8/17/41 Russian river assault Gomel

[robot]

Gomel Belorussia
8/17/12941
0700 Hours

We are to make a river crossing an assault against the Germans. We must slow them down at least to give our comrads at Kursk time to mount some kind of defense. It will be a three pronged attack. A will cross in the south edge of the map while B will cross at the top edge of the map. C in the center will cross over the bridge there. Quarter master has provided us with barge cariers to ferry our heavy armor across the river. As there will be mines laid at the waters edge on the other side Engineers will go across first. Vis is only 150 yards which may conceal some of our movement across. it is raining very hard and will also help in concealing us as we paddle across.

This is not going to be easy and will probaly cost us heavy in lifes and equipment. We will not jump off for another 20 minute as we plan to lay a heavy barrage on the opposite shore before we go. Also smoke will be dropped as close to the shore line as possible. have sent a photo of the way we are set up before departure. Hope this meets with your approval.

Our men are in high spirits and ready to go save the Mother land. Have not heard amy dispariging remarks any where among our men as we prepare for the fight of our lifes today. Have no artty barrage from there side as yet we are thankful for this at least.

HQ: V Guards Heavy Tank
Col: Ivan Tarsaar Commanding

[Einar Fridgeirs]

Good luck and godspeed Col. Tarsaar, the people of the Republic depend on you today. They, as well as I have the fullest confidence in your ability to win a glorious victory for the motherland today. Do not fail them. Or me.

The Boss.

[:D]

[robot]

Gomel Belorussia
8/17/1941
1800 Hours

Things do not look good for us. We have been laying a bombardment down for over an hour. But it doesnt seem to faze the Germans who are entrenched in our way. I know for over an hour I dropped 107 and 120 mortar rounds on the east exit of the bridge. And yet when we started the Engineer across so as to clean the mines at the end of bridge. The German infantry laying in wait there cut them to pieces. We have not been able to get across the bridge so far. Have not been able to clear the east end of the bridge so the Engineers can get to work on the mine field.

A and B company have managed to get all there men and armor across. But have not been able to move more then 150 yards off the river bank due to the heavy entrenchment of infantry and bunkers. Our artty does not seem to have any effect on the enemy at all. If it were our men they would be so deep down in there holes it would take a steam shovel to dig them out and get them to fire. We are trying to get some kind of forward movement out of our men right now. I have sent orders that the non coms are to start kickin ass.

They seem to have a heck of supply of 105 and 81 mm mortars today firing at us. They have already taken out 3 of our tanks and at least 50 men with this fire. The personal still on the river bank are unable to do anything due to the congestion of the forward troops and equipment. What i am saying is we are stuck and nowhere to move at this minute. See recon photo it will tell you all you need to know.

We have taken out at least 7 MMg bunkers and rifle pits with a heavy loss of life doing it tho. Our partisans are late infiltrating but have managed to take out 2 81 mortars and 1 MMG bunker so far with maybe 3 squads that have arrived. One squad was wiped out about 20 minutes ago as he appeared in amongst the mortars and tanks that were waiting for him. Like I said at the start the outcome of this battle is still much in doubt. But I personally aim to start kickin some butt and get this show on the road.

HQ: V Guard Heavy Tank
Col: Ivan Tarsaar Commanding

[robot]

Gomel Belorussia
8/17/1941
1900 Hours

This battle has not been kind to us. The Germans are fighting with a fanatical stubberness.
B comapny in the north is down to maybe 1/4 strength. After taking there objective they were hit with a large armor counter attack and pushed off the ground they held. The germans have retaken the north flags.

A in the south too had the same thing happen to them. They were attacked by a large force of stug b and captured t-34 tanks . They fought galantly but after losing 3 tanks they too were pushed off the objectives. They too are down to at least half strength. Most of the infantry remains dug down deep in there holes and are fighting to not get out of them. Our noncoms have been busy with just trying to get them to move forward.

It has come to my attention that we need a heck of a lot more training in marksman ship. Our guys cant hit there ass with both hands today. While all the Germans are either marksman or expert shots.

One bright spot has been two squads of partisans. they have managed by there self to caprture the southern objectives plus the rear south flags. And are right now close to taking the rear north ones as well. They are within 400 yards of doing this.

Also we finally managed to get C company across the river and into the fight. They moved fast towards the center flags and rescued A company there. The flags have been secured at this time. They have now turned there attention towards B comapny in the hope we can save some of the men there. As B company has no tanks left in support and need help with the large armor force that has taken the north flags.

We have had to put up with a large arty barrage the whole fight Including rocket barrages at one time. Also there were a lot of MMG bunkers and rifle pits spread all over the place. This is not going to go down as one of our better performances today. But these men have given there all and I am very proud of them. One thing that really pissed me off today was our tank gunners missing the enmey tanks at only 50 yards not once but several times.

HQ: V Guards Heavy Tank
Col: Ivan Tarsaar

[robot]

Gomel Belorussia
8/17/1941
2005 Hours

This battle raged for over 3 hours and the Germans fought to the very end. They were still trying to advance against me even at the very end. It was a brutal in your face type of fight. Could not see them very well and had to be right on them before we spotted and killed them. This is why so many brave men were lost today. 649 men were lost on our side. The commisars will not be happy today with the out come of this battle. How i dont know but we managed to get a draw against them. They lost 1251 men and 31 artty to our 7 artty destroyed. We also lost 3 barges comin across that dam river.

Our biggest loss was in armor tho 23 tanks were lost while we took out 43 of those dam stug b and a couple of there captured tanks they had. Our tank gunners showed me they need a lot more training. But the crews we lost really hurt us they are hard to come by right now at this time. I personally witnessed a shity performance by at least three of our tank gunners. A in moving over to take the center because C couldnt get across the bridge and take it. Wound up in a heck of duel with the German armor at the flags. Three of our tanks caught a stug b Cut off from its comrads and surrounded it. They fired 13 rounds at 50 yards and never hit it once not even a bounce off round. Finally managed to put one up its rear on the 14 shot. That is redicculis marksman ship if you ask me.

Even our infantry couldnt hit the enemy at 100 yards missing shot after shot. This is the main reason why we lost so many men. We shoot miss they shoot kill doesnt make for a very good day. What can you expect when you take peasants and give them a gun.

Our orders are to pull back to kiev and meet the Germans again. We were not able to get replacments for the all the men we lost . Plus there were no replacements for all the tanks we lost either. So we are going into this next fight short on men and equipment. When are we going to get the upper hand against the German so we can start doing more to them then they do to us. Soon winter will be here then we will see how they fend against mother nature as well as us pounding on them. This war is far from over but soon the tide will turn our way wait and see.

HQ: V Guard Heavy Tank
COL: Ivan Tarzaar Commanding

[PimpYourAFV]

Another great story. The Russians really know how to rack up the losses and you still got a 2:1 kill ratio which is fine. [8D] Are you playing the regular long campaign or a custom made one? I wanna try that river crossing too. Its fun doing sensely hard attacks like that cause it feels good when you finally do bag a win or at least get a draw.