vehicle movement to the one road leading into town, so with little chance of being outflanked the defenders concentrated all of their anti-tank weapons on the road. Twenty-one Sherman tanks had been destroyed so far, but before accepting defeat the Americans decided on one last desperate gamble.

Sherman tanks of 2nd Armored Division wait to exploit the attack on Übach, 6 October 1944.

Conclusion
The Americans led with their Stuart light tanks, sending them down the road toward the town at full speed. Surprisingly, they made it into Waurichen, where they encountered a platoon of assault guns, so they just kept going at full speed and danced around creating confusion. This allowed the rest of CCB to enter the town and engage the enemy. After stiff fighting and a German counterattack, the Americans emerged victorious at the cost of three Stuarts lost.

Notes
The Americans are fully mechanized, but soft ground has them effectively road-bound (they can move off the roads, but it’s slow going). The Germans don’t really have the force to block the American advance, but they can most definitely stop up the roads. There’s going to be a lot of strategy in this one.

Scenario Eighteen
Village of Alsdorf
7 October 1944
Thirtieth Infantry Division was under a great deal of pressure from both XIX Corps and First Army to push to the south-east to link up with 1st Infantry Division and surround Aachen. On the previous day, the German 49th Infantry Division – an understrength collection of third-line local-defense units – had tried and failed to retake Übach and restore the West Wall line, suffering heavy losses. So, it was felt a good push early in the morning would send them reeling.

Conclusion
The good push sent the Germans reeling back almost two miles. At Alsdorf the German infantry had unaccountably left the safety of village to engage the Americans in the open fields to the north. It was a terrible idea, and they were decimated. A counterattack later in the day by the German 108th Panzer Brigade finally halted the Americans, but it too proved costly when three of the four supporting King Tigers were lost.

Notes
The Americans are on the attack against a pretty crapulent German outfit, but they are fighting on German soil even if they lack the well-prepared fortifications of the West Wall. It’s still going to be tough for the defense to hold on against American firepower.

Scenario Nineteen
Tennessee Checkers
8 October 1944
The American attack on Alsdorf ripped a two-mile-wide hole in the German defenses, so on the night after the attack the German LXXI Corps assembled every man and machine available to close the hole. With the morning mist lingering just long enough for them to get close to American lines, the Germans felt luck was on their side.

Conclusion
The Germans encountered no substantial resistance until reaching Alsdorf. There they encountered McDowell’s 3rd Battalion, 117th Infantry Regiment, his staff, assorted communications personnel and (as is common in all armies) some malingerers. When his headquarters was attacked by armor from two sides, his company commanders called asking whether they should break off their attack on Mariadorf and come to his aid. McDowell told his “Tennessee Checkers” – the young graduates of the University of Tennessee’s ROTC program, headed by football coach and professor of military science Robert C. Neyland – to handle their problem and he would handle his. The Germans were finally driven from Alsdorf, but McDowell’s battalion suffered heavy casualties in their failed effort at Mariadorf.

Notes
The Germans are on the attack, with numbers on their side, but their numbers pretty much suck. This one is going to be tough for the attackers, with artillery on the side of the Americans on top of their many other advantages.

Scenario Twenty
Crucifix Hill
12 October 1944
The hill that controlled the area north of Verlautenheide had a large crucifix at its summit, so naturally it became known as Crucifix Hill. Back on the 8th the Americans had secured the hill and occupied the entrenchments there. When their Piper Cubs were grounded it provided too good of an observation point for the Germans to allow them to keep it for long.

Conclusion
The Wild Buffalos had been bled white since their arrival in the Aachen sector, and lacked the strength to attack Crucifix Hill on their own. Therefore, the untried 1st Assault Pioneer Regiment was assigned to spearhead the operation. Despite the grand-sounding title, the latter was just a motorized infantry unit lacking heavy weapons (and apparently even motor vehicles). Nevertheless, the Germans took the hill with what an American reporter called “bitter courage,” but all the courage in the world could not stop the Big Red One from reoccupying the hill before sundown.

Notes
This time the Americans are holding the fortified hilltop, and the Germans are trying to storm it. They have the numbers, but the Americans have solid morale and will get reinforcements; for once, they don’t wield that awesome artillery firepower.

Scenario Twenty-One
Like a Stone Wall
13 October 1944
When General Leland Hobbs claimed that his 30th Infantry Division was too weak to leave their defensive positions, the 29th Infantry Division send a regiment forward instead. The 116th Infantry Regiment was the direct descendant of the 2nd Virginia, which had been the senior regiment in General Thomas Jackson’s brigade at Manassas the day he earned the moniker Stonewall. They had taken their licks in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach on D-Day, and they had learned quite a bit since then. They’d need all of that hard-won knowledge today against an equally determined foe.

Conclusion
Fighting alongside the 2nd Armored Division, the Stonewallers quickly reached Wurselen, where unknown to them the 116th Panzer Division had concentrated on the previous day. Heavy fighting developed and the defenders stopped the American advance cold. Captain James Burt of Company B/66th Armored Regiment would be awardedthe Medal of Honor for his exploits here during the next few days.

Notes
This time it’s the Germans who provide the stone wall, and the Stonewallers the irresistible force. The German defenders are a solid division with good morale and eventually some tank support, but the Americans have many more tanks and that usual helping of artillery. Lots of artillery.

Scenario Twenty-Two
Panzer Grenadiers
14 October 1944
Third Panzer Grenadier Division had endured a tough year, suffering heavy losses in Italy before moving to France in the summer of 1944 to be punished some more. Granted two weeks to rest and absorb replacements, the division returned to the front as soon as it was rated fit for limited offensive action. This still made them the strongest formation in 7th Army, which ordered them to use all available resources to prevent the looming American encirclement of Aachen as quickly as possible.

Conclusion
Army Group commander Gen. Walter Model ordered an attack late in the morning to achieve tactical surprise, and it worked. By 1300 two companies of the 16th Infantry Regiment had been overrun, and they radioed that the situation was critical. But as was often the case, just when the Germans stood on the verge of success, massed American artillery fire turned German thoughts from reaching Aachen to merely surviving. The Americans would complete the city’s encirclement on the 16th, with the last of the city garrison surrendering on the 21st.

Notes
This began as a gigantic scenario, with the Germans probably wielding more troops (five battalions’ worth of infantry alone) than 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division possessed, even after reinforcement. It’s been cut down to merely large, with a human wave trying to crest over the Big Red One. But those American gunners are waiting.

And that’s all for Chapter Three. Next time, we study Chapter Four.

You can order Dragon’s Teeth right here.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published an unknowable number of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children; he misses his dog, Leopold.

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