Wargames Wednesday - Another 15mm Barbarossa-Inspired Solo Game

 I decided to give early war in Russia another try - this time, two Russian infantry units supported by two HMG, two mortars and an AT Rifle were defending a river crossing against three German infantry units, each with an attached HMG and, initially, two PzKfw II's. 

The Russians had 10 cards including an ace for a single T34 and a King for a single KV1. The Germans had 12 cards including an ace for three PzKfw IV Ausf D, a king for two PzKfw III and a queen for Luftwaffe air support. Being the attackers, the Germans went first.

The bare table - I even pressed a couple of my home-made defensive positions into service - they were actually built for use by the Japanese in the pacific - but a log bunker is a log bunker really!

After the Germans moved first, I drew three red cards in a row! The Russians managed to put a hit on the infantry in the German centre.

The ATR lined up one of the Panzer I's.....

....... no prizes for guessing what that score means!

Yep - scratch one panzer!

The very next turn, this happened!

So, here we are at the end of turn 4 - one panzer knocked out, the second silenced and the infantry teetering on the brink of a forced retirement that would almost certainly take them out of the game permanently! (The Germans did manage to move this unit to the right, where they could not be observed, and gradually succeeded in rallying the hits off)

On turn 7, the Germans Panzer IV reinforcements arrived.

The German infantry were working their way up both flanks, using the cover of the woods to get within firing range of the entrenched Russian infantry. I had made them elite, so they added one to the dice score, whereas the Russian infantry were classed as conscripts and had a minus one. The empty bunker indicates one of the HMG units has been wiped out.

Turn 11, and the KV1 rumbled onto the battlefield...and....

The ATR crew struck again!

Then, BOTH the mortar crews joined it - a 12 gets two hits on any target!

On turn 15, the T34 arrived to join the defensive effort, and....

The KV got a perfect score firing at the German infantry in the woods across the river ....

.... forcing them to fall back!

But by turn 15, the combined fire from the Panzers had destroyed both the Soviet HMG teams

The tank commanders cleverly occupied the vacated defensive positions, meaning the Germans, with their less than effective short 75mm howitzer type armament needed a score of 12 to get a hit.

Turn 20 (of a planned 22) and the two PzKfw III arrived.

The very next turn, the Luftwaffe made and appearance ....

.... which proved to be a bit of a damp squib!

A nice little 1/144 Academy kit in about 6 parts that I bought years ago for the princely sum of NZ$4!

I had now run out of cards, but decided to play on - I reshuffled 4 Red and 5 Black, including the queen, to give the Germans another chance at an air attack, and what do you know,

.... the first card was the Queen, so the Me110 made a return visit ....

... with equally "devastating" results!

I kept on keeping on for about anther fifteen minutes, but the game reached a bit of a stalemate. 

The German tanks blasted away, 4 shots every turn, at the T34, but needing an 11 or 12 to hit it, and failed to do so. The T34 failed to rally, so was never able to fire back!

The KV1 and mortars managed to combine to knock out a couple more German tanks over several rounds of firing

The mortars and remaining Russian infantry also managed to get 4 hits on two of the three attacking infantry units, which then had to fall back 2 D6 cm automatically.

This is how things looked from the Russian position when I finally called it a night - you would have to say, it doesn't look like the Germans were going to break through any time soon.

The victorious Russian commander - destined for Hero of the Soviet Union status, perhaps?

With my renewed interest in the Ostfront, I picked up another couple of books from the library as below:

I am halfway through the one on the right, here are a couple of images and brief blub on the book:

In this vivid first-hand account, we gain unique access to the inner workings of Stalin's Central Women's Sniper School, near Podolsk in Western Russia. Luliia was a dedicated member of the Komsomol (the Soviet communist youth organisation) and her parents worked for the NKVD. She started at the sniper school aged 16 and eventually became a valued member of her battalion during operations in East Prussia. She persevered through eight months of training before leaving for the Front on 24th November 1944 just days after qualifying. Joining the third Belorussian Front her battalion endured rounds of German mortar as well as loudspeaker announcements beckoning them to come over to the German side. Luliia recounts how they would be in the field for days, regularly facing the enemy in terrifying one-on-one encounters. She sets down the euphoria of her first hit and starting her "battle count" but her reflection on how it was also the ending of a life. These feelings fade as she recounts the barbarous actions of Hitler's Nazi Germany. She recalls how the women were once nearly overrun by Germans at their house when other Red Army formations had moved off and failed to tell them. She also details a nine-day stand-off they endured encircled by Germans in Landsberg. Regularly suffering ill-health, she took a shrapnel injury to her knee and had to be operated on without an anaesthetic. She would eventually see the end of the war in Köngsberg. Like her famous counterpart Pavlichenko she gained recognition but struggled to come to terms with war service. Haunted by flashbacks she burned the letters she sent home from the Front. She later discovered that of the 1885 graduates of her sniper school only 250 had died in war. In this powerful, first-hand account we come up close to the machinations of the NKVD (the secret police) as well as the grueling toll of war and the breathtaking bravery of this female sniper.

And talking of  Pavlichenko, the so-called Lady Death, I watched this pretty good movie about her on YouTube last night - Russian/Ukranian with English subtitles. (for some reason, when I use the Blogger video tool, I can't find the right YouTube clip, if you follow this link, you should reach it!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8AA0YUNcHg)

I particularly liked the speech she gave in Chicago, when she visited the USA in 1942 as part of the Soviet attempt to embarrass the western Allies into launching a second front as soon as possible.

What I had not realized is, she killed all 309 fascist occupiers in one battle - the defence of Sevastopol. After she was evacuated (by submarine, just as the city was finally falling to the Germans) she was never in combat again, as she was suffering from shell shock/PTSD. After the US publicity trip (she went to Canada and the UK too) Pavlichenko helped train new snipers for the remainder of the war.