Crossing at Alytus depicts the German 7th Panzer advance to and over the Neiman River near Alytus. Within the district is the Soviet 5th Tank Division standing in the way of the German steamroller. As Vince has already stated in his AAR, The scenario description and conclusion read as an interesting game to play and seeing multiple AARs showing high ratings, Vince and I decided to give it a go. It may be that the scenario is winnable by the Soviet Union, and to the single victor I congratulate you, but I must apparently still have a lot to learn about PG tactics and setup because there is no way that I could see a Soviet victory in this scenario without a blundering German commander (which Herr Hughes certainly is not) and a skillful Soviet Commander (which, apparently, I certainly am not). In reading the victory conditions, I needed to inflict half as many step losses as the Germans inflicted and if I was able to avoid taking casualties or immediately inflict casualties, I could stand a chance. Also, seeing that there was a visibility factor coming into play later in the scenario that would eliminate the Luftwaffe and the range of the German tanks, I pondered a long time about the setup. I went between setting up an aggressive forward force in the woods facing the bridge or playing more conservative and hanging around Alytus. I ended up doing the latter. I placed the hidden AT units in the wheat fields to the south and west of Alytus and arrayed my armored units in a small semi-circle between the woods on board 5 and the wheat fields to the east. My 82mm mortars were placed on the hill with a Lt 800 so that spotting could be accomplished to the bridge for OBA shots (with my mighty 8-factor OBA!). Finally, my infantry was dug in around and in Alytus with transports and armored car platoons.

I will not go into minute detail here as it is the victors who write the history. The Germans moved over the bridge with their Pz38t units leading along with infantry units and minor leaders probing to find hidden AT positions. Trucks of Infantry and engineers followed behind and headed for the small clump of woods southwest of Alytus. The Soviet Tanks watched the Germans approach and attempted to get into a position to defend but were to find that the German guns outranged them by double. I then proceeded to try and move units so that the lines of site were blocked or I had range where the strength was halved but was to lose several more tanks before I could move them out of harm’s way and into the wheat fields. As stated in the German AAR, the infantry was initially intimidated by the Luftwaffe as they had tried to start maneuver out but aerial attacks were accurate and forced them to keep their heads low. My scant OBA and meager Mortar fire were able to disrupt an infantry unit or two but did play a major part.

There was one point in the battle where there was hope for the Soviet troops and that was when a German truck platoon carrying the commanding officer and a platoon of infantry and Engineers got overzealous and drove within a long range shot of two T-26 units. Both fires ended up missing but Herr Hughes admitted that it would have been a severe blow had the T-26s found their mark. They paid for those shots later when they were destroyed by the Pz38s. Our first session ended as the Germans built a 12-0 casualty ratio by eliminating both 82mm (Luftwaffe attacks) and 5 actual steps of T-26s (10 victory step losses).

I decided to move my infantry out to support the armor in our second session and began to move the entire division towards the clump of woods to try and divert some of the pressure on the tankers and to get some step losses back. However, the best LT on the Soviet side went down with a platoon of infantry in the face of brutally efficient German HMG fire and the rest of the division began to try and move around the northern part of the woods to get around and make the German move the dug in units but the Luftwaffe had a field day and the German tanks continued to roll, leaving most of the T-26s as burning hulks. I was able to avoid a shutout by a single AT shot from a gun in the wheat fields that forced a step loss and rout of a Pz38t platoon. The Germans asked if I wanted to continue and I did for a few more turns as I tried to do anything that would even budge the Germans a little but after a few more turns, it felt like I was hitting my head against a wall and called it there.

As stated in the intro, I definitely have a lot more to learn about this game and how seemingly small factors in the game can magnify the supremacy or deficiency of one side or the other. Herr Hughes gave some possible tactical advice about ways a Soviet Commander could possibly win the scenario and they may work but I find that there are many factors working against the Soviet even with the tactical advice:

1. T-26 vs. Pz38t - Looking at the counters initially, It seemingly looked balanced as the Soviet has an AT factor of 3 while the German is only a 2, but the armor of the Pz38 is 3 where the T-26 is 2. This is deceptive because the Pz28ts move twice as fast as the T-26s (in the open). Moving at the incredible speed of an HMG unit, the T26 has almost no chance of out-maneuvering the Pz38s. Also, the Pz 38 has a range of 7 (telescoped out to 11 for long range) compared to a range of 4 for the T26 (6 long range). Add in the efficiency and that means that the Germans can move into a position that is one hex out of long range for the Soviet (or even in long range) and with a stack of 3 tanks, get 6 shots at 9 or 10, depending on the modifier circumstance. The AT Units may tip the balance a little but even then, long range is 8 and these are immobile. Adding in Infantry support could possibly alleviate some of the discrepancy here but combined with #3 and #4 below, it still makes for a bad situation.

2. Luftwaffe attacks - acts as OBA each turn until 2000 hours when they are grounded. Worst case scenario for air factor draw: 15, Best case scenario:44. Yes it is direct fire instead of OBA but it still outmatches the Soviet OBA of 8 and ANY unit is a valid target for fire, not only spotted units.

3. Morale level - not much that can be done about this one. It is the Early Eastern Front and the Russians were still in shock that they were being attacked so I can't do much about this one. I also can't mount any type of adequate attack as they fall apart when it starts to rain.

4. Initiative Level - Germans 4 - Soviets 2. Again, probably very accurate historically but combined with the T26 vs Pz38 entry and the morale level difference, it eliminates almost any chance of sustaining a decent attack when first move is almost always going to the Germans.

All of this being said, I rated this scenario a 2 but I don't know if that is for all these reasons or because I simply don't have the experience under my belt to take these situations and turn them into winning situations. It is most probable that I played this one wrong and could have pulled out some sort of victory or made it close.