While the German army was resetting itself from arrogant triumphalism to snivelling self pity Hitler was helping by designating everywhere in the Soviet Union inhabited by more than three people as a "Fortress City" to be held to the last.
"What about Kharkov?" asked Jodl, ever the practical joker.
"Absolutely," replied Hitler with a roll of the eyes and a light spray of spittle. "Total fortress city, never seen a more fortressy city in my life. Defend it to the death."
"Actually, the Soviets hold Kharkov," interjected von Manstein trying to build evidence for his later claim that he talked sense to Hitler.
"So take it back and then defend it to the death," bellowed Hitler the spittle quotient increasing noticeably. "No wonder I'm going mad, I have to think of everything round here."
No doubt von Manstein could have argued and no doubt it wouldn't have done any good. Instead he dutifully set about the recapture of Kharkov because ultimately it's far easier to condemn thousands of your fellow countrymen to death in pursuit of an insane and morally depraved cause than it is to have an unpleasant conversation.
Where there's a piece of lunacy inspired bloodshed there you will find an ASL scenario. Eric Fergusson has crafted a scenario entitled Opening Gambit about the German attack on Kharkov which found the 3rd SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Totenkopf" slogging through snow towards buildings full of Soviet troops determined to defend the only buildings with central heating east of Berlin. Eric will command the Germans while I will command the brave Soviets defending home and, more importantly, hearth from this collection of murderous thugs in uniform. It's night, there are snow drifts everywhere and it would be easier to find a warm spot in Stalin's heart.
Eric's forces consist of the notorious Totenkopf division recruited from concentration camp guards and other such touchy feely occupations. Even for the SS their atrocity record was pretty impressive. Possibly they were given point on the push into Kharkov on the very reasonable assumption that if they all died they wouldn't be missed. Eric has eight squads of tough SS assault troopers, four half squads of the same commanded by five officers ranging from a modest 8-0 to an impressive 9-2. He has an almost embarrassing number of machine guns, several DCs a pair of flame throwers, eight halftracks, a pair of PzIII and four PzIv tanks.
Mind you my troops are no shrinking violets either. Ten 4-5-8 elite squads, four 6-2-8 assault engineers, a couple of DCs and a flamethrower of my own plus a couple of light machine guns plus one medium and one heavy. All this firepower is under the command of four officers including my own beefy 9-2. On the first turn three T-34 tanks roll on to share the love.
There are twenty victory locations on the board and the Germans need to take eleven of them to win. My guys set up snuggled in buildings while the Germans must roll on through the snow and darkness. In the no mans land between the lines an abandoned factory is getting pounded by Russian artillery. This is totally out of my control. Higher command has demanded this factory be flattened, the artillery will do that and then stop but it does mean that the Germans can't just roll down the main street. Oh yes and I have an 85mm AA gun set up in a position carefully designed so that it can have no influence on the game. If the Germans can capture the centre building and destroy that gun its an automatic win
Below is the first turn. I've set up with a strong force in the south and a smaller, essentially throwaway force in the north. Anchoring this in the centre are two squads with the hmg and the mmg under the command of my two best officers. The NVR is three so a lot of the first turn consisted of peering into the gloom and praying that the Germans get lost on the way in.
I'm not very familiar with the night rules and such complexities as starshells and the like are beyond me. I dealt with this by simply pretending I was playing in daylight except for the fact that I couldn't see further than three hexes. Oddly this worked quite well.
Eric started with two main forces, one north and one south and rolled halftracks forward to sneak around behind me and start cutting rout paths. I had no counter to this in the north and in the south I wasn't worried as very soon I would have three T-34s that could easily deal with such nonsense. Oh Neil you overconfident fool.
The first couple of turns were light on action as Eric worked his way into position. In the north he skirted the artillery fire and started systematically dismantling my defences. It took a few turns but soon all I had there was a broken elite squad in the far north a collection of dummies and another elite squad I had raced up to reinforce. In the south I rolled a T-34 up to a marauding half track and promptly broke the main armament. My tank force reduced by a third. With little to lose I pushed that tank forward on suicide watch so its machine guns could bolster my forward defences. Fortunately for my blood pressure a second T-34 did manage to kill the damn half track. With only two functional tanks left I held them back waiting for the Germans to come to them which they obligingly did. One PzIV looped round the south and I managed to destroy it but nemesis was arriving with the rest of his tank force.
