Barbarossa Scenarios Released

[Heinrich505]

Phil,

I looked at some Moscow area maps, trying to find Burzevo, but I couldn't locate it.  Most likely a very tiny place that suddenly became important when the temperature dropped to -30 F.  Google Map present day didn't help at all. 

The 258th IFD managed to get very close to Moscow, per some maps I did find.  I couldn't find anything specific for the 478th Regiment of the 258th IFD, but they were definitely SW of Moscow, and even closer than the scenario detail of 27 miles.  There were some unconfirmed reports of German troops scouting to within 12 miles of the Kremlin, using local trams. 

I know that the original designer must have had a source to detail such an engagement, but where it came from is quite a mystery.  I wish I could have found the source.  It had to be quite a read.

Gary

[kohlenklau]

"That was exactly what happened. Kluge intended to gain the motor highway behind the Nara Lakes by means of a sweeping encircling movement, and then to cover its flank. Towards 0500 hours on 1st December the XX Corps under General Materna mounted its attack against the motor highway east of Naro-Fominsk with 3rd Motorized Infantry Division, 103rd, 258th, and the reinforced 292nd Infantry Divisions-the main effort being with 258th Infantry Division, which already held the bridge over the Nara at Tashirovo. In sub-zero weather the extensive field fortifications southeast and north of the town were pierced. The 292nd Infantry Division, reinforced by units of 27th Panzer Regiment, 19th Armoured Division, wheeled to the north. Colonel Hahne gained Akulovo with his headquarters troops and 2nd Battalion, 507th Infantry Regiment; this village was only four miles from the motor highway and 35 miles from Moscow.

On the right wing of XX Corps the 183rd Infantry Division fought its way right up to the motor highway west of Shalamovo with two battalions of 330th Infantry Regiment on 2nd December, and dug in for all-round defence. On the morning of 3rd December 330th Infantry Regiment, without being pressed by the enemy, was ordered to withdraw to its starting positions on the Nara, south of Naro-Fominsk.

The 3rd Motorized Infantry Division and 258th Infantry Division launched an outflanking attack against Naro-Fominsk. The temperature was 34 degrees below zero Centigrade, and there was an icy wind which made the troops' bones ache. The first instances occurred of men throwing themselves down in the snow, crying, "I can't go on." The battalions shrank more and more-through frost injuries rather than enemy action. Some battalions were down to eighty men.

In the Brandenburg 3rd Motorized Infantry Division the 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, lost all its company commanders during the first few days of fighting. The 5th Company, which started this final offensive with seventy men, had only twenty-eight men left by the first evening. The company commander was wounded, the two sergeants had been killed, and of the other nine NCOs four had been killed and three wounded. Nevertheless the 29th Infantry Regiment took Naro-Fominsk and drove another three miles to the east along the highway. But then the attack ground to a standstill at 38 degrees below zero Centigrade.

The only progress made towards the east was on the division's left, in the area of 258th Infantry Division. There a mobile combat group under the command of Anti-aircraft Battalion 611, operating on the division's left wing, punched its way through to the north-east, via Barkhatovo and Kut-mevo, to Podazinskiy. Indeed, the "advanced detachment Bracht," with Motorized Reconnaissance Battalion 53, 1st Company, Panzerjâger Battalion 258, two platoons of 1st Company Anti-aircraft Battalion 611, and a few self-propelled guns, succeeded in getting as far as Yushkovo, to the left of the highway. From there it was only 27 miles to the Kremlin.

On the other side of the road was the village of Burzevo. This miserable place with its thirty thatched houses on the far side of a snow-covered drill square was the target of the spearheads of 258th Infantry Division.

In the late afternoon of 2nd December the 3rd Battalion, 478th Infantry Regiment, likewise penetrated into the village of Burzevo along the Naro-Fominsk to Moscow road. Units of 2nd Battalion had been holding their ground desperately for several hours against enemy attacks. The twenty-five or thirty straw-covered houses of the little village exercised a mesmeric attraction on the troops. The smoke rising straight into the icy sky from their chimneys promised hot stoves. There was nothing the men longed for more than a little warmth. They had spent the previous night in the old concrete pillboxes of a tank training ground west of the village, and had been caught there by a sudden drop of temperature to 35 degrees below zero Centigrade.

