Before I start with our main topic for this issue, Part I of German Assault Gun Units in Fire in the East and Scorched Earth, let me address an interesting inquiry I received in the security area as a result of last issue's column.

SS-Police Regiments

The subject concerned division-scale units for SS-Police regiments, and the reader's question concerned the historical validity of combining these regiments under higher commands, similar to the divisions selected to absorb certain security regiments. Yes, this can be done. The following lettered "Hoherer SS - und Polizeifuhrer" (HSSPF) division-equivalent structures were formed in mid-1942 (about July) and can be employed for either stacking or tracking purposes.

For historical accuracy, use the following counters to absorb the SS- polizei regiments noted beside them. In accordance with routine Europa procedure, the sum is greater than the parts and the division gets an extra point for unity of command, better control and coordination, and the few extra small components existing at that level (for instance, the HSSPF commands contained small native pro-German ["Soviet traitor"] horse recon contingents about battalion in size, some artillery, signal detachments, etc.)

HSSPF A - Absorbs SS-Polizei Regiments 6, 10, and 11 (Served with AG South and deserves a 4-8)

HSSPF B - Absorbs SS-Polizei Regiments 8, 15, 16, and 17 (Served with AG South and deserves a 5-8)

HSSPIF C - Absorbs SS-Polizei Regimens 9, 13, 14 (Served with AG Center and deserves a 4-8)

HSSPF G.G. - Absorbs SS-Polizei Regimens 22, 23, 24, 25 HSSPF General Gouvernment served in White Russia and deserves a 5-8)

Assault Guns

Now on to our main topic. One of the great pleasures of owning, tinkering with, and even playing the Europa system is the ability to have the actual armies in the field. And I don't mean just divisions. Europa enthusiasts are keenly aware of the infinite "handson" command reality of having combat support units fighting alongside their larger front-line forces.

The Europa system is the only strategic battlefield simulation to realistically depict the additional power that such support delivers. In fact, with few exceptions, Europa campaign simulations offer many more accessory units than other games concentrating on the specific battles within each campaign.

Fire in the East and Scorched Earth simulate the totality of the Russo- German campaign of World War II. The gamer has complete possession of the larger formations as well as the supporting units fielded by the nations involved It would have been very easy to "build" many independent contingents into the bigger formations, but the Europa system salutes the purchaser with the statement, expressed through the counter sheets, "You have a brain of your own!"

The gamer may allocate supporting power as he desires, utilizing the actual organizations- Take a panzer cadre and give it some support (an assault gun battalion and some mobile artillery for instance) and you have a formidable panzer division back in action. Better yet, this type of authentic combination is how armies actually combined resources on the battlefield to form corps or reinforce divsions.

As the field commander at any level, you have every combat formation and every combat support unit that were at the disposal of the actual participants. These range from the towed flak guns wheeled behind motorized carriages, commanded by dustcovered officers of the Luftwaffe, to the sweating legions of construction engineers with airfield construction equipment laboring under the nononsense gaze of their foremansergeants. The wealth of this diversity is reflected in the multitude and scope of the combat support effort --from artillerymen to motorcyclists --which typified the first mechanized armies in world history.

So the topic of this issue's column is some of the smaller, but very interesting, sub-divisional components of the German motorized war machine; specifically assault gun units. I must thank Jim Broshot, Esq., for "fueling the flame" on this topic. This column will initiate the coverage of all the assault gun units, not just the ones referred to in reader queries, but some counter philosophy is in order before we begin.

The first principle to remember is that battalions are at the bottom of the Europa scale, with the exception of a few batteries. The few artillery batteries depicted in the series were so exceptional that their firepower justified "battalion effects" and were thus included in the game. The latter decision, I might add, was very controversial and intensely debated by everyone involved in that part of the decisional process. While this is properly the subject of another column, I point it out because the Germans fielded some independent assault gun batteries in Russia which are not depicted.

The battalion bottom rung of the Europa ladder does not give much room for flexibility. In the interest of scale, divisions with combat factors of 6, 7, or 8 give scant room for battalion strength spreads. Infantry divisions contain nine maneuver battalions, a recon battalion, about four artillery battalions, and other sundry battalions (like the replacement battalions that were often used as extra infantry). Most separate battalions are given "the benefit of doubt" in having even a one-point factor, even though battalions varied widely in their capabilities and between branches.

