Potapov Strikes Malin-Korosten area AAR

[Gary Tatro]

After tremendous success with their push for Kiev the Southern army found themselves within arms reach of its goal, only to be called back to deal with a potent and deadly foe. Potapov’s 5th Army made up of the 2nd Calvary and 35th Tank Divisions had been making progressively stronger and deadlier raids against northern flank of Southern army out of the Pripet Marshes. Coloniel Vebber had been called back from the front to be attached to the 6th Army, which had been receiving the burnt of the raids. Vebber was ordered to prepare to perform a reconnaissance, in force, of the Pripet Marshes. Vebber’s Infantry Company and his Kampfgruppe would be forced to share the road with 98th Infantry Division’s 282nd Regiment. The 282nd Regiment would take the high road while Vebber’s outfit needs to make a decision on how he will move his Company and Kampfgruppe through the marshes. This is where we join our commander.

“So, what should it be Wirth? Should be keep the infantry together and break up the Kampfgruppe or the other way around. We need to share the road with the vaunted 282nd Regiment, so we have to get out of their way, so they can get through.”
Wirth smiled back at Vebber, “Well Coloniel it seems that the 282nd are being most unaccommodating since we are here to protect there a$$es. But, I think we should keep the infantry together. Our scouts say that Malin is now deserted, but that could quickly change and I want the infantry there to clear out resistance if it comes to house-to-house fighting, besides it will be good for moral.”
Vebber grunted, “for the infantry.”
Wirth smile, “well yes Coloniel, it is all about the infantry.”

[Gary Tatro]

Heavy radio static and the scream of mortar shells cutting through the air abruptly pulls Vebber from the map he was looking at.
“Hauptmann we are receiving heavy artillery fire all along the upper road, 152mm & 122mm shells are landing all around us”
Vebber listens for a minute to the sounds of the explosions coming through the radio. Until he notices that his men have also taken cover and that the sounds he was hearing were not just coming from the radio. “Wirth report, give me a heads up.”
“Coloniel, the 282nd has just received a tremendous bombardment of heavy artillery all along the upper road. Most of the 282nd are acting like worms; we need to get them rallied. Some of the men have spotted a squad of Cossacks coming toward the line. If 282nd lines break they will be cut to pieces,” yelled Wirth over the explosions.
“Capt. Brors report how are your men doing up there?”
“Coloniel, we are not as bad off as your 1st LT suggests. We can handle a few Russian Cossacks without any problem,” sneered Brors.
“Ok, Brors we will secure the town. But I am going to send my fast recon units to support your right flank, leave what little artillery I have here to support your efforts and send one of my platoons up the road to your far right to support your left flank. From the reports I have read if these Cossacks get in close enough they can be a deadly force. Do not take any chances with them this could be the infamous Soviet 2nd Calvary division lead by Potapov himself. Have your men form up a line of defense put up smoke in front of you and destroy anything that comes through. I am going to personally direct the artillery and supervise your defense Brors so don’t disappoint me. Wirth you take the rest of the Company up to the town and secure it. Send one of the Sdkfz 250/1’s loaded with the army’s doorknocker and a recon team up to the far east road and set up a roadblock for anything coming down the road.

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber watched with dismay as over the next several minutes the 282nd was hit with what seemed like a horde of Cossack cavalry, coming through the line of smoke, throwing them selves at the 282nd. He dropped his spyglasses briefly as he heard the screams of the men of the 282nd over the radio. To there account the 282nd destroyed what must have been a full platoon of Cossacks but it was not enough, the center of the line disintegrated and the line brook.
Vebber screamed into the radio, “Hold that dame line! If you are split in two you will loose the whole company! Damit, I will catch that Cossack that slipped though the middle. Alright we are ok, Brors report.”
“Um Sir Brors is gone, so it another rifle squad, a machine gun squad, and a 50mm mortar squad.”
“Who is this,” asked Vebber.
“2nd LT Vosse Coloniel.”
“Vosse I am taking command of the 282nd. I want you to rally all the men you can and hold that line. Do not, I repeat do not, pursue any Cossacks retreating, do you understand?”
“Yes, sir!”

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber turned to his radioman, “contact Wirth and find out what is happening in Malin.”
“Aye Sir, Wirth reports that a large contingent of Armor is moving towards Malin, he reports seeing T28’s, T27’s BT-7’s KV-1’s and infantry in company strength.”
Vebber cursed, “tell him he will have to hold Malin at all costs we have our hands full here and we will not be able to spare him any help.”

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber takes command of the 282nd directing them, rallying them. The men seeing there commander lay down covering fire for them rally and hold the lines against the unmerciless Cossack hordes, as they push against all sides, slowly pushing the 282nd back closer to the swamp. Vebber scans the lines watching the 282nd repulse squad after squad of Cossacks charging though the smoke. Seeing that the men are being hard pushed and falling back orderly, Vebber breathes a sigh of relief allowing him self to think that 282nd would get through this ok, until her hears the familiar scream of 155mm and 122mm round cutting though the air. Vebber screams, “incoming,” into the radio seconds before he dives for the dirt.

