This rather large game was played by PBEM with my Chicago based friend John.L over a period of 10 months ! It requires a Romanian set up designed to halt a large Soviet force across a two board frontage. Despite my dislike of doing so, the size of frontage forced my hand to a very thinned out Romanian line, but with deployment focused on keeping the Soviets 'slow' in the mud. Also, the Romanian left was practically ignored as German forces instantly enter this area. This is how the battle went.

Romanian forces from the 7th Infantry Division had been placed in front of the path that the Soviet 3rd and 16th Tank Corps were grinding forward along. It was a large front to protect, so Romanian lines had to be strung out thinly, but placed in locations that would most hamper the oncoming Stalinists. They were also dependent on the German reinforcements on their way from the west to strengthen the line and help combat the massive Soviet numbers. At 1100 hours The Germans began to arrive and they placed themselves immediately ahead of the Russian 3rd Tank Corps.(Soviet Right flank). These German forces spent the opening of the battle trying to deploy a defensive line along the east-west road. Other Soviets forces in the centre and on the left flank slowly move from the north toward the thin crust of Romanian lines. Axis OBA begins to hit the Soviet right (west) flank causing some confusion as a platoon becomes casualties and the Lt.Col of the regiment dies. By 1130 (turn.3), Soviet logistics have failed to bring all their forces onto the battlefield.

The Russian right continues to enter the field. More Soviet units become demoralised from Romanian rifle fire and enemy T34’s in the marshy area on their right flank pull back from aggressive Romanian infantry moves. With this, the German Panthers rush forward to attack the retiring T34’s before they have time to re-settle. The aggressive German tank attack, plus some infantry inflict heavy losses on the Russian tanks on the west flank (7 steps). Soviet OBA cuts one German infantry platoon to ribbons that was attacking the T34’s. Meanwhile the Russian centre begins to enter the battlefield. By 1145 hours, the Russians have entered all along the front.

Turn.4: 1145 hours.. Soviet infantry on the west flank are in a mess as German OBA opens up on them as well as the first German firing line. The attacking Soviets densely pack together making themselves tasty targets. Meanwhile on the east flank and centre, the Soviets continue to advance towards Romanian lines unmolested and as well as closing the gap they force the defending line to stretch. Turn 5: 1200 hours. Soviet tanks take yet more of a battering. On the west flank the marshes are cleared as are the remaining 2 T34 platoons already under infantry attack. German OBA bombardment causes heavy casualties on Soviet Infantry. In reply, Soviet OBA hits a Rom platoon eliminating half of it. All of the Soviet troops get to move forward whilst the Romanians retire slightly and set up a new battle line to stand in way of this advance. Turn 6. 1215 hours. On the west flank, the Soviet wing here is slowly being taken apart, suffering more casualties as counter-attacking German tanks blast away more T34’s that were making an attempt to break through. The supporting infantry here were also becoming DIS & DEM as casualties are taken from German infantry fire. In the centre, the Soviet infantry & armour both make surges forward. The armour breaks through but is counter-attacked by Romanian infantry via close-assaults. The Soviet infantry units concentrate on the Romanian line and are now engaged in close fighting. The east flank sees little action as both forces stand off.

Turn 7: 1230 hours. The Soviets managed to get practically all their troops on the move around this time. They also inflicted losses on Romanian infantry their tanks entered assaults in the centre attempting to break through. On the east flank, the Reds make a move and close in on the Romanian line bravely withstanding most of the enemy fire in the process. On the fast decimating west flank all the Russians can do is to try and repair it and hold as many German forces interest in this location as possible. In offensive terms, it is already rendered impotent. Turn 8: 1245 hours: Over on the east flank, a bombardment and point blank MG fire curtails the Soviet advance here. Romanian troops left adjacent pull back 200 yards to retain a gap for fire lanes. The Soviet tanks in the centre become very aggressive, attacking Romanian positions and making a break through the fractured defensive lines. In response, a platoon of Panther tanks shift up toward these to attack this breakthrough. Turn 9: 1300 hours. The Panthers’ cut through 2 x T34 platoons that were making a break through the centre effectively ending their battle. The remaining Romanian Infantry engage them to hold them back and eat time. German artillery and Romanian troops continue their best efforts to DIS & DEM the advance on the east flank. This was partly successful, but still not enough to hold it up completely. On the west flank, a surprise T34/85 attack on German armour takes out part of PzIV platoon.

Turn 10 – 1315 hours. The Soviets really begin to hit back On their right (west facing the Germans) flank, they show more resistance by hanging on when needed. On their left flank, they become aggressive towards the defending line in an effort to push forward faster and inflict a number of casualties. The Romanian position here looks to be wavering. Turn 11 – 1330 hours. The Soviet pressure continues. Again, despite looking down and out 30 minutes ago, they inflict numerous casualties against the Romanians on their east flank causing concern for the Axis as to its ability to hold out much longer. Also, despite losing the most casualties that they had of any turn so far, they still continued to pressure the axis right flank. Turn 12- 1345 hours. Starts off better for the Axis as they remove some of the more obstinate Soviets in the opening exchanges. Also, the general tome of the battle is going more the Axis way than did the previous half hour. Casualties had been heavy to both sides as half way was reached. The Axis had lost 13 ROM steps of foot and 2 German, plus 1 step of AFV’s. The Soviets had so far suffered 20 steps of foot losses, 3 APC steps and no less than 23 x T34 steps.

From 1400-1500 hours (Turns 13-16) – The Soviets spend their time trying to force any troops that are able, through gaps in the Axis line. These amount to nothing more than fugitive type numbers including an APC and two infantry platoons. They also continue the mission of destroying the Romanian right (east) flank to make a breach. By turn 1430 hours a break in the Romanian line is achieved. Many Romanian defenders are either destroyed or demoralised leaving just a few of their number in the farmland to fire at the Soviets. But the Soviets have very few good order troops here themselves and time is dwindling fast. This effectively ends any push the Soviets might bother to make. Also, to their right flank are a bank of Romanian MG units in farmland waiting for the moment to open up on the Soviets moving in the open. The 16th Tank Corps effort has been futile.

Despite the seeming futility of it all, the Soviet commander insisted that efforts are still made and from 1515-1630 hours (turns 17-22), the communist forces are made to continue their advance. The whole point of this appearing to allow Soviet artillery and those engaged in close assaults to attempt to merely to inflict more damage on the defenders. This did occur, albeit the Soviets lost even more than they inflicted. One T34 platoon miraculously survived 8 salvoes of shots from a panther unit during this period, and would escape being counted in the huge AFV losses suffered by the Red attackers.

The Soviet attack had achieved the one objective of inflicting - steps on the Axis forces, but had failed at securing a north-south road, had lost too many casualties and just one lone M3 platoon had got through the enemy lines when so many more were needed. The victory was to the Axis, but considered a minor one. Total step-losses per category in this battle amounted to the following - Soviet = 28 FOOT, 4 Officer, 25 AFV, 2 GUN, 3 APC: Germo-Romanian = 21 FOOT, 2 Officer, 1 AFV.

This was a great scenario as far as my experience was concerned. It sets a lot of objectives and options in each play of this scenario are certainly numerous. I expect results will vary throughout plays and I look forward to reading other peoples plays beyond this one. I'm giving this a '5' as playing a hard pressed Romanian line always looking ready to snap but not doing so until victory seemed assured will certainly stay memorable for me.