The collective farmers had been using those pillboxes as chickenhouses. The chickens had gone, but the fleas stayed behind. It was an appalling night. The only way to escape from the fleas was to cower behind the chunks of concrete. And there the frost was lurking. Before the men realized it their fingers had turned white and their toes were frozen into insensitivity inside their boots. In the morning thirty men reported at the medical post, some of them with serious frostbite. But there was no point even in taking the boots off-the skin would merely be left behind frozen to the insoles together with the rags they had wrapped their feet in. There were no medical supplies for the treatment of frostbite. Nor was there any transport to take the casualties to the main dressing station. Thus the frost-bitten men remained with their units and longed for the warm houses of Burzevo.

The battalion had launched its attack at dawn, without artillery preparation. They were supported by three self-propelled guns and one 8-8-cm. anti-aircraft gun. The Russians in their positions outside and in Burzevo were clearly also suffering from the cold. They were equally badly supplied with winter clothing as the German troops, and seemed unwilling to engage in any major fighting. The Russian wounded and those who surrendered were patently under the influence of vodka. They maintained that behind them there were no further defences this side of Moscow, except for a few antiaircraft positions. At two points only did the Russians try to set fire to the village. The terrible meaning of Stalin's scorched-earth order was first made apparent.

Major Staedtke reduced sentries and pickets to the bare minimum and allowed the rest of his men to go into the houses with their warm stoves. There they sat, crouched, or lay, crowded together like sardines with the Russian civilian population. They piled bricks into the stoves. And every hour, as a few men went out to relieve the sentries, they would take a brick with them-but not to warm their feet or hands. The heat had to be saved for something more important. The hot bricks were wrapped in rags and placed on the locks of the machine-guns to prevent the oil from freezing. If a Russian suddenly emerged behind a snow hummock, where he might have lain for hours, the sentries could not afford a jammed gun. Thus they carted their hot bricks and stones outside every hour to keep their weapons warm. Those who had been relieved and came inside felt as though they were entering paradise.

But paradise was short-lived-six hours in all. The OC 258th Infantry Division withdrew the reinforced 478th Infantry Regiment to Yushkovo; the 3rd Battalion covered the movement as the rearguard. At 2200 hours the Russians made another attack with T-34s. They knew what they wanted. Systematically they fired at the straw roofs to set the houses on fire. Then they broke into the village. Fighting continued in the light of the burning farmhouses. The 8-8-cm. gun finished off two Soviet tanks, but then received a direct hit itself. Self-propelled guns and T-34s chased each other among the blazing houses. The infantry lay in the gardens, behind baking ovens, and in storage cellars. Second Lieutenant Bossert, with an assault detachment of 9th Company, tackled the T-34s with old Russian anti-tank mines.

Half a dozen of the blotchy monsters were lying motionless in the village street, smouldering. But two of the three German self-propelled guns were also out of action. One of them stood in flames just outside the garden where Dr Sievers, of the Medical Corps, had organized his regimental dressing station in a potato store cellar. Pingel, his medical NCO, was ceaselessly injecting morphia or SEE-a combination of Sco-polamin, Eukodal, and Ephetonin-in order to relieve the pain of the wounded. He carried his equipment in his trouser pocket because otherwise the ampoules would freeze up. Of course, it was not sterile-but what was the point of asepsis in those conditions? The main thing was to help the wounded lying on the ground in such weather.

When the day dawned the 23rd Battalion was still hanging on to the ruins of Yushkovo. Six T-34s lay in the village, gutted or shot up. The Russian infantry did not come again. The attack had been repulsed. But it was also clear that there could be no question of a further advance towards Moscow. The men were finished. Seventy seriously wounded were lying in the icy potato cellars. The order came through to abandon Yushkovo and to withdraw again behind the Nara. It was the hour when the whole of Fourth Army suspended its offensive and recalled its spearheads to the starting-lines.

Dr Sievers ordered the wounded to be loaded on the horse-drawn carts which had arrived in the line at night with ammunition and food supplies. But there was not enough room for them. The shattered vehicles were likewise loaded with wounded and hitched like sledges to the tractor of the 8-8-cm. gun. The most serious cases were placed on the self-propelled guns. The dead had to be left behind, unburied. It was almost a Napoleonic retreat.

The columns had no sooner left the village than the Russians began shelling them. Hits were scored among the columns. The horses drawing two carts of wounded fell. The carts overturned. The wounded cried out desperately for help. Suddenly the silhouettes of Soviet tanks appeared on the edge of the wood in front.

