This post continues a series of decision-forcing cases. With that in mind, I recommend that, before reading the paragraphs that follow, you read (or, better yet, work through) the first seven posts in the sequence.
In the wee hours of 25 October 1944, your four howitzers make good use of the three truck-loads of ammunition delivered by Service Company. Nonetheless, you continue to wonder about the whereabouts of the two trucks belonging to Cannon Company, which you had sent to the beach on the previous afternoon.
Soon after sunrise, you discover that your two ammunition trucks were located in the town of Burauen, about 400 yards away from the position occupied by your two cannon platoons. With these vehicles, you find the regimental ammunition officer, who had traveled with the trucks from the seaside supply dump at Dulag.
The ammunition officer tells you that the little convoy had arrived in Burauen shortly after sunset. However, rather than looking for Cannon Company, he decided to find a place that offered shelter from both the heavy rain and the sporadic fire, and bed down for the night.
Soon thereafter, you receive orders to support an attack, to be conducted by two of the three infantry battalions of RCT 17, against Japanese positions on the high ground northeast of Burauen. At the same time, your four self-propelled howitzers are overdue for maintenance.
What, Captain, is your plan?
Please feel free to use the comments section to propose a solution to this problem. When doing so, please employ a first-person perspective. That is, rather than writing ‘Captain Jensen should’, please begin your response with ‘I would …’
If you are new to decision-forcing cases, you will find much of interest in the following article.
Beatify Jensen for a patience I lack.