The Germans deployed in three Sturmgruppen along the woods, and gave the Soviets some difficulty in getting out of the open. The Russian left collapsed under machine gun and artillery fire, and the German infantry rushed out of the small woods to mop up the demoralized and disrupted survivors. On the German left, another Sturmgruppe kept the Russians who had reached the woods under continuous observation and thus artillery/mortar fire.

Because I had foolishly left no infantry to cover the town, the Russians did manage to get some tanks into it, but one tank platoon was demoralized. The Germans who had started in the center had pulled away from the Russians (who were massing in the large woods) and were a mere turn from getting back to the task of clearing the tanks from the town. However, the Russians had no one left on their left flank to observe these German movements. The Russian commander conceded when Russian tanks let the German left flank infantry get into an assault and lost two more AFV steps.

Had the Russians concentrated initially against any one of the three groups, they probably could have destroyed the Germans in detail. The Germans can almost always fend off equal numbers of Russians. It's the human/steel wave that usually flattens the Germans.

The Germans had an excellent leader draw going into this scenario, and leadership made all the difference. I was afraid of the Soviet airplanes, but was able to disperse my mortars throughout the town and still have them fire all at once with a 2 firepower leader. Putting another 2 firepower leader with an HMG allowed for some excellent long range shots at the oncoming Soviets.