This was the second game in a row on the board just south of the railroad station. The first one was a bloody draw (for the Soviets, for the Germans it was a non-bloody draw!) so this was a second attempt to get a decision on this front. Since the last fight was a draw, this was to be a "neutral" game, so we chose the Patrol scenario. Here you see the battlefield from the western table edge, with the rail-road tracks in the far end. You can see the three German JOPs in the centre of the picture, the barrels and fuel drums. The German player had the opportunity to hava one JOP in the big house in the foreground, which he probably should as the two in the wood in the middle are very close to each other (and the house is hard cover). Both players opted for a lot of additional infantry firepower - as I remember it, the "armour dice" came up with "no armour", so this was going to be a wholly infantry-based patrol! The Soviet platoon was armed with two Maxim MMGs and a section of SMG infantry. A SMG section consists of 10 men with SMG, including Junior Leader with SMG, for six Support - since we have house-ruled to alter the SMG range from 6"/12" to 9"/18", this is a really beefy option. The Germans took two MG34 on tripod (MMGs), as we allow MMGs being taken as sections with a reduced price as well. The game started of with a vicious clash in the central wood. One German section and MMG deployed and were countered by the Soviet SMG section. The Germans were forced to withdraw and lost their MMG in the process (all crew were "killed" and the Soviets hold the ground, so we decided this MG34 was a total loss for the Germans). This was actually little of a milestone in our campaign, as no heavy weapons or vehicles had been completely lost so far (in six games!). As you may have picked up we use fixed support pools for this campaign, so such losses will start to hurt in the long run. Then the Soviets tried to make a flanking manoeuvre (you can see it in the top right) but they were stopped dead in their tracks by a German MMG deployed in the open (centre-top of photo). But at this time the flow of the battle was in Soviet hands after the victory in the central wood, and the Germans withdrew from the table to avoid more losses. The battle for the south end of rail station was over (for this time at least) and it was in Soviet control! Captain Kolomiets was quietly swearing as Leytenant Fadeevich carried home the attack he had failed with one more time... this did not in any way stop the Brigade Headquarters to celebrate the victory. The same night a telegraph was sent to the 12th Army Headquarters: "In the fighting for Stalino West Station, the 15th Tank Brigade has taken its objective, killed numerous enemies and captured a heavy machine gun with 1204 rounds of ammunition." Cheers! /Shirty
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WW2 Campaign BlogThis blog follows the second Chain of Command club campaign, set in the intense fighting over Stalino in October 1941. Archives
January 2018
Categories |