George MC

A Tiger (one of only a handful left running by this date) from 505 Heavy Panzer Battalion supports Panthers from I/Pz.Rgt 31. At this point they are taking flanking long range fire from some AT guns. You can see some battle damage on the Tiger's front glacis. View from similar position looking north. Panther's eye view of the battlefield. Panzer IVs move up for the attack. Accompanied by a handful of panzergrenadiers in SPW. Another Tiger's eye view - in the distance (combat ranges here were around 1.8 to 2km) you can see a Soviet T34 going up in a fireball after being hit. A shot of the hapless T34 and it's mates.

The aufklärungsabteilung from 5th Panzer were the eyes and ears of the division. Keeping tabs on the Soviet armoured spearheads. Here a 250/9 keeps an eye out for enemy units.On this map your recce units will be useful for screening your flanks and scouting possible attack avenues. A recce patrol of 2 x 250/9 and a 250/3 move up to check out a bridge and village. Overwatch as his buddy moves forward.

No worries. I stand corrected I've amended the title accordingly. I assume in it's correct form it makes sense? Thanks for all the comments guys. I'll post a few more screenshots as I go. Working on a Soviet AI Plan at the moment.

This scenario covers the following action (as recorded by von Plato in his history of 5th Panzer Division) in the closing stages of Operation Bagration. Smorgon is on the main rail line from Minsk to Vilnius – hence it was strategically vital for allowing Germans to bring units into action. They were low on fuel/transport so railways were a vital component for keeping armies supplied and flow of reinforcements/moving units etc. The Soviets had just cut the rail line. 5th Panzer Division under the command of Major -General Karl Decker (His General Staff Officer or Ia was Lieutenant-Colonel Anton Detlev von Plato) or at least what was left of it, was concentrated into one group for a last gasp attack. "Early on 6 July an armored group with I./ Pz. Gren. Rgt.14 and I./ Pz. Gren. Rgt. 13 and Pz.Rgt. 31 is formed under Colonel Lippert. The II./ Pz. Gren. Rgt.14 takes Sakowice and II. / Pz. 13 the section west of it on the road of advance. The armored group moves out at about 11.00 am. After short, heavy fighting the enemy is thrown north of Sakowice. The armored group thrusts above Krasne Osinowka until just before the railway, southwest of Smorgon, nearly 10 km deep. Then our power is exhausted at Osinowka - Bialkoszcyna as the enemy throws new armored units against us." The scenario covers later part of this attack i.e. the armoured kampfgruppe's thrust to Osinowka - Bialkoszcyna. By this stage in the fighting 5th Panzer had been in continuous heavy combat since 27th June, moving to and fro across a huge area. By the evening of the 5th July it had endured several cycles of full on combat. By the 6th July and was starting to show signs of strain and this final throw of the diec was to be it's last major offensive and combat cycle during Operation Bagration. Many of the panzergrenadier companies were down to 35 men. Their armoured strength had gone from 70 Panzer V Panthers and 55 Panzer IVs to a recorded strength on the evening of the 5th July of 25 Panthers and 25 PzIVs. From a CM perspective such heavy casualties mean it's possible to simulate this without having hundreds of units on the map. Correspondingly the map is huge - 3km wide x 4.5km deep. The map is based on a contemporary Russian map of the area. What it highlights is this area was at least fairly suitable for a large scale armoured attack. It's one of the few areas in this part that's not bog and wood infested - being mostly rolling terrain with patches of wood but generally fairly open sight lines. The down side is several rivers/streams run across the terrain which mean the Germans had to attack across these natural barriers. The attack did make headway but the Soviets managed to very quickly push armoured units (from the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps and 3rd Guards Mech Corps under General Oslikovski) into the area. These are the attacks that halt the tired and run down 5th Panzer. Playing the Scenario This scenario was originally designed to be played first and foremost from the perspective of the German side against the Soviet AI. It is playable head to head (H2H) but has not been playtested for balance in this regard. I suspect it’ll be a tough one for the German player – so if playing H2H let the less experienced player take the Soviets. When playing this do so with the mindset you are playing a min campaign. Due to the size of map and tactical challenges you’ll need to tackle this as a linked series of actions rather than one decisive action. It's now available for download at the following links: Scenario Depot III The Repository The image below is taken looking north. It shows the first water barrier a mainly marshy/boggy stream. Behind is a low ridge and rolling terrain. The village ahead is KARAVAI Another shot - this time looking east across the German line of attack. This is further north. It's the small hamlet of LIAUKI about 700m south of OSINOWKA. Another full scale view of the map. Again looking north. From the Soviet side of the hill. T34s from 3rd Guards Mech Corps counterattack the German armoured spearhead. This view is looking south towards LIAUKI/CHADAKI

