Camp Cromwell Firestorm Battle 19/05/09

Turn 3 Battle 4

Finally (on the 14th attempt!) the Germans won the Firestorm Initiative roll for the first time & Steve attacked Berezina from Osipovichi.

Steve had a Sturmkompanie plus Tigers & Luftwaffe attacking Mark's Tankovy plus Pioneers & IS2's in a No Retreat Mission on 8x6 table.

Barrie & Jim observing, Byron present for a short time.

The Germans put an objective close up on their extreme left flank where a ridge made it hard for the Russians to support its defence. The Rusians defended it with their Sappers, put their Strelk on the rear objective & T34's in ambush. Paks, 3 shot Tigers & Heavy Artillery gave covering fire as infantry crept forward ont he objective. The Sappers died, but bought time for the Shermans to come up and retake the objective. The Shermans copped a pounding from Heavy Artillery, Paks, Tigers & Hs129Bs. Mark had to go so Jim took over at the death. The IS2's were still lumbering up so the T34's had to come out of ambush to replace the doomed Shermans. They took out a Tiger, but the Luftwaffe, Heavy Artillery & remaining Tiger decimated them. They failed morale. In a desperate move, the Commander tried a re-roll, but failed. That left only the 2 IS2s available to contest the objective. The Tiger bailed one & the surviving 2 infantry of a platoon assaulted the other through smoke & killed it. That was the battle - a decisive 6:1 for the Germans.

Berizena has fallen to the Germans restoring supply to the Tigers in Zhlobin & cutting Mogilev off.

There were no Firestorm Troop losses.