Camp Cromwell 14/08/07

1500 pts Fighting Withdrawal

Nick's Tankovy
v.
Jim & Barrie's Grenadiers

SteveJ umpiring.

The Germans had 3 Grenadiers spread across the front supported by 105s in the centre, Pak 38s right of centre, Neblewerfers behind & 3 Stugs in ambush.

Nick had 10 light tanks on his right with 3 recon in front & rockets behind. He lined up his 10 T34s in the centre.

The T34s & rockets opened up on the 105s while the light tanks advanced. While the 105s were whittled away, the Germans countered with the Stugs against the light tanks, and with rockets, 105s & Paks v. the T34s. The Stugs were picking off the light tanks steadily so they dodged to their left behind a wood. This exposed them to the Paks & a surviving 105 who killed enough to force a morale test which they failed. Meanwhile the T34's were steadily wasting under the German barrage. With 9 tanks under a template you don't need a high probabilty & the Neblewerfers kept hitting, while the Paks chipped in with a few more hits. The Stugs began to advance, but before they could join in, the Neblewerfers knocked out both the T34 commander & the Coy commander in the one turn. The T34s passed morale, but the Russians were left with no force capable of advancing & taking an objective after turn 4 - a crushing German victory. The terrain did not favour the Russians (a balka formed a barrier to near half the German line) & Nick had some rotten luck with morale & commander casualties.

This FW Mission was fought in preparation for the iminent Russian campaign to see whether we needed to modify the Mission Rules to suit our campaign system. The battle was too one sided to teach us much campaign-wise, but at least we got some experience in the FW Mission that we have usually avoided.