"On First Encountering the T34". A 15mm Solo Game

 From the Imperial War Museum:

"The T-34 in particular was a major leap in tank design and came as a complete shock to the Germans when it was first encountered in July 1941. It had sloping armour - which effectively doubled its strength - and a powerful 76.2mm gun. Its reliable diesel engine gave it a good range and turn of speed, and its wide tracks could cope with mud or snow. Russian industry was already gearing up to turn it out in huge numbers."

From Wikipedia

At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Germans were expecting little from their opponent's tank forces, which were composed of the old T-26 and BTs. While most of the Soviet Union's armoured forces were composed of such tanks, the T-34 and the KV designs, which were previously unknown, took the Germans by surprise. Both types were encountered on the second day of the invasion – 23 June 1941.

"Half a dozen anti-tank guns fire shells at him [a T-34], which sound like a drumroll. But he drives staunchly through our line like an impregnable prehistoric monster... It is remarkable that lieutenant Steup's tank made hits on a T-34, once at about 20 meters and four times at 50 meters, with Panzergranate 40 (caliber 5 cm), without any noticeable effect."

— German battle report, Finkel

German Panzer 35(t) light tanks and anti-tank weapons were practically ineffective against the Soviet armoured giants, which closed with and, even though some of them were out of ammunition, destroyed some German anti-tank guns by simply driving over them

To try and balance things out, I gave the Russians the chance of 3 x T34 and 3 x BT7 as reinforcements for the initial force of three infantry units, 2 armoured cars and an HMG defending a small village. The attacking Germans started with 5 infantry units, an SdKfz 250, 2 x SdKfz 222 and 2 HMG's in support. Their reinforcements were 5 x PzKfw III with 50mm guns and 5 x PzKfw 38t with 37mm guns. I used our homebrew AS9 rules, which use a deck of cards for random activation sequence. There were 26 in total - 10 each standard red and black, plus an Ace, King and Queen of each colour - Ace for the best tank reinforcement, King the other tanks and the Queen was an off-board artillery "stonk". I made sure to mix the cards very thoroughly... maybe that was a mistake in retrospect!

The Germans (to the left/west) automatically got first turn as the attackers, thereafter, activation was by turn of card, unless one side got three in a row; then, the other side automatically had to get the next activation. The Russians counted as being entrenched, so were harder to hit.

The first 4 turns ran German, Russian, Russian, Russian! The German HMGs fired on turn one but didn't hit anything, then the Russians returned the favour for three turns in a row, including one of the armoured cars failing to hit an SdKfz 222.

Turn 5 and 6 went to the Germans, the red markers indicate units that have taken a hit. Remember, in these rules, both sides fire. The activated player can choose to move OR fire, but if they choose the latter, unless they destroy the target (which they can do in one shot to a vehicle or gun team, if they score 12) the target fires back at them.

Turn 7 was Russian and then 8 and 9 were German again. One of the Russian infantry units was teetering on 3 hits. The first action in each turn is to attempt rally, which is done by rolling 9 or greater on 2 D6 to remove one hit marker - a score of 12 removes ALL hit markers. In this game, I was generally rubbish at rolling rallies for either side, with a few notable exceptions!

On turn 10, I turned over the red ace, and on came the 3 x T34 tanks. These are original FoW resin and metal models circa 1998, as are all my FoW kit. The slogans were sourced by getting a Russian dictionary from the library and copying out Cyrillic alphabet words, then hand painting them onto the turrets! No internet to check, let alone 15mm scale decals to use back in the day.... LOL.😉

The Russians had a couple of turns and managed to rally off most of the hits they had been carrying, then after the Germans managed to destroy the one and only Russian HMG, I turned over the red queen, and the three BT7 tanks came on too!

A view from behind the German lines as the Russian tanks move forward. The Russian infantry on their left flank are again sitting on three hits, as is the leading German infantry unit, that is sheltering in dead ground behind one of the buildings

On turn 15, the red queen came up, and a Russian artillery barrage hit the HMG and adjacent infantry. Both German HMGs were silenced at this stage.

Next turn, the armored car finished off one of the German HMGs......

...... and a T34 brewed up a 222!

The tanks were mainly using their MGs to help suppress German infantry, and the combined fire power drove one unit back to the table edge, whilst the T34 adjacent to the central building had assaulted the German infantry, winning the close combat and driving them back too!

Finally, on turn 20, the black ace was drawn, and the 5 PzKfw III's appeared in support of the German assault. All the German rally attempts failed - again! .... and in an exchange of infantry fire, the targeted Russians rolled a double 6, putting two hits on the Germans who had fired at them.

Turn 21 also went to the Germans - a Panzer III fired at the T34, but the 50mm shell just bounced off the sloped frontal armour.  (just like in Finkel's report, quoted above!)

The 76mm swung round and a shot rang out - with a +3 for a gun greater than 75mm, but -1 against medium armour, it wasn't too hard for the Russian crew to score an 11 or 12 and brew the German tank up! 

The German commanders tank fired at the T34 ....

.... and scored a direct hit! These Russian tanks are not invincible, after all, Jungs! 

The remaining Pz III's only had a BT7 in view - their combined fire only managed to get a single hit, silencing its 45mm gun.

The German armour was having trouble with the remaining two T34's - despite outnumbering them 4 to 2, for every shot fired, a return shot came in their direction - and the T34 had a significant calibre advantage! On turn 23 (of 26) the black queen was turned over and the German artillery caused one Russian infantry unit to abandon the front-line trenches and retire eastwards.

On turn 24, the black king was finally revealed, and the 5 x 38t's arrived, but possibly too little, too late by this stage? Two Pz III's were burning and another 2 were suppressed, whilst only a single BT7 was suppressed on the Russian side.

Unfortunately for the Germans, three of the 38t's scored a 10 when firing at the T34, but because of its armour rating and their small guns, they needed to score 11.

Then the remaining Pz III's had a try, and their result was worse - not hits on the T34 but return fire silenced one and destroyed the other!

The Russian infantry were in pretty poor shape by now - one unit had left the field, and another had been driven out of their trench after accumulating 4 hits, but the Germans were not much better off, with two units having disintegrated and their part of the battlefield was littered with the smoking hulks of destroyed panzers!

In the final turn, a red card was revealed - and to add a final injury to insult, the one suppressed BT7 rallied it's hit off, then knocked out a 38t, whilst the two T34's killed another Panzer III and a 38t!

The game took a couple of hours to play through - first image is timed at 1912 and the last at 2124. The Russians certainly had all the luck; if the Panzers had turned up first and been on the table unmolested for a several turns, they probably could have helped overwhelm the Russian infantry and secured the town before the armoured reinforcements could arrive. I thought a 10 to 6 advantage in tank numbers would be ok, particularly when all the German tanks were more or less as good as the three BT7's, but the way the activations fell really did the German cause no favours at all!

I may carry on with further Barbarossa inspired games, or possibly just alternate between different WWII periods and theatres, depending on how the mood takes me - nice to have a bit of variety in my Wargaming Wednesday games! I must also have a think about getting my 28mm skirmish figures back into action some time, too.

I hope you enjoyed this AAR of the game played on Saturday evening - should get in another one on Wednesday and may possibly have a couple more "proper" FtF games later in the week - I am starting to sound like Mr Freitag!