(Being a fictitious battle with a firm basis in history) Having been to busy constructing model railroad buildings of an old west flavor for mail order clients, and painting furiously my new AIM 10mm Napoleonics(I loath unpainted lead) the time had come for a game. Time to put down the knife (ouch, didn't mean to put the knife there) and brush, and pick up the dice and lead. THE SCENARIO Not having gamed for a while, and having a strong desire to do so, I decided on a pretty straightforward action. Something easy to set up and get into action quickly.The game is loosly based on a relief operation on the East Front, 1944. A Panzergrenadier division has been encircled and fighting its way westward for a couple of weeks. This division has been brought to a standstill by determined Russian attack. The Russian forces consisting of two infantry divisions, along with two independent tank brigades. These forces have been going at each other behind a Russian frontline that has been kept in constant action by German forces trying to keep them from sending troops to aid the destruction of the encircled Germans. An attack by the encircled Panzergrenadier division and elements of the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking has been planned and is ready to execute. Wilting has been fighting almost continuously for three months, plugging gaps and holes resulting from the most recent Russian offensives. Though Wiking is close to fighting itself into oblivion, the division's morale is high and they look forward to once again helping their comrades out of a bad situation, and they know they are still capable of delivering a heavy blow to the enemy. SS Panzer Division Wiking will attack southeastward along road 9 toward hills 601 and 602. Those hills and road 9 where it passes between the hills will be the divisions objective. The panzergrenadier division will attempt to fight its way through, passing through Division Wiking to safety. That is if you can consider being inserted back into the line safe. The objectives for the Russians will be to maintain line of sight to road 9 as it exits the gameboard to the east, in an attempt to deny the panzergrenadier division passage to the German lines. Line of sight may be from anywhere on the board, but must be by a unit capable of keeping the panzergrenadier division from passing to safety. The force holding off the panzergrenadier division may not disengage if it falls under attack by Division Wiking. Orders of battle for both sides will follow the battle report. The baffle report will be written from the German players perspective. FROM THE JOURNAL OF HAUPTMAN WILHELM WITTRICH, APRIL 14,1944; At 0115 hours division staff was called together to finalize assignments. It is hard to beleive that we are once again to be thrown at the Russians with our strength so diminished, but we are up to the task. Many Germans lives depend on our ability to overcome the bolshevic hordes. Over and over we have been counted on to perform difficult tasks like this and our men have always fought with the determination that is expected of them. Our numbers are low and equipment in need of overhaul, but we fight for the Fatherland against the communist threat that would overcome the world should we allow it. Our fellow comrades and our families depend on us. Intelligence has reported that heavy patrolling by the 236th Infantry Division has provided some very useful information. It seems that the Russians have been fortifying the town of Halzagudguya, preparing to do battle there in order to hold the road. It would seem from this that they have a pretty good idea of what we are trying to accomplish. Patrols report also that the Russians, the gophers that they are, have dug in in front of hill 601. It is reported that the trench works are quite extensive, including machine gun pits, and possibly a mortar pit to the rear. Information from a flight of Junker JU52s, flying supplies to the encircled division, has indicated Russian armor on both hills, although the type and strength could not be determined. They also report that the Panzergrenadier Division is making good progress toward us. Our plan is to send a light force to move on our left flank and cover the road where it crosses the river. Their task will be to cover the road behind Halzagudguya as to not allow the Russians to reinforce the town from that direction, and deny any flanking maneuver. The combat engineers will assault Halzagodguya from the west, accompanied by the assault gun company. The remainder of our units will assault hill 602 with the idea that once taken it will provide an axis of attack on hill 601, providing a base of fire for the attack and possibly to support the panzergrenadier division. The move to hill 601 should dislodge the Russians from the trenches by maneuver, or if they remain there we can just move our artillery onto 601 and bomb them into submission. Our artillery will open the assault with a heavy bombardment of hill 602, then fire smoke onto the hill in support of our assault, moving to hill 601 when we close with the enemy on 602. We spend the next few hours concentrating at our respective jump off points. Our attack begins at 0430 hours. The combat engineers move quickly towards Halzagudguya, through the woods to the north of Sowehows (statefarm) 52. They close to the town, the halftracks pulling right up to the buildings on the west side of the town. Taking no fire the engineers clamber over the sides of the Sdkfz 251/7's and enter the buildings, finding them deserted. Major Stahler (commander of the engineer detatchment) gathers his runners to send messages to his subordinates to stay alert and quiet as he feels the Russians may be asleep in other houses. As they prepare to move, a thunderous roar erupts in the early morning air, then another and another. The Major recognizes, as do the others, the high velocity tank fire. Then blinding light flashes and a huge explosion rips through the town. From his prone position in the gutter the Major can see a large tank aflame at