Following their previous success, 3.Panzerkompanie are ordered to push on and smash any remaining Soviet resistance.

Previous Chapters:

The Opening Moves

Disposition of Forces

The Big Push

Initial Thoughts – Soviet

So it’s back to the charnel house for my depleted Russian battalion.  At least there will be no preliminary bombardment to pound the miserable little communists into submission.

The initial force will consist of the stronger infantry company supported by the heavy mortars with the remaining anti-tank guns in ambush.  This will leave the Su-76M’s, Su-152’s and the depleted infantry company to come in as reserves.

I intend to keep out of line of sight of German units.  This will force them to come to me.

I was really torn as to what unit to keep in ambush but have decided to go with the anti-tank guns.  The rationale here is that the anti-tank guns will struggle penetrating the German armour from the front but actually have a chance of hurting the Germans if they hit them in the side armour.   Plus with 9 shots, they have the opportunity to put a lot more hurt than the 2 shots from the Su-152’s or 4 shots from Su-76M’s.

The heavy mortars can hit the Germans whilst staying out of harm’s way.  I don’t expect them to do much damage but every bit helps.

I kept the two assault gun units off the board because they are horrifically vulnerable to German anti-tank fire.  The Su-76M has no chance of surviving a hit from any of the German tank guns.  The Su-152’s would easily get vaporised by either the Panzer IVF-2/G’s or Tiger.  Even ambushing, one cannot expect that either of these two units would do any significant damage to the attackers.  So they will be used to reinforce the line.

Initial Thoughts – German

For whatever reason, I confused Hold the Line with Breakthrough. Accordingly my initial thoughts are thus irrelevant!

Higher Command have warned me to stop drinking.

Battle Report

Once contact was lost with the forces at Alexandrovka, 73rd Divisional Headquarters sent Colonel Dmitri Yemenko to determine what had happened.  Yemenko arrived at a small farm some 2 kilometres from Alexandrovka where the one of the divisional heavy mortar companies was based.  Here he found the remnants of the Alexandrovka garrison.  There was no signs of the battalion commander, Colonel Piotr Ivanovich (it later transpired that he was heavily wounded and died not long after he was captured by the Germans).

Yemenko quickly set up re-organising the battalion and also sent a request for armoured reinforcements.

The 3rd Panzerkompanie of the 11th Regiment, 6th Panzer Division had been stalled by minefields outside of Alexandrovka.  Though these were easily cleared, they did delay the Germans by some 2 hours which gave the Soviets time to dig in their troops.

The terrain outside of Alexandrovka was mainly flat with some small rolling hills.  The only natural obstacle was a small creek which ran on the Russian right flank.  Though usually passable the rain had made the creek difficult to pass (i.e. very difficult terrain). There were some copses of trees but these were generally passable by armour (Difficult Terrain).

The German objectives were to secure the road from Alexandrovka and in the process capture the farm and clear the Russian mortar positions.

The Russians had set up a company of infantry guarding the road while the heavy mortars were set up behind them near the farm. The three remaining 45mm guns was set up in ambush.

The Germans came at the Soviet line across a broad front.  On the German right flank was a zug of three Panzer IV F₂’s whilst the centre was covered by command elements and single zug with a total strength of six tanks.  They were covered by the single Tiger which took cover behind one the ridges.  The single Panzergrenadier platoon headed down the road on the right flank. 

The Germans advanced using the trees and fields as cover.  Soviet fire was limited to the heavy mortars but was completely ineffective and unable to range in on the German armour. However German fire was equally ineffective against the dug in Soviet.

The Soviet reinforcements started to funnel through with the arrival of a pair of Su-152 heavy assault guns of the 1529th Self Propelled Artillery Regiment.  These set up position behind the infantry.

The Panzergrenadiers crossed the creek using a bridge in an attempt to crossfire the enemy infantry.  Meanwhile the mid Panzer Zug continued to move towards the Soviet infantry whilst 120mm mortar shells exploded harmlessly around them.  The Soviets took their first casualties here when the cannon from the Sdkfz 250/10C out a PTRD anti-tank rifle team.

Then disaster took place for the Germans. The Panzergrenadiers proceed to drive into an ambush by the 45mm guns.  With brutal efficiency, two German half tracks were destroyed and another two were bailed. After the battle the Oberfeldwebel reported 15 casualties (3 stands removed).  The destruction of half the platoon in a matter of seconds broke the platoon's morale and pulled back. They would play no further part in the battle.

Regardless, the Germans pressed on with their attack.  One of the Su-152’s was knocked out by a Panzer IV F₂ and the other was bailed out. 

The mixed Panzer zug assaulted the dug in infantry.  To the horror of one of the six tanks, it struck the stone wall at a strange angle and became stuck.

What ensued was some extremely brutal close range fighting in very confined conditions. 

Using bundles of grenades and anti-tank rifles at close range, the Russians managed to disable all five remaining German tanks and captured the bogged tank, though in the process they had suffered some 41 men killed or injured. This particular assault saw the death of the 3.Panzerkompanie's commander. (This was a massive slugfest with a total of 6 counter attacks by both sides.  After the dust had settled, all 6 German tanks were captured and 9 stands of Russian infantry had been removed).

Meanwhile the left Soviet flank had been reinforced by 2 Su-76M’s of the 1438th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment.  The anti-tank gun company also redeployed to engage the Panzer IV F₂’s some 800 metres from them.  One of the guns did become bogged in the wet ground. 

