Introduction

This is the classic battle of Barbarossa. Having played many games of PanzerGruppe Guderien, I felt I was familiar with the battle, but once again PzGr surprises. This was quite a different view of the battle, and while the outcome was essentially the same---German victory---the experience of it was quite different.

The Plans

For the Germans, the objective is a suburb of Smolensk and a key bridge beyond it on the road to Moscow. Time is short and defenders are relatively plentiful, but the 29th Motorized has superior mobility and the support of Sturmgeschützen. The Soviets have enough infantry and enough Anti-Tank guns, but no mobility to speak of. For the first time in Barbarossa, the Soviets have serious air support from the VVS; in this battle fighters and bombers of the Red Air Force range over the battlefield at will. Their attacks may be enough to disrupt or even blunt the German advance.

The Germans

Go with what works. One thing I learned in the desert was that Fire and Manoeuver is an extremely sound doctrine; what I am learning in the East is that it is a flexible one, as well. Once again, I will advance with fire elements to pin the Soviets in place while I prepare an assault into their flanks. My objective is the bridge, and nothing less. I mean to bypass the town if possible and make for the bridge. The slow-moving Soviet rifle platoons cannot keep up with me, and if, as I hope, they break from the town to try and hold the bridge, I will have them in the open where I can encircle and eliminate them. For me, speed and deception are the keys. As long as I can keep the Soviet Player focused on the town, I will be able to swing around him and roll him up. If he perceives my move to soon, he will be able to take steps to block it.

The Soviets

The Soviet player decided from the beginning that killing Germans was the way to win this scenario. IN his mind, the town was the trap he would pull my forces towards, using his air force to hit my troops in their trucks. But as is so often the case, he decided to hedge his bets and also play for time, deploying two infantry-AT gun teams along the road in front of the town, and the third AT gun in the woods to the North. He is counting on blowing up my infantry platoons with the trucks.

The Game

A tough fight on both sides. For once the Soviets have as many Leaders as the Germans, including lower-ranking ones. The two Rifle-AT teams were both led by Lieutenants, which necessitated there being dealt with, as they could move independently. Because they were not vital, however, I left covering forces and moved on; because they were sited to give mutual support, they were too close together and I was able to economize on that force. Still, it cost me time, and even though they were not dug in, they were unpleasant to deal with. I lost two half platoons of Infantry and a Truck dealing with the improvised roadblocks. I raced on with my main force, dismounting some infantry and my 37mm PaK-36 (one 37mm PaK-36 battery had been left in the large town to the West to prevent any Rules-Lawyering "retreat to conquor" moves). My HMGs and Mortars also dismounted. The rest of my force, the StuGs and three Infantry platoons, swung around the town and headed for the bridge. I swung south (the Soviet left flank), with the result that the Soviet 76.2mm battery was out-of-position to fire. Because their own troops had also masked its fire until too late, the hardest-hitting element of the Soviet defence was employed almost exclusively as a field gun, to little effect.

As hoped, the bridge was lightly held and quickly secured. An infantry platoon was left to hold it and prevent "retreat to conquor", while I surged back up the road to take the town. By now the Soviet's were in real trouble. Their roadblocks had vanished, both Leaders having been lost, and their 76.2mm battery was out-of-position until I actually moved on it in the city. Still, it hurt me, as did the constant attacks by the VVS. With the Soviets bottled up, it came down to casualties, because it was clear with all my StuGs still active that I could take the remaining Soviet town hexes. At this point, a bit of deception I had been practicing paid off.

My brother has a stratagem he often employs called "hey, look at this!". The idea is you wave your "good" hand, and when they look, and you hit them in the back of the head with the off hand. I generally eschew stratagems, because I don't think they work consistently, and I am very conservative (as a wargamer, not politically). But every now and then, a trick comes in handy. I created what appeared to be a powerful strike force a few hexes to the West and South of the town, and this drew the Red Air Force onto it, as I'd hoped, and brought down the fire of the 76.2mm. Having pinned it in place, my real assault group went in and quickly overwhelmed it. The Soviet Player had gambled on killing two Steps in the Truck, which would have taken me to eight Steps lost. Instead, I lost the 37mm PaK, which was one Step, and the truck, which did not count for Victory purposes.