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber stands up and shakes the dirt off his shoulders as the bombardment ceases. Speaking into the radio Vebber commands, “2nd Lt Vosse report.” Vebber scans the lines with his looking glasses trying to pierce the smoke, waiting for a reply. As the minutes go by Vebber sees the men of the 282nd are broken, openly fleeing, he listens helplessly as he hears the screams and cries of the men of the 282nd, but only for a minute. Vebber and his command are soon fighting for there lives as four squads of Cossack cavalry break through the smoke and, seeing his command vehicle, charge. Happy to finally be able to see a foe, Vebbers’ face slowly breaks into a grin as he fires his sub-machine gun into the advancing Cossacks watching with fury as squad after squad retreats back into the smoke. The radio crackles, Vebber quickly fires off another burst from his sub-machine gun and breathing heavy yells, “report, give me a report!”
2nd Lt Vosse quickly scans his men listening to the radioman and then screams “don’t pursue those men,” to late, Vosse knows the blood lust and can see it in his men. They want payback for their countrymen that were cut down in front of them. Vosse watches as he sees men of the 282nd run forward into the smoke only to instantly hear the crack of gunfire and the explosions of Molotov’s as they are ambushed by the waiting Cossacks. Vosse listens for a few more seconds then, “Coloniel, we are holding the line but it is costing us dearly. Between the artillery and the Cossacks in the last few minutes we have lost a full platoon of GE Riflemen, two more of our machine guns, three ATR groups, a 37mm ATG, two 50 mm mortar squads and two wagons. Though we did eliminate four squads of Cossacks and forced what I believe was about a company to retreat back into the smoke, but Coloniel we can’t hold against this.”
“Find your dame back bone man, if we do not hold here we will leave Lt Wirth to a double envelopment, with tanks on the front and the Cossacks on the left. I have brought up my other platoon of infantry on your left flank. You have to hold! Do you hear me? You have to hold!

[Gary Tatro]

Wirth, Wirth are you hearing this?”
“Yes, Coloniel I hear you, we have just made it into the town. We have laid down a smoke shield and are waiting for Ivan’s tanks to come to us; they are right on the outskirts of the town. Our Stugs are set up in a good position and we have most of the flak and ATGs set up so I think we are ready. If you can hold we should be able to issue a little pay back.”
“We will hold, even if I have to kill every single Cossack myself. You take care, the Stugs will not be able to penetrate those KV-1s so it is up to you and your men, remember the tricks we used at Dunbo, Vebber out.”

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber looked up as again he heard the now all to familiar high-pitched sound of 152mm and 122mm artillery rounds shattering the air. Only to be knocked over by his radioman flying though the air after a 152mm round exploded behind him.

2nd Lt Vosse tried for the third time to raise Coloniel Vebber on the radio. He stopped briefly to fire off his weapons at yet another Cossack squad coming though the smoke. His squad was now at 40% of its strength and he was worried, he was not able to reach Colonial Vebber or Lt Wirth on the radio. His men were still alive, but the last few minutes he had seen and been in some of the most intense and difficult fighting of his life. His regiment had gone beyond all expectations and had forced the Cossacks to retreat yet again and he had seen five more Cossack squads disintegrate under the 282nd withering fire and not one squad of the 282nd had been lossed, but he had lost contact with Vebber and could not reach anyone in Malin.
The radio came to life in his hands, “this is 2nd Lt Schnurrbart at Malin, Coloniel Vebber come in.”
“2nd Lt Schnurrbart this is 2nd Lt Vosse of the 282nd Regiment. I have not been able to reach Vebber, his position was just bombarded by the Ivans and I have lost radio contact can you give me a report.”

[Gary Tatro]

“Vosse we have engaged the 35th tank division in earnest here in Malin. Lt Wirth was leading the infantry in the assault on the KV-1 platoon that entered the city. The platoon shrugged off his assaults like you would a mosquito bite and drove right through the middle of them. I saw him gather what was left of his squad and retreat into one of the buildings. Those monsters are right in the middle of our two infantry platoons and we have hit them with assault after assault but it is as if we were throwing sticks at them. We did manage to immobilize one of them. Our Kampfgruppe did much better than we did they took out two BT-7m’s a T-27, and 2 BT-2m33. Thank god for our Stugs.”
2nd Lt Schnurrbart listened quietly as 2nd Lt Vosse filled him in on the hell that the 282nd had been going through. Gave him some quick encouragement and grabbed a bundle of Grenades that his squad had just tapped together and headed for the nearest KV-1 in grim determination.