the south edge of town, then CRASH, and down comes the turret of a Russian KV-1 in the middle of the street. Stahler did not know at the time that the advancing Assault gun company, upon approaching the town from the south had surprised the crew of the KV-1. Trying to get the jump on the STG-III's the KV's gunner gave up their position and ripped off two quick shots. The crews of the STG's reacting quickly sent three AP projectiles hurling toward the heavy tank, the first two missing their mark but the third gaining a critical hit (snake-eyes on the to-hit dice roll) brewing the KV, sending the tanks turret high into the air, the tank spouting flame lit up the entire town, throwing demon-like, jumping shadows on the walls of the once peaceful town. Meanwhile to the south of the town, the main attack force was moving eastward toward hill 602 against light resistance. Two Russian KV-I's had opened up as the force cleared the fields southeast of Sowchows 53. One Pz.IV H was knocked out, and a Pz.IVE was hit twice before putting a hole in the KV the size of a persons head. Two of the K-V's crew were seen bailing out of the tank and heading for hill 602. The other KV that had fired on us was never seen, but backed out of the woods and also ran for the hills. My infantry company was providing close support for two platoons of tanks, one of PzIIIs, and the other of -Pz IV's. this small group also had one platoon of PzVI E's attached. In the distance we could see our objective, the sky beginning to lighten with the coming day. We heard the beginning of our artillery support, half a dozen 120mm mortars, and could see the resultant puffs of smoke and earth in the distance. The regiment's heavy company was to cover our left and move along with us as we advanced. I could hear the divisions forward artillery observer notifying our support of of our positions and where he wanted them to lay their fire. They were alternating between high explosive and smoke missions. We were now moving through the woods to the east of Sowchows 53 and the artillery observer now directed high explosive to fall squarely on the top of hill 602. At this time the PzIII zug split off to the left to move on the woods at the foot of the hill in the center. My platoon was to provide close infantry support to the PzIII's. After we cleared the woods we were to move up the hill and try to draw some troops from the southern end of the hill while the remainder of the force attacked there. Hopefully this move would allow the PzIV and VIE's to catch the Russian armor in the flank and rear. Meanwhile back in Halzagudguya, Major Stahler is quite pleased with the way things are unfolding. The Russians seem to have pulled out of the town and left it free for the taking. Unfortunately, Her Major did not recognize this to be the trap that it was. The good Major had just completed securing the town and positioning his units for the expected counterattack, most of his men were in the buildings on the north side of town, facing the Russian trenches. The trenches, only 60 metres away, could be easily observed and were in a flurry of activity. Stahler, his radioman, a squad, and one of the flamethrower teams had set up in some of the houses on the southeast side of town. Two more squads and the other flamethrower team were in across the street in a small cafe. Just as Stahler's radioman contacted Headquarters to inform them the town had been secured, all broke loose. The entire north end of town erupted in flame, smoke, and flying debris. This along with the yells and screams of his men, combined to form a scene that had become all too familiar since he had joined the Division Wiking. As Stahler exited his H.Q., he looked to the north end of town to see nothing but dust, smoke, and flame. He wondered if any of his boys had survived the massive bombing, ordering one of his runners to the area to check for survivors. Just as the runner left, out of the smoke came five men carrying three others, he watched as his runner disappeared into the smoke, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He watched and waited for others to come out of the debris, but none came. Stahlers runner reported back that he had found no men alive and that the three buildings at that end of town had been leveled. Certainly, the runner observed, there must be many more men buried in the rubble, but there were no signs of life. Stahler was visibly shaken. In less than an hour, over half his force had been wiped out. At this point an aid station was set up for the injured pioneers. Stahler then radio'ed H.Q. to appraise them of the situation and get new orders in light of the present circumstances. Headquarters reemphasized that he and what was left of his unit needed to hold the town until other units could be free'd up to reinforce his position. He was informed in no particular terms that, regardless of casualties the town needed to be held or the whole operation would be compromised. In the meantime the Russian artillery must have thought that Stahler's men had occupied the ruins at the north end of town as the Russians continued to shell the rubble. If there had been survivors of the first shelling, there weren't now. In the meantime my platoon and the PzIII's were making good time and were almost to the summit of hill 602. The going had been pretty easy, very light resistance, and the woods were fairly open, making the maneuver of the tanks very easy and without threat of becoming bogged down in the terrain. We could hear the remaining panzers off to our right, seeming to be keeping up with our pace, and firing at the enemy off and on. As we approached the summit we exited the woods into a small clearing, and there they were, about 180 Russian infantry and a four SU-76 self propelled guns. All was chaos and mayhem. The SU-76's seemed to have been lined up right on the place where we came out of the woods, and began a furious fire into our tanks and halftracks. The infantry were peeking over the sides of our sdkfz 251's, pouring a withering fire into the