Conclusion

A German Victory, with 7 German Steps lost and 11 Soviet Steps lost. A very tough fight, that came down to a better Leader pool for the Germans to draw from (superior German training), and very aggressive tactical employment of Fire and Manoeuver, which was unusual for me. A tense game, that was in contest to the last Turn.

This was a Skype game with Herr Hughes which proved to be an interesting one. First the Germans must race across the boards and capture and hold all the town hexes and contest the bridge with a small advanced force. The Soviets have to stop this with just a infantry force. But the Soviets have airpower and a lot of it.

With our play I looked to block his attack force coming down the road while trying to give his something to think about with small units positioning to control some hexes of the larger town on board 2. His forces moved in quickly and with some OBA blunted one of my flanking forces, while his main attack moved up the road. After a bit of maneuvering he positioned his infantry to try to soften up my board 3 town defense. But dugin infantry hung tough until it was to overwhelming and they moved back into the town. His fire groups went after the town, but the Soviet infantry stayed together and held the town.

Meanwhile my flanking forces were giving him something to think about and had to weaken the main attack to deal with the threat on the town. This tied up his mortars and several infantry units that where needed for the main attack.

Airpower made a difference too. Having the whole Soviet EFD available made it very helpful for slowing the advance. Several well placed attacks demoralized key units and eventually put him on the defensive. With the Germans moving back into the town on board 2 took away any chance of the Soviets achieving the required steps for a win. Thus, ending in a tie. For today the German attack was blunted, but they still had a force that could mount another attack.

Played with Alan Sawyer over Skype and receives a solid '3' rating. Definately winnable by both sides dependent on leader selection, set-up, moves in the game and results. Seems a good balanced one overall to me.

The scenario asks the Germans to achieve quite a lot with the resources available and so the German player should find this one an interesting challenge. The Soviets meanwhile, with a useful set-up and their ubiquitous fighter support, will enjoy trying to knock off enemy casaulties. I think Alan basically covered the salient points in his report and below is simply the version as I saw it my side of the table

Our German column arrived along the main road around 1100 hours.This consisted of a truck borne battalion supported by a whole company of StGIIIB assault guns. Ahead of them there was a strong Soviet infantry force ensconsed in a town supported by one of the feared 76.2mm batteries. On the Russian left, a strongish force of rifle units with one of their more inspirational leaders had been positioned Soviet Anti-tank guns were out of sight. The Germans would certainly not send full ahead the assault guns whilst the 76’s were in place and though the Soviet right flank looked bare and their infantry troops were positioned on the left so as to make the right flank look even more sparse, it occurred to German command that that would be just where any Soviet AT gunnery would be. Instead, the Germans determined to send the StG’s on against the Russian left, supported by two well-led platoons of infantry and artillery support. The rest of the infantry plus mortar support would probe the town in order to make in-roads upon it. There was one fly in the ointment to all this. Never had so many Soviet fighters been seen in one area on the Eastern front to date. Where was the Luftwaffe ?

The opening rounds went well for the attackers. The infantry force on the Soviet left was hurt badly by German OBA, causing casualties, and also ridding them of any leadership they had. As a result, these Red troops would be quite unable to instigate any free-thinking offensive moves of their own. Whilst in such strife, the armour and infantry opposing them continued at them. In the town, the Soviet artillery crews proved quite cowardly. Receiving some fire, they became immediately wary and within minutes had abandoned their guns and made off ! Against these set-backs, the Soviet air-force constantly strafed the advancing Germans and if not hitting many troops as casualties, they were definitely holding up and disrupting their operations. Combined with the German lack of ability to reply to them, it was a useful asset. Also, like the Russian gun teams, the German mortar NCO responsible for guiding and leading mortar bombardments also disappeared early, thus fragmenting the mortar offensive capability available.