The second principle is in the interest of manageability. Battalions in Europa are not tracked in the same manner as higher formations. One reader addressed the destruction of assault gun battalions at Stalingrad and why this event was not tracked in the game. His argument was simple and rational. The German army rebuilt their panzer divisions after their loss in the Stalingrad debacle by renumbering and reorganizing other elements, or raising new components.

Obviously, if Stalingrad had not occurred (causing the need to replace certain unit identifications), these divisions would have appeared on the Ostfront as newly number divisions. Of course, we can only guess what this numbering might have been. So, in the interest of historicality, the game takes Stalingrad into account for divisional units and permits returns as "free rebuilds". By extension, the reader wanted this treatment given to assault guns.

Here the manageability problem creeps in. Given the complexity of the war and the fact that Scorched Earth is ultimately designed as a playable exercise and not a tracking and accounting course, battalions and other sub-divisional units were deliberately not given this detailed treatment.

The German player is not short- changed because he does receive carefully calculated panzer and infantry replacement points, designed to account for this type of activity. In other words, instead of John Astell trying to rebuild every panzer platoon or artillery howitzer section that was lost in this fashion during the actual war -- and producing a "game" swamped with counters and paperwork -- he surveyed the actual amounts of new equipment sent to the front (which we gathered from the German microfilm records), including freshly rebuilt battalions, and these were rounded off and given to the player in terms of replacement strength points.

Tampering with the system throws it out of whack. For example, the German Army may have lost six assault gun battalions at Stalingrad but to have them individually identified and reappear as normal reinforcements (thus being free rebuilds) means adjustments must then be made by trimming the overall replacement points. And Stalingrad is just one example of a process where the Germans constantly switched around assets between units, renumbered them, rebuilt some and discarded others, ad infinitum. Manageability mandates streamlining at the battalion level.

Another problem that seems to keep getting thrown into the counter debate is the upgrade of weapons. I received a detailed letter outlining how assault gun battalions increased in number of guns, and how these guns then increased in caliber.

I can even go one better than that. Many assault gun battalions were tailored organizations with varying numbers of batteries, and these batteries contained different mixes and amounts of assault guns and/or assault howitzers. For example, the 177th had a battery table of organization of 7 StuG L/48 and 2 StuH vehicles. Another unit to appear in Russia, the 184th, contained 6 StuG L/24 per battery.

The German microfilmed war records contain an almost infinite variety of actual weapon counts for assault gun battalions and special exceptions to their authorized organizations. As a matter of fact, some assault gun battalions ended up using more Soviet weapons than German weapons! (Ever see the photos of the enlarged German war crosses painted on captured Russian assault guns?)

When assault gun strengths for battalions and brigades were assigned, John Astell rated them appropriately by weighing in many considerations.

First, the battalions are not rated purely on number of weapons or tracked vehicles. An assault gun battalion in France 1940 may have fewer vehicles than one in 1942, but its shock and combat effect in 1940 was equal to its upgraded combat power in 1942. Likewise, increases in weapons and combat proficiency (and corresponding increases in Soviet tactical prowess and countermeasures) evened up the score in 1943 or 1944.

Consistent ratings of 2-1-10 are not exact duplications of every individual battalion variance, but are justified at Europa level as a generalization of battalion combat proficiency in relation to other components of the system. In our example of two different assault gun types above, the "lesser" 184th may have fought just as well as the 177th because it had a better commander, or fielded less deadlined vehicles, or received more ammunition, or contained captured weapons. Or it may have performed worse, but does this mean that it is worth a full point more or less on a Europa scale? Certainly not.

The next question has arisen about the upgrades to assault gun brigades, the difficulty supposedly being that fewer battalions were so reorganized than what is depicted in the game and that factors (taking strict gun counts) did not rate the increase. I rechecked this with Tessin's Verbande und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht u. Waff en-SS and the microf ilmed actual war records, and was able to verity the brigades depicted in the game as being there in fact.

The latter part of the question addressed the timing of the upgrades, and this is akin to the old witches brew of panzer division upgrades. Yes, John Astell and I have access to the daily logs of most panzer divisions for 1941 through 1944 that show when and where they were reorganized, how many tanks they received, and when they switched over to new models. If one wants to spend weeks in the National Archives, the surviving German records are very exact in giving such vital information. To save the player a frustrating ritual in duplicating a daily reorganization of the German army (often influenced by battlefield events that may not occur in the game played), the reinforcing process for divisions was streamlined.

