Romania - Operation München

[Korpraali V]

Operation München – Taking Bessarabia

11/7/41 0300
Visibility 700 meters, Weather: Clear, Length 38 turns

Romania Delay – Soviet Advance


After the first battle with his Romanians Friedrich had a talk with his friend Eugen. As a Generaloberst Eugen was able to help his fellow adlig. Now some T3 – very rare in Romania – tanks have been ordered to Friedrich’s use. Unfortunately due to logistic problems only one has arrived so far. It was immediately taken in use and assigned to V armor platoon in command of two R-1 tanks armed with only two machine guns. Hopefully more are coming soon.

Romanian troops are advancing across the Bessarabia. For Karl this is just Bessarabia, former Romanian, former Soviet and now again Romanian territory. When his troops travel cross the land and villages he sees that his men are far more affected about this. They are Romanian people that his Romanian troops are liberating from the Bolshevik rule. And the happiness can be seen from all of their eyes. Not many years they were under Soviet rule but it was enough.

As part of the 15th Division Karl’s battalion is on its way to assist 35th Reserve Infantry Division. The division has suffered a lot under heavy Soviet bombardments and attacks. On its way there 15th division is also attacked and Karl’s battalion is now ordered to delay advancing enemy armored force. They have rapidly ’socialized’ a company of motorized AT guns for their use. Division also has promised them artillery support, which – as Oberstleutnant said sarcastically – was quite a surprise, when he saw that those guns were standing without transport in the middle of where enemy advance heads to. However, it’s good to have those guns. Also one company of engineers with some extra HMGs is shifted to 15th battalion.



Support units:

Engineer Co
Hq
4x FT Eng
4x FT Eng
4x FT Eng
2x ZB53 HMG
2x Scout team

HMG Platoon
4x ZB53 HMG

Mot AT Co
7x M35 47mm ATG
6x Thornycroft 6x4 truck

Howitzers
8x 100mm Skoda Field Howitzer

Transport
4x T-6-R Tractor
Civilian Bus


The map and unit deployment can be seen from the attachment on next post. First line is to slow and weaken Ivan. It is not mentioned to stand. After Soviets get too close, remainings will withdraw. In this fight Oberstleutnant Karl is trying to use the moving and confusing tactic he learned in the first fight. The road to our rear must be wearing to the enemy. After he gets through the frontlines and is fighting the second, Romanian panzers will strike his weak flank. This of course if Ivan is using the same tactic than last month: tanks first, infantry far behind. If they are using combined arms well, or if they leave too strong force to defend their flank the Romanians will be in trouble. But if everything succees, Ivan’s spearhead will be isolated from its supplies. And when it heads back, our infantry will take possibly lost rear objectives back with the assistance of AT guns. Tanks will have to be on the move all the time since the first strike takes its place. Also artillery plays vital role in this fight. It must fire accurately, succesfully cover Romanians with smoke, pinn down and even destroy enemy forces.

[Korpraali V]

0330

First ’blind’ bombardments seem to slow Ivan significally. But Karl knows they have time to come. Approximately two companies of infantry seen on left. More on left than anyone had expected. HMGs slow and pinn it down while Cuza counts the targets to artillery and mortars. At first reports told about few tanks but after the infantry was pinned there appeared about 40 tanks. ATGs destroyed few of them but this definitely needs more barrages and even then the mass can’t be stopped. But that wasn’t the plan either. It’s important to slow them and take out as many as possible and then withdraw. And now it’s time to take AT guns and HMGs back to forest from small central hill. Enemy tanks are getting too close. New positions will be taken at the forest end with good sights.

Scout tanks crashed the first engineer platoon in the central orchard. After them came first infantry squads. One squad was lost but another knocked out one T-27. Seems that Ivan don’t like flamethrowers much.

Company of infantry and approximately 20 tanks on right. Ordered barrages. Message to HMGs and ATGs on right: Fire at will!




Attachment: Map and deployment of battalion forces.

