Romania - Perekop

[Korpraali V]

22/10/41 0500

Visibility 300 meters, weather: thunderstorm, turns 39

Romania Advance – Soviet Advance

The 11th Army is now under command of von Manstein. Oberstleutnant Karl is part of the Romanian detachment added to Germans. The army is now advancing in the Perekop sector. Advance of Romanian 15th battalion had just started when the HQ informs that the Soviets are advancing straight towards the battalion area. They are trying a breakthough in the middle of thunderstorm. That is not allowed by von Manstein and the 15th battalion was alarmed. Just a slight turn and the battalion is ready to face Ivan again. Before the contact half-killed cavalry squadron arrives from the middle of the darkness. They were almost shot as enemies. It appeared that they had been the fast scouting unit in the area and were surprised by the enemy. Now, eager to give something back, they are added to 15th battalion. The battle is about to start. The sun has not yet risen so the visibility will be very limited. Speed and scouting will probably play important role this morning.


Support:

Cavalry half squadron
Squadron Hq
1st Platoon (4x Cavalry)
2nd Platoon (3x Cavalry)

Transport
4x Malaxa UE
4x Malaxa UE
Civilian Bus


Deployment:

Left: Rifle company and four platoons of tanks (R-2s and R-35s) will advance to forest and stop the enemy there. Far left the cavalry will try to flank the Soviets and reach their rear area.

Center and right areas will be left to the enemy. But when the Bolsheviks reach for the breakthrough, they’ll be surprised by AT guns, AA guns, HMGs, T3 platoon and Engineer company. All AT guns have at least one vechile to move it quickly to safer place when the situation becomes critical.


Attachment: map

[Korpraali V]

0520

Karl looks around, talking with Leutnant Brandt: ”Bad weather. Not much can be seen and moving is slow. All the equipments are wet, as are men. Not a good time to fight for us. We need space and visibility, this is their advantage. Apparently their leader knows how to use it. It’s going to be a hard morning for all of us. And my coffee gets cold…

The first contact takes place on left, as expected. T-27s, BT-7s and infantry advances towards the Romanians. Most of them are either destroyed or sent packing, but also sergent Noie’s R-2 is destroyed. Not very good start. Sergent himself is still alive and is running towards safe, slightly wounded.

Next few minutes bring more Soviet light tanks to the forest. Many are approaching from the south over the hill. This area seems to have their interest. Many are destroyed in the close tank battle. Mortars give accurate support while the artillery shoots little behind Ivan’s first units. Over a dozen of Soviet tanks are burning or seriously damaged and abandoned in small area in the forest.

Nothing on the other areas yet.



Attachment: Battle

[Korpraali V]

0545

Fighting in the leftern forest continues. Locotenent Georghiu’s R-2 was destroyed and two R-35s have lost their main guns. Enemy have lost about twenty tanks and some infantry. Now the medium tanks are joining the fight. They are T-28 models so even the R-2s 37mm gun is penetrating their armour. Bigger problems are those T-26E models that front hull armour is exceptionally thick and is penetrated only by T3s 50mm gun. And only câpitan Lazarian’s T3 is on left. After destroying more enemy tanks Romanians finally have to give some ground to regroup and form their lines again. Meter by meter moving back covering the crewmen and trying to avoid situations where only one Romanian tank can shoot the enemy. R-2s are far too light to overcome Soviet tanks. They are quite equal to their light ones, but now it is something more that is needed than equal. Soviets can throw against one Romanian tank company masses of their armour and losing 5:1 won’t seem to affect anything. This is mostly tank fight. Infantry have only shot few shots and killed couple tanks. Their infantry has done even less. It seems that the accurate and concentrated artillery fire keeps them from advancing.

First Soviet barrages hit the area and cut the tracks of sergent Troester’s R-35. Not good. When the Bolsheviks get closer the crew has to abandon the vechile and head to north away from Soviets. As have whole tank company and rifle company with them. Alone riflemen cannot survive.

Nothing on the other areas yet. Cavalry has managed to flank the Bolsheviks. Now it’s time to find some targets to them.

