Silly After Action Report - Mohnke Business

 Two shabby German soldiers crouched in a pit they had scraped out of the rubble and stared suspiciously across the broad width of the Spree River.  A sound behind them made them whirl round raising their hands automatically.  To their surprise they saw an immaculately uniformed SS soldier holding a map with a hopeful expression on his face.

"Excuse me," asked this recruiting poster come to life in oddly accented German. "Do you guys know where I can find the SS Nordland division?  I've just got back from leave in Denmark and I'm having difficulty finding my way around."

"You were on leave in Denmark and you decided to come back to Berlin?" asked one of the soldiers in tones of disbelief.

"Yes, I should have been back yesterday but the traffic was murder.  I'm trying to find my command post."

"Fine, just go down this length of rubble, turn right at the rubble then straight on through the rubble, take the second rubble on the left and keep going until you reach the big pile of rubble."

"That's my command post?"

"No, its the tourist bureau.  Maybe they can help you out.  Buy a postcard, the city's economy needs the boost."

"What's on the postcards?"

"Mainly rubble."

Dave Wilson suggested we try scenario BRV 10 - Mohnke Business extracted from the Berlin - Red Vengeance campaign game without benefit of anaesthetic.  Here I shall take command of a somewhat eclectic group of defenders (Scandinavians from the Nordland division and some rather unenthusiastic locals) as they fight grimly to ensure that approximately three city blocks of downtown Berlin remains German.  My troops are hunkered down behind the Spree River and have erected do not disturb signs on the three remaining bridges.  To the north of the river is a decent percentage of the Soviet army clutching a red banner.  They either want to raise this banner over the Reichstag or get jobs as extras in a Sabaton video.

The game will be decided by Victory Points.  The Soviets need to get 1.5 times as many VPs as the Germans.  They gain points for every unit south of the Spree and they also get points for captured buildings.  If they manage to plant that red banner on the roof of the Reichstag they win automatically.  The Germans get VPs by killing Soviets.

My defence force consists of eighteen elite SS squads and eight second line definitely not SS squads.  These guys have two heavy machine guns, four medium machine guns, six light machine guns, three demolition charges, two panzerschreks and a partridge in a pear tree.  Sorry, I mean 88mm AA gun.  They are led by five officers and lurking in the background is a Nazi party official who functions as a Commissar to "encourage" laggards back into the fight.  In addition to the infantry three Panther tanks have been dug into the more friable bits of Berlin leaving just their turrets pointing at the enemy.  Five trenches, four wire counters and three barricades (bridges; for the blocking of) round out my at start force.  On the second turn a single armoured car turns up to assist.  Possibly of more assistance are the two King Tiger tanks that arrive on turn five assuming they can siphon enough fuel from wrecked vehicles to turn their engines over.  I also get to fortify a couple of building locations.

Leading the charge for the 3rd Shock Army Dave has six squads of assault engineers, ten squads of elite infantry and fourteen squads of first line infantry all urged along by six officers led by an awesome 10-2.  These heroes of the Soviet Union have two heavy machine guns, four medium machine guns, four light machine guns, a trio of demolition charges, two flamethrowers, three 50mm mortars and the aforementioned red banner.  This banner bestows fanaticism on any unit carrying it but does make it a little difficult to conceal.  A hidden radio connects Dave's troops to a battery of 120mm artillery.  Contributing the "crash or crash through" component of Dave's force are eight armoured vehicles; a pair of T34/85s, an IS2 heavy tank, a pair of the even more impressive IS2M tanks, three SU122 self propelled guns and in a classic case of overkill an OT-34 carrying both a 76mm gun and a vehicle mounted flamethrower.  In case that wasn't enough he gets another pair of IS2s on turn three (it wasn't my fault that Dave forgot about them until turn four).

Here's the problem.  The bridges are the only way to cross the river so Dave's attack has to be directed towards one or all of them.  That's the problem for Dave.  The problem for me is that the bridges are widely spaced which means that my defence also has to be widely spaced if I don't want Soviet troops running around behind me (for the record, I don't).

I set up three separate defence groups, one for each bridge. In the Reichstag I fortified a building hex and placed the 88mm in their facing out towards the Spree.  I also loaded the Reichstag up with my best officers and a fair amount of firepower.  Losing this building was an automatic defeat so holding it was a priority.  I placed a barricade at the end of each bridge and strung some wire around.  Over on the left I had somewhat subsidiary but still powerful forces covering the other two bridges. 

My at start set up

Dave decided bugger subtlety, and simply looked at the bridge closest to the Reichstag and threw his forces at that.  He did have some troops to occupy the attention of my other defenders.  He needn't have worried too much.  There was so much open ground that the likelihood of any of my left hand defenders managing to reinforce the Reichstag were pretty low.

I cringed as I saw the amount of firepower Dave had amassed but there was one comfort.  Until he had battered or blasted his way through the barricade they weren't getting far.  Dave started proceedings by contacting his artillery (red chits, what are they?) but his spotting round landed some distance from where he wanted it (although it did scare the crap out of one of my dug in Panthers).  Then having plastered the bridge approaches with smoke he moved forward.  

