This battle was played face to face with Wayne Baumber. As part of our New Year, we decided that from now on, we would go back to 'roots' PG and randomly select 3 scenarios to play from the book that we had not yet touched. Chosen by rolling percentile dice, this tank battle was the first one of the three to be selected as such

As German units entered the burning outskirts of Mtsensk, on the road to Tula, south of Moscow, Marshal Zhukov once again committed Katukov’s tank brigade.to drive the Germans back. Again, 4th Panzer division fell victim and again the T34 demonstrated its superiority. At Guderian’s urging, a commission came to investigate the tank.

The battle that prompted this was one fought where the Russian Steppe was little more than a mud slop. The German PzIV’s & PzIII’s were forced to stay on the road and in Mtsensk itself as off-road movement would just see them get bogged down and then picked off with ease.

The Soviet attack commenced about 1000 hours and just after 1100 the Soviet T34’s came into the range of the PzIV’s lined on the western outskirts of the town. A good salvo from the Germans knocked out 4 of the enemy vehicles but to the Germans surprise, deterred the enemy not. The Russians then returned fire, with their effort being as good as the Germans, and likewise, 4 German PzIV vehicles were brewed. Unlike the Soviets, this quite demoralized the German defenders and their fire cohesion petered out ending any effective defense on the west side of Mtsensk. This allowed the Soviets to close in on the target town unharmed any further.

To the south of the town, yet more T34’s were closing in on an area defended by nothing more than PzIII’s. The Germans here had to slowly give ground, especially as the Soviet fire was proving to be horribly accurate and knocking out quite a number of the German tanks. Street by street, the German tanks retired, but were gradually running out of room to retire further.

The battle slowly degenerated into a tank v tank melee within the town, with a couple of platoons of German infantry holding up the dreaded KV1’s. Over the course of 3 hours, the T34’s slowly wittled and grinded away at the enemy within the town, knocking out most of the enemy tanks there. In this reign of terror, eight German tanks made a bid to escape over the open ground northwards, but bogged down in the mud, they were eventually and easily picked off by the excellent Soviet guns.

Though the battle lasted four and a half hours, it had been a depressing and convincing defeat for the invaders and it was no wonder Guderian ordered the commission to investigate the T34 and see what the Germans could take from it. There had been little option but to hold the town, but the poor early German gunnery matched by good Soviet fire tactics and movement won the day for the Reds.

In all, 36 German tanks (18 steps) were pulped for the loss of just 10 Soviet beasts (5 steps). A complete wipe out !

Despite the massacre here and in previous results, this is actually one that I believe the Germans CAN actually get a minor victory on occassions. With a bit of luck swinging their way with the shooting (the PzIV's have to pick up this mantle) and the Soviets performing less than par, the Germans CAN get more than 4 units to survive and knock out the requisite Soviet units. I gave this a 3. It is a scenario that gets the brain cells working, has variable entry points and will test German tank commanders. I'm just glad I lasted 18 turns as opposed to just 6 that the writer did of the previous AAR