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber slowly opened his eyes, he could hear machine gun fire, screams of men wounded and dieing, explosions of Molotov’s and grenades, yet it wasn’t all registering. He felt a great weight upon his chest and suddenly his eyes focused on his radioman Shultz, who was lying on top of him. He felt something warm and sticky on Shultz’s back as he went to grab a hold of him and then looked into his dark unmoving eyes. Taking a deep breath and holding the bile building up in his stomach Vebber rolled and pulled Shultz’s corpse off of himself. Standing he looked down at Shultz, who stared back at him with accusing eyes wide open and a look of surprise on his face. Vebber slowly reached down, and as a hot tear ran down his check, pulled Shultz’s eyes shut.
“You will never see Kiev my friend. For that, I am sorry.” Vebber quickly knuckled away the other tear forming and picked up his sub-machine gun. There were Ivans that would pay this day. Calling to his men, which were still in their SdKfz 250/1 halftracks that had been immobilized in the swamps, to jump out of their vehicles and flank him as he charged forward and retook that North road.

[Gary Tatro]

One by one his body parts started to come back under his control, Wirth watched with vivid fascination as the same process took place with each of the men in his squad. He watched each man closely his squad had never broken before, but then again they had never had a full platoon KV-1’s drive right though them before. Even at Dunbo they had had tank support. This time it had only been them. He quickly went around to each man a pat on the back here, a word of support there. He saw the horror of the experience was quickly fading and that these men would come out stronger in the end. In a few minutes he could see that his squad would be ready to go back. Their shame at having run from the enemy, the Ivans, quickly replaced the terror of the KV-1 monsters and now they were ready to show the Ivans just what the German army man was made of. Wirth quickly had the men pool their grenades together as another man tapped them up into a big grenade balls. Wirth and company looked out the door of the building they were in and could see the four KV-1’s out in the road in front of the building. Wirth grabbed a ball of grenades and dashed the fifty yards to one of the KV-1’s as it was firing at another squad of his brethren. Jumping onto the back of the KV-1 he stuck the ball right behind the turret pulled the pin and rolled off the tank. The explosion that ensued sucked all the oxygen out of the air. Wirth quickly ran back to the building only to note that the crew of another KV-1 had panicked after his successful assault and had jumped out of their tank. Wirth quickly directed the fire of his squads and cut them down. Two more of his infantry squads immobilized the last two KV-1’s that were in the road.

[Gary Tatro]

2nd Lt Vosse read the report, one KV-1 destroyed, one KV-1 crew killed, and 2 KV-1’s immobilized. The Kampfgruppe had also destroyed two T28m38’s, three T-27’s, one Bt-7m and another tank crew up in Malin. He also was hearing over the radio that Colonial Vebber had retaken the North road and that he had with the help of the 282nd eliminated another six squads of Cossacks and a Tachanka machine gun. He flipped the page of the report noting that Vebber had lost two of his infantry squads and a 37mm ATG in the process.

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber smiled to himself. Things were looking better, they had not been hit by artillery in a while and reinforcements were arriving. The Cossacks were getting obliterated. The report from 2nd Lt Vosse said that the 282nd and his infantry platoon had taken out TEN Cossack squads over the last few minutes and that Lt Wirth was alive and his Kampfgruppe had destroyed a Zig-5 anther BT-7m and the last two KV-1’s in Malin along with another two tank crews. Though victory was coming at a high cost, another rifle squad had been cut down by the Cossacks along with a machinegun squad, and ATR group. Even one of his vaunted SdKfz 250/1 half-tracks had been assaulted and destroyed by those accursed Cossacks.

[Gary Tatro]

Vebber motioned to his new radioman; he had been out of contact for to long and needed to speak with Wirth. “Wirth come in, what is your position?”
“Coloniel we have cleared Malin of the KV-1 tanks, but there is another pair of KV-2’s coming up the middle. We are moving into position to assault them now. They advanced their tanks without infantry support and it cost them dearly, but they are now moving their infantry in with the KV-2’s.”
“Have you received any artillery fire in Malin, Wirth?”
“No Coloniel I do not think that Ivans new we were here until a few minutes ago.”
“Well be on the look out. We were receiving 152mm and 122mm fire every couple of minutes here, but it has been strangely quiet over the last five minutes. Vebber out.”