[Korpraali V]

0600

Cavalry reports that they’ve encountered Soviet AA-trucks. One of them was destroyed quickly by accurate rifle fire. Second one wiped out the whole cavalry squad! Second cavalry squad, led by sergent Lupu, revenged and destroyed that one. Sergent Lupu, however, wasn’t able to celebrate the triumph for long. Third GAZ-AA slaughtered him and his men to the open road. Third GAZ was dealed quickly. Soviets had placed around them few light mortars that were now able to fire accurate shortrange fire. That took out third cavalry squad. Too hard casualties, and the rest of the squadron is routed. They are ready to ride home.

Battle on left continues and more Soviet tanks are destroyed in the small area. Romanian mortars soften them significally before they’ll clash the R-2s. That gives Romanians slight advantage as do the fact that they’re always getting the first shot. Most of the shots miss, even under 50 meter range, but after that combination most Bolsheviks are, if not dead, at least very suppressed and unable to fight. But what happens when there’s someone who will keep shooting back despite of all this… There’ll be someone, this can’t work all the time. This is armour close fight with all weapons in use. Karl misses again his former battle-hardened German unit. But no can do, now the situation is different and he has to live with that. After all, these Romanians have been surprisingly quick to learn. That’s good, because the battle gives you quite little time to learn how to survive. Also he has had to be quick to learn how to use these Romanians and play with their advantages against the enemy weaknesses. Now, this night battle has again showed something valuable. Those who will survive, have learned a lot.

T3 platoon on the right is ordered to flank Ivan.



Attachment: Fighting in the forest.

[robot]

Korrp you need to get your infantry in and let them assualt those tanks first before your tankers open fire. I have had squads assault tanks up to 5 times if you keep hitting the morale which is the r key and keep there suppression down then the tanks dont fire back after your tanks first shot. Have had squads take out a tank on there fifth succesive assault in a turn. As long as there suppresion is down below 10 they will continue to assualt as long as they still have shots to fire. Really makes your heart sing to see a tank go boom on that last desperate assualt by the squad.[;)][;)]

[Einar Fridgeirs]

This may be a spoiler for my own DAR thread, but my Maquis infantry that I bought simply because I had some points left over nailed 2 Somuas and a Panzer III and slaughtered the crews. Not bad for a bunch of civvies with shotguns and molotovs!


Oh and good job with the Romanians Korpraali. Good luck and godspeed!

[Korpraali V]

(Robot: Yes, I should have used the infantry more in the first line. But gotta remember that the Romanian ratings are still so low that most of my infantry won't rally more than once, if even that. They'll mostly stay pinned in suppression 8 -status. And many won't assault but only get suppressed. However, they can take more hits than R-2s and draw fire to them and away from tanks. And their advantage is to have AT-weapons in every squad [:)].

Fortunately the Soviet ratings are also so low that usually they too will get suppressed easily. But yes, more infantry use needed [:)] Thanks for the feedback!


And gongratulations Einar and thanks!)




0605

Soviet pressure on left is getting lighter. Oberstleutnant wonders the reason. At least three of them can be found quickly: 1) They are running out of tanks 2) Cavalry and T3s on right flank have turned their attention away from here 3) They’re moving troops from the other areas to our left and it takes time to concentrate them.

There’s not much time to hesitate, and Karl orders câpitan Lazarian, leader of armoured company, to advance slightly. Lazarian is the commander of left flank. He’s the oldest officer in the area. Sublocotenent Banciu, commander of rifle company, has not yet seen much battle. Together with infantry R-2s, R-35 and T3 are advancing and destroying routed Bolshevik tanks and infantry. The enemy is slowly withdrawing and suffering high casualties. Also infantry assaults seem to work well. Sergent Maatescu’s rifle squad has assaulted three armors so far. And they’re looking for more. No one can count the number of destroyed and abandoned Soviet tanks in that small area. There must be at least two companies of them.