You can download the demo scenario itself - check out this POST - if that is any help?

Great story. I'd heard he was accommodating in that regard. It's great to a wee bit of history in your hand. It's surprising he survived the war given the actions he took part in. Oh and being seriously wounded. Some guys are lucky I guess.

Aye canny man Yeah it's interesting to see this in action. Guess it begs the question why did he not do the same thing? I guess they'd no idea what else was arriving nor what direction it was coming from. Hence stay low fast in and out? That's one of the key attractions of CM for me - recreating these wee snippets of history. Sometimes it helps see why the protagonists took the approach they did.

Charlie Meconis - he's a good mate and helps with scenarios. TBH he's the real historian chap. He's dug up lot's of interesting stuff regarding scenarios we've done in the past. The Peiper series and Panzer Graf stuff for CMBB. Panzer Graf so much so he was a key source for the book The Devil's General. He also helps out with playtesting type stuff.

Aye nae worries Look forward to it as and when. Cheery!

Wow! Excellent work mate! Where have you uploaded it? I could include it in the zip file for the scenario as a tagged mod. Great stuff

Hi Capt Thanks for your comments. Your experience models my own. I've played it a lot and TBH luck come into the survival chances of both Carius and Kerscher more than you might realise. I've done that charge into town multiple times and I'd say around 3out of 5 times they get away with it - albeit often with vehicle damage. I like your description of how lucky they were in RL. Carius' reasoning for this approach (as he describes in his book “Tigers in the Mud”) was because the situation was so unclear and, in his judgement, would be too risky for the unit to attack on line. Therefore to avoid risking his other vehicles and crews - six Tigers (under the command of 1st Lieutenant Nienstedt who was new to the unit) remained in reserve while Carius and Kerscher's Tigers moved towards the village of Malinava. Speed was the essence of Carius' strategy, as was his desire to avoid unnecessary casualties. A key factor in the success of Carius’ unit attack could be attributed to fact that the tank crews of the Soviet 3/41st Tank Brigade were mainly inexperienced reinforcements. The battalion has come up to brigade on the evening of the 21st June 1944. It appears the tank drivers had experience of only 3 hours driving their tanks, whilst many of the officers were inexperienced and not ready for a fast and dynamic close range armoured fight. It can also be speculated that after their victory over the German assault guns that they’d relaxed, or had become overconfident or had perhaps most likely (either because they simply forgot or due to their inexperience) that a vital part of mechanised combat is attentive and alert observation of all arcs that a possible enemy could approach from. I'd heard some versions that suggested the Soviet crews might have been out of their tanks - looking for booze or drink or both. There is no evidence - from any source - to support that. From Carius' account and the number of KIAs it does appear as if most in not all the Soviet crews were in their tanks when the attack hit. Whatever the reasons the young inexperienced Soviet tank crews paid a heavy price – 20 officers and other ranks were killed in the fight. Many were buried by the wrecks of their destroyed tanks on the battlefield. Note: A full list of the Soviet tankers killed at Malinava can be found at http://zhurnal.lib.ru/m/marchenko_r_a/karius1.shtml Cheery! George