[Gary Tatro]

Vebbers words were ringing in Wirth’s ears when he heard the familiar drumming of 152mm and 122mm artillery rounds buzzing through the air. “Hit the dirt,” yelled Wirth as he followed his own advice. The bombardment seemed to last for hours though it probably only lasted 60 seconds. Wirth quickly rallied his men only to see KV-2’s plow through the smoke and trees just ahead of him. He watched helplessly as round after round of Stug ammo bounced off their thick armor. Wirth shrugged they might as well be using practice rounds. He watched in dismay as one of his squads closed with the Dreadnaught and attempt to assault it, only to have it turn and fire that monstrous 152mm heat round into them. Scattering not only that squad, but also two other squads nearby. Wirth cursed, it did not look like it would be possible to keep those monsters out of Malin.
“2nd Lt Vosse, please report.” Vebber had been to busy over the last few minute repelling Cossack charges to command the battle, so he had passed command onto 2nd Lt Vosse who seemed like a good man.
“Colonial I am happy to report that your infantry and the 282nd have eliminated nine more squads of Cossacks over the last few minutes. I am sorry to say that Lt Wirth is not doing so well, the artillery has switched to his position and the KV-2’s have entered Malin. Wirth says that they did not have any losses, but if they get hit again with artillery and the KV-2’s he believes that they might have some heavy losses.”
“Tell Wirth to take heart, we might be able to send him some help soon. We seem to have gained the upper hand here and reinforcements continue to stream in.”

[Gary Tatro]

“Vosse to Vebber, we are starting to run out of ammo. I have one machine gun that is empty and most of my men are low.”
“Well scavenge the dead, they don’t need it,” growled Vebber. “What is the good new?”
“Nothing good from Malin Colonial, I believe they were hit with artillery again. The 282nd is cleaning and clearing up the area. We have cleared out another five Cossack squads, a machine gun and have lost no squads.”
“Great work Vosse, I am going to put you up for promotion if you live through this. Wirth come in, Wirth?”

[Gary Tatro]

Wirth signaled his squads. Minutes before he had watched the two KV-2’s drive right through his Kampfgruppe blasting away at his poor disoriented men who were trying to recover after another barrage of 152mm and 122mm bombardment. He watched in horror as a 3.7mm ATG squad, a 20mm Flack 38 squad and a sniper disintegrated and the rest of his men retreat as the two dreadnaughts pored Heat round after Heat round into them.
Fist raised high Wirth gave hand signals to Sgt Averitz’s squad to assault the dreadnaught. He thought to him self, here’s a little pay back you son-of-a-*itch. Again Wirth watched in amazement as the KV-2 shrugged off his men’s assaults, like a wet dog flips its fur back and forth to dry itself.
“Coloniel they are killing us, and there is nothing we can do to stop them,” cried Wirth.
“Hang in there Wirth, don’t despair man, remember Dunbo,” replied Vebber.
Wirth quickly reported that the Stugs had pulled back away from the KV-2’s and had engaged the other targets, successfully destroying another BT-7m, a 7.62 Maxim HMG and a crew from a T-28m34.

[Gary Tatro]

Coloniel we concentrated our infantry groups on the two KV-2’s and have managed to immobilized one of them. We lost another sniper and a machine gun squad in the process,” reported Wirth.
“Keep at it Wirth you will crack those dreadnaughts if anyone can,” replied Vebber.
“We are in the process of cleaning up the 2nd Calvary division. We took out another four squads of Cossacks while you were dancing with those KV-2’s,” Vebber informed Wirth hoping to lift his spirits.

[Gary Tatro]

Wirth grimaced and kept his head down as the KV-2 fired another Heat round into his area. No matter how many times his men got up the courage to assault those monsters the results always seemed the same. The tank would shake like a buggy ride on a pot-holed road and then jet forward fifty feet while turning its huge turret and firing on the poor men who had just assaulted it. Well Wirth had had enough. He signaled his men and they crawled on their bellies to within 20 yard of the monster. Wirth could see another squad on the other side of the tank, each trying to get close enough to attach their sticky bombs to the treads of the beast. Wirth gave the signal, a wry grin spread on his face as he watched his men run forward and slap the sticky bombs onto the treads. The grin turned into a smile as he watched the bombs explode and the treads come falling off the tanks wheels.
“Hauptmann, we have succeeded in immobilizing the last KV-2, but the men are still having trouble putting them completely out of action,” breathed Wirth heavily. “If we could just get a break from this f*cking shelling we could clean up here. Colonial the Stugs have also eliminated two So Motorized infantry squads, 2 Machine guns, and another T-27.”
“Good job Wirth, we are in the mop up stage here. We found and cleared out another Cossack and another machine gun. I am trying to send some troops your way but I am not sure they will get there in time. I will send out spotters to see if they can locate any smoke plums to target in the woods and swamp.”

[Gary Tatro]

“Coloniel we did it, both crews from the KV-2’s jumped out of their tanks and we mowed them down. Not much else to report except that we are moving into position to support the Stugs and attack the So infantry, we took out a machine gun squad and we lost another sniper.”
“Great work Wirth!” cried Vebber. “I knew you could do it man! We have been moving forward trying to locate that artillery but have not been seen any smoke plums at all. Be careful that artillery has still not been silenced,” cautioned Vebber.
“We will, Hauptmann,” Wirth out.