The crew of the surviving Su-152’s remounted their tank and the infantry company in front of them hunkered down in their foxholes, waiting for the Panzer IV F₂’s or Tiger to engage.

However what ensued was a relatively long range fire fight between the Soviet forces and the four remaining German tanks.  All Soviet fire was directed at Panzer IV F²’s, being the weak link. Soviet fire was either inaccurate (especially the mortars) or not able to penetrate the Panzer’s armour.  The only success was the spectacular explosion as on the German tanks was hit directly by a lucky shot from the Su-152.

German return fire was also relatively ineffective.  The Su-152 was bailed but remounted again, the crew knowing that the advantage was theirs.  At this stage, the Soviet second infantry company arrived to reinforce the 1st company holding the road.

The Panzer IV F₂’s managed to score another success, knocking out a Su-76M.  However the remaining Su-76M managed to knock out another Panzer IV F₂ in return. This led to the remaining Panzer IV F₂ withdrawing.

With only his Tiger still operational and left in the immediate battlefield, the Tiger's commander had no choice but to retreat.

SOVIET VICTORY!

Soviet Aftermath

Soviet casualties
1st company:  17 KIA/WIA/MIA (4 infantry stands permanently destroyed)
Both assault guns rolled a 6 so were recovered! 

Well we went from a spectacular German victory in the first game to a spectacular Soviet victory in the second game.  Yet I thoroughly expected to get slaughtered.  So what went right for me?

First of all I learned something from the 1st game and applied the lessons to this one.  The main ones were to keep the anti-tank guns out of line of sight and to deploy my infantry in such a manner that all troops can fight if assaulted.  Basically the infantry were deployed as a rectangle some 3 stands wide and 6 stands deep and deployed behind linear obstacles that would require a bogging test for any German tank wanting to assault them.

These two elements helped me destroy Cailus’ two main assault units (the big Panzer platoon and the Panzergrenadiers).  After those two units were gone, Cailus would have an uphill battle dislodging the remaining infantry.

Both of us were plagued by bouts of bad luck.  The difference is that my bad luck was inconsequential whereas Cailus had bad luck when he needed good rolls.  My heavy mortars generally failed to range in despite having 4 rolls and needing a general 4+ to range in.  In fact out of the first 12 ranging in rolls there was 6 1’s, several 2’s and only 2 successful range-ins.  But then they could not hit.

Cailus’ bad luck was his Panzers not being able to hit the Su-76’s or Su-152’s as well as failed firepower rolls.  Lets face it, 2 Trained Su-152’s and 2 Su-76M’s are not expected to duke it out at long range with 3 Veteran Panzer IVF-2’s and a Tiger (with 3 shots) and come out on top.

He also had some horrific luck with his troop recovery rolls, losing most of his tanks and Panzergrenadiers thus preventing him from fielding a credible force.

I think Cailus made two mistakes.  The first was placing his Panzergrenadiers where I could easily ambush them.  Prior to that, Cailus had effectively shut off any potential ambush locations.

The second error was assaulting the infantry.  6 tanks versus 25 Fearless infantry stands is a reasonable match up but still a risky one.  With that many infantry counterattacks he was bound to roll some 1’s for saves.  It probably would’ve paid to blast the infantry with cannon fire for a couple of turns to thin their numbers.

I think that given my list, playing Guards was a much better choice than playing the standard conscripts.  My assault guns were slightly less vulnerable and managed to survive the game, which is a change from the usual game whereby conscript assault guns are blasted to smithereens.  Being Guards also meant that my infantry also hit harder (needing 4’s instead of 5’s for conscripts) and were a bit more difficult to hit when shot at.    I think I will definitely continue with Guards when Eastern Front comes out!

Thanks to Cailus for being a great sport and putting up with my occasional (occasional? - Cailus) bouts of gloom and doom!

German Aftermath

German casualties:
23 Panzergrenadiers KIA/WIA/MIA (5 teams permanently destroyed)
2 Sd.kfz 251/1 – permanently destroyed/captured
2 Panzer IV F₂ – permanently destroyed/captured
2 Panzer IV F₁ – permanently destroyed/captured
1 Panzer III J – permanently destroyed/captured
1 Panzer III J(late) – permanently destroyed/captured

Bad tactics, bad luck. What more is there to say?

With so many casualties, I conceded the rest of the campaign to the Soviets which is unfortunate as with only two battles, I wouldn’t even bother calling it a campaign!

Hopefully down the line there will be another campaign, however I'll be against using the post battle losses rule we used in this particular campaign. It's far too easy for this kind of early end to come.

Instead, the winner would get some kind of other advantage, whether in extra points or an edge in the next mission (e.g. force an extra enemy platoon is reserve, or add plus one to your reserve die roll, extra fortifications, free air support).

Epilogue

Given that the German force has been reduced to 3 Panzer III/IV, 1 Tiger, 2 half tracks and 1stand of infantry, it is clear that the Germans no longer have a viable force.  The Soviets in comparison are still quite a viable force having suffered only a few losses.

As such it has been decided to finish the campaign one game early.

Overall the result is pretty historic as the Army Group Kempf (of which the 6th Panzer Division was part of) was stopped by the Russians.

Previous Chapters:

The Opening Moves

Disposition of Forces

The Big Push