"Russian tanks!" There was panic. Escape was the only thought. For the first time Dr Sievers drew his pistol. "Pingel, Bockholt, over here!" The three men-the doctor and the two medical NCOs-positioned themselves across the road, their pistols drawn. The gesture was enough. Abruptly, reason once more prevailed. The wounded were loaded on the carts again. Twelve men harnessed themselves to each of the carts. Pingel led one of them and Bockholt the other.

At a trot they made for the patch of wood where the last self-propelled gun had gone into position and where the horse-drawn columns were waiting for them. On 4th December they were back behind the Nara river."

[kohlenklau]

Gary! Get the passport ready...we're headed to Burzevo. Those 2 ladies have some cousins up there

[Falaise]

On 1/3/2022 at 7:51 PM, kohlenklau said:

 Makes me wonder how many dudes are actually playing these games sometimes!

me to all!
with big favorites on some
The one that gave me the most "problems" is Snos Mosta which I replayed yesterday for the 15th time maybe, I love to try all the positioning options. So you see even if they are not loaded a lot at least they played a lot !!!!
I loved the desperate atmosphere of Kalt Eintopf

[kohlenklau]

7 minutes ago, Falaise said:

I loved the desperate atmosphere of Kalt Eintopf

yeah! I think CM players fall into certain groupings. There are the monster scenario players, guys who love to have 3 battalions to micromanage on a 2 hour battle with a gigantic map. Give them a small scenario on a tiny map and they cringe. Then there are the "tank heads" who must have armor or they are bored. I guess I do love the tanks but am happy to have a small infantry fight or a one sided "Alamo" or whatever you call it surrounded and in "deep kimchee". My brain can't really handle the giant battles. Too much going on. I forget to move a unit and see it sitting there in the set up zone. Plus I would miss the action at the micro level or need a hour to replay and view it. I still miss action with small battles but I see the cool stuff and feel connected to what is occurring. 

I am glad you enjoy them. I enjoy making them

[kohlenklau]

2 hours ago, Falaise said:

I loved the desperate atmosphere of Kalt Eintopf

oh...and I am enjoying a new PBEM with a player who we had first tried Kalt Eintopf and I took allied side. He hated playing as Germans in that position of the underdog. I guess I always love that style of outnumbered, barely hanging on type battle. For Final Blitzkrieg I play defense as US Army under waves of Germans. Historical and grim. But great stuff in my opinion.

[kohlenklau]

4 hours ago, Heinrich505 said:

I looked at some Moscow area maps, trying to find Burzevo, but I couldn't locate it. 

I found it. It was incorrectly spelled from the Cyrillic. It should be Burtsevo!

https://goo.gl/maps/Modba5dUr2WRDQK97

[Heinrich505]

Great find for the map, Phil.  I have now located it and Yushkovo on the google map.  

Thank-you also for the exerpt from Hitler Moves East.  I'd say the SL scenario seems to capture the action very well, from my times playing it.  The exerpt describes the battle just as I'd imagined it.  Thanks so much for providing it - all these years I wondered what some of the details might have been for that very scenario.  

It was also curious to me that an 8,8 cm flak gun would be in the scenario, but with that exerpt, it is now explained, as two platoons of 1st Company Anti-aircraft Battalion 611 are noted as having accompanied the 478th on their push into Burzevo.  Since the 8,8 cm flak was the only sure T-34 killer at range, I'm sure the StuG crews were glad to have them along for the ride.

I don't have that volume, but I have Carell's Operation Barbarossa in Photographs, which shows a small map of captured towns around Moscow, essentially the extent of the German advance before they were beaten back.  Burzevo is shown on the map.  There is no description of the battle, as the book is mostly photographs, but there is a snowy shot of a StuG in the area that could have been located in Yushkovo or Burzevo [Burtsevo]. 

Burzevo is also mentioned in the Time Life Series Barbarossa on page 134, where it mentions that the men of the 478th took the village and crammed into the small huts for relief from the cold.  It doesn't mention the battle for the village though.

Great detective work, Phil!  Thanks.

Gary

[kohlenklau]

28 minutes ago, Heinrich505 said:

Great detective work, Phil!

