Slitherine

Ok. "Historical" write up coming. I love I can play actual wargames on a mobile. First stab at playing BA2. So here it goes, Scenario #1 of the initial German offensive.

The first shots fired in anger split the quiet predawn air at 0328. A junior NKVD officer had stepped outside the regimental headquarters established at a Polish border town to light a cigarette. Open mouthed sentries could only watch as a 7.92mm round fired by a hidden sniper blew out the back of the man's skull. Within minutes the riflemen would join him, sprawled across the front steps as German commandos, disguised as border troops, stormed the building.

The rattle of small arms fire was sounding out along the river, as well. Other Brandenburgers, supported by Wehrmacht pioneers, had crossed over in assault boats to seize a nearby bridge. The Germans, covering their advance with smoke and bounding by squad, slaughtered the crew of a lone 45mm anti-tank gun and a smattering of Russian infantry before leaving the span and pushing East.



The first mechanized elements to cross into Soviet territory included an armored car and a platoon's worth of riflemen riding half tracks. But by now the element of surprise had been lost. Russian soldiers were streaming through the town's main square; and while the pioneers and commandos managed to decimate a small convoy of troop-laden Gaz trucks, the firefight that followed teetered on the brink of disaster.





By the time an armored car and two lorries worth of reinforcements pulled into view, an entire squad of commandos had been cut down by Russian fire. The Sd Kfz 231's 20mmm gun would turn the tide, however, and Soviet troops not ambushed by landsers firing from windows and alleyways were flushed into the open and chopped down. Reports would also highlight how well aimed sniper fire killed the crew of a Russian truck carrying an anti-aircraft gun.

Any hopes defenders held to retake the square were crushed moments later by the arrival of a lone Panzer IV tank....a rearguard for the elements already advancing beyond the town......



Back near the headquarters building, the outcome of the battle was in far greater doubt. A halftrack had rounded a nearby corner only to be knocked out by a BA-10 armored car. Grenade bundles did for the Russian vehicle, and Kar-98s and MP-40s stove off attacks by Soviet foot soldiers. Unfortunately for the Germans, an attempt to take the local garrison compound by those same grenadiers and a pair of Panzer III tanks was rebuffed by a full infantry platoon and an entrenched anti-tank gun.



Result: 2 stars out of 3.
18 Russian squads (some understrength) KIA
2 German squads (one commando, one scout) KIA
1 Russian support vehicle knocked out
10 Russian wheeled vehicles knocked out
2 German 251/1s knocked out
2 German trucks knocked out

Very cool

Cheers

Pip

Thanks for the "thumbs up"

Battle #2

The ease of their June victories had lulled the Panzer crews into complacency. Back in '39, those crews who had met their Russian counterparts reported Soviet armor as oily junk. The summer of '41 was validating those accounts.







A short, bitterly contested battle outside a Ukrainian village served to remind at least one German detachment that their enemy's kit was decidedly lethal. The realities of war hit when a BA-10 popped out of hiding to core a Panzer 38(t) with its 45mm gun. The doomed tank had been advancing toward the main crossroad as part of an echelon formation. Even as flames licked from its turret, return fire from a trio of 37mm cannons had scored at least one damaging hit and sent the armored car reversing into cover. Panzergrenadiers riding in a pair of accompanying halftracks, supported by a Panzer IVA, would help flush and kill two enemy rifle squads and a maxim machine gun. As they would learn, the dusty hamlet was defended far more heavily than anyone had expected. Aside from the infantry action, the remaining German armor would kill the BA-10 and three T-26 tanks.

Suspecting the woods beyond the village concealed anti-tank guns, headquarters bolstered the attack with two full platoons of mechanized and motorized troops. Pushing towards the forested ridge line bordering the town, they would root out a pair of anti-tank rifle teams before the crack of a 45mm gun confirmed the treeline just beyond the last row of huts did, in fact, hide at least one gun.



Air support in the form off a Henschel Hs 123 would do for the gun, butchering the crew with 110lb bombs. The pilots flying with II.(Schl)/LG 2 would prove invaluable over the next hour as repeated attack runs hammered Russian positions. Buoyed by the Luftwaffe's display, landsers swarmed forward to assault two more guns, braving a storm of small arms fire.





By now, the lead German assets had reached the Russian MLR. The attackers would lose a Panzer IIIF and their lone Panzer IVA, but would claim two more anti-tank guns, a BT-7, T-26A and another T-26. The heaviest fighting took place in a patch of woods near the Russian right (German perspective), where a pair of Heer rifle squads and single Panzer II killed or captured an entire enemy platoon, suffering 50% casualties in return...the attack only sustainable thanks to the fevered work of the unit's NCOs and medics.





The battle concluded in a spectacular string of explosions as a Stug assault gun leveled the buildings hiding the last defenders, its 75mm HE shredding PBI at point blank range. Records dug up during a BBC special would reveal the German commander was annoyed at this point, blaming the poor use of his doomed Panzer 38(t) on a six year old reaching over and poking at his iPad shortly before said tots bed time. OKH documents stressed the need to respect Dad's stuff, as Dad doesn't toss said six year olds Lego mixels around.



Final tally:
6 Russian tanks knocked out
4 German tanks knocked out (1 to my youngest boy)
5 Russian 45mm ATGs knocked out
2 German halftracks knocked out
15 Russian squads KIA
2 German squads KIA
2 Russian wheeled vehicles knocked out (armored car and Gaz AA truck)

Only one star here to be had. I got it...lost less than 5 tanks, had the VLs and took out all the ATGs.