Daugavpils : 30th June 1941

Scenario played : Friday 31st May 2008

The Red Army had been forced to rush many reserves to the front as the Wehrmacht swept forward in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa. At Daugavpils in Lithuania, the 42nd Tank Division had been hastily cobbled together to strike at the German forces located there. General Lelyushenko would be commanding the attack with the mission of either capturing the town of Daugavpils, or clearing its main exit road of invading forces.

One part of the German position was covered by the 3rd Motorized Division. Their front contained the Town of Daugavpils at the South end of their lines. Positioned in forest ahead of this was the main body of their troops including AT guns and a platoon of StgIIIB’s. On the Southern extremity were 3 platoons of infantry. In the far North, the flank was likewise covered by 3 platoons of infantry as well as infantry and hardware scattered further along the line.

At 0900 hours, the Soviet 42nd Tank Division came forward, ushered in by a quick preemptory air-strike. Both sides exchanged some long range artillery fire but with little effect. The Russian Commander decided to attack the weaker part of the line in the South and sent the whole force in that direction. This would mean they would probably need to punch through the infantry positions there and also penetrate deep into the forest in order to swing round toward Daugavpils. The Germans reacted by shifting troops in the North Southwards.

For the first half hour, the Soviets edged forward, not causing much effect on their enemy, but certainly looking threatening as 7 platoons of BT-7’s led the attack. Despite this, the German fire was inflicting some casualties on the advancing infantry. Nonetheless, the Soviet 42nd Tank Division began to envelop the Forest in the North. The fighting there then began to intensify as both sides laid down heavy fire mixed with close quarters combat plus useful overhead cover from Soviet air force planes

During this melee, some BT-7’s were knocked out by the German infantry. By 1015, the Soviets began to shift the weight of this attack on the forest from its North end to the more Southern extremity. Once more, the Germans had set up a defensive line, and once again, the fighting had become very intense. By 1100 hrs, casualties were beginning to mount for both sides. The Germans had certainly lost at least 130 soldiers as well as an AT gun platoon as they found there resources being stretched, whilst the Soviets were nearing 350 infantrymen lost, 3 tanks and some ordnance in the form of a 76mm gun battery and a mortar platoon. On top of this, both sides had disrupted and demoralized elements to try and rally.

From 1100 to midday, the fighting raged round this large forest area. In the confusion, Soviet tanks became detached from their infantry support and began to get picked off by the German infantry making full use of their cover in the forest. Soviet infantry too took many casualties, not affecting a breakthrough, but slowly pushing back the German line. After more than an hour of this intense battle, German infantry casualties reached a total of some 200 men. On the other side, approx 16 destroyed Soviet BT-7 tanks littered the woods and 600 or more of their infantry.

Despite these losses, both sides geared themselves for more. After all, the Germans still held both the road and Daugavpils, whilst the Russians had enough strength for one more push. At 1.00pm, as Soviet aircraft, though not as effective has hoped continued to seek prey on the battlefield, a German artillery barrage at the forest cost the Soviets dearly. With another surge developing, their battlefield commander became one of the many killed to the long range artillery attacks. With their command decapitated and nobody to take the lead, it was time for the Red Army to finally call an end to the assault and make their way back to their start lines.

Daugavpils had been held by the Wehrmacht in a torrid four hour confrontation between the two forces. The Soviets would have to go back and rethink their policies of assault.

A excellent scenario and well worth another play. Although I lost as the the Russian's it could and should have been a Soviet victory. I was far to wary of his single Stug and should have swarmed him with my BT7's. The Russian's air power did very little I seem to recall and Vince played with his normal skill.

Once all the soviet's units were on board, I made the mistake of trying to get the artillery into the woods along with the infantry. The woods became crowded and crowds make easy targets for artillery. The infantry had to be used to defend the artillery and the tanks were left on their own. The Soviet leadership shot all the surviving officers of this fiasco including the author.

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.

This was a deceptive scenario. It appeared to be a very tough challenge for the Soviets, attacking an equal or superior infantry force defending a line of woods and a town. The Soviets had two companies of light tanks to help, but I didn't expect them to make much headway.

In play, the Soviets really only suffered light casualties as they closed with the German defenses, and were very successful at infiltrating around the flanks. The German front lines pulled back to the town to avoid being surrounded by the Soviet infantry and the pack of light tanks. By playing defensively, the Germans conceded victory to the Soviets who cleared most of the Germans east of the north-south road.

Had I played the Germans more aggressively, they might have avoided the loss, but they were having trouble eliminating the units encircling them, who in turn kept shrugging off disruption and demoralization to keep the pressure on.

It could of been such a great raid on German positions until Stavka got involved. The Soviet counterattack came from the north, through the woods, and slowly crept down the map with the "liberated" Bt-7s leading the way. Suddenly, at 09:15/turn 2, there is a change of orders and one Soviet LT along with 6 infantry and 2 HMG steps are sent elsewhere as reinforcements due to a random event. Despite this very early set-back the attack continues. Some tanks emerge from the woods and soon get a lucky shot at the dug-in StugIIIB east of the road, reducing it. Then Soviet INF and HMG units begin to mass and prepare to emerge from the woods. Predictably the Bt-7s begin to take a few losses from the combination of the reduced StugIII and 37mm AT guns.

At 11:15/turn 10, the Soviets recieve another change of orders and again, another LT and 8 more steps are sent off-map as reinforcements. This leaves just the remaining Bt-7s and a handful of foot units left to attempt to carry out an attack. Soviet air support tries to help the situation and manages to eliminate a few 37mm AT guns and mortar units but it is not enough. Instead the Germans mount the only real counterattack and send INF from the town into the woods to overrun Soviet armor. The Germans take a few INF step losses but are able to chase the remaining Soviet units, pushing them back up north from where they arrived. By 17:00/turn 33, there are no Soviet leaders or units left except for a few trucks. None of the German geographical objectives were ever seriously threatened.

So it is hard to rate this one because I chose to use random events and this was the first time that the "send reinforcemants elsewhere" ever came up as a result and twice! I still enjoyed playing this one out though the outcome was very predictable. I still give it a "3". I think one of the worst things for the Soviets was that they actually started off with some very good leaders for a change; a 9-1-1 Major, a 10-1-1 Captain and a 9-0-1 Lieutenant. The Kommissar also had a 10 rating. The irony was that they didn't have much left to command with the two early and abrupt changes in orders. I do like using random events when playing solo though. This was the first time that one came up in an 'Eastern Front' game. Now having gone through this one once solo I would be interested to see how it would turn out in shared match without using the random events, playing either side. If the Soviets were able to stay alive for 33 out of 44 turns, minus the two leaders and 16 steps from the intial deployment then they would probably of had a decent chance at a win. The only way to find that out is to play this one again sometime.

I pulled the plug quickly on this one. With no covering terrain the Reds are at the mercy of the Germans tucked in the forest. The Soviets rolled on to the board in the upper right corner, parking most of their tanks within range of German infantry, and gradually moving up a portion of the rest. Alas, the German OBA didn't take long to sway things significantly to the Wehrmacht's advantage.

I think it could be a good scenario with more changes than I got from the supplemental scenario document I've been using. Perhaps a constrant that the Germans may not set up east of the north-south road. It was valuable for this reason - I'm going to keep in mind making more adjustments to the scenarios in advance to try to set up an engaging and fair contest.