Historical Analysis

Usually history is made by masses of people, not by a few leaders, no matter what they teach you in school. The actions of thousands and hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers produce the results for much the generals take credit for. But sometimes...

One of those times came up at the end of the second week of October, 1941. Fascism was in full flood tide, with Britain isolated on her island while in North Africa Rommel sat at the Egyptian border and surrounded Tobruk. America's entry into the war was two months away, and first serious actions against the German ground forces more than a year in the future. Now, however, the Second World War seemed well on the way to being lost.

In the first days of October the Germans launched their planned assault to finish off the Soviet Union. Three armies and three panzer groups drove on Moscow. The first part of the operation went according to schedule, with the Western, Reserve and most of Bryansk Fronts surrounded almost before STAVKA could figure out what was happening. Reinforcements were hastily summoned from as far away as the Pacific Coast of the USSR but as the second week of October started there was practically nothing in the Germans way to Moscow.

The surrounded armies were fighting for their lives, struggling to fend off the Germans, deny them the important towns and roads, and to break out of their clutches and reunite with the rest of the Red Army. Some made it out, but most did not. But their efforts were holding the attention of the German infantry on the West side of the pockets and the mobile forces that had penetrated behind them.

Only on October 9th could the XXXX Panzerkorps begin to peel motorized formations off the back of the pocket around Vyazma-Gzhatsk and start advancing again towards Moscow. The first unit tapped for the exploitation role was the veteran SS "Das Reich" Motorized Infantry Division, reinforced by the tanks of 10th Panzer. The rest of 10th Panzer was to disengage from around Gzhatsk in the next few days and follow the SS men up the highway.

The Highway

"The highway." In a country notoriously short on well paved roads, this was the highway. It ran from Warsaw to Minsk through the Yartsevo Heights above Smolensk to Moscow, paved, drained, and seemingly undefended. The SS were ordered to drive to Dorochovo, halfway between Gzhatsk and Moscow. In another easy day's drive they might be in Red Square.

But that didn't happen. First two newly created tank brigades were sent rolling down the highway and the road north of it. Through a series of ambushes they delayed the SS and 10th Panzer Divisions for four days, but were mostly destroyed in the process. Then on October 13th the Germans reached the Mozhaisk Defense Line. Just in time, the 32nd Rifle Division, a unit with battle experience from Lake Khasan in the far east fighting the Japanese, had reached the line, on non-stop trains from Vladivostok. Built on the generous prewar TOE, reinforced with half the antitank guns available in STA VKA, bolstered with scratch forces (tanks without engines dragged into position), a commissar school, and ultimately two more tank brigades, the 32nd was mostly in position to meet the first German attack on the old Borodino battlefield.

Like Kutuzov, General Lelyushenko had to keep part of his forces on his right to rest his flank on the Moscow River. Unlike Napoleon, the Germans concentrated to their right, directly up the highway. The first day's four assaults were beaten off. On the 14th of October, preceded by heavy airstrikes, the SS broke through. Verkhne YeInya fell, then Artemki. The Mozhaisk Defense Line was breached, and as SS Obergruppenfuhrer Paul Hauser's regiments prepared to drive on, there seemed to be nothing to stop them.

Hurrying from their trains at the Mozhaisk Station, came the reconnaissance battalion of the 32nd Rifle Division. Supported by a battalion of the howitzer regiment, plus remnants of the 17th Rifle Rgt. and commissar's school, this scratch force, under the command of Lt. Col. Vorobiev, threw the Germans out of Artemki back to their starting line. Here this dwindling band of men would fight for the next four days, covering the approach to Moscow with their bodies while distant divisions rushed to build a new line behind them. In the fighting the town of Artemki changed hands nine times, finally failing on the 18th after an intensive German airstrike.

The Simulation

The game, Borodino '41, gives you a chance can you keep the Germans from advancing down the highway towards Moscow? You have a fortified line, one tough division plus supporting arms. You must decide where the German is headed and reinforce the troops in front of his spearhead. Since he plays his units face down until contact, and has some dummies, this is difficult. You can't afford to let him flank you out of your strong fortifications. If you don't defend the road, he may simply blow through your most vital sector. Remember, Russia is vast but Moscow is behind you. You can't afford to let them pass.

As the Germans you must keep the initiative. That means you must attack, attack, attack. The clock is running against you. You have some very powerful units, but with only two regiments of the SS "Das Reich" Division in fighting shape, and the 10th Panzer having only four battalions of good infantry, you only have ten infantry battalions altogether. Add that to your eight tank companies and you realize that your force is not big enough to support more than two main thrusts at the most.

The unique turn structure provides more movement points to the player who maintains the initiative, and allows successful attacks to be followed up, seizing good defensive ground before the defender can garrison it. But beware of foolhardy attacks launched only to keep the initiative. If you use your precious assets in wasteful attacks against strong positions you will find yourself without the means to accomplish your mission.

The combat system allows a lot of fire before you get to close with grenades and the bayonet, and here the Germans are in for an unpleasant surprise, as their historical counterparts were. After bagging the bulk of the Soviet armies defending Moscow, the Germans thought that they could simply roll over anything left over that got in their way. Many wargamers, overly influenced by the prevalence of German memoirs and point of view found in wargames and easily available history books, would assume that a Soviet rifle division attacked by a panzer division and SS motorized division in the fall of 1941 should be overrun in short order. Like their historical counterparts, these folks are in for a revelation. Enjoy.

Borodino '41: The Missing Stuff

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