ranks of the Russians without respite. It seemed that the Russians never knew what hit them. They were running around with no direction or purpose, and we were shooting them down as at a circus shooting game. But soon that changed with bad results for us! Several of the Russians got enough nerve to lie on the ground as if shot dead and as a halftrack approached, would jump up and lob a hand grenade into the open area of our armored protection, many were killed and wounded in this manner. Our panzers handled the SU76's without much trouble, although they had lost two of their number in the short but frenzied firefight. They had destroyed three of the Russian vehicles, and chased the other off in a southerly direction, straight for the Tigers. They'll eat him alive, good riddance. It sounded as if our plan to catch the Russians in a manouver to the north had paid off handsomely. The Tigers and Panzer IVs arrived shortly after we finished mopping up our area, and patrolling the surrounding woods for leftovers. The commanding officer of the Tiger platoon told me that just as they reached the top of the hill they could see in the distance, several T-34/85's disappear into the forest, heading in our direction. They had just gunned the engines and come up the backside of them moving through the woods and opened up. We alerted Headquarters by radio that we were on the top of 602 and were preparing to move to the north and begin the assault on 601. Headquarters ordered us to hold our positions until they could get the mortars loaded and up to our position to support our assault on 601. In the meantime, back in the town the pioneers had gotten things pretty much under control. Though their numbers had been cut down by the artillery strike, they were holding up well under the continuous shelling. Major Stahler had gotten himself and his unit organized and were preparing to go on the offensive against the trench system. The Heavy company had reached their objective and were no longer required to cover the left flank of the group which had assaulted bill 602. Headquarters had put them under Major Stahlers command, to provide his pioneers support in their attack on the trenches. The assault gun company had moved to the tree lined road and was firing at almost point blank range into the trenches. The two StuH-105's attached to the assault guns seemed to be taking a heavy toll on the poor slobs sheltering in the trench system. As the Sturmgeschutz' poured an unrelenting fire into the trenches, Stahler moved his men out, quickly overpowering one of the Russian squads in the trenches that were closest to the town, and the buildings that held so many corpses of Stahlers unit. The fighting was tough, hand to hand combat, knives flashed, entrenching tools were the most devastating of weapons as they separated body part from host. The Russians were no slouches when it came to the cruelty of this type of combat. They were very cold, eager to kill the Germans that had laid to waste so much of Mother Russia for so many years. The Russians were exacting their toll for the injustice that the hated foe had reaped upon the innocents. Still their hatred was no match for the experience that Stahlers men had accumulated over the months of continual combat. Stahler himself held the nations Infantry Assault badge awarded with the '75' missions number under the crossed bayonet and hand grenade, and let us not forget that these men were some of Germany's best, hardest fighting men, the SS. The assault on the trench system was going well. Stahlers men fought with such ferocity that as the Russians were running down the trenches fleeing in the face of the attack and spreading their fear and terror to the other units as they went. Stahler had split his men into two sections, each working their way through the trenches in opposite directions. Moving along, tossing stick grenades into the log and dirt covered bunkers that were dug into the walls of the main system. Boy could these Russians ever move the dirt. Soon the task at hand had been completed, and the Majors men stopped for a well deserved rest in the system. they watched and fired off an occasional shot at those fleeing the trenches in the wake of the attack. By now the STG's had ceased their fire into the diggings and dispersed themselves in the trees along the road and the rubble in the north side of town where they could stilli provide support fire for the pioneers. Stahler had his radioman contact H.Q. and let them know that the trenches had been taken and that he would be waiting further orders. Back on the hill the mortars had arrived and were quickly being put into positions to provide support for the assault on hill 601. They proceeded to Jay a heavy concentration of smoke to cover our advance to hill 601. We were however spotted by two assault guns below the hill, in trees next to the trench system. As we exited the trees at the foot of hill 602, and came to a small group of farm buildings, the Russian assault guns opened up and immediately took out a 251/9 halftrack and a mark IV panzer. Our Tigers quickly opened up on their position, or what they thought was the position, but hit nothing but trees. The Tigers advanced quickly, all the while blasting the small woods where the shots had come from. But our force was in the position of being bunched into a small area that we could not escape quickly enough. Our assault group was fast becoming a tangled mob of halftracks and tanks scrambling about with no direction. We took more casualties from the Russian assault guns. One of our Tigers had been turned into a giant ball of flame, as we watched the inferno, two crew members exited the tank! Luckily for us, the commander of one of the Panzer IV platoons, which had been stationed at the rear of our assault group, wheeled his unit to the west of the farm buildings to try to avoid the jam. He managed to come into contact with Major Stahlers force of PanzerPioneers, which were only too happy to move to the suspect woods via the trench system and, should they be