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| The north is more or less gone and Eric is pushing through in the centre/south |
A combination of smoke, vehicle bypass and close range firepower swept me away in the north but it was different in the south where Eric had difficulty bringing his full force to bear. It didn't seem to matter as the price I had paid for a good forward defence was to be weak in the centre. I had hoped my heavy and medium machine guns would be able to help here but while they were good at holding their own building Eric managed to sneak significant forces past them to tackle the southern building clump from the north.
Outnumbered and out manoeuvred I had to commit one of my tanks to cover a withdrawal to the south, conceding a victory building virtually without a fight and losing the tank into the bargain although it did manage to immobilise a PzIV in the process. In the south Eric destroyed my useless tank and rolled another PzIV into a building where it promptly bogged. Unfortunately it bogged in a useful position and destroyed my remaining tank. It also prompted me to withdraw a little in the south.
Still I wasn't entirely downhearted. I still had a solid defence in the south. My tank sacrifice wasn't in vain and I solidly controlled the two southern victory buildings. My machine gun teams held the centre building and as for the north, well I had a little plan for that. In the first couple of turns one of my squads had broken and routed to a building in the far north. Then I forgot about it for a couple of turns and so it would appear did Eric. With the north virtually won Eric detailed troops to move south against the centre building whereupon I self rallied the squad and snatched back a victory hex or two. Eric had to commit some troops to retake old ground.
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| The north is pretty much gone but the centre and south hold for the moment |
Sadly although I was hanging on tough with my tanks gone Eric could use his with impunity and it didn't matter how many he lost. He had been rolling for starshells every turn and in turn five he finally got one he could use, blinding my troops in the centre building and then advancing into the street and placing DCs on both stacks. For good measure he rolled tanks into the building as well which turned out to be a good move as neither DC actually managed to do me any damage. Down in the south my defence hung solid and I would hold those buildings until the end of the game but with my centre troops fighting tanks with their fingernails he was able to capture most of the building.
In the north my brief renaissance had come to an end as he pushed my troops out of the recaptured hexes and advanced into close combat with my final defender there. A quick count up put Eric one short of the victory hexes he needed so this close combat would decide the game. He had a 3-4-8 SS half squad and a 9-1 leader against my own 2-4-8 half squad. I made all sorts of outrageous promises to the dice gods but they've heard it all before and Eric won the close combat and the game.
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| The end. Eric has the north and most of the centre. The south is mine but the south is not enough |
This turned out to be a very close game with some good swings of fortune. Kudos to Eric for designing a fun scenario and much thanks for the game.
A brief reply..
ReplyDeleteThis is for others to judge though I feel there were two initial problems ( as designed in the scenario somewhat).
1) Too even a defense, I think better to throw one building to reinforce another
2) Bad luck with a T34.
The T34 is a match in every respect and losing one early is indeed a kick in the pants.
The central big factory building caused all sorts of problems early in the game and late in the game.
The early part was the discovery of his best leaders and both MG's all manned by 458 or 628). It pretty much acted as a death star before I could recompile my forces which at that point were either well back in half tracks or to the south.
With the Panzer tanks bogged in the south as just mentioned this also had my killer group being DM ( with FT and 9-1 or 2). At that point and with Neils forces outnumbering mine by turn 4 I had to re decide the whole endgame.
Therefore the half tracks which at that point were safe were re manned and pushed quickly to the north.
Since the center building was secure with 9-2 with HMG and 2 MMC in area as well as FT everything moved north.
The south basically became a forgotten battlefield at that point.
With 2 turns to go it was very much a case of cause as much carnage as possible.
A very well placed star shell on the last turn that allowed a lovely DC attack on both stacks - which Neil just laughed of, nothing more than a pin!
What are these Bolsheviks made of !
So throwing all cation to the wind in go AFV for CC backed up by some MMC, with similar atrocities to the north. Luckily the CC were enough to eak out a win.
If that T34 was still alive one wonders if it would have been possible..