Pleased by the results of Uncher’s unauthorized attack, garrison commander Read Admiral Gavriil Zhukov not only forgave Uncher, but ordered a larger repeat just to the north. Zhokov provided some artillery support, including the huge guns of Fort Maxim Gorkiy. The battery commander and kommissar cautioned Zhukov that the big guns were being overworked, but they could not pass up the chance to smash more fascists. Col. Vladimir L. Vishansky’s 8th Marine Brigade, newly arrived from Novorossisk, would have the very heavy artillery’s aid.

“Suddenly and silently,” Cpl. Gottlob Bidermann of the 437th Infantry Regiment wrote later, “from out of the darkness, poured waves of enemy soldiers. Elite troops of the Soviet Naval Infantry . . . assaulted our positions from the thick underbrush before Mazenziya, pouring toward us in dark waves.”

May use counters and maps from East Front Deluxe.