Hi Holien Thanks for taking the time to give this a blast and post your thoughts. it's really appreciated ta. Good effort with losing only one Tiger and KOing all the Soviet armour. Before I reply to the other comments it might be useful to outline why I went and recreated this action in Combat Mission - it'll help give a context to my replies and the intent behind this. Carius’ account of how Kersher and himself drove into that village and shot up the Soviet tanks has always intrigued me. TBH I could never really figure out why he’d do such a thing! After the release of Black sea I fancied getting back to WWII Ost Front stuff again. Otto Carius’ death in January rekindled that interest in his career so myself and Charlie started digging about into the action with a view to doing it in Combat Mission. There are several Soviet sources now which really helped to give a perspective from 'the other side'. So much eastern Front stuff is from the German side. To get a Soviet angle (combat reprots, casualties, AARs etc) was really useful to try and model both sides. Long story short we managed to confirm it did happen, pretty much as Carius describes save the involvement of the stugs and the actual Soviet unit engaged. We managed to confirm that actual location it took place. So all in all, for an eastern front scenario, we’d a great deal of info to which create which, to all intents and purposes, is a historical scenario. We’d a confirmed OOB for both sides, confirmed location (with period small scale map to boot). This meant it would be possible to try out what Carius and Kersher did in RL on the Combat Mission battlefield. In that respect the main intent was to be able to recreate their action. Other issues such as game balance etc were not really in the equation TBH i.e. we never set out to ensure this was playable H2H or would provide a stiff fight against the AI. In RL Carius and his unit pretty much wiped out that Soviet advance guard and badly mauled their mates from the Guards unit in their JS-IIs who came to help. The Soviet units in this action were very inexperienced – many/most of the T34s drivers had less than 3 hours driving experience. Carius’ company were pretty much all veterans of the eastern front and had experience of armoured combat. Basically, in this small tactical engagement, they outclassed the Soviets in training, experience and technology. That’s reflected in low experience and command values for the Soviets in game. Correspondingly the German values are all pretty high. There are three Soviet AI plans. AI Plan 1 pretty much recreates how the Soviets reacted. As in RL this involved a very uncoordinated response. The other AI plans are a tad more sophisticated. As the AI will tend to attack I’ve found both the JS-IIs and T34s are not all that good at spotting – mainly because their moving and moving fast (unfortunately not much I can do about how the AI Plan behaviours influence how units move. When they move they move fast hence don’t spot well. That makes it easier to get the drop on them. Plus as I mentioned above they are pretty low experience levels overall (although many of the IS-IIs are higher experience levels – regular/veteran with one crack crew IIRC). Within the AI plans are triggers. So the AI will respond depending on what the German player does. Each AI plan uses triggers in different ways so the AI responds differently. The briefing made sense and it was clear I needed to keep Stugs alive else I would lose. The map is based on the real world location (well a 1:50000 Soviet map of the area dating from 1930 – plus I have a contemporary German map of the same area at 1:100000 scale). It does illustrate that Carius and Kerscher were extremely lucky to get away with what they did. It’s worth playing it out using the same tactics Carius deployed just to see what a risk Kerscher and he took. Why they did what they did is a tough one to work out. There are reasons given in Otto Carius’ book as to why they did what they did. Still I can’t help but wonder. Playing H2H would be a challenge. The Soviet player does not know where the Stugs are. In fact in the briefing they don’t get too much info at all. If playing any house rule I’d suggest they (the Soviet player) can’t do anything proactively until the German player makes contact? And leave the set-up intact. I’m loathe to add any more units. Simple fact is no other Soviet units took part. I’ll leave it as is. You can’t assign a trigger to reinforcements either in CMX2. Thanks again for the playthrough H. Glad you enjoyed it overall Cheery! George

hmmm. Think I might have crayon envy!

Come, come sburke...Crayons are so 20th Century. I use a highlighter. It's the latest modern innovation you know. You so must keep up.

I think you've done pretty well with modern media/technology. How long did it take for you to realise your crayons would not work on the monitor screen? He! I even laughed at my own funny...

