Counter-attack at the Magnuszew Bridgehead near Magnuszew, Poland, 5 August 1944 In the aftermath (and in support of) of the Soviet 1st Ukranian Front's drive on Lvov in late July 1944, elements of the 1st Byelorussian Front drove back the elements of German Army Group North Ukraine, who was defending the northern part of the German line, all the way to the next major natural obstacle facing the Soviet juggernaut - the Vistula River. By 27 July the Soviet 8th Guards Army threw six rifle divisions across the Vistula, near Magnuszew, forming a bridgehead that threatened both Warsaw, to the north, and Seidlce, to the south. 1 August, of course, is when the Polish Home Army launched its bid to seize Warsaw from the Germans and there's been a fair amount of controversy over the inaction of the Soviet army in this region in support of the Poles. One reason for their apparent inactivity was the ferocious nature of the German counterattacks wherever the Soviets got across the Vistula. As part of the German attempts to reduce the Magnuszew Bridgehead, a variety of ad hoc forces were thrown into the fighting, as well as four full divisions, including both the recently-refit 19th Panzer Division and the Hermann Goring Armored Parachute Division. The historical outcome of this battle, by the way, was something of a draw, a win, or a loss for the Germans, depending on how you read the results… The 19th Panzer Division and the Hermann Goering Division (with the 45th Infantry Division) managed to pinch off the Soviet 4th Guards Rifle Corps occupying the southern portion of the salient, forcing their retirement towards the bridgehead. They didn't, however close the bridgehead; they merely contained it. Both sides suffered heavy casualties and the bridgehead was contained until the Soviets opened the Vistula-Oder offensive the following January. Unfortunately for the Germans, the Soviets promptly opened another bridgehead further south near Pulavy. There simply weren't enough Germans to counter-attack both bridgeheads so both remained open through the fall of 1944. This scenario is hypothetical only to the extent that the limited resources I had at hand didn't provide organizational data down to the battalion level at which this scenario was played. We know approximately where the German and Soviet division-sized forces were that day, which units belonged to those divisions, and which units on the German side (at least) attacked that day. There were three Soviet rifle regiments present; which one is defending in the scenario is conjectural, however. This scenario takes place early on the 5th of August and involves a drive by Kampfgruppe Meier of the 19th Panzer Division against the Soviet infantry holding a part of the bridgehead. The fighting has just started and both sides' forces are ready for a fight - the Germans, to seal a potentially fatal break in their lines and the Soviets, to keep the bridgehead open, hastening the final defeat of the hated German foe. The Germans are pressed for time because if things bog down too much, the Soviets will have time to move reserves from across the river to reinforce the defenses. The orders of battle for this scenario are presented in overview as part of the scenario description and in detail in the formats required for each of the rule sets used to play the scenario. General Scenario Notes and Overview KG Meier attacked from just south of Warka (near the north end of the bridgehead) eastward into the Soviet salient, tasked with securing a crossroads in a nameless village north of Studzianki in support of the main attack towards Magnuszew, itself a part of the overall desperate attempt to pinch off and crush the Soviet forces holding the northern part of the bridgehead… This part of the Soviet line was held by the 47th Guards Rifle Division, part of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps. The opposing sides' objectives are clear and simple: The Germans must quickly break the Soviet lines and drive onward to the Vistula; the Soviets must prevent this from happening. The scenario is a combined arms assault on an infantry/antitank defense and lasts approximately 2 hours (in game terms) to reflect the Germans' need for a quick break-through. Each ruleset has slighly different Orders of battle which are deliniated with their map and report. A Few Scenario-independent Rules The German player will move first under each rules set, entering the game area from the west side of the map, as it's the German attack that starts the scenario. In each case, German victory is measured by their ability to break through the Soviet defenses in a limited amount of time and Soviet victory is measured by their ability to prevent this. The Germans win if they can maintain a clear path from the west edge of the game map to the east edge that is not subject to any Soviet direct fire. The Soviets win if the Germans fail to do this before scenario's end. The scenario lasts eight turns or, in the case of Point of Attack, four turns (due to the slightly different turn length used by PoA). The Soviet forces, in each case, will start the game deployed on-map, hidden, east of line A - A, using a hidden unit marker for each company and independent platoon/battery, as well as an additional twelve dummy hidden unit markers. We've played with using map deployments for hidden units as well, but have found that a liberal sprinkling of dummy counters does almost as effective a job of hiding units and is much faster! Terrain Notes The terrain doesn't get much simpler than what was used in this scenario. The hills have gentle slopes (Type II terrain in PoA), serving more to block lines of sight and provide vantage points than anything else. The woods are soft cover (Type III in PoA), as are the rough areas (Type II in PoA). The buildings are wooden and the farmyard has a stone wall around it. Historically, the Germans would appear to have broken through, as the 19th Panzer Division did succeed in splitting the 4th Guards Rifle Corps from its adjacent 28th Guards Rifle Corps, forcing the forcing the 4th's retirement towards the river. We played around with points-based or casualty-based victory conditions but elected not to use them because in this battle the results were really quite binary. Either the Soviets would hold the line - at whatever cost - or they wouldn't. In the German case, their most limited resource (their armor) has only been assigned a supporting role, due no doubt to the broken terrain. If the Germans break through - again at whatever cost - there will be follow-on forces with more armor available to support it. Everything else is secondary. The Soviet regiments were tired, having been in continual action for the previous two months, but they are well-reinforced and can afford the losses that holding will incur, while the Germans are desperate and can't afford to fail. The grid-lines on the game map are at one foot intervals, so the play area is a 4 foot by 6 foot surface. We cheated and played on a slightly smaller dining room table with no ill effect. German Forces Kampfgruppe Meier (Capt. Meier, commander of 27th Pz Regt, 19th Pz Div.) HQ element, including an FO from the 19th Artillery Regiment, 1st Panzergrenadier Battalion (Mot), 74th Panzergrenadier Regiment, with: HQ element Battalion-level weapons, including MGs and mortars 3 Panzergrenadier Companies 1 Panzergrenadier Company (Gepanzert but dismounted), attached from 1st Battalion, 73rd Panzergrenadier Regiment 1 Panzer Company, attached from the 2nd Battalion, 27th Panzer Regiment, with Panzer IVh tanks Soviet Forces Rifle Battalion Battlegroup 140th Guards Rifle Regt of 47th Guards Rifle Div. HQ element, including an FO for the regiment's 120mm mortars 1st Battalion of the 140th Guards Rifle Regiment, with: HQ element Battalion-level weapons, including MGs and mortars 3 Rifle Companies 1 attached battery from the 143rd Guards Antitank Battalion equipped with 57mm antitank guns 1 attached battery from the 4th Guards Rifle Corps reserves equipped with 76mm field guns 3 6" lengths of barbed wire; 6 1.5" lengths of linear minefields. To the Vistula! WWII Rule Sets Reviewed Introduction Battlefront Tacfire Point of Attack Scenario: 5 August 1944 Overview Scenario Replay: Battlefront Scenario Replay: Tacfire Scenario Replay: Point of Attack Comparisons and Conclusions Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #82 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com