New Scenario Out: Hero of the Soviet Union

[Mark Gallear]

Hero of the Soviet Union is now available on my site - Mod Corner and should be available tomorrow at the Scenario Depot.

Title: Hero Of The Soviet Union

Scenario Type: Axis Attack

Date: October 1941

Battle Length: 38 Turns Variable.

Historical: Historical

Ground Condition: Damp

Temperature: Frozen

Weather: Overcast

Scenario Design: Mark Gallear mgallear@hotmail.com

Play Testing: Brian Martuzas, Carl Nogueria (Both Ex-Advanced Squad Leader designers and testers)and Schoerner. Their suggestions made it a better scenario.

In the autumn of 1941 Lieutenant Dimitry Lavrinenko commanded a T-34 Platoon in Colonel Katukov’s 4th Tank Brigade. The Brigade was formed in September but never achieved its paper strength of 93. The initial strength varies in the sources of between around 50–60 tanks of which 14–22 were new T-34 Model 41/42 supplied by the nearby Stalingrad Tractor Works, the main producer of this tank.

In October 1941 around Orel and Mtsensk, 4 Tk Bde clashed with the Panzers of General Guderian’s Panzer Group II during the German Operation Taifun, the race to capture Moscow before winter set in. In September, the Germans had broken through the Orel area, but the route to Mtsenk proved more difficult as tank casualties mounted and thick mud slowed the advance. In just four days Lavrinenko and his crew destroyed 16 enemy tanks. But as the temperature fell, the mud froze allowing the German advance to restart.

On 6th October, 4 Tnk Bde near the village of Pervy Voin to the south of Mcensk met 100 tanks and APCs of the 24th Panzer corps. According to the account in Tank Aces, the Russians set a clever ambush with the Infantry placed as decoys in trenches and dummy fighting positions, to draw preparatory enemy artillery fire and air strikes from Stukas. As the enemy advanced these men were to be withdrawn to the real line of defence. The Russian tanks were placed in defensive ambush positions, with other tanks held centrally in reserve, ready to cover key approaches. Each ambush tank had a number of predetermined ambush positions using reverse slopes and trees and could move between them undetected and was meant to open fire at point blank range of between 200-300m.

However other battle accounts suggest that this ambush was nowhere near as cleverly done. At first Russian 45mm AT-guns opened fire at the attacking German tanks but they were suppressed by massed fire. The Germans assaulted the positions of a motorized rifle battalion and surrounded the mortar company. The tanks waiting in ambush were forced to prematurely break cover to save the infantry. Lieutenant Kukarin was ordered to charge the Germans and from 600-800m his tank destroyed three fascist tanks. Only when his tank was penetrated in the side and some of the crew wounded did he order it to reverse. According to one source the tank remained in action and turret Gunner Sergeant I.T.Ljubushkin was given the award of Hero of the Soviet Union after he destroyed another 13 enemy tanks.

Lavrinko’s Platoon of four T-34s was supported by three heavier KV-1 tanks under a Sgt. K. Antonov. Lavrinenko's four T-34’s attacked the column of fascist vehicles crossing the valley. With long distance fire, Lavrinenko's group destroyed between 11-15 enemy tanks and 2 anti-tank guns, which were squashed under the tracks of the 46-ton KV.

The battle raged until midday, by which time the Germans had lost 43 tanks, 16 guns and 6 Trucks against 4 Tnk Bde loss of just 6 tanks of which 4 were repaired to fight again. The German advance was slowed to 30km in eight days. What ever the veracity of these Russian claims, Heinz Guderian in Panzer General admits that the 4th Panzer Division went through some bad hours on October 6th and that “this was the first occasion on which the vast superiority of the Russian T34 to our tanks became plainly apparent. The Division suffered grievous casualties and the rapid advance on Tula had to be abandoned for the moment. (It snowed that night and continued for the next two days.)

On 11 November 4 Tnk Bde was the first unit to gain the “Guards” title and became the 1st Guards Tank brigade. Lavrinenko took part in a total of 28 tank battles destroying a total of 52 enemy tanks out of 133 enemy tanks destroyed by the entire Brigade between October and December 1941. Lavrinenko was killed in November on the approaches to Moscow near the village of Goruna, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. (Both the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal are awarded.) Lavrienko already had three T-34s knocked out under him when he was killed. (Interestingly the battlefield Ru site claims that it is astonishing that

Lavrinenko was not rewarded.)

Sources

George Forty “Tank Aces From Blitzkreig To the Gulf War” (1997) (The Lavrinenko material appears to be based on a war time pamphlet series (comic) eulogizing such heroes.)

General Heinz Guderian “Panzer Leader” 1952

Tankove Museum web site -

http://www.sweb.cz/Tankove_Muzeum/museum/t34.html

Battlefield RU web site

http://www.battlefield.ru/t34_76_3.html

As Mod Corner is almost a year old - I thought I would plug the birthday boy! I started to show off my mods and as I was a bit annoyed shall we say about the WG. If you still have WG problems or want a hidden unit icon the right way round or a political incorrect historical victory flag - mod Corner is just for you!

I have only recently plugged the site through the Webring, never through search engines, so I have only had just over 3,6000 visitors (Ok, the forum probably gets around that per day!). In that time I have taught myself Dreamweaver, JavaScript, Flash, DHTML and Photoshop (Ok, I went on courses for the last two), so I am fairly proud of myself. :cool:

Geocities seems to like the visitors and has increased my bandwidth - don't get complaints of bandwidth outrages stopping the site anymore - so somebody thinks you are the right sort to have around! :eek:

[Michael Dorosh]

Mark, what source do you have for the field use of the Felduniform44 in Normandy, as you suggest at your site? Very interesting.

You mention SS units using them - I do believe this uniform underwent field trials by the GD division as well as certain SS units. I haven't seen any pictures of this uniform in use by SS units, certainly not in Normandy, and would be interested if you could point me at your references.

[Mark Gallear]

I believe your right about the GD - the new uniform is mentioned been issued in Sajers Forgotten Soldier - late in 1944, when they returned back to their base. They seem to have worn the quilted Russian Uniform universally before then - he mentions keeping the German helmet as a last vestige of them actually been German Soldiers as they fled back to Germany!

I have a book on the Normandy battles which has photos of the M1944 uniform in it - I will have to find it - it was obviously German as it is badly translated into English (Complete with German wartime propaganda!)- the problem is that the pictures could come from some other battle (True of all photos in books) - but they look like young SS troopers all of about 15-17, wonder which unit that could be. But the book is so eccentric that I don't think so, never seen the pictures else where. I read somewhere that until very recently around 80% of the pictures of German uniforms you see all come from one propaganda film shot during the battle of the bulge!

I have seen the M1944 been worn in other books as well (different picture) and such things as PZIV been labelled as Tigers/Panthers in books by senior Historians!

[ October 12, 2003, 07:05 PM: Message edited by: Mark Gallear ]

[Michael Dorosh]

Another reason not to believe Sajer! The Germans had their own quilted uniforms; I have to believe GD would have been one of the first units to receive these uniforms. None of the GD pictorial histories show Russian uniforms in use, though of course, that would have been bad propaganda, assuming it is true...