Hi Repsol Cheers for the comments Glad you are enjoying it! Re your comments - EXIT zones really screw up scoring in CM I've found. I've used em in the past but it's tough to get em to work without really unbalancing end of game scoring. So how to have the Stugs in the scenario (they were there despite Carius' account) but limit how players use them - especially against the AI in a co-ordinated attack? I then went back to the actual event and in RL Carius did not co-ordinate his attack with the Stugs. No evidence to support that. It appears they did join in but it would appear only opportunistically. Hence the Stugs are a bit of a wild card. As they are a prime objective there are is more than one way to skin a cat - if you get my drift? Mind - the Stug unit had their arses kicked not an hour past - they are low on ammo, poor morale and are a valuable strategic asset. Once the fighting is over then they can exit south - you just need to keep em alive to do that. BTW the German briefing notes give a clue as to how to approach this. It's not perfect but as I said EXIT zones - unless the whole force has to come off the map tend to screw up the end of game scoring, and I've not found a satisfactory way around that.

Hi H Cheers ta Yup I'd appreciate any comments/feedback ta. Hope all well with you?

Tension is mounting. He's going to have to move off that reverse slope and come down of that hill at some point...

It's out! About the Scenario This scenario recreates one of Lt. Otto Carius' engagements made famous in his book 'Tigers in the Mud' on page 166 'The Ambush'. The scenario map size is around 2.9km x 3.4km. Both sides have around a company+. You have around 01hr 40 Minutes (+0-15 minutes variable time). However it’s unlikely, playing against the AI that you’ll need all this time, although playing H2H it might be useful. Playing the Scenario This scenario was originally designed to be played first and foremost from the perspective of the German side against the Soviet AI. It is playable head to head (H2H) but has not been playtested for balance in this regard. I suspect it’ll be a tough one for the German player – so if playing H2H let the less experienced player take the Soviets. It is also playable Soviet Vs German AI - given the tactical situation and the game engine limitations of the AI - the German AI struggles with the situation. Still if you want to blow up Hitlerite Bandit Tigers – knock yersel out! AI Plans There are three distinct Soviet AI plans and one German AI plan – thus allowing some level of re-playability. Those who want the true historical ‘feel’ then play Soviet AI Plan 1. It is the closest to how the Soviets reacted in the actual action. To access AI Plan 1, open this scenario in the editor and ‘switch off’ whatever other Red AI Plans you don’t want to play. It won’t affect FOW unless you take a peek at the other info. About the Action On the 22nd July 1944 Tigers of 2 Company (under the temporary command of Lt. Carius) from schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 ambushed the spearhead of the Soviet 5th Tank Corps, the tip of 4th Shock Army’s spear, which had just cleanly broken through Army Group North’s defences. What is arguably unique about this action was the initial bold attack made by Carius and Kerscher into the village which was occupied by T34s from 41st Tank Brigade, made destroying a number of them. Subsequent debate focuses on the exact kill tally - claimed by Carius in his book - in and around the village, the subsequent 'ambush' of the remainder of the Soviet tank unit some km east, and the part played by a nearby German Stug battery or batteries. The debate around the facts of this event I'll set aside for now but if you are interested there is a Historical Action PDF contained in the zip file that outlines the facts behind the engagement and subsequent research and opinion. To Play I've uploaded to the repository but until it goes live you can download the zip file (which contains the scenario game file, historical action PDF with sources and a master tactical map to help orientate yourself) via the following dropbox LINK As always I'd appreciate any feedback etc. If you can post any comments etc in this thread that would be hugely appreciated ta! Enjoy!

He! No worries - I was quoting Morrisey back at you (slightly modified!). p.s. look at the first post or the one below

Thanks I hope it lives up to the hype

I know you've already waited too long but before all your hope is gone - it'll be soon. I'm shooting for this weekend. RL allowing. It's been played (tested) both sides vs AI. Reckon it's playable H2H although the better player should take the German side.

This is on the home straight now. A few wee screen shots - another one showing Carius and Kerscher attacking into Malinava - you can just see the support Tigers under Nienstedt in the background, hull down. Soviet JS-IIs from the 48th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment move up to assist their stricken comrades at Malinava. Only to fall victim themselves...

Welcome back young sir

Works of art mate