When I saw that PG was doing a Kursk oriented game back in the now forgotten past, I immediately ordered it. While my order was not as old as Jay's it certainly was pretty darn old by the time the South Flank game arrived. I had in mind a certain type of scenario, involving a lot of units, heavy fixed defenses, lots of AT guns and plenty of perceived explosions. My initial plays of the smaller scenarios in the game were filled with plenty of odd units, fixed defenses, etc. but no real barn burners of scenarios. They were real situations and they happened during Citadel but they weren't "KURSK" as I saw it in my mind's eye. I therefore determined to work my way through some of the bigger scenarios to see what I wasn't in the smaller ones. As you can see, I gave this one a "5" meaning that I found what I was looking for.

In the onset of the Citadel offensive the 1st SS Panzergrenadier division must breach two sets of Soviet defenses, take Bykovka and importantly, the surrounding hills and march beyond to maintain the attack's timetable and they must avoid severe losses in order to have sufficient strength for the next stage of the offensive. The Soviets are loaded up with minefields and entrenchments and a boatload of AT capability. The SS advances with a preponderance of infantry and HMGs, massive OBA and five Tiger platoons. There is a single north south road which will of necessity form the axis of advance as the field is muddy enough to greatly inhibit off road movement of vehicles but not infantry.

The Soviets establish a line through the village near the entry area, a second line at the bottleneck of fields and woods behind that town and a final line at Bykovka and the hills surounding it. The Germans need to secure the entry board town as failure to do so will constitute a missing victory condition. As a result this town is heavily assaulted, and the resulting losses and demoralizations drain some of the force of the German thrust. Still, there is plenty available for overwhelming the Soviet second line. Several of the entrenchments, however, hold on as the Germans do not immediately cause significant losses and the Soviet leadership in Kursk is quite improved, many of the leaders having morale modifiers and two (a Major and a Captain) had "2" morale modifiers leading to extended battles for the entrenchments.

The Germans did not feel that they could ignore these fixed positions in the second line as permitting them to recover could result in a loss of control of the entry town at some point late in the game so substantial pinning forces needed to remain in place. At the same time, the resistance at these locations permitted the rest of the Soviet force to retire from the second line and bolster the defenses of the hills on the third line.

As the German advance became disorganized from contact with the Soviets they became strung out along the road and the troopers were targeted with Soviet artillery which caused numerous disruptions and demoralizations making travel up the road tedious for good order units and treacherous for those units which failed morale checks. Losses to the Germans were moderate with the exception of the StGs which took two step losses from AT fire.

The German approach to Bykovka was therefore a mere shadow of the force which entered the board, while still potent the force of necessity built up over the course of several turns and relied heavily on the Tiger tanks to open up the defense. In the course of the action it became apparent early on that control of the hills would be beyond the capability of the Germans and that to have a "win" the Germans would have to avoid losses and exit units. The only way to exit the units would be to push through Bykovka and clear the road to the north permitting the Tigers and some accompanying infantry to exit. Reduction of the hills would have to fall to the following units many of whom were now recovering in the wake of the attack or finishing off their battles witht he second line entrenchments.

The German assault of Bykovka was a grinding affair but one which had no real chance of failure. The real effort required was to clear the road beyond. This was accomplished by the supporting infantry and StGs who pierced the third line to the east of Bykovka and swung around to take the road. At the beginning of the final turn, the road was not clear and assaults of two units and a leader in two circumstances were required to clear the road for the subsequent exit of four Tiger platoons. If I had used three units to assault, even if successful, the stack would have blocked the road and prevented the Tigers' exit.

So the SS accomplished three of their four victory conditions, having abdicated on the hill control mission. The final two accomplished (low losses and exiting units) were only acheived on the final turn (they lost 22 steps in total, not sufficiently below the 25 to feel comfortable and exiting 36 step values (Tigers count 3!) from the board on the final turn), for a minor victory.

The title of this AAR is an homage to Alan Sawyer whose play of the scenario during the July 4th holiday provided him with an appropriate soundtrack. Hats off for that!!