Firestorm Battle at Barrie's 17/05/09

Sunday at Barrie's (from our Acton correspondant)

The Russians today won a 3 nil victory in Lepel
The Germans deployed with a medium Bty, Sturm Pl and HMG Pl on the left and PAK 40s and a three gun Field Bty in the centre with a second Sturm Pl, AA and Stugs on the right.
These were face by a Russian Gods Bty and two Strelk Coys facing the German Left a Medium Bty and a Tankovy Coy of T34/76s in the Centre and a third Strelk Coy plus T34/85 against the German right.
The Germans won the first turn and dug in everything except the Mdm Bty, they also advanced on the right with the Stugs and AA causing several casualties on the Russian Strelk on that flank.
The initial German aggression caused some consternation which soon turned to joy as the Russian Airforce arrived and took out one of the Stugs in the Russian first turn despite the proximity of the AA Pl (three planes helps!)
The second turn saw ineffective firing by the German Artillery and a Russian Infantry attack mauled by the massed HMGs on the German Left, the German Paks in the centre also destroyed two of the T34/76s.
Subsequent turns saw the Russians withdraw and go to ground on the German Left while a a long range fire fight in the centre was distinctively beneficial to the Pak 40s. The Stugs had been using a low hill to advantage on the right popping up shooting at the T34s in the centre and then storm troopering back out of site. Then disaster in one turn the Stugs failed their Storm Trooper move and were subsequently blown away by the Soviet tank horde in the centre, the Sturmoviks arrived again in numbers and destroyed two of the three AA with the T34/85s disposing of the third AA.
This left one Storm Pl supported by Paks in the centre but with restricted arcs of fire due to a low ridge to face the combined might of a Strelk Coy supported by a T34/85 Firestorm Troop and he the remainder of theTankovy Coy which had abandoned its central approach and moved to the German right flank.
Eventually the Strelk Coy on the German right was able to seize the right hand objective and pass numerous moral tests for under half strength to win the game. In the end there were only three teams out of an original 27 who proudly flew the Hammer and Sicle over the Objective while the much vaunted Russian Armour skulked out of line of site of the Pak40s. So a decisive Russian Victory.
The Russians had Stormoviks and T34/85s as Firestorm troops the Germans had none.