Captain Illya Phlegmovitch Chestikoff looked around at the forested hills with disapproval.
"Why are we ploughing through this mess?" he demanded in a tone he thought of as probing and insightful although the opinion of his comrades leaned more towards petulant whining.
"The Germans have made their move," replied the colonel with a sigh. The regimental commissar tapped the pistol in his holster suggestively. The colonel was tempted but decided to try patience, briefly.
"The Germans have committed an SS panzer corps to try and rescue General Hube's encircled trucks."
"Why?"
"I don't know, maybe they're short on transport. Besides trucks are always useful to the war effort."
"We could do with some," muttered Chestikoff. "I'm sick and tired of clinging to the paintwork of a T-34. The bastards are always driving through orchards."
Nobody mentioned that it was only the tank Chestikoff was riding that went through orchards, so far he hadn't taken the hint.
The colonel's patience was exhausted.
"If you capture a truck you will never have to ride on a T-34 again."
Rare elation showed on Chestikoff's face,
"Do you mean it."
The commissar stepped forward,
"I personally guarantee it."
So here we are with ASL Scenario G - Hube's Pocket. This venerable scenario actually predates ASL itself in various forms. Here I shall command the gallant troops of the Soviet 5th Tank Corps as the try and keep a valuable collection of transport assets from being salvaged by the SS Frundsberg division. Since the Germans move first I guess I am technically the scenario defender. Both sides, starting with the Germans, enter onto the board. The Germans are heading from west to east to bring succour to the desperate truck drivers of the First Panzer Army. My Soviets are driving north-south to head them off at the pass.
The game notionally lasts for a monster fourteen turns. My opponent Dave Wilson has to exit at least ten vehicles in one or two convoys off the western edge of the board. Said truck convoys enter on the east edge so there is a fair way to go. All I have to do is stop him. Should be easy, right?
It has to be admitted I have a fair force to do the stopping. Eighteen squads, eight of the elite the remainder first line. Three officers command spearheaded by a 9-1 and three lmgs are the sole support weapons allocated. But here come the tanks, six T-34 M43s and a trio of upgunned T-34/85s. Collectively a powerful force, how could the Germans stand against it? For answer check Dave's OB. Eleven squads of elite SS troopers, four officers including a monstrous 10-2 and a full supporting cast of support weapons including DCs, panzerschreks, lmgs and hmg. His own armoured support was equally impressive. Four halftracks including one carrying a dismountable heavy machine gun, three PzIVH and the queen of this and any other battlefield a Panther. It was on the rock of this Panther that my hopes would founder.
Figuring out what to do wasn't too hard. The Soviets had to interpose themselves between the relieving SS troops and the truck convoys which would turn up on or after turn five. The Germans have sixteen trucks and have to exit ten of them so if I kill seven trucks it doesn't matter if I lose my entire force doing so. As I said figuring out what to do wasn't hard. Figuring out how to do it was a little more problematic.
I decided I would send my elite troops into the hills accompanied by my three T34/85s. These would be my delaying force to hold up Dave's troops. The first line squads accompanied by the bulk of the less well endowed T34s would plunge south looking to cover all of the road entry points from the east. It is fair to say that things didn't go entirely to plan. I knew enough to know that the 76mm gun on the T34s was virtually harmless against the Panther's frontal armour. If I had researched just a little more I would have realised that the 85mm gun on my "war winners" wasn't much better.
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| End of German turn 1 |
Above is the end of the first German turn. He has sent a strong mobile force (consisting of a pair of PzIVs, the Panther and a couple of troop carrying halftracks along the southernmost road. The rest of his force is easing towards the hills. Perhaps the most brilliant tactical decision I made during the game was to plonk my sniper down right next to his. This would pay dividends later.
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| End of Soviet turn 1 |
In my first turn I stuck to my battle plan, driving south as far as I could. I dropped off a couple of first line squads in a convenient building where they could cover the northernmost of the trucks entry roads and the remainder kept going. My troops were of course clinging to the hulls of the T34s and one of my elite squads was broken when the tank swung its turret to dismount them. After that little debacle I discreetly stopped the tanks and allowed the infantry to get off of their own volition. You may also see if you look closely that I have a pair of squads on the far left, inching down the board edge. I have no idea what I was doing with those. I think I had thoughts of setting up a final blocking position or something if all else failed. In actual fact it just deprived me of the use of those squads throughout the game. It was a stupid think to do and I would feel the absence of those two squads keenly later on. Close observers will note that the Germans have managed to get into a position to dominate the southern road entrance which means it will be up to my second stringers to divest them of this.
In his second turn Dave solidified his grip on the western edge of the hill mass, unloaded the hmg from the halftrack and also unloaded troops in the woods mass in the centre of the board. More things I would have to get through somehow if I wanted to control that southern road. With a pair of PzIVs sitting in the south he turned his Panther north towards the hill mass where it would create panic in my soul far beyond any actual achievement. He also drove one PzIV up onto a tiny second level hill in the west where it proved to have a disturbingly clear line of sight to where I needed to go.
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| End of German turn 2. Not a shot has been fired and I'm already worried |
With my broken troops freshly rallied I essentially mirrored Dave's movements in the west doing my best to lurk behind concealment counters and ready myself for what I assumed would be the inevitable onslaught. Meanwhile in the east the presence of Germans across my line of advance imposed a level of caution and something of a traffic jam as I realised that possibly I had allocated too many troops to a reasonable small area. The mask dropped from a couple of concealment counters as I started moving units into line of sight of his tanks. This would rapidly turn out rather badly for me.
