The 17th Panzer Arrives

[Mobius]

AAR Report of 17th Panzer Division Arrives. Dec. 17 1942.

PBEM battle between Junk2drive (Paul) as German and Mobius (Steve) as Soviet.

From the point of view of the 4th Mechanized Corp.
We noted that our tanks were parceled out in four groups. The reports from our forward positions noted that a heavy concentration of Panzers were headed for the farm co-operative. The farm was defended by a platoon of T34s and a ring of 45mm anti-tank artillery.
To stop the German drive it was decided to concentrate all other available tanks into a full company. These abandoned their positions and headed for a central location.
Apparently the Stukas were too interested in attacking defenseless anti-tank guns than groups of moving tanks.



A Platoon of T34 medium tanks head for marshalling area.

[Mobius]

The heavy artillery is targeted ahead of the Panzers in anticipation of their advance. It however is not on target.




Close but no Borsch.

[Mobius]

A flank attack at the farm on the Russian right takes out several anti-tank guns and one medium tank. This attack is driven off with the loss of two Panzers.

[Mobius]

Now all the available Heroic Soviet tanks form up to exchange fire with the Panzers. The Nazi tanks come on in two echelons. Leading the way are the MarkIV F2. These mount the most powerful gun on the battlefield. It is these tanks we must destroy first. The lighter MarkIII have heavier armor but their guns are not much of a threat to the two heavy KV-1 tanks which stiffen our line.

[Mobius]

Several turns of fierce fire. The tanks defending the farm are lost. And impossibly the heavy tanks too are lost. Not to the Mark IVF2 but to lighter tanks.
The first echelon of Mark IVF2 tanks litter the battlefield, but the toll has been heavy on the Soviet side. Besides the KV tanks severak T-34 mediums are lost too. The anti-tank gun ring is destroyed.

[Mobius]

More German tanks are lost but it is too late. German halftracks race from their hiding spots and dash to capture flags. There are too few working Russian tanks to shoot them all.

[Mobius]

As the game ends two T34 medium are fully functioning and two others have suffered shock and are not effective.

There appears to be two full running Panzer Mark IIILs with maybe two or three others not moving with some kind of disability.

If only there was more time for the soviet tanks to recover from stun... If only..

A marginal victory for the German.


In retrospect I probably should have deployed the anti-tank guns differently. They were used to try to slow the main force of German so they would get caught in the artillery barrage. That was a waste. The 45mm appeared useless against the German tanks. But they did destroy several halftracks. They probably should have been used to cover from a distance the flags. The armor of each side seemed to cancel out, so the halftracks made it to the flags.

[Laryngoscope]

Nice AAR, thanks Steve and Paul.

[junk2drive]

Having played this scenario a few times vs AI I went for as many Stukas and arty as I could, then the best tanks.
I seem to have the most trouble with enemy ATGs and hoped that the planes and arty would take them out.
With the set placement of units, I lead with tanks on my left and center, loaded HTs on the right.
I was surprised to see a few Soviet tanks moving from my right toward the center and quickly figured out that Mobius was massing his force. As the battle raged, he could see and target me but sometimes I could not return the favour.
As the forces dwindled down and he was targeting tanks, I thought that I could rush HTs toward the flags. It seemed to work somewhat.
In the end it was the points from destroyed units that gave me the victory, not the flags.
 
Thanks for the fine battle. Had your arty hit me, it would have been a different AAR.