[Korpraali V]

0350

Left: Soviet headquaters seen somewhere on left. Karl orders instantly more tubes to fire the area where they were seen. Many enemy tanks have turned to blowtorches but most are still coming. First tanks have now reached the hill. No own casualties yet. Almost all of Russian tanks have been light ones so far. Troops have seen only few medium tanks. Two AT guns far left went to panic just because they saw too many Russkies. Great. Oberstleutnant informs that they should very quicky gather themselves and start to shoot those tin cans. German officer’s voice makes miracles and after couple of minutes three tin cans are burning. This is much better! Unfortunately the guns were spotted and their crews have now abandoned them. Enemy artillery barraged their positions on the small hill. Those two AT guns that withdrawed to forest end behind the hill were followed by multiple enemy tanks. Also these guns are now abandoned and the crews are being fired at. No AT guns functioning on left flank anymore. Soviet tanks turned to center without spotting our tank company. Good!

Center: Engineers manage to destroy BT-7 and some infantry. Over a dozen of tanks crush through platoon’s positions. Last men seen to surrender to enemy troops around them. Can’t blame them. AT guns on the second line hill join the fight as do other engineers of the support company. They manage to take some tanks out. Some drove to mines they had laid and blowed up. In the forest behind the central VH hill sergent Bratianu from 1st platoon of II engineers assaulted three tanks with flamethrower under five minutes! There are not many men that can do the same! But the enemy is still too numberous. Slowly moving back. First tanks climb to second line hill and AT guns are leaving it after destroying couple tin cans more. AA and AT guns on the rear open fire on first Soviet tanks.

Right: AT guns take out many tanks but Russkies are pushing through just because they are so many. Time to flee to forest. Surprisingly trucks are able to carry all the guns safe without being spotted! First tanks were only 300 meters away from Bolsheviks and over ten others were heading straight towards the hill. Are they blind or what? After redeployment their luck was not as good anymore. One ATG was spotted and destroyed.

[Korpraali V]

0400

Center: In a fierce figh engineers vs tanks the brave boys of Romania manage to destroy several Soviet tanks. Flamethrower torches BT-7. T-26 shoots HE shell from 50 meter distance and the flamethrowerman explodes with his gun taking couple men with him. Molotovs and sachel charges are in constant use and previously victorious T-26 is doomed when sachel charge is placed on its rear deck. T-34 rolls over unlucky squad leader and the squad flees in panic. Also one BT-7 had enough and speeds towards the river Dnepr. T-28 rolls forward shooting with its machine guns. Romanian engineers and Soviet crewmen falls side by side. Large T-28 drives to mines and blows up, no crewmember survived.

Not far can be seen through the smoke that covers the whole area. Despite heavy losses due to engineers and mines they laid the Soviet hordes roll on and on. Destroying one makes two others to pop up. Seems that nothing can stop them.

Left: Enemy tanks followed the withdrawing AT guns and trucks to forest and are now threathening the artillery positions and headquaters. Closest of them are about 200 meters away and are heading towards Karl and his men. Preparing for close defence. Six guns will be shooting right in front of them to slow Ivan until Romanian armors arrive. South of them engineers are fighting in the forest.

Taking tank company to help headquaters and artillery. Half are going to south to stop the enemy spear and half are going to SE to hit their flank. They immediately knocked out two light tanks. Third one was destroyed by FlaK. Good start.

Most Soviet tanks seem to try advance along the road and through the open terrain. Rear line AT and AA guns have great sights and they destroy many tanks. So far no one have been able to come over the central hill. Approximately ten tanks burning on and around the hill.

Right: AT gun destroyed two tanks, then its gun malfunctioned and it was crushed by two other tanks. Fighting in the forest begins when Ivan’s tin cans advance towards the waiting rifle platoon. After short fight the riflemen are thrown back in panic. Sergent Luka destroys a tank with molotov and sergent Radojla with his 47mm gun. Situation is still very dangerous. Taking whole rifle company to front. They’ll help others to withdraw and regroup. Hopefully so. Ivan’s tanks are faster than infantrymen.