It IS just like detective work tracking some of this stuff down!

~~~~~~

Once again, the ride from the airport in the lend-lease Studebaker is absolutely free. Olga and Okcana have our names and will meet us at the Aeroflot baggage claim.

[Heinrich505]

[kohlenklau]

8 hours ago, Falaise said:

which I replayed yesterday for the 15th time

An advantage of a small battle! Easier to rack up for another try. AND easier to write/create for me.

[kohlenklau]

Burtsevo is coming alive nicely. I cropped down a master map and edited the terrain and elevation. Changed all houses to wood...this was Russia so the building permits took some palm greasing and a bottle of vodka to get approved after normal hours. Added a church for cultural value. 

I set the time as early morning around 0615 versus night and tests seem nice. 

Units are all selected. 

Gotta set points and make an AI plan for both sides.

[Heinrich505]

Sounds great, Phil.  Very excited!  

[kohlenklau]

3 hours ago, Heinrich505 said:

Very excited!

check your email!

[kohlenklau]

BARB BURTSEVO

 

^
Adapted from ASL Scenario A "Burzevo". 
Burtsevo, 27 miles southwest of the Kremlin. December 2, 1941: By the end of November, Operation Typhoon had broken down; resolute Soviet resistance, exhaustion, and sub-zero temperatures had almost completely halted the Germans. Along the Minsk-Moscow highway, the fastest and most direct route to the Russian capital, von Kluge's Fourth Army made a last desperate attempt to dislodge the defending Russians by an encircling attack from the south. The only real progress was made by the 258th Infantry Division, whose spearheads managed to capture the village of Burtsevo on the afternoon of Dec. 2. The 3rd Battalion of the 478th Regiment was ordered to hold there, its men anticipating a brief respite from the -30 degree F night. But that night the Russians counterattacked...
^
You are Hauptmann Heinrich Hartmann and lead what is left of the III. Battalion. Your small group of men are attached to a small kampfgruppe of the 611th Flak battalion along with three assault guns and a half-track.
^
The weather is atrocious and has kept Ivan's head down for a few hours...but how long can it last? 
^
Defend the village. 
^
You have 10-15 minutes to accomplish your mission. Points are awarded for destroying enemy units and maintaining a hold on several terrain occupy objectives. The enemy will gain points by destroying your vehicles and the flak gun. 

Edited January 7, 2022 by kohlenklau

[kohlenklau]

That makes 7 Barbarossa scenarios so far!

Edited January 7, 2022 by kohlenklau

[Falaise]

On 1/5/2022 at 6:24 PM, kohlenklau said:

. They had spent the previous night in the old concrete pillboxes of a tank training ground west of the village, and had been caught there by a sudden drop of temperature to 35 degrees below zero Centigrade.

 

The tank training ground still exists, it is the tank biatlon ground
but also the land where the Kubinka museum is located!

 

[Falaise]

BARB BURTSEVO
What is the difference between BARB BURTSEVO and BARB BURTSEVO V2 ?

[kohlenklau]

4 hours ago, Falaise said:

What is the difference

It usually means I made some further development in the AI or some aspect of the scenario

[Falaise]

I have an unmodified stug

I normally have all BARB mods
the only stug mod i have is labeled [24pd] which is not the case for the scenario
I missed a mod?

[kohlenklau]

 

3 hours ago, Falaise said:

mod

Let me double check if I have uploaded it. I need a couple sucretaries...

Stephan...download this folder "earlystug" and paste it in your z. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/22w6629ycivzbxp/AADwfAGoe0cVQSPlUMY0w-3La?dl=0

Edited January 7, 2022 by kohlenklau

[kohlenklau]

FYI to all 6 guys who play my scenarios...I have divided the early Stug mod in 2 types for best game play. There is now the [earlystugstummel] where I use an mdr mod of the 251/9 stummel halftrack that has the short 75 and lots of HE rounds but hardly any AP with thin armor of the actual halftrack and crew cannot button up. It can still play well in certain scenarios. Then I also have the [earlystug] mod which is basically a true Stug3 but with a shortened barrel for visual looks.  It has the AP rounds, the armor and the crew can button up. For tank on tank action scenarios.

[kohlenklau]

Coming soon is another ASL translation BARB THE HEDGEHOG OF PIEPSK

[Vacillator]

3 hours ago, Falaise said:

I have an unmodified stug

I'm one of the six and it's great Phil.  But I also have the unmodified Stug IIIG.  Will check I have your latest mods.

[kohlenklau]

For the sinister 6, my 6 buddies...

Go in your z and delete the earlystug folder that I had created with Grossmutters Haus back a bit.

Go in my Goody Box and in CMRT down in Barb is a new earlystug folder to get

Grossmutters Haus V1 is also there to get as I changed the modtag. Delete your old GH scenario...