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| Somewhat late in the day I've realised I'm going to have to fight my way through in the east |
So far shooting had been scanty as we settled into convenient positions and then looked around to see if we could find the enemy. This ended with a bang as Dave's PzIV (the one on the far left) managed to shoot across virtually the entire map and nail a T34 that had been hoping that distance and luck would preserve its wretched existence. Dave didn't seem to keen on going forward in the west and I didn't really have the troops to do so myself. Once again I cursed the stupidity that had kept two squads of troops virtually out of the battle. What I did have was T34s and I moved them up onto the hill just on the other side of the ridge from his Panther. The crews exchanged comments on their opponents respective mothers but otherwise kept the peace.
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| One T34 down many more to come |
Things started to look a little better in the east. Another T-34 went up in flames as it attempted to push forwards but a comrade took advantage of the fact that the Germans had fired to roll down the eastern board edge and managed to put an APCR round through the front of one of the PzIVs (although the crew would escape to pester me later). Unfortunately I compensated for this modest success by doing something spectacularly foolish in the centre. The Panther loomed large in my calculations. Destroy that I reasoned and I would be well on my way to winning the game. OK, not an unfair assessment but my execution of this laudable goal would be severely deficient. I rolled not one, not two but all three of my T34-85s up on to the top of the hill where they could gaze down on his distinctly isolated Panther. Surely with three 85mm guns spitting APCR I would gain the kill even if I did lose a tank or two in the process.
I cannot emphasise the importance of checking out the capability of the weapons at your command. If I had done so I would have realised that even with APCR the chances of killing the Panther through the front were microscopically low. I had also forgotten or chosen to ignore the fact that a nearby clump of trees housed SS grenadiers who were sweating under the weight of all the panzerfausts they were carrying. First blood however went to a lowly halftrack. Congisant of the fact that if success was to be achieved I would need to gain hits early all my tanks were CE. One of them parked right next to a halftrack which took the opportunity to fire at the exposed crew. I had taken the odds, even at point blank range it was only a 6+2 shot and my crew had eight morale. So Dave rolled snake eyes and the crew of that particular tank wound up weeping on the floor of their vehicle while the war got along without them for a while. The other two tanks dutifully presented themselves on the ridge and gained acquisitions on the Panther will simultaneously pointing out to me exactly how hard it was going to be to kill the thing.
Further disaster occurred on the left as Dave's 10-2 guided a squad and hmg to slaughter my best officer and an elite squad despite the concealment counter that they clung to in desperation. With that butchery over the 10-2 shepherded his boys towards the patch of woods that would allow them a clear shot at my tanks.
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| Just for a brief moment things look good |
The next turn brought some ups and downs. Over on the far right my T-34 would follow up its tank killing ways by shocking his remaining PzIV in the vicinity. It would be a drawn out process but that PzIV would wind up destroyed as well. Half Dave's tank force was out of action. Unfortunately the half that remained included his Panther. On the left his troops started pushing forward against my now attenuated and leaderless force. And of course his guys found a panzerfaust and fried one of my T34/85s. By this stage I had realised the folly of my position but any attempt to remove myself from it would simply result in more shots against my vehicles so I decided to stay and fight it out. Very briefly that worked.
By some miracle one of my T34/85s managed to shock the Panther and put it out of the game for a couple of turns (sadly it didn't wind up getting killed) and the other used its machine guns and 85mm on infantry targets. The slaughter was terrible, Dave's 10-2, a squad and the hmg were vapourised and another couple of squads and a 9-1 were broken and sent fleeing down the hill. Briefly I dared to hope.
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| Things could be worse |
Unfortunately that was the high water mark for me. Over on the left a panzerschreck toting halfsquad broke its schreck but made up for it by finding a faust in the next turn and frying the tank I had left supporting my infantry. Said infantry were now being monstered by considerably more SS troops and in the centre the swiftly rallying SS took out another tank with a faust. A lone SS squad moved into the hex with the resultant burning wreck waited patiently for the advance phase. Then it jumped into CC with the remaining T-34/85 found an ATMM and that was all she wrote. Just to add insult to injury the Panther chose that moment to recover and now I was in a dreadful situation.
I still had a few tanks left and quite a bit of infantry but I couldn't effectively cover all of the entry points for his convoy (which didn't actually appear in the entire game). Still obsessing over the Panther I tried one last roll of the dice. It was still sitting on the hill devoid of infantry protection so I said a quick prayer and drove one of my remaining T34s on a circuitous route that resulted in it sitting right behind him (this is what I should have done with a clutch of tanks but whatever). If I could hit the Panther in the rear maybe I still had a chance. I didn't still have a chance, Dave simply rotated the turret of the Panther two hexes and blew away my forlorn hope. At that point I conceded.
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| The end, dead Soviet tanks litter the battlefield |
The number of mistakes I made in this scenario is embarrassing. I overcommitted infantry on the right, stuck two squads out on the left to no good purpose and finally presented all of my best tanks in a neat little row for Dave to kill which he obligingly did. I'm not sure how the Soviets win this one but "not what I did" is the best advice I can give more a player giving it a shot. Interestingly Dave played this as the Germans some years ago and lost because he did exactly what I did and tried to dominate the battlefield from the hilltops. This time he hid behind reverse slopes and invited me to come to him. Like a good little sub I obliged.
Captain Chestikoff wiped pieces of fruit from his uniform and cursed the tank driver.
"There aren't even any orchards in this scenario," he snarled, "how the hell did the bastard find one? I'll never make it to the battlefield at this rate". He looked up at the battlefield and his expression changed.
"On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't criticise our bold tank drivers too much." He looked around for his fellow officers but he seemed alone on the field. The remnants of the assault force were shambling back and looking to him for orders.
"Screw it, let's see if we can get some lend-lease trucks instead."
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