[Korpraali V]

0420

Center: Still some tanks are driving to mines that engineers had layed. Very good.

Karl had just counted the about number of destroyed enemy tanks according to reports he have received. About 60 knocked out so far and still there seem to be a lot of them coming. Not good. In front of him hard tank battles are being fought in the middle of the forest.

Rear: Couple AT guns have been revealed and are now reveiving barrages on them. Truck destroyed. These trucks have again showed their valuability by taking revealed AT guns to safe. Their drivers seem to be careless about their own lives and many have died already when they’ve speeded in front of the advancing enemy trying to save threatened guns. Heroes they are, that’s for sure.

Left: Seven tanks attacked Soviet flank and have now destroyed four their ones. Two kills went to sublocotenent Buturuga and his R-35 crew. Karl guesses this move was a surprise ’cause Ivan seems to react slowly. Other flank (8 tanks) which went straight southwards have encountered several enemy armors. Oberstleutnant Karl joins the counterattacking force. In hard close fight they manage to repulse Soviets back and to destory several light tanks. Battalion’s artillery is not threathened anymore. One ATG is functioning again when it’s crew returned to it. Immediately they take revenge and destroy T-26 and damage one T-28.

Right: Rifle company is retreating in forest. Lots of caualties taken. Only few molotovs and grenades have been hit well so far. Most miss. Artillery is slowing Bolsheviks down slightly. First AT guns in the north end of forest are in danger to be encirceled. Soon they have to withdraw.

This fight is slowly turning to us when Russkies are running short of tanks. Friedrich’s flanking tactic with tanks seems to take this battle to Oberstleutnant. When the counterattack begun, Ivan was weakened significally. Only place, where the situation still remains dangerous is the forest in the right flank. There’s no tank support and AT guns are worth of nothing in the middle of the forest. Romanian infantry is only thing to count on there. And it’s not strong enough to stop the enemy. Karl is ordering more artillery there. Many tubes are free now when the threat on north is over.

[Korpraali V]

0445

Counterattack of armored company have broken Ivan’s neck. Lots of infantry and armors retreating. Even right flank is performing well now: molotovs and AT gun destroyed three tanks on a roll and. 47mm AT gun took out T-34! Those monsters can be beaten, which is a good news. Bad news are that their artillery has found the Romanian one… But now armored company is chasing down Bolshevik infantry mass. Suddenly there are not many tanks to be seen. It’s weird how fast this seems to turn…

But soon number of Soviet tanks come out from the southern forest and start their counterattack. They seem to take most of their tanks to center. Romanian armors withdraw in to smoke screen and radio the enemy location to sublocotenent Cuza, Battlions forward observer who then counts the targets to artillery and the HE shells start to rain. That helps and Romanians are able to destroy several Soviet tanks. Hard fighting continues on the central hill. Lots of Bolshevik infantry is being killed. But also three R-2s and one R-1 are now burning. They are too much. Three other tanks have lost their main gun. Romanian tanks are not able to face Soviet ones. Karl who has participated the fight and lost two of his staff members sees the situation critical and orders his panzers back. Engineers are moving forward to chase enemy infantry and tanks. They are now on the second line –hill and next to central hill.

[Korpraali V]

0500

Two R-2s are flanking and move straight to south on the western side of the Soviet counterattack towards north. They’ll find some infantry squads and immobilized tank and destroy them. Because most enemies have withdrawn from the southern forest, platoon of riflemen come to assist R-2s.

After heavy barrages most of the enemy infantry and tanks are routed so that Romanian R-2s and R-35s can pop up the hill, shoot and withdraw back down with low risk. Some new Russian iron boxes set on fire again. One R-2 was destryed too but Bosheviks paid for that. Not many tanks left so this must be ended quickly before Ivan regroups his forces or this battalion will be wiped out. Oberstleutnant is still shorthanded and he knows that.

