____THE MAUS THAT ROARED*
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_______Meeting Engagement* 
________Germany vs USSR*
Topchin, Germany April 23, 1945*
__________Turns: 15*
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Design: Brent Grenadier Richards*
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This scenario is a variation on the original which was supposed to be played as the human taking the Soviet side. This version is designed to be played as the German as the human player.*
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As the war in Europe came to a close, the German Army started throwing anything they had left to stem the Soviet onslaught. Many ad hoc kampfgruppe's were formed and ordered to the front. Some were remnants of shattered units and others consisted of the elite training and testing units of the OKH.*
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Kummersdorf, southwest of Berlin, was the home of the Heer Weapons Testing and Training Center where many of the tanks and other weapons were first introduced to the Fuhrer and where Guderian developed the panzer tactics that made Germany so successful early in the war.*
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Kummersdorf had already provided most of their training units to the Pz Abtielung Kummersdorf, made up of 3 Panzer Companies mostly equipped with Tigers, which was part of the Muncheberg Panzer Division fighting in Berlin.
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As the 1st Ukranian Front closed on Berlin, it approached Zossen, the home of the OKH headquarters, and Wunsdorf, where many famous divisions, like 2 & 3 Panzer, had been raised.*
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On April 20, the commander of the Kummersdorf facility was ordered to form a kampfgruppe and defend Zossen and Wunsdorf. Kampfgruppe Kahler was put together using the remaining serviceable AFV's and stragglers and units that had retreated to his facility.*
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The Kummersdorf commander took his remaining AFV's, and formed a kampfgruppe with these. 
The soldiers were a mixed bag of Volksturm, Fallschirmjagers and instructors and varied from useless to elite. The AFV crews were all elite veterans who the OKH thought more valuable as testers and trainers than lost in combat, but now this had all changed.*
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The AFV's were mostly captured tanks, obsolete tanks, and one of a kind prototypes, such as the VK 3001, the Porsche Tiger, and the VK 1801. Among these stood out a testament to Hitler's grandiosity, The Maus, a 180 ton tank armed with a 128mm gun, a 75mm gun and had 180mm (7 inches)of armor. There were 2 of these monstrosities at Kummersdorf, one was complete and the other had a mock turret for weight simulation only. The third prototype had already been captured incomplete at the Krupp factory in Essen by the US forces.*
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KG Kahler, led by these giant moving fortresses, moved off towards Wunsdorf. One of the Maus' broke down just ouside Kummersdorf and her crew attempted to destroy it, the other went a few miles further down the autobahn and ran out of fuel near the town of Topchin. The kampfgruppe, seeing discretion as the better part of valor, promptly withdrew.*
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The Soviets captured the 2 Maus' and put together a complete tank out of the 2 abandoned ones. It is in the Soviet museum at Kubinka, near Moscow.*
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What if the Maus actually had engaged the Soviets of Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army, which seized the Kummersdorf facility the next day? Would it have overcome the odds and survived? What would the Soviets have done if they encountered this rolling fortress? Here is your opportunity to find out. Can you stop the Soviet onslaught with the Maus That Roared?*
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Wild Bill's Raiders (or SPWAW)*
http://www.thegamers.net*
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Sources* 
Wehrmacht Weapons & Testing Ground at Kummersdorf-Wolfgang Fleischer*
History of the PZkw Maus-web site*
History of the VK 3001-Sturer Emil-web site*
Home of the Mighty Maus-web site*


