This was a simple 1941 scenario with the Germans attempting to push further into Russia. The basic story was that a German division had pushed too far, too fast and was quite over-extended and in the mad excitement of continual advances some Soviet pockets of organised resistance were by-passed. Elements of these cut off, but not impotent Soviet units had united and were directed to try to wipe out the headquarters of the Panzer division which was isolated from most of its subunits. However, these subunits were not too far away and might arrive in the nick of time. The forces involved were: Soviets Starting forces 1 squadron horsed cavalry (8 figures) - regular 2 companies @ 8 figures each of Soviet Naval infantry - regular Arriving on turn 3 Infantry; One division of two reduced strength rifle regiments (as given in the RF Eastern front supplement ) each of about 40 or so figures with 8 figure companies and a regimental HQ. Support weapons for each regiment included ; 2 AT rifles, 2 maxim MMGs, 1 82mm mortar, 1 45mm AT gun (with truck). One regiment was classed as poor whilst the other was regular. Armour; One company ; 2 BT-7 One company ; 2 T-26 One mixed heavy company ; 1 KV-1 and 1 KV-2 German forces Starting on table Divisional HQ ; 10 figures, 1 MG-34 & 3 crew. Divisional Flak 1 88mm (with half track tow) & 4 crew 1 SP single barrel 20mm mounted on a half track. Also regular. Divisional recon elements. 2 SDKFZ 222 armoured cars. Latvian Schuma volunteers. 9 infantry with small arms and bad attitudes, elite for morale purposes, but poor for firing, to reflect their political "zeal" but military inexperince. Off-table artillery was represented by one battery of 105mm guns. Arriving on turn 3 + 1die (rolled for by unit) One motor-bicycle infantry battalion. elite One lorried infantry battalion, with an attached Stug IIIb. elite One elite Panzer battalion consiting of: One company of 3 38(t)s One company of 3 Pz.IIs One attached PzJGR company of 2 Panzer Jaeger Is One command Pz.IV To add more confusion to the affair arriving units of both sides rolled a die to determine which part of the table they entered on. This got, as we shall see presently, pretty interesting in the later turns. The table itself featured a river at one of the narrow ends of the table with two fords and a bridge, a dominant series of hills in the center, with one particularly imposing building being used as the divisional HQ, several smaller hills a few ploughed fields surrounded by hedges, the odd wrecked building and a road network that almost bisected the table as well as several tributary roads. Sorry for the dodgy description, but all parties agreed on it being a "fair" field and with the terrain tiles, new hills and carefully painted buildings it did indeed look the part. The Game To begin with the Germans were deployed as if in a blissful unawareness of the fate about to befall them. The two Soviet units came in on either side of the table and the sailors advanced by crawling into a built up area by one of the road entry points and fortified the building. The cavalry galloped on magnificently, presenting a wonderful target to a German MMG which fired with some effect forcing them to dismount and crawl towards the HQ. This desultory activity continued until turn 3 when the rest of the defenders of the motherland arrived. Again, there was some distance between both regiments. One Regt was on a far edge, well away from the objective whilst the other Regiment was a bit closer but in open ground and obliged to cross the bridge to advance any further. Amazingly enough all the Soviet armour arrived at the same point - in the direct front of the Latvians! The third turn commenced with one regiment of Soviets (the "poor" one) advancing up hill and over dale towards the HQ building and suffering some severe movement penalties when confronted by linear obstacles, slowing their rate of advance substantialy. The other group (the "regulars") charged with gay abandon across the bridge, The KV unit stayed motionless to bombard the HQ (great things were expected of the KV-2) whilst the light/fast tanks moved forwards to support their infantry and seek out targets for their fearsome firepower. The naval infantry defended their house and the dis-mounted cavalry continued crawling. The German response was quite aggressive. Not only did the MMG switch targets to the regulars (and cause more casulties than the Soviet commander would have liked) but the artillery were summoned and began to bombard the target rich bridge and its environs. As if this was not enough the flak fellows limbered up and moved out into the plains in front of the HQ, but their route was a long one and it was debatable if they would have time to deploy before the Soviets would be upon them. The fourth turn saw no Germans arrive and the Soviets continue much as they were doing last turn. Both KVs missed with their bombardment and the MMG claimed two more victims. The fifth and sixth turns saw much of the same, the Soviets continued to advance under artillery bombardment and withering German MMG fire. The flak units did get in place in time to deploy, but a lucky shot from the approaching BT-7s destroyed the 20mm half track. The 88mm did deploy and caused heavily damage to one of the BT-7s (whose crew bailed out) although it was in immediate danger of being over whelmed by the forward Soviet company/battalion. In the next turn ; One particularly zealous Latvian