DAR: USSR vs. Germany - Near Vyazma

[RERomine]

Turn 19

Just a Stuka and artillery hitting Charlie this turn. No damage.

Bravo found the enemy HQ the hard way and destroyed it. One man down. Tanks chasing routed enemy infantry and found a couple of scouts. They are now fleeing with the infantry squads.

Stumbled on remnants of an enemy squad and took a few casualties before destroying it.

Enemy mortars out of action right now, but the howitzer I see has been remanned. Time to hit it again.

Casualties

Friendly: Three casualties.

Enemy: Estimated 15 casualties.

[RERomine]

Turn 20

Charlie lit up an enemy squad that popped out of the smoke. No other activy here.

Bravo completed clearing north half of town and took up positions on the east side. I'm not pushing them out because I'm sure there are ATGs, AAMGs and AA guns out there somewhere. My tanks did clean up the enemy units running north of town, destroying three or four. There is a bold or suicidal Mk 38 heading east again. Between Charlie and Bravo, I have 13 tanks so suicidal sounds more accurate.

Pushed Alpha up to west edge of town. There were a couple of enemy infantry fragments there. Destroyed one and shot up the other. Also saw enemy's Forelorn Hope force come in from the west edge: 5 PzKw 38b(t) tanks. They have no hope, because I have ten tanks I can move up quickly between Alpha and Bravo. That doesn't take away from the 13 tanks I mentioned using to stop the suicide attack.

Counter battery hit the enemy howitzer and the crew ran again.

Casualties

Friendly: Zero.

Enemy: Estimated 15 casualties.

[RERomine]

Turn 21

Artillery falling near right flank guard. I kept them in position, because of what happened to the left flank guard. They aren't likely to be destroyed by a plane if they are in a building.

Enemy squad near Charlie didn't take enough bullets to force them to run, so I lit them up again.

Mortar rounds falling near machine gun sections again. Not much I can do at the moment. Bravo tanks did destroy the enemy Mk 38b and shot up a fragmented squad. Two tanks pushed out to the west side of town to get ready for the German rescue force.

Alpha pushed eight tanks up to west side of town to wait for German tanks. Infantry and tanks shot up some enemy infantry squads running from town.

Casualties

Friendly: Zero.

Enemy: 1xPzKw 38b(t) tank destroyed. Estimated 5 casualties.

[RERomine]

Turn 22

One of my ATGs is running from right flank guard due to artillery. Exactly how panicked can you really be if you decide to run, dragging an antitank gun with you?

Another enemy popped out of the smoke. Charlie sent the other one running and tore into the new arrival. This is called destruction in detail.

Machine guns still getting hit by 81mm mortars. Bravo tanks destroyed another enemy squad.

One enemy tank from the rescue force popped out of a gully stream gully, drawing a few shots.

Enemy ME-109 came back, damaging one of my reserve tanks. My AA got a hit on him, so he won't be back.

Casualties

Friendly: Zero.

Enemy: Estimated 5 casualties.

[RERomine]

Decisive Victory!!!!

Turn 23

Charlie shot up another enemy infantry squad. A Stuka come in on one of my heavy tanks, but 7.62mm machine guns don't hurt those.

The enemy's Forlorn Hope group came out of the gully. Alpha and Bravo capped four of the five tanks. Forlorn Hope 2 was on its way with nine tanks. Most of those were Mk IIIh and Mk IIIj models, so would have been more of a fight.

Casualties

Friendly: Zero.

Enemy: 4xPzKw 38b(t)tanks destroyed. Estimated 5 casualties.

Total Casualties

USSR

Men: 76
Artillery: 2
Soft Vehicles: 2
APCs: 0
AFVs: 4
Air Transports/Helos: 0
Aircraft: 0

Germany

Men: 500
Artillery: 7
Soft Vehicles: 0
APCs: 0
AFVs: 71
Air Transports/Helos: 0
Aircraft: 0

Score

USSR: 5784
Germany: 351

Final Comments

This battle went pretty much as planned. The main areas cited saw activity, but with grouped objectives this shouldn't be a surprise. Every formation I put on the line saw action. I did expect the enemy to put more effort into taking the town, but that is how I would have approached it. The AI just did things differently.

Keeping my forces within supporting range of each other helped considerably. Bravo was able to help out Charlie, Charlie worked with the Right Flank Guard, Alpha helped out the Left Flank Guard and Alpha and Bravo worked together clearing the town. I mentioned one option would have been to send a team out through the Left Flank Guard position, but my force would have to cross a bridge to get there. Not stated, the distance the team would be from the others did concern me as well. With combat groups in supporting distance, they effectively act as each others reserves. As a consequence, my reserve battalion(32 tanks) didn't move during the battle.

There is a general opinion that the T-34 is a much better tank than the Germans had at this point and as a by-product I couldn't lose. The German Mk IIIh and Mk IIIj, firing SABOT(APCR I believe) were completely capable of destroying any tank from the front I had out there. It would have require point blank range against the KV-Is, but they weren't heavily involved. I had 20 T-34/76A and 10 T-34/76B tanks engaged, but the Bs(my newer T-34s) were with Alpha. They spent time killing type PzKw 38b(t) and PzKw IIc tanks and JPz I tank destroyers. Those could be killed with the old Soviet 45mm guns. Range might have been a factor, since the Bs didn't get shot at much. My T-34/76As were the ones tangling with German Mk IIIh and Mk IIIj tanks. One of my As had a hole punched in it with a 37mm round from a Mk 38b. The Germans had thinner armor and the Russians had a weaker penetrating gun. Pretty much, if the Russian tank was close enough to kill the German, the German was close enough to kill the Russian. In the end, it isn't what you have, but how you use it.

One thing I could have done, but didn't was sweep the enemy rear area. I reviewed the area after the battle and not one antitank gun. This is unusual. There were AA guns all over the place, but 20mm guns wouldn't have hurt my tanks. I'll make a mental note of this, but will not likely charge into enemy territory unless necessary. There was little to gain from doing so. I could have taken out their artillery, but ATGs could have been there. In my last battle, it was a meeting engagement with scattered objectives. I had to push on and they did have antitank guns and I did lose tanks. With nothing to gain, I'm not going to do it.

I did find the dragging on of the battle irritating. The battle was basically over by the end of turn 12. After that, I lost an estimated 17 men, one tank, a truck and an antitank gun. The latter three were to air-strikes, which also damaged a few units in that time period. Infantry casualties were caused by artillery and mopping up activities. I kept pushing forward, hoping I would get the kill that would end the battle. Mopping up casualties occurred when I stumbled on an enemy unit that would otherwise have been pinned for most of the rest of their life. They still shoot, but rarely move. There was no organized threat left, so it just surprised me the battle lasted as long as it did.

I've attached the save just before I ended my last turn. One note on this. During op-fire of turn 23 is when three of the four PzKw 38b(t) tanks were destroyed, so it may end differently or not end at all after the AI move. Those three kills might have been the straw that broke the camel's back. If you download and start it, to the west of town there is a burning PzKw 38b(t) next to a gully with a stream flowing through. There are four more tanks in there and out of sight. Enjoy!