DV at Radziechow

[AC]

Hauptmann Vebber's report to General Cruwell, Commander of 11th Panzer Division:

June 23, 1941, Radziechow

Kampfgruppe Vebber was as ordered entering the town of Radziechow when our recon elements reported enemy movement on the hills south of the town. While weak resistance in the town itself by approximately one platoon of enemy infantry was quickly broken, gaining it's center, I deployed my armored forces on the hills that run from the western border of Radziechow down to the south. North to south I deployed:

1st platoon of PzIIIh
platoon of PzII
2nd platoon of PzIIIh
section of PzIV
section of 37mm AT-guns
section of infantrz guns
platoon of 3 Stugs

The PzIIIe platoon was put in reserve behind the hills between the 1st PzIIIh and the PzII.

Two of the three infantry platoons along with the second PzIV section where dispatch to secure the city; the last platoon was ordered to secure the southern flank of our deployment. The AA gun section was deployed between houses on the southern border of Radziechow in order to fire on the flanks of the enemy supposed to advance from the east.

While still deploying the enemy tank force showed up. As already reported to the Intelligence Officer of the division, quite a few heavy and until now to us unknown tanks (KV, T34) where among them. I gave order not to open fire until the enemy would be as close as 1000 meters (20 hexes). Meanwhile, in Radziechow, we were advancing to the eastern center of the town without great problems.

The bulk of the enemy's tank was heading to a little hill distant about 8 to 900 meters from our main line. As they reached it, we opened fire with good results against the smaller tanks. Not one of them went west of the hill. The heavy tanks, instead, proved to be immune to what we threw at them. Our crews scored many hits, but none of them where penetrating at these distances. For this reason, I ordered artillery fire on the advancing tanks in order to slow them down. In fact, the enemy advance came to a halt, with only single heavy tanks trying to push further.

In Radziechow the advancing platoons where suddenly attacked by 5 heavy KV1 tanks, coming from the east along the main road. The platoon leaders immediately ordered their men to retreat into the town, setting up ambushes for the enemy tanks. With the help of the PzIV section a deadly kill zone was prepared. Hard to understand the KV's slammed into the city and into our ambush: two were killed, two were abandoned, the only tank that managed to get out was then killed by a rear hit from a distance of 250 meters by one of the PzIV's. Always the PzIV's and the infantry stopped another attack by a platoon of BT2's.

In the center I found the moment had come for our counter attack, Regardless of two other platoons (KV's and BT2's, appearently) which drove south to north along our frontline, I ordered the 1st platoon of PzIIIh, the PzIIIe and the PzII to advance, close in on the enemy and engage them at close quarters. Only this way I saw a chance to achieve penetrating hits. The next half an hour was an infernal fight at close range. Fortunately, the enemy seemded very badly organized and his tanks showed only a very low rate of fire. Under cover of smoke (PzIV's and mortars) our platoons advanced, engaging one heavy tank after the other, either destroying it or forcing it's crew to advance.

Our recon platoon with its armored cars was ordered to secure the next line of hills in the east, while a last attempt of enemy infantry to attack the city and to reinforce the tanks was fought off with heavy losses for the infantry.

After about 60 minutes after the first shots the rest of the enemy was leaving the battle field completely broken.

A quick count of the Soviet losses of tanks came to the following results:

Model Destroyed Abandoned
KV1 3 4
KV2 3 1
BA20 6 -
BT2 4 3
FAI 1 -
T28 4 1
T26 5 2
BT7 7 -

Totals 33 11
Overall Total 44

I estimate that about 50% of their crews have been killed, injured or taken prisoners.
Enemy losses in infantry have been calculated in two platoons appr. (about 100 men).

Our losses are the following:

1 SdKfz 221
1 Motorcycle Squad
1 PzIIIe (two men of the crew survived)
1 SdKfz 250/1
1 Krupp truck

1 PzIV, 1 PzII and 1 PzIIIe have been damaged but will be back to duty in not more than 12 hours.

Infantry losses are somewhat heavier, especially for the two platoons deployed in Radziechow. We have counted 7 KIA and 21 WIA. Luckily, there are no MIA.

(End of the official report)

General,

we owe this decisive victory to our bold and skillful tankers, rifle-men and gunners. I have proposed several of them for decorations to the Armeekorps. But besides of that, I feel that the whole Kampfgruppe deserves an official mention in the Kriegstagebuch of 11th Panzerdivision.

Hauptmann Paul Vebber

[mao]

Good report!

Did you play the original or patched version?

[AC]

Originally posted by mao
Good report!

Did you play the original or patched version?

Mao,

I've loaded the MCLV patch, the sound patch, the SPWAW 7.1 patch and the node4.zip. Do you mean this with "patched version", or is there yet another patch out for this battle? Sometimes it gets confusing with all those patches:)

AC