Right: T3s have encountered Soviet infantry. Nothing serious, just mass of meat in the front of machine guns and steel. They seem not to have the spirit to fight. Many squads are surrendered when they’ve lost only few men. Câpitan Madgearian gets the orders to move his engineers forward. Then sudden accident takes place: Sergent Melinte shoots the Bolsheviks and hits sublocotenent Nistor’s T3 which is destroyed. Two crewmembers survive but now the others have to concentrate to keep them safe. But before they’re able to do anything, maxim HMG kills the helpless ones. Others kill the HMG but it is too late for Nistor and his crew. They were one of the best crews the Romanians had. After the battle Karl wants to get full report of the accident and what caused it. He’s going to personally hear all the eyewitnesses and then decide if there’s need for Kriegsgericht.

Cavalry is in big trouble. Fourth squad is destroyed by light mortar barrage. Only one mortar taken out so far and half of the cavalry has been lost. Artillery tries to help, but it’s hard when the cavalry can’t give any coordinates where they’re being shooting at.



Attachment: Sublocotenent Nistor, KIA

[robot]

Its tough when you lose the good ones in battle eh korp. especially too a stupid mistake. this hurts even more.

[PimpYourAFV]

I like this story, a nice hard-fought rumble with both sides falling to the mat while still slapping away at each other. I wanna try a Romania-USSR fight sometime too.

[azraelck]

I'm the same way, but I haven't even found a romanian campaign in the base game. I haven't joined the Depot yet, so that's probably where this ones coming from.

[Korpraali V]

(Robot: Yes, this almost made me to press the 'Exit' and to load the saved turn... almost. These kind of stupid losses really hurt. Who would have thought that HE ammo hits the only place where it can penetrate - if lucky/unlucky - Pz-III: Top hit... (well, bottom hit may do it too...)

Tensai-San: Thanks! This is very challenging - sometimes even frustrating [;)]

Azraelck: This is just regular German WWII Campaign. Just change the 'Nation' before every battle and purchase. Also when fixing lost units have to remember change the leader names to Romanian ones. Romanian low ratings will mainly stay (couple times I have noticed that armour/infantry/artillery rating may get a high boost up - but rarely). So the units and ratings are Romanian, but the flags stay German. Also have to rename the battle locations to DARs.)




0620

Forest on left is now secure. All the enemies have been wiped out from there. Only few of them surrendered and they just had to be killed all. Outside of the forest the case is different. Many Bolsheviks just throw their weapons and surrender to Romanians. In the open they seem to realise that they can’t just run and get away. Armours are too fast. Seeing the situation they surrender in platoons.

Breakthrough is reality and R-2s together with T3s roll fast to Soviet rear.

Rest of the cavalry – under half of them left – managed to withdraw to safer place. They are trying to regroup. That’s hard and it already seemed that their leader, câpitan Petrescu, had lost all his authority in front of his men. But now they’re again ready to strike the communists. One cavalryman saw Soviet officer group heading to front, probably in try to encourage their men to fight. They are running right in front of advancing tanks of the left flank. Other cavalrymen find light mortar and it’s crew gets no mercy from them. Swords cut the crew next to their weapon.

Surprisingly it seems that the AT guns are not needed today. And at the first time Romanian tanks have played an important defensive role.

[Korpraali V]

0640

Sergent Melinte’s T3 kills Boshevik officers. Other ones finishes the rest of their infantry and mortars.

Câpitan Petrescu, pride leader of cavalry squadron, feels shame for his failed actions. And when his squad founds fourth Soviet AA-truck he orders his men to final attack against them. Those who saw that final attack, said afterwards that the câpitan had ride right in front of his men with his sword high shouting the ancient Romanian battle shout. After that the R-2 reached the area and destroyed the GAZ.

The battle s over. Soviet counterattack was repulsed and they are retreating from the whole area. 11th Army continues it’s advance. This night’s attackers were from two armoured battalions (three reinforced companies of infantry and three reinforced companies of light armour – only few T-28 medium tanks seen today, no T-34s). These battalions are no more.