Having reached the edge of the town, the German troops laid down some pretty well-directed fire, hitting the targets with morale sapping power. But the Soviets just would not budge. Though the German fire was heavy and debilitating, casualties were actually low and the 152nd Rifle Division’s men were not going to move. The fire-fight must have last about 90-100 minutes, with absolutely no progress made by the Germans at all. As well as this, there were some forward Soviet probes developing on either flank threatening to cut off the attackers from the town they had held before the battle began. Deciding that with the minimal progress made so far, and refusing to allow his troops to remain in the open under air-attack that would sustain needless casualties, the Germans pulled back to their start line. They easily blunted the flanking probes, with the StG’s inflicting a few horrible casualties on the Soviets left probe. On that note, the battle was broken off by both sides. The Germans would not be capturing the enemy town and the Soviets with what they had available would be quite unable to inflict many worthwhile casualties on the enemy. A draw

(Losses: German 2 steps and an officer – Soviet 5 steps and 2 officers)

The 15th of July has not been a good day for the axis offensive so far as this battle marks the third Soviet victory occuring in a row on the same date. It was a close run though and in most cases this one should of at least ended in a draw. The Germans are given just 16 turns to take control of 5 town hexes and to at least occupy the bridge further east of the town. The Soviets meanwhile just have to hang-on and manage 8 German step losses for the win. To the Soviet's advantage they are able to start out deployed in the town and for a change have morale equal to the Germans at 8/7. Also, even more to their advantage, the Soviets can draw up to 3 aircraft each turn depending on a die roll before each turn.

The Soviets divide their forces in half; one equal part in the town and then the rest dig-in and around the bridge, covering all paths towards it. The one 76.2mm artillery battery is placed front and center in the town to discourage the German assault guns from moving straight at the town as it is really the only AT capable weapon that has a chance of stopping those armored units. So immediately the StugIIIB assault guns are sent off northeast through the woods to lay down DF on the bridge positions while the Main mobile German force dismounts at a safe distance to assault the town. The first blast of German OBA blasts through one Soviet position guarding the bridge, taking out one of the 45mm AT guns and a step of INF along with eliminating a Soviet Captain there. The Soviets return the favor a few turns later when a combined air-strike takes out a step of HMGs inching their way towards the town. After that casualties stayed low for both sides for a good spell as the Germans successfully began to encircle the western face of the town. Turns began to pass very quickly and the Germans were failing to weaken the outer Soviet defenses with DF so they had to push in for assaults a lot sooner than desired. By that time 8 turns had passed and there were just 8 left to get the seemingly impossible done.

The urban assaults predictably favored the Soviets though through a few losses the Germans do get a foothold in the town and a few steps of Demoralized Soviet units end up fleeing it's protection but the cost is too high for all the effort invested. It becomes clear that the best the Germans can hope for is a draw but by that time they were already bogged down in three separate assaults and could not hope to withdraw the attack safely or in time. Though not always effective Soviet air power keeps pushing German losses up higher and higher. Just before the battle is over on turn 16, a single Pe-2 aircraft unit is able to track down a fleeing, demoralized German INF unit and score a kill just then pushing German losses up to 8 steps for the Soviet win, thwarting a draw at that final and decisive moment.

I rated this one a "3" as it seems very difficult for the Germans to come out of this one with anything better than a draw but at least with a likely draw that gives this one some play balance. As this was a solo play I did quite enjoy having such a powerful array and quantity of Soviet air units to use. The key mistake I made with the Germans was continuing the urban assault when knowing midway that they would not be able to control all the town hexes or be able to get enough forces close enough to the bridge to occupy it before the scneario was finished. Had it been a shared play I would of likely called the attack of much sooner to save face with a draw. I also made an error in bringing the German 37mm AT guns out of safety as bait for the Soviets in hopes that they would divert their airstrikes towards them rather then the actual assaulting troops. One airstrike elimnated both of those units in one swoop and that loss alone paved the way for a German defeat. However, it was a good close quartered fight most of the battle and the Germans fared much better in the urban assaults than expected actually gaining some ground and holding control of it. Also that 8th required German step loss did not occur until the bitter end so the scenario did have some nail-biting moments.