And the same process holds with assault gun battalion redesignations into brigades. Scorched Earth is not to be taken as a literal translation of the highly complex German reorganizational scheme. This could just cloud reality anyway.

For example: How does one account for assault gun battalions that attached independent assault gun batteries on the front, without being technically retitled as brigades, but in fact being larger than brigades? How about battalions receiving paper orders upgrading them to brigades but never being able to do so, because the new assault guns were sent to other battalions not receiving authority but near a more convenient railhead?

The order of appearance in this simulation is a balanced and fair appraisal of overall German assault gun combat potential within the bounds of a playable game system.

The following is a list of Assault Gun Units in Fire in the East/Scorched Earth, Part 1. Other parts will follow in other issues, but not necessarily in exact sequence. Depending on reader input, I may address other topics and got back to our assault guns later.

Part 1: To 200

Burg Brigade - SE Aug 44 There has been some question about this unit. Burg was the assault gun school, and formed numerous independent elements as well as four battalions, brigades late in the war. This was all consolidated in Europa. The .Burg Brigade is a composite of the school units sent along with the 1 Lehr Battalion to the front in August. The remnants of these various contingents were redesignated in September as the 920 Assault Gun Brigade, which was equipped with new weapons as well, again complicating exact unit "headcounts" without considering additional equipment. The combat ability of the crack units fielded at this point by the Burg School justified a brigade-sized unit for simulation purposes. By the way, look for the I Burg, II Burg, and III Burg Brigades to appear in January, February, and April 1945, respectively.

Norwegen Battalion - FTE Jun 41 There has been some question about this unit because it does not exist in the German order of battle. It is a composite unit formed for Europa purposes and already explained in the designers notes for that game, so I won't rehash it here. I will add that this unit is a perfect example of the reason Fire in the East is a more accurate simulation of German fighting strength than a mere unit "headcount". The actual number of assault guns must also be calculated. In other words, enough assault guns (not accounted for elsewhere) were in Finland during June 1941 to justify this battalion, which was called "Norwegen".

1 Lehr (2-1-10) SE Aug 44; Bde Feb 45 This unit has also been questioned as being one and the same with the Burg Brigade. As explained under Burg, it is not.

111 Lehr Bde - Ost Jan 45 There has been a question that the 111th was a battalion inadvertently left out of Scorched Earth because it was originally the "Lehr II" battalion. This is incorrect. The 111 Brigade, as shown above, will be appearing in January 1945 as a brigade in accordance with its true service (raised at the Storm Artillery School Burg with Batteries 1 through 3 from Magdeburg, WK XI, with a light field artillery battery added, committed to the front with 9th Army on the Oder River line).

177 (2-1-10) FTE Sep 41; w/d Aug 44 Service in South; Lost at Stalingrad; Rebuilt from 913th; Service in Center and Kursk; Rebuilt Mar 44; Convert to 69th AT Bn of 3d Cav Bde in Aug 44.

184 (2-1-10) FTE Jun 41 Sent components to replenish 189th in 1942 but in turn replenished by 666th separate Assault Gun Battery. Service in Center, then North. Refitted Dec 42, in Riga during Sep 44, at Libau in Dec. 44.

185 (2-1-10) FTE Jun 41; Bde (3-2-10) Dec 44 Service North; during 43 and 44 in Center; at Kursk, in East Prussia during late 1944 where destroyed.

189 (2-1-10) FTE Jul 41; w/d Aug 44 Service Center, then South. Placed with 78th Sturm Div in 43 and 44, parceled out components to this division's anti-tank battalion and to Antitank battalion Nord in Aug 44.

190 (2-1-10) FTE Jun 41; Bde (3-2-10) Feb 44 In South and in the Crimea and later Caucasus Mountains; at Kerch and Sevastopol, 43- 44 in Center, during 1945 at Danzig.

191 (2-1-10) FTE Jun 41; Bde (3-2-10) Nov 44 Service Center, then South; in Crimea 43 and 44 and retreated through Ukraine into Austria.

192 (2-1-10) FTE Jun 41; w/d Apr 42 Service Center, converted into Assault Gun battalion for Grosscleutschland division in Apr 42.

197 (2-1-10) FTE Jun 41; w/d Apr 43 Service in Ukraine and in Caucasus Mountains; to 653d Panzerjager Battalion in April 43.