grabbed a bag of grenades and close assaulted the KV-2, putting it out of its misery. The forward company of the regulars were stopped dead by some devastating HE from the 88 and the advanced elements of the poor Russian regiment made contact with an out lying HQ building and engaged in a small arms duel with the clerks, cooks and bottle-washers. The T-26s chased and destroyed an armoured car after the auto cannon began to play havoc upon the follow-up elements of the poor battalion. The regular battalion and cavalry were close enough to the HQ to start causing casulties amongst the staff officers and finally the 88 was over-run, but only at the cost of about one and a half companies of infantry. In the German turn the motorcycle battalion roared onto the field just at the point where the poor battalion was conducting a road crossing. The lead company managed to manouver onto a nearby hillock, but the following elements had the misfortune to drive into the midst of an enemy battalion and a wildly chaotic fire-fight ensued, with significant casualties on both sides. In keeping with their theory of active defence the Latvians withdrew from the field and moved along a road, encountering the now seperated regimental HQ of the poor battlaion. Things initailly looked grim, but as fate would have it the headquarters elements carried out an immediate, ferocious attack which shocked the Latvians. Anyway, the battle was really taking shape. In the next turn the Soviet regulars and cavalry were at the very doors of the HQ building, the flak elements were destroyed and the T-26s were busy destroying unmanned vehicles in the HQ parking lot. The KV-1 went to the assistance of its comrades in the poor battalion, crushing one sidecar combination under its tracks and forcing the remainder to regroup on the hillock by the side of the road. At this stage, the poor battalion was hopelessly over-committed fighting the motorcycle unit, the clerks (whose house they successfully broke into, but were too weak to dislodge the surprisingly stubborn defenders) but the highpoint was the nurse (yes, the same one who crewed the mortar last game) and her comrades wiping out the main body of Latvian fascists in a running fire fight which took them deep into a ploughed field. At this stage the Soviet mortars also set up. In the German turn events proceeded apace. The German HQ resolved to sell themselves dearly and the fight for the HQ building was a bloody one, as was the efforts of the German clerks whose morale held with no problems at all. The single Latvian (the tank killer) who had been isolated from his now-deceased pals resolved to charge towards the fracas with the motorcyclists whose position was only further confused as the die roll again decided that was a wonderful entry point for the motor rifles who drove into all sorts of problems with one truck of infantry being machine-gunned by a maxim gun which was positioned with some other task in mind just as it arrived on the board. In the following turn the KV-1 caused some havoc amongst the motor cyclists whose actions belied their "elite" status as most companies failed to stand in the open against enemy armour. However the Stugs arrival did distract the KV for a few turns. More motor rifles arrived and began to seriously deplete the poor Soviets, the singular Latvian, as could be expected, also distressed the rapidly diminishing Russians. This turn also saw the death of the German COs and the capture and occupation of the German HQ - mission almost accomplished for the Soviets. However, it also saw the arrival, on the other side of the river, of the armoured relief column - the Germans had rolled high when determing which turn they would arrive. This new arrival forced the decision of where to deploy the 45mm guns easy and the BT-7s (the heavily damaged one now re-crewed). One T-26 moved to link up with the sailors whose inactivity was shortly to end whilst the other moved next to the HQ, also bracing for the counter attack. The fighting between the remnants of the poor battalion and the motorised infantry was almost over as the last elements were caught in the open and butchered on the hillock. However the KV-1 endured and finally managed to give the Stug some heavy damage and drive its crew from the field. The end of the game was now imminent. The poor battalion finally melted away under some strong German fire (the nurse and chums no doubt joining a partisan band which would soon, no doubt, spring up in the area) the KV-1 failed to advance unsupported against enemy infantry whilst in the prolonged armoured duel the Germans, despite losing all their 38(t)s and a couple of Pz.IIs gained the upper hand, especially when the Pz.IV caused the T-26 to explode with some devestatingly accurate gunnery. Later, the Panzerjaegers shrugged off the best efforts of the AT rifles and their crews and finished off the BT-7s. By way of counter-counter attack the sailors and their supporting T-26 tore a huge hole in the motororised infantry's line, even over running their 81mm mortar, but were eventually stopped when the motor cyclists got into the action and reinforced their truck-borne brethren. A couple of friendly fire mortar casulties didn't really help matters much either. However, they did not break and along with the T-26 sloped off with dinner and revenge in mind. Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolfe Hedges 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