Firestorm Campaign Turn 2 Battle 1: 28/04/09

Firestorm Campaign Turn 2, Battle 1

Russians attacking Mogilev from Bykhov

The Russians (Jim) attacked Mogilev from Bykhov with a Strelkovy + IS2 + Sappers.
SteveJ defended with his Sperrverband reduced to 1200 pts due to out of supply, but + Panzergrenadiers + Engineers.
The mission was No Retreat with the Germans defending using Festerplatz.

The Germans had infantry in 2 lines of entenchments protecting the forward objective, minefields & wire across the front, 105's in safe spot in rear, RSOs in woods on their right & 4 Paks in ambush. The Russians had an 8 gun battery behind a hill in rear, Strelk left & right, Sappers right of centre, 2 ISs, 5 SU85 & 3 KV85s left of centre. The Russians as always rushed forward. The RSOs did the Marder shuffle in their wood & the Paks were dropped just behind the objective. The Soviet tanks & took on the anti-tank while the PBI struggled forward up to the wire. For once the Russian artillery did something - they ranged in on the objective, did a lot of usefull pinning & eventually took out 2 Paks, an HMG & an infantry. The Russians got lucky when the RSOs failed to stormtrooper back. Every tank had a shot at them & they died. The Paks got a KV & 3 SU85s, but they too eventualy died. & 2 HMGs. but surely destroyed. On the left the Strelk cleared the wire, drove the Panzergrenadiers in the wood back & wheeled right to the objective. The Strelk on the right got pinned on the wire & wouldn't go on. The Sappers cleared a minefield then hid in a village waiting for armour support. With the anti-tank taken out, the Soviet armour resumed their advance. The Srerr platoon on the object failed morale under the Soviet fire & the Ivans took the objective. The Germans struck back with artillery & infantry counterattacks. The Russians were decomated , but they beat off the attacks & held on to win a narrow victory.

Russian casualties were horrendous. They held the position with 2 ISs, 2 SU85s (of 5) & 6 Sappers (of 16), the Commander, Kommisar & artillery also survived. The 2 Strelk & the KVs were destroyed. This made it a 4:3 victory. The Germans had no retreat & were all captured (2 Firestorm Troops). But the Russians lost both their Firestorm Troops making it a costly 40 victory - but they have 40 VPs on the board.

Pic 1: The Russians advance.

Pic 2: The Russains close on the objective.

Pic 3: The IS2's beat off the last counterattack - what you see is all that's lef tof the Soviets (apart from the artillery).