found, put the Russian assault guns out of commission. In the meantime we were throwing just about all we had toward the woods and were still taking casualties. On top of this I had gotten through to HQ and requested artillery bombardment on the woods. We had however managed to sort ourselves out and begin moving once more on Hill 601. We had also lost sight of the Tigers as they had moved on up the hill [6011 and disappeared into the wooded area close to the summit. We were quickly approaching these woods ourselves when we heard a deafening explosion come from the woods hiding the units that had exacted such a toll on us in the middle of our assault. I looked back toward that area to see flames shooting skyward... Major Stahler and his men had been enjoying a brief, well deserved respite in the trenches, when four panzer IV's approached. The zug commander exited one of the tanks and jumped into the trench next to the Major. It seemed that the assault on the second hill was in danger of faltering and they needed the help of the engineers. The tanker informed Stahler of the situation that they had run up against, adding the request that the engineers move into the woods and root out and destroy the Russian threat. This was all the motivation needed for the pioneers, they jumped at the chance to make the bolshevic ubermench pay for their crimes against their comrades that had been left behind in the rubble of the town buildings. Major Stahler and about ten men left the trench and moved into the woods that held the suspected threat. Moving slowly through the heavily wooded area, listening more than looking, they came upon a small track that appeared to have tank tread markings. Following the track deeper into the woods they could bear in the distance the crackling of a radio. moving ever so cautiously forward, they finally got to a position in which they could see two SU100 assault guns, one of the deadliest weapons in the Russian arsenal. Pausing for a moment to look for any infantry that might be about and assuring himself that the guns were the only enemy force about, Stahler picked four men to plant two satchel charges on the back of each vehicle. The four men stealthly approached the huge, deadly, armored monsters. So far so good, no enemy in sight and the crews of the Russian guns were too busy pounding our tanks and halftracks to their front that the two gun commanders sitting in the cupola's of their vehicles never saw the pioneers approach. But just as the four were headed back to the safety of the trees, something made one of the commanders turn and be saw the men running away. To his distress there was nothing he could do but drop down into the superstructure and button up. As he did this his counterpart noticed the disappearance of his buddy and himself dropped into the safety of the fighting compartment and was swinging his hatch shut just as the four charges detonated. the explosion was spectacular, as hot metal flew in all directions. Stahler's men made themselves part of the ground to avoid the shrapnel of the two assault guns. Their job done, they made their way back to the trench system where the remainder of their unit had been ransacking the bunkers, delighting in the large supply of vodka, wine, and other delectable treats that had been all to far and few between in recent days. Back on the hill the resistance had been stiff. Our halftracks had finally caught up with the Tigers and they were taking shots from two T-34/Cs. The behemoths seemed to laugh as the shots bounced off the front of their turrets and glacis plates. Our panzer IV's maneuvered themselves around through the woods to give themselves side shots on the T34's. We remained in our infantry halftracks, some of which moved with the panzer IV's and some stayed behind the Tigers, using them as cover. Suddenly the infantry and panzer IV's that had been sneaking around in the forest were attacked by Russian infantry and tanks, which included a number of T-34/85's. A heavy engagement followed, all at very close quarters. It was reminiscent of the tank battle at Prokhorovka . . ferocity and range of the battle. Their were about thirty tanks and fifteen halftracks, along with trucks, kublewagons, gaz-b's, jeeps], and about two hundred and fifty infantry running about and shooting each other at point blank range. At one point I had turned to shout orders at some of my men, when I turned back I was face to face with a Russian captain. Before either of us had the opportunity to raise our weapon and fire a shot, an explosion blew me backwards through the air, blinding and deafening me all at once. I gained my footing just in time to fall flat on my face unconscious. Slowly regaining my senses, I found myself surrounded by my men, yelling in my face but still unable to bear. My eyesight was fuzzy and my hearing seemed as if someone was holding cans over my ears. I later found out that the Russian captain had been hit by a round of Russian artillery that had been called in on our position. Needless to say there were many casualties caused on both sides by this bombardment. My men proceeded to tell me that as the bombing began to increase, both sides fell back in disorder, the Russians having caught the worst of the fight thanks to our tanks hanging in there, after they had driven off the enemy armor, and machine gunning the enemy infantry as they ran from the field. It goes without saying that neither side took any prisoners. As for the panzergrenadier division, they were streaming down the road to the safety of friendly lines as I write. Again we had been called upon to perform a near impossible task, a task which demanded the commitment of a force far exceeding the numbers that were available to us. But, as in our history and also our future, we would prove worthy of the cuffband worn with pride on the left arm of our dress uniforms. T-I-G-E-R! Order of Battle T-I-G-E-R! Maps (very slow: 317K) Back to MWAN #99 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum 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