After careful investigation of the situation that led the death of sublocotenent Nistor Obersteutnant Karl finds no reason to send sergent Melinte to Kriegsgericht. Sergent Melinte followed sublocotenent’s orders to shoot the enemy infantry next to them. Sergent gave the orders to his gunner who then shot the HE ammo towards the enemy. Melinte’s T3 tank was on higher ground and false targeting led to direct hit to other T3’s top. Nistor was immediately killed. The gunner, soldat XXXX (name censored) will be accused for the accident. He should have targetted better, the range was under 150 meters. Soldat XXXX will be sent to Romanian Kriegsgericht and Melinte will get a new gunner and promotion to sublocotenent.

Heroes of the morning:
- Sergent Mateescu’s rifle squad successfully destroyed many Soviet tanks (8 kills).
- Tank commanders: Câpitan Lazarian (T3, 29 kills), sergent Melinte (T3, Soviet HQ plus 11 other kills).

Romanian losses: 91 men, 3 AFVs (7570 points DV)

Soviet losses: 807 men, 4 mortars, 4 AA trucks, 67 AFVs (466 points CD)



Attachment: Sergent/sublocotenent Melinte

[PimpYourAFV]

The Bolsheviks were butchered. I didn't know Romania had the beans. I wanna have cool fight like this now. It must be fun playing Russia cause you just send all your crud at the enemy and watch it get churned like butter.

Korpraali, your panzer III has 37 kills. Does that mean this battle is part of a campaign? Does Romania get German tanks? I didn't know you can play PBEM campaigns against other humans. This is cool.

[Korpraali V]

ORIGINAL: TokyoBoyTensai

The Bolsheviks were butchered. I didn't know Romania had the beans. I wanna have cool fight like this now. It must be fun playing Russia cause you just send all your crud at the enemy and watch it get churned like butter.

Korpraali, your panzer III has 37 kills. Does that mean this battle is part of a campaign? Does Romania get German tanks? I didn't know you can play PBEM campaigns against other humans. This is cool.

This is part of the Romanian WWII campaign and against the AI - not PBEM. See the Romanian -titled threads below. Romanian had few Pz-III tanks given by Germans. They were named as T3 and can be found in the Romanian OOB. Currently I have four of them. [:)]

[Korpraali V]

TOPLIST after the five battles:

Kills:
- Câpitan Lazarian, T3, leader of armoured company, 50 kills
- Locotenent Alecuzene, R-2, leader of fourth platoon of armoured company, 41 kills
- Sergent Vulpes, R-2, fourth platoon of armoured company, 41 kills
- Sergent Serghiescu, R-2, third platoon of armoured company, 38 kills
- Sublocotenent Melinte, T3, leader of fifth platoon of armoured company, 37 kills
- Sergent Bucurescu, T3, fifth platoon of armoured company, 37 kills

[PimpYourAFV]

Korpraali, it sounds like butchery. We should play a PBEM game sometime with the same sides. It would be fun, and your kill ratio might even get more overwhelming. [:)]

[Korpraali V]

ORIGINAL: TokyoBoyTensai


Korpraali, it sounds like butchery. We should play a PBEM game sometime with the same sides. It would be fun, and your kill ratio might even get more overwhelming. [:)]

Romanian vs. Soviet at summer/fall 41? It's a deal [8D] But not right now, sorry. I have a game with Sabrejack waiting for me after the Wild Bill Bowl final round. But after that game I'll be at your service. [:)] Will contact you then.


[;)][:D][:D]

[DoubleDeuce]

This is a really cool idea doing a AAR for a long campaign vs the AI.

[Korpraali V]

Thanks DD! [:)] I'll try to keep it going through the war.

[PimpYourAFV]

ORIGINAL: Korpraali V

Romanian vs. Soviet at summer/fall 41? It's a deal [8D] But not right now, sorry. I have a game with Sabrejack waiting for me after the Wild Bill Bowl final round. But after that game I'll be at your service. [:)] Will contact you then.


[;)][:D][:D]

Chicken? [:D] Or just afraid of running out of ammo mowing my dudes down? Are you playing against the legend Wild Bill now??? Wow. Let me know when you want to play. I haven't played PBEM yet so I gotta find out how to set it up and what not. Like who decides what units go to each side and what map etc. I like a nice mix of infantry, cavalry and armor with some artillery backup and a few planes for each side if possible. A nice eastern front scrap will be good fun for sure.