It has to be said things did not go his way.  His kill stack of two squads, two hmgs and the 10-2 leader was shot up by my kill stack in the Reichstag and both squads fled for the rear with the 10-2 following screaming obscenities.  Attempting to cross the open ground to the bridge cost him another squad and a half including one carrying a flamethrower which lay unloved in the street.  Dave rolled his flamethrowing tank forward to protect it.  At the centre bridge a critical hit on a panther turret had seen the thing go up in flames without firing a shot but attempts by his infantry to get across the bridge fell to German musketry (or, more accurately; German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and occasional French musketry).  On the far left Dave only had token forces backed by a single T34/85 tank.  Faced with a barricade and a strong defence force there was a tacit agreement that we would leave each other alone unless and until the tank managed to blow up the barricade.

End of Soviet turn 1.

In my turn Dave corrected his spotting round and brought down his FFE unfortunately it drifted by a small but significant margin and his artillery just wound up tearing up the already lacerated soil of Berlin.  I for my part was content to hide behind walls and concealment counters for as it turned out very good reasons.  Although Dave and I had command of some impressively elite forces experience showed that neither of them was particularly keen on passing morale checks.  This was frustrating for me but more so for Dave who was attempting to move forward under heavy fire.

To attempt to smooth his path Dave sprayed even more smoke about the place but while his troops could get on to at least two of the bridges (over on the left he settled for banging away at the barricade from a distance) all they could do was claw feebly at the barricades with their fingernails.  Meanwhile my 88 scored its first kill of the day frying a SU-122 in a building, the subsequent billows of smoke causing Dave more problems when trying to set up an effective kill stack.

The defence is holding

 Two turns in and I was mildly cockahoop.  So far Dave's attack had got nowhere and the occasional squad break notwithstanding my boys were holding all along the line.  I dealt with my success in a restrained and civilised manner, any comments from Dave to the contrary are filthy lies.  Having given the dirt of Berlin a vigorous pounding Dave's next artillery mission was bang on target raining down fire on the Reichstag, rubbling a rooftop (which fortunately didn't drop through to the floor below) but my units safely tucked into fortified locations laughed at the 120mm shells dropping all around although the laughter may have got a little strained at times.  If nothing else the artillery meant an extra +1 for my troops shooting out of it.  Incidentally on the next picture you'll see a lot of Kilroy markers, this is because we couldn't figure out how to get rid of the FFE overlay.  We worked it out eventually.

 Dave's formidable IS-2M broke its MA and I must admit I was delighted.  Little did I know this was what Dave was waiting for, he may have even rolled that boxcars deliberately.  In the next turn the toothless beast rolled forward, its armour sneering at even attempts by my 88 to scratch the paint. Over the bridge it moved and slammed headfirst into the barricade.  Pretty soon there was an IS-2M shaped hole in the barricade and a detachment of infantry that had been waiting amongst the smoke for this opportunity moved forward. What with all of the smoke I didn't bother firing at them and slunk away except for one DC toting half squad which cringed under a concealment counter and hoped for the best.  Staring straight down the road at Dave's recently victorious tank was a dug in Panther which did its best under the circumstances and shocked the IS-2.

 

Over on the far left and unexpected critical hit had evaporated the barricade there as well but Dave didn't really have the troops to exploit it.  Still two barricades were now gone and near the Reichstag Dave was doing his best to exploit the hell out of the breach.  His flamethrowing tank followed where its hulking brother led and then for reasons neither Dave nor I can explain wound up parking in front of my 88.  In the next turn I would brutally punish such presumption.

 

Presumption brutally punished

 Dave's infantry was starting to trickle through the breach and push through the (admittedly thinly defended) buildings between the bridge and the Reichstag.  Perhaps not a danger yet but Dave's troops were queueing up to risk the bridge passage and the trickle threatened to become a flood.  My DC halfsquad covered itself in glory and also blood and tank components.  Dave advanced a squad against them confident of success only to be wiped out in CC.  In the next turn this half squad would carefully glue their demo charge to the back of the IS-2 and blow it up.  After that in a fury Dave threw a pair of squads against it in CC and my halfsquad locked them up in CC for two full turns.  Posthumous iron crosses to the lot of them and free passage for their bodies back to Scandinavia or France assuming the locals let them in.

While Dave mourned his IS-2 it had to be admitted that things were starting to swing in his favour.  He finally managed to take out the last barricade and assault engineers started to pick their way across the smoke shrouded centre bridge.  Fortunately I had an hmg/lmg stack waiting for such a move (well it just happened to be there actually it was supposed to be a last line of defence for the left hand bridge). For a couple of turns I cheerfully shot up his troops as they tried to cross the bridge. 

Meanwhile back at the Reichstag Dave decided to forget about HE artillery strikes (which had so far managed to break one squad, swiftly rallied) and dropped a smoke concentration down onto the building instead.  With my defenders blinded he swiftly reinforced his troops across the bridge and soon was building up a powerful force.  As much to reassure myself as anything else I promised my King Tigers would redress the balance.  I should have kept my mouth shut, that reminded Dave that he had forgotten to bring on his reinforcing IS-2Ms a turn and a half ago.

