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after our startling victories of earlier things are really grinding down for us Russians now... the Tigers have made our mobility something of a dangerous issue and despite having taken the VHs in the South the Germans are still holding onto the town in the centre and the central sector in the rear. A counterattack is looming, I can feel it. Two Pzivgs are even mounting the Northen heights!

A War Merit medal to Sgt. Wiedemann and his corageous actions! Really, to flee the battlefield in a fully functional Tiger at top speed! That takes guts I must admit. I have already informed his commanders of his actions, and they will award him properly.

Otherwise everyone is trying to look like they're not running away.
The PzB AT squad managed to knock out the organ on the flatbed approching the northern hillslope. Good, there's enough infantry as it is, we don't need quads turned against us as well.

Airstrikes! For a few seconds, everyone looked to the skies to see a stomach-turning event. A Sturmovik and a LaGG-3 swooped in over the town, toasting one Tiger and one PzIVg! Ouch ouch ouch. A second Sturmovik failed to knock out the second Tiger, but I bet the crew need a fresh change of underwear.

No talk of counteroffensives, we just try to get as many Ivans as possible before the inevitable. More Blood!

The glorious people's revolutionary army is now attacking the village in force and forcing the german fascists back. A german AT gun and pzivg have been neutralised on the northern heights and just south of the village another pzivg and a sig33 have bitten the dust. Soon those Tigers that remain will be roaming around on their own! A t-34 on the heights exchanged a few shots with one and spooked the crew a little.

The rumbling from the East can only mean the commisar has made good on those reinforcements however, our colonel says we don't need them now!

forward camrades!

Both the PzIVg and SiG has been without their guns since 5 turns back, so the effect on my fighting power was little.

HOWEVER - Kampfgruppe Belisarius picked out their yellow paint and white sheets and chickened out! I surrendered.

Why? I had about a company left and 5 tanks, but I realized that the only thing I could do was to a)surrender b)get as many as possible to the retreat hex. I chose a), since the force morale was low to the point of broken, and too scattered to manage an organized withdrawal that far. Hellcat had forces on all sides, including tanks in my rear area, and his artillery wreaked havoc in my lines. Good game though!

The game-winning move for Hellcat was undoubtedly the attack on the northern hill, where he almost wiped out an entire company, forcing me to abandon all plans on an advance. If I had only waited him out on that hillslope, instead of rushing blindly forwards. Poor scouting indeed

And I still haven't managed to knock a KV-1 in ANY game!

German OOB:

2 Rifle companies

2 Engineer platoons

1 SP Gun platoon (SiG33 auf PzIII)

2 PzIVg platoons

2 StuG40 platoons

3 FlakPz sections (6 total, vierlings on a SdKfz 7 chassis)

4 Forward observers

2 Scouts

2 150mm bty

1 Nebelwerfer bty (fired ONCE, never heard from again )

1 Motorized PAK plt (3 75mm PAK 40's with movers)

1 sniper

Called in:

2 Tiger sections (4 total)

1 SS Rifle platoon (never saw action)


Losses of importance:

Men: Germany 421 ____ Soviet 304

Artillery: Germany 5 _____ Soviet 0

AFVs: Germany 22 _____ Soviet 20

Aircraft: Germany 0 ____ Soviet 1 (hehe had to brag about that )

so the commisar never got to replace the colonel after all! It was quite a battle! Belisarius is right, the surprise (to both of us I think) taking of the Northern heights really made a difference to the battle and allowed me to funnel men and machines through to his rear area as well as get at his centre from the North as well as the East. His force still managed to put up a very stiff defence indeed! Especially in the Southern sector. His pzivgs were excellent against my t-34s and I'm sure he would have ripped open my KV1s with his Tigers if they had closed with each other however my Kvs were slow to reach anything close up and the Tigers remained mainly in the rear areas where they played havoc with my encirclement plans. My OOB as follows:-

HQ Unit
1 Cavalry platoon
1 BM-13 Katyusha platoon
2 Forward Observers
1 section of Ammo Carriers
1 OT-133(E) Flame Tank platoon (that didn't fo much!)
1 T-34E m.42 Squadron (9 Tanks)
1 T-34E m.42 Troop (3 Tanks)
1 T-30 Platoon (5 Recon Tanks)
1 Engineer Platoon
1 SMG Platoon
1 Guard Inf Company
1 Partisan Platoon (Infiltrated)
1 Partisan Sapper Platoon (Infiltrated)
1 section II-2 Sturmovik
1 section LaGG-3
1 Motorcycle Company
1 122 FH Battalion
1 107mm mortar battery
1 76.2mm AT Gun Platoon
1 Komsomolets Platoon
1 KV1E m.41 (1C) Platoon (5 Tanks)
2 GAZ-4M AA Platoons
1 Rifle Company
3 Gaz-M1 Emka utility vehicles

I called reinforcements (but they took no part in the battle - too late again!)

1 II-2 Sturmovik section
2 T-34E m.42 troops
1 KV-1E (1C)troop
1 GAZ-4M AA Platoon
2 85mm AA m.39 (but nothing to transport them doh!)
1 Komsomolets Platoon (that won't carry the above!)
1 T-34E m.41 section
2 Gaz-M1 Emka utility vehicles

The soviet infantry gave a good account of themselves and didn't suffer too badly from rally issues. My partisans ended up acting mainly as scouts rather doing any real damage.

The early attack on the heights ensured I retained most of the initiative and from that point the German advance became defence. However it was a bloody stout defence at times, especially in the central village and the South where I was stalled for most of the game. In the North, South and German rear areas there was a lot of creeping around as movement in the open was lethal...

All in all a good fun battle, Belisarius knows how to set up good fields of fire and I strayed into them on several occasions and suffered for it! It was very difficult to find any of his armor for a side or rear shot, even when I had penetrated his rear areas.

glory to the people's army!

hellcat

Excellent job guys! Thanks!:D

Goblin- A Goblin feels Bels pain:(