ZA RODINU! (Kamil vs Mike) March 1943!

[KamilS]

T74 south (start)


Big surprise. I didn't expect there will be any survivors of Orel pocket.

[KamilS]

T74 Crimea (start)


Trading space for time enabled me to create considerable strike-force. Refitted and carefully positioned panzers waited for snow.

To my great surprise and happiness Mike haven't noticed the danger.

[KamilS]

T74 south (finish)


Thanks to quality C&C and good fortune I managed to break pocket despite attacking using inferior numbers.

[KamilS]

T74 Crimea (finish)

Success in the south exceeded my expectations.

I achieved two goals - destruction of Soviet troops (11 inf div, 1 tank corps, 1 cav corps) and removal of danger to AGS right flank.

[KamilS]

75 south (finish)


I got overexcited with prospect of capturing Sevastopol and deployed plenty of my panzers there. 2,5 divisions were encircled (1,5 inf, 1 mtn) but overcommitment in Crimean peninsula will haunt me in future.


In the mean time I reassemble strike-force near Kharkov and west of Stalino. I plan to lure Mike into trap ...

[KamilS]

T76 south (start)


Mike is pushing hard, losses are high so I will have to make my move soon.

[KamilS]

T76 south (finish)


Withdrawal and reorganisation.


Fortunately blizzard starts next turn so Mike mighty inf coprs will have greatly limited impact.

[KamilS]

T77 south (start)


The die is cast.


Mike moved into "Kharkov-Stalino gap" in force. His spearhead is strong but lacks support of infantry. On the other hand my panzer-blob is not fully assembled and quite weak (majority of armament points had to be spent on rebuilding units).

I easily might end up being encircled myself, but I will attack anyway, temptation is just too strong.

[KamilS]

T77 south (finish)


(I didn't use arrows to avoid covering strength of my troops)



Not all worked as I planned, but decisive factor was overcommitment to Sevastopol raid few turns ago. I think pocket will be broken and not being able to use all of my AGS panzers will be reasons of my failure.

[loki100]

that was an impressive sequence of blow and counterblow ...

[KamilS]

T78 south (start)


Despite my prayers god of dices didn't smile to me [:(] and Mike's attack was successful.

[KamilS]

T78 south (finish)


I decided to be cautious and taken safe approach by reducing size of pocket using herding technique. Unfortunately majority of Soviet units routed so at the end of operation only 4 inf div and 1 tank corp were encircled.

[KamilS]

Fast forward to T80 (last one presented by Mike)


Pocket re-established at T78 held.

During my next two moves I continued to fall-back west impatiently waiting for armament production increase.

[Mike29]

Thank you very much Kamil for posting screens of these two epic operations, they were really interesting. The reason of Crimea disaster was I just forgot to employ recons the turn before (they were in reserve) so I haven't seen your panzers there. Regarding Kharkov I was too careless and underestimated your mobility. I was really lucky that 4 tank corps could escape from the pocket.

[randallw]

Why are so many of the Soviet divisions so weak? It's late 1942, they ought to be up to some decent level of experience, and a CV of 3 or 4...not this 1 or 2 stuff.

[Mike29]

Other divisions already corps or corpses

[KamilS]

randallw

Why are so many of the Soviet divisions so weak? It's late 1942, they ought to be up to some decent level of experience, and a CV of 3 or 4...not this 1 or 2 stuff.

I think theses are new divisions - Mike has numerous and strong elite but as well plenty of relatively weak and fresh units (replacing destroyed during spring and summer of '42).

[Mike29]

T85. 28.01.1943. North. Heavy positional battles for two bridgeheads on river Dvina, pushing towards Borisov-Minsk. German defense very very tight. I feel we are not ready for decisive offense yet.

[Mike29]

T85. 28.01.1943. North (detailed screen)

[Mike29]

T85. 28.01.1943. Minsk direction.