In the middle of the smoke southern side of the central hill Romanian engineers and tanks still fight against Soviet tanks. With the help of accurate artillery and good luck many Soviet tanks are destroyed again. Many are destroyed by Romanian mortars. Leftern flanking tanks find Ivan’s headquaters and kills the officers. Their lead is now gone. That affects mass panic in Soviet forces. Their fighting morale collapse. Men throw their weapons and run eastwards. Many surrender shouting ”tavarish, tavarish.” Tanks that are left wait still about half a minute. When they realize that all infantrymen are in full retreat, the panic catches them too and they start to turn and roll back with full speed. Some running Bolsheviks are crushed under their tracks. Total chaos. Unbelievable how the loss of leader affects to those communists… Oberstleutnant wonders and takes this as a lesson for future. About 30 prisoners taken, among them commander of Soviet light tank company. This was a long night. But now – finally – it’s over. It was about time. Romanian backbone was about to break. It appeared that 15th Battalion had stopped whole reinforced Soviet armored regiment (7 infantry companies and 7 armored companies + artillery battery).

Tonight’s heroes:

- Sergent Vulpes had 12 kills with his R-2 tank.
- Special mention goes to artillery (27 kills as a whole) and sublocotenent Cuza. Without their help the Romanian infantry, ATGs and tanks would have been overrunned, that’s for sure. After this fight all are friends of the artillerymen.
- Another special mention to AA and AT guns who took out over 50 enemy tanks as a whole.
- The support engineer company who lay down mines that killed enemy tanks and soldiers continuously ’till the end of the battle. They fought hard destroying several tanks and died almost to the last man. Soviet captured some of them and only sublocotenent Ivanovici’s squad survived. They were immediately assigned to 15th Battalion.

Romanian losses: 301 men, 2 artillery, 2 soft vechiles 5 AFVs (11529 points DV)

Soviet losses: 1075 men, 119 AFVs (again: I have no idea how this is possible…) (973 points CD)

R-1 tanks armed with two MGs have appeared to be too weak for heavy combat. After those T3s arrive we will hand our R-1s over to recon troops.

[Einar Fridgeirs]

Excellent performance! It seems that the Romanians can perform when commanded well!! Hopefully they will become exemplary troops once they gain more experience.

Very well written and grippin report. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[robot]

I too very much enjoyed your very interesting and gripping report. kudos to you put you right on the front line. Congratulations fro a well fought fight and to your excellent outcome.

[Einar Fridgeirs]

One point: Maybe you should select some tougher German tanks and rename the commanders with Romanian names later on in the campaign to reflect the "what if" potential that had the Romanians had better commanders, their victories and prestige would have prodded the Germans into diverting some equipment their way. It´s a sure bet that if the Romanians had proven to be more than third-stringers the Wehrmacht would have taken advantage of that

Damn I´m having more fun reading your thread than playing the damn game!!!

[Korpraali V]

Robot and Einar Fridgeirs: Thank you very much! I'm very glad you enjoyed this.

Einar: I wanted to keep this as Romanian WWII campaign. I try to avoid Germanizing this too much. That would be another campaign [;)]. However if you look at the Romanian tanks: R-2 was made by Skoda, it's Checkoslovakian tank which Germans knew as Pz-35. R-35 is French tank, also used by Germans as a second rate -tank. Then the T3... Take a look at the encyclopedia. However it was rare in Romanian troops. I'll try to stick to history as far as I can, so there'll be no Tigers etc. except on the battles with German AUX(Support) units. Taking the units from German OOB would give them too much experience etc. Romanians had no combat experience until now.

ORIGINAL: Einar Fridgeirs
Excellent performance! It seems that the Romanians can perform when commanded well!! Hopefully they will become exemplary troops once they gain more experience.

I think that was the main problem in reality too. With the equipments... And some Romanian units really had German leader AFAIK. I'm counting on that my troops gain experience and will be very trustable at the time masses of T-34s will arrive. At the beginning of the campaign I had five units experience above 50, now after the second battle half of my units are over 50. They are learning fast.

Mau Fox: Replaced Romanian troops are not getting German experience, but some other ratings are getting high boost upwards (arm rating, rally etc.).

[Korpraali V]

Argh... Wrong button.