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I wanted to try my hand at the Herman Goring campaign in COI. I have a couple of books that mention the division’s efforts to beat back the Russian bridgehead along the Vistula in August of ’44.

Anyway, here’s the briefing.

The first map has two hills, running north to south, parallel to a small town beyond which there’s some patches of cultivated ground. The far northeast corner has a small copse of woods and just south of that the road to Studzianki runs due east.

The basic plan’s pretty simple. The panthers will advance by section across the map, with the rearmost tanks providing overwatch from the northern hill. A platoon of infantry (the two medium and heavy weapons squads) will follow under the cover of smoke once the tanks have uncovered and – hopefully – taken out the first line of ATGs. And the schutzen will stay on the reverse slope of the southern hill as a reserve – the mortar carrying halftracks behind them.

The first part goes how I hoped. Grau and his section watch from their patch of high ground as the lead panthers draw fire from a 76mm anti-tank gun sitting behind one of Grabnowola’s two-story buildings. He takes the crew under fire….

Just before Hartmann’s mortar rounds reduce the ATG to scrap.

The lead panthers reach the first line of houses without drawing any fire, and my first platoon of infantry begins to slog its way over the northern hill, followed by the Stummel and the command track. As soon as they hit the ridge they break into a full-on run, but I hit the first snag as the smoke screen thrown up by my mortars just doesn’t kick in fast enough to prevent me from drawing fire from a hidden Russian rifle squad.

Luckily, I eventually do get the screen I was looking for, which lets my infantry reach Mariampol without suffering any casualties, the first Russian mortar rounds of the game falling behind my grenadiers.

Meanwhile, Grau bags a Russian command car that was trying to reverse its way from the smoking wreckage of the ATG.

The screenshot shows what I was trying for (the first plumes of smoke are just popping up). I didn’t plunk the screen directly in front of the tanks. I wanted it to cover my right flank. The Russian rifle squad didn’t draw any blood because it got pummeled the moment it showed itself. But it was a close thing…

It’s here that I suffer my first losses. A Russian mortar round drops directly on top of my Stummel as it moves up alongside my infantry – the lead tank is already scooting into the village, supported by two squads of grenadiers. Two of the crew are killed instantly. The rest run for cover.

The lead panthers keep pressing forward, my infantry right scooting from house to house. The tanks catch an enemy squad moving across the road to Studzianki. Their machine guns chop the other side into hamburger.

And Schorndorff’s infantry squad, covering the panzers’ left flank, earns its pay by annihilating a second batch of infantry that tries to advance out of the woods along the northeast corner. The grenadiers, overall, do their job as the heavy weapons squad bringing up the rear mow down two more foot soldiers trying to sneak up on the tank’s right side.

What went well:
· Overwatch and arty first suppressed, then killed the Russian ATG.
· The smoke DID help somewhat to cover the infantry’s advance, and it was placed correctly.
· The infantry kept pace with the tanks (linking up at that part of the map where enemy infantry could have posed a threat)
· We kept moving. The Russian arty only caught up with us at the very end, and it was a fluke shot that killed the Stummel.

What went wrong:
· I need to time my smoke screens better.


2nd battle’s already done, I’ll have it up in an hour or two.

Briefing #2

Apart from replacing the lost Stummel and refitting some damage to the command halftrack, I leave my roster unchanged.

The map itself only has a few main features. There’s a hill west of center running north to south, which I’ll use for cover. A marshy river with a lone ford separates that feature from a hill to the east (beyond which there’s open ground). That same river forks in the northeast to wrap around a patch of high ground with a Russian-marked VL.

Going to be honest, I have no intention of using my infantry for the bulk of this battle. There’s too much open ground. Little to no cover, with too many vantage points that could be held by the other side. The panthers will have to do most – if not all – of the work.

The basic approach remains the same as last time. A section of tanks occupies our ridgeline, while the other two panthers round the slope (they don’t crest it) and make for that ford in the center of the map.

Grau and Busch make for the crossing. There’s a tense moment when Grau announces he’s mired, but the panther is able to break through the muck and gain purchase on solid ground. By now a hidden ATG on the forward slope of the hill in front of us is banging away, bouncing shells off Busch’s hull. That isn’t a problem …I direct speculative fire from the overwatching panzers at puffs of smoke spotted on that slope ….. so much as a SECOND gun that’s firing from somewhere to the north. It’s this ATG that immobilizes the panther, leaving Grau on his own.

On the plus side, a recon team by the water's edge pops its head up and bleeds for it, the anti-tank gun on the forward slope is revealed, and the overwatching panzers are able to suppress it long enough for my mortars to knock it out of action. Seconds later, a T-34 sporting an 85mm gun crests the ridge.

That’s OK, though, because Grau has 75mm AP ready for him. We score a tank-to-tank kill in near record time.

I reinforce my lead tank by pushing more armor forward. By now, Busch’s suffered some casualties from repeated hits by that second emplacement, and I have my assault platoon peeking its head out to the north.

Grau crests the Russian held ridge, spots a SU-76i to the east, and reverses out of sight as Russian infantry is now swarming into view, chucking satchel charges at his tank. I watch ‘em explode all around my panther, but luckily no damage results, and the other side pays for coming into view.

Now teamed up with another tank, Grau scoots around the northern edge of the eastern hill, and both crews take the SU-76i under fire.

He's gone.

Meanwhile, the other side’s started moving around in that marshy stretch near the northeast hill. Mortars take their grunts under fire. Soon after, my grenadiers have spotted that second ATG emplacement and taken it under fire. They’re supported by my mortar crews, which land an immediate hit with catastrophic results.

My soldiers, in return, beat feat as arty rounds from the other side chase them into hiding (luckily, no one’s hurt).

After that, the enemy riflemen who survived that attempt to retake their hill are whittled down further by my forward tank section’s machine guns, and the enemy flees the map.