This was to be my first skype battle with Joshua Gottesman. Josh chose a very good looking scenario in this one, and after the usual emails sending set-ups and leader draws, we were ready to go on the pre-arranged evening.

Hill 256 near Kalmu had taken on an importance to both sides far in excess of its true value after both Soviet and German armies had left so many dead upon its slopes over the preceding days. On the 4th May 1944, Grossdeutschland Division committed its Engineers to the task of capturing its heights once more.

The hill was manned by Soviet guard infantry from the 93rd Guards Rifle Division. These were supported by a battery of AT guns, 76mm artillery and a platoon of mortars. They had dug-in on the heights of the south-face, (the expected advance line of the Germans) with troops fanning back facing both east and west and their artillery and mortars posted further back on the woody slopes of the northern heights. The Germans, seeing this decided that an approach on the south face would be costly and probably doomed against an elite enemy. They therefore planned to flank the enemy by going fast past the east face, then turn inwards to attack the undefended north face. Of course, this would give the enemy time to shift troops there, but it would turn his dug-in locations and in theory give the Germans a better chance when attacking, hopefully grabbing the heights from the enemy. They also planned to use their OBA to bombard enemy AT guns, neutralize them and allow their half-tracks (hanomags) to close in to assist the engineers.

At 0800 hours, the GD Engineer battalion set off north along the east face of hill 256, staying out of range of the Soviet Guardsmen. OBA almost took out the Russian AT guns on their opening bombardment, but these gunners managed to hang on in there and stay with their guns. The first 45 minutes of battle was all about the outflanking by the German attackers and both sides throwing artillery bombardments at each other. Just before 0900 hours, some German troops, along with an observer had closed in on part of the east face, and just here they managed to remove an enemy SMG platoon via bombardment and small arms fire. The Russians responded by inflicting losses of 1 step on the engineers.

By 0915 hours, the Germans were very slowly closing in on the north-east face. But casualties had been taken doing this (another platoon), and the Germans began using a fire line to try and wear down the defenders. This was made up of 2 x HMG platoons and supporting rifle fire. With the defenders uphill 600 yards away and dug-in in places, the fire groups were finding it hard to inflict much damage. However, when a small crack appeared at one point, the German Major himself led in one platoon to tie this enemy down. The idea being that this would allow the rest of the battalion to advance at lesser risk. It was this assault, that although not known at the time, was to prove pivotal in the final putcome. The Russians reinforced this melee, and despite their advantage, the German Major bravely led his men on, causing more damage on the numerous foe by disrupting and demoralizing them.

0845 hours (Turn 8), and German artillery once more rained down on the AT positions. Finally, a direct hit was scored and the Russian AT guns were no more! Other troops with the guns became shaken, and this event was to spark the advance of the German half-tracks into the fray. Meanwhile, the Soviets ordered the demoralized platoon out of the assault hex in the north-east corner of the heights and this unit joined two platoons nearby waiting to enter the assault. Seeing this, the German Major requested a fire module from the mortars to fire on this packed area of ground. The effect was devastating. The density of troops here caused the shells to inflict more damage than they would, and with the loss of men also came the loss of morale cohesion. Suddenly,in a 15 minute window, the battle was falling apart for the defenders.

The next half-hour only allowed the Germans to extend their advantages, including inflicting more losses. The German engineers were closed in on point blank range to fire on disrupted and demoralized Soviets, and their supporting Hanomags were ready to lend their HMG’s to spread more carnage too. At this point, Soviet command decided the battle would be lost and ordered withdrawal.

What had appeared for 7 turns a rather difficult nut to crack, if indeed it even would have at all, was completely undone by the loss of the AT gun and then, a merciless pummeling of a defending three stack by artillery. On both occasions, key casualties were taken and morale status suffered, leaving the defenders in a suddenly precarious position. For German reports, we will say it was a victory borne of patience and a faith in the ultimate success of their own methods :-)

Game was called at the end of turn 10 of 12. German Minor Victory.

It was great to get a game going with Joshua after seeing his name on CSW so many times, and his character led to a good fun game throughout. I know Josh was of the opinion that German attacks did not come fast and hard enough, but PG, unlike some WW2 games, rarely lends itself to last turn charge scenarios and is about doing the job in a usually decent time allocation. For me, I think I took the requisite time to advance as was needed for this particular job. Other times of course, things might be different, but I was happy with the overall effect, if indeed the situation was very close throughout the game and did have me thinking from turn 5 to turn 7 that I was going to be on the end of a defeat. I gave the scenario a 4 as I think it could be played many times with differing outcome and incidents of interest ... Good scenario !