Part two of our campaign between myself and Comrade Garry turned out to be even more of a nail biter than the first! This time I utilised an infantry based force, supported by a good dose of recce, StuGs and some decent artillery support. The Russians came with a motley collection of tanks and a bunch of infantry, but backed up by a fair bit of artillery support.
The game started with the recce forces on table again. We once more got a meeting engagement scenario as my troops raced for the road and rail junction near the village of Ostrok. While the Soviet recce was a couple of snipers and an armoured car, a veritable feast of German recce arrived. After the first turn one of the snipers was dead and the armoured car pinned down by fire from a little 37mm pak36 gun team who would turn out to be my heroes of the game. The remaining sniper picked off one of the gun crew, but soon fell to fire from the Sdkfz 222. On the flank German infantry and StuGs began to push down the railway line towards the village.
It was on the second Soviet turn that things started to go bad. First a well placed pre-registered target point saw my advancing StuGs come under fire from enemy 120mm mortars. As always the Russian luck held and a lucky hit from a mortar bomb, followed by a lucky effect roll saw one of mt StuGs out of action already. The German advanced continued but then on the next turn the Soviet commander who had arrived got on the telephone for some support. He must have got straight through to Uncle Josef, cos yet more fantastic rolls got him some big fire support from his artillery request. The Germans soon heard the whine of incoming rockets…
The resultant scattering of rockets was horrific. The German Forward Artillery Observer and his radio operator were killed outright by a direct hit, and their vehicle put out of action. The anti-tank gun crew escaped harm but everyone around them was pinned down. Every German move seemed to bring down fire, for as the StuGs moved away from one pre-registered targey point, they drove into another! Yet more mortar fire landed among them, this time buttoning them up and pinning one down. Things looked a little shaky on the German side as the lone T34 raced down the road and took the central hill objective. As a T35 lumbered onto another, the Soviets held three of the four objectives.
Just then the overall German battlegroup commander arrived, barking orders he leapt off his staff car and into action! First, artillery fire dropped onto the German pre-registered target point and landed among the arriving Soviet infantry. It caused few casualties but many of the troops became pinned down and hit the dirt. Next the German officer got on his telephone and whistled up some of his own artillery support, using a nearby Wire Team to secure some big guns from the army group. In they came but sadly onto a target point that had deviated away from the enemy and the fire was a great big let down. Things again seemed to be slipping from the German grasp. With both StuGs blindsided by the T34, only the little 37mm pak36 had a shot, and luckily at its arse… It fired… and a double six for effect saw the T34 belch black smoke! With little time to celebrate the gun crew once more came under fire, but once more escaped unharmed.
Now all the Soviets had to do was finish the Germans off, but now Command Chaos took its toll and the orders just didnt get through. The loss of the T34 seemed to have taken the wind out of the Soviet sails, and not helped by the KV1 suddenly breaking down too. The Germans now hit back hard. An attack on the Soviet infantry holding the railway crossing wiped them out to a man. While the StuGs opened fire at the lumbering T35. Side on its fate was sealed and several hits put paid to its days. For several minutes a ferocious firefight developed between the BA10 and the T28 on one side and the two remaining StuGs and the Pak36 on the other. For a while rounds glanced off everyone but then a StuG round pinned the crew of the T28, and a second impact from the Pak36 saw the crew abandone the vehicle. This was then followed by the Pak36 crew finally putting a round through the BA10 but not before it had killed a stalking AT Rifle team trying to get it.
The battle was on a knife edge and the Soviet commander went all out to break the enemy morale. Once more he brought in his mortars and this time they landed right on top of the German commander. A round hit his staff car blowing it to bits, while another landed right between his legs… After the dust cleared only bits of the German command group were left. This was a killer for the Germans and I now had to draw three morake chits. The first two were a '5' and a '1' bring me up to 30 out of 31 Battle Rating, just like last week. I drew the final chit and pulled out an Ammo Low chit. Knowing my only chance was to play it on the Soviet Battlegroup Commander I did so. It was a last chance to do something as it was the Soviet turn and with the army on the brink of breaking I had little choice. Sadly I needed to roll a '6' to force the command group to quit the field to search for ammo… I rolled and there was the '6'. The Soviet Commander, for some reason best known to him, quit the battlefield and the resulting two morale chits tipped Garrys Soviet army over his Battle Rating and the game was over… Yet another dubious German victory, though without the heavy losses this time. I shant repeat what Garry said when he counted up my morale chits, but once more he had been cheated victory by a single point!
The German advance continues (though maybe not as arrogantly as before)!
As always more pics on the Facebook page including some pics of the armies used;
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