Hold the Line Scenario, Grenadiers defending. The terrain was relatively cluttered for East Europe with a railway embankment & a stream/river dividing the table on the Russian side of the centreline. Jim & SteveP umpiring (Nick replacing Steve later).
Steve deployed with a boosted Grenadier platoon dug in on the objective with 2Pak40s & 3 SPAA in support, plus 2 Hortisse's in ambush. He had another 2 Grenadiers, 4 105s & 2 75s in reserve, plus Limited Me109s.Chris had 3 large Strelkovy (some with flamethrower teams attached), 10 Stuarts, GOWs & Limited Cobras.
The swarm of Ivans advanced steadily while the GOWs picked away at what they could & the Honeys followed up. The Germans got some early reinforcements, bringing on more Grenadiers on their right & 105s on their left. A little later the small Grenadier platoon & the 75s came on in the centre.
The central Strelkovy unit attacked the crop field on the (German) right of the objective. The Grenadiers pulled out, then with a lot of fire support counterattacked and drove the Russians back out of it. The right flank and central Strelkovy units were slowly melting away under German firepower while the left flank unit fought the 2nd Grenadiers for the Collective farm. The Honeys were still in the rear, intimidated by the Pak40s on their right & by difficult terrain on their left. The Gods were doing bugger all - the Germans kept saving, then unpinning.
But while the Germans seemed well on top, they just couldn't put the Ivans away. Every German counterattack was met with a flurry of 5 & 6's in a counterassault inflicting casualties the Germans couldn't afford to lose, while the Strelkovy just kept on absorbing casualties down to literally the last man. The Gods finally started doing some damage - getting the SPAA & a Pak40. Steve dropped the Hortisses out of ambush to help the Grenadiers & the Cobras got one of them. The Honeys finally made a rush forward and overwhelmed the lone Pak as the last Strelkovy team passed a Last Survivor roll to keep the Ivans in the game (HQ gone, 2 plats lost, 1 last survivor & 2 plats left). The Honeys took the objective from the last Grenadiers as the Gods got the last Hortisse. The MEs wouldn't come & German artillery couldn't kill the Honeys fast enough on their own, so the Russians won a costly victory.
The Russians lost all but 1 team of infantry and 5 of 10 tanks. The Germans lost all but HQ, 3 command teams, 1 75 & their 105 battery.
2 comments:
The German casualties were mostly morale failures.
The Russian casulties were deaths.
Over 100 stands of Russian infantry were killed!
100 stands is nothing, plenty more cannon fodder where they came from!
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