Frankly I was of the opinion that Dave had quite enough armoured vehicles already.  Despite the heroics of my halfsquad and the 88 my defences were being swarmed.  Things didn't improve when I intensive fired my Panther turret and disabled the gun.  My armoured car had had an unfortunate encounter with a 122mm shell at pointblank range not that it had really contributed to proceedings much up until then.  In the centre Dave rolled an SU-122 across the bridge to give support to his flagging infantry. Unfortunately it got bogged on the wire and stuck there for a while.  Meanwhile a disturbing number of Soviet squads had made it across the bridge near the Reichstag including the halfsquad (formerly a full squad) clutching the precious red banner. 

 

Things are starting to look bad

Just when things looked their bleakest my King Tigers arrived.  Which was fortunate as a critical hit from an IS-2 wiped out my 88mm in the same turn.  I took this calmly and once Dave had coaxed me in off the window ledge I applied myself to the battle.  Unlike the unimaginative lettering system Dave had used to identify his vehicles I christened my Tigers Helga (after the character in 'Allo 'Allo) and Barbara (after a rather attractive Transylvanian German of my acquaintance).  Rolling through the streets of a ruined city CE is risky to say the least but these were possibly the last Tigers available and I didn't plan to save them for a museum.  I sent one up behind my armoured car (which only had seconds to live) and circled the other around behind the SU-122 that was giving the armoured car grief.

Seeing that desperate measures were needed to salvage the situation Dave sent an IS-2 looping around behind Helga (the one behind the armoured car) but I needn't have feared, as the monstrous beast approached Helga spun her sixty tonne bulk around in her own length and smashed it in a gun duel.  The next turn Barbara would crucify the nearby SU-122 thus gaining a measure of revenge for my armoured car.  But this was only the start, with the immediate armour threat averted Barbara rolled around behind the IS-2 that had killed my 88 and took that out too.  Meanwhile Helga guarded the street Dave's troops would have to cross if they wanted to enter the Reichstag.

 There was a brief flurry of activity over on the left.  With the barricade destroyed Dave had managed to stun the panther turret guarding the approaches and rolled his T34/85 forward to capitalise on this apparent advantage.  Whereupon a HIP halfsquad put down their sandwiches, picked up a panzerschreck and incinerated everything within a twenty metre radius including themselves.  At the end there was a burning tank and a panzerschreck sitting alone in a building.  After that the left flank went back to sleep for the remainder of the game. 

And suddenly things are looking better again

 Dave's armour losses weren't really important in the grand scheme of things (it wasn't like the Soviet Union was running out of tanks) but he missed the added punch to help his troops forward because it has to be said these were the most pusillanimous storm troopers you've ever seen.  Admittedly they were trying to get forward against a ferocious defence led by a newly promoted 10-2 and a Nazi party official who managed to swiftly rally any backsliders without killing any of them.  Just to add insult to injury (well injury to injury actually) my sniper who had spent most of the game partying with Fegelein in a cellar stumbled upstairs long enough to shoot Dave's 10-2 in the head before passing out in a pile of bottles.

With casualties mounting and the Reichstag staying defiantly unconquered Dave tried one last trick.  He raced another tank across the centre bridge and pounded down the road heading for the Reichstag.  If he made it Helga would be in danger and what was left of his assault force might be able to get forwards.  Remember what I said about the risks of driving CE through the streets of a ruined city?  A volley of fire from the Reichstag windows terrified the crew of his tank which ground to a halt in an area I had affectionately named "Helga's killing zone"

End game

 

At this point Dave conceded, he had four armoured vehicles left one of which was bogged and at least another of which was doomed.  His troops were cringing in ruined buildings weeping in fear while my principal defences had suffered barely a scratch the occasional 88mm AA gun notwithstanding.  Thanks to Dave for the game.  In fairness it has to be said that Dave could have expected a little more resolution under fire from the troops hand picked to capture the Reichstag.  Especially given that my forces had a nationality mix more appropriate to a UN peacekeeping force than the last desperate defenders of the Reich.

"Well that was surprising." said one of the scruffy German soldiers we met earlier.  "I would have sworn we'd all be on our way to Siberia by now."

"There's always tomorrow," replied his comrade.  "Oh look, there's that crazy Dane again."

The SS man stepped forward his eyes shining.

"That was glorious, a magnificent triumph.  Who says the Reich is doomed?"

"Oh for Christ's sake man, are you serious?" demanded one of the soldiers in exasperation.

"Not really," replied the Dane wearily.  "It's just that sometimes one's life choices turn out to be fucking stupid and then you have to try and make the best of it."

The two soldiers exchanged glances and one of them nodded.

"We've got a set of civilian clothes here, and what's left of the Danish embassy is just down the street."

"Do you honestly think they'll want me back in Denmark?"

"Not as much as they'll want you in Siberia."

"Good point," replied the SS man and started to change.  After he had gone one of the soldiers turned to the other.

"Do you think we might have helped a war criminal escape?"

"It's always possible, I'm Martin Bormann."

"I know, I'm Walter Schellenberg."