NEW Scenario - "Strachwitz at Narva"

[George MC]

Strachwitz at Narva 1944

26 March 1944. Dawn, at the edge of the Körge swamp 25 kilometers south of Narva.

Oberst Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, the “Panzer Count”, has been given another difficult mission: eliminate a dangerous Russian salient threatening German forces in northern Estonia. Using elements of the newly arrived combined-arms Führer Begleit Battalion from the Grossdeutschland division, “Panzerverband Strachwitz” launches a surprise armoured attack into the Soviet defences in the Körge swamp.

Map size: 2.4Km x 2.1Km

Total points combined: Approx 9 000 combined.

Number 5 in a CMBB combat history - “The Panzer Count’s Ostfront” designed by Charlie Meconis and George McEwan.

This scenario is in Beta version and you can download it from The Proving Grounds

Feedback most welcome.

Cheers fur noo

George Mc

[patboy]

Hi George Mc,

Happy you're come back with a new geat scenario.

About what I read about "Strachwitz at Narva "

It seems this scenario describe the first attack against the "Westsack" in the salient. The second attack against "Östsack" started April 6 & the third attack April 15.

I know is it a semi historical scenario but I'm wondering why the scenario use damp condition

whereas, if I recall(what I read and saw), ground condition was cold, deep snow with low visibility!

I should have liked find on the map the hill between the "Rollbahn" & "Kinderheim" the fortified farms & bunkers and above all the railroad.

Thanks again

Pat

[Mies]

Are these battles depicted in Otto Carius' book Tigers in the Mud? The descriptions above do sound familiar.

Mies

[George MC]

Originally posted by patboy:

Hi George Mc,

Happy you're come back with a new geat scenario.

About what I read about "Strachwitz at Narva "

It seems this scenario describe the first attack against the "Westsack" in the salient. The second attack against "Östsack" started April 6 & the third attack April 15.

I know is it a semi historical scenario but I'm wondering why the scenario use damp condition

whereas, if I recall(what I read and saw), ground condition was cold, deep snow with low visibility!

I should have liked find on the map the hill between the "Rollbahn" & "Kinderheim" the fortified farms & bunkers and above all the railroad.

Thanks again

Pat

Hi Patboy

How you doin? We could'nt find any definitive proof there was snow on the ground - I'm sure there was some patches, but we thought it unlikely that 'Der Graf' would attack into a heavily snow covered swamp. There was more snow in early April granted. So given that CMBB does not do 'bits of snow' we elected to have no snow. If you have definitive evidence that there was a lot of snow at the time of this attack for sure we'll revise it - like to see some of your snow mods drive into action.

The orginal map had all the other details, but at the end of the day the map was too large and for this action these features were academic. This attck focusses on the small scale thrust into the swamp to isloate the 'westsca' and is not the action that Carius describes in detail in his book.

In reality for this action the Tigers were not used in the swamp but launched a diversionary attack to draw the Soviets away from the main effort. We give you the choice of taking Carius and his Tigers into the swamp

Cheers fur noo

George

[George MC]

Originally posted by Mies:

Are these battles depicted in Otto Carius' book Tigers in the Mud? The descriptions above do sound familiar.

Mies

This action gets a mention in Cariu's book - but it does not cover the latter ones he describes.

Strachwitz at Narva 1944

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

26 March 1944. Dawn, at the edge of the Körge swamp 25 kilometers south of Narva.

Oberst Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, the “Panzer Count”, has been given another difficult mission: eliminate a dangerous Russian salient threatening German forces in northern Estonia. He is far from the scenes of his famous exploits in the south that have earned him the Knight’s Cross with Swords and Oakleaves. But he is at home: in the lead tank.

In the 8 months since he was badly injured at the height of the failed Operation Citadel at Kursk [see our scenario “Strachwitz at Kursk”] things have gone badly for Germany and for the Panzer Count himself.

Upon recuperating, he had returned to command the remnants of Grossdeutschland’s panzer regiment in September 1943 during the bitter retreat to the Dnieper River in the Ukraine. He left the Regiment that fall under mysterious circumstances and was removed from command in November, ostensibly for reasons of health. The consensus is that he clashed constantly with the Division’s commander General Hornlein over operational and tactical decisions, and one of them had to leave.

The Germans were now in full retreat on all fronts, and an offensive (and haughty) expert like Strachwitz found himself out of work despite his brilliant record. Normally he would have been slated for divisional command at this point in his career. But that did not happen.

Then in January 1944 he was finally given a new command with an imposing title: Panzer Commander, Army Group North. There were two major problems with his new command: Army Group North had few tanks (not even the III SS (Germanische) Panzer Corps), and the swampy, wooded terrain was mostly unsuitable for armor operations! Army Group North had been stripped of all its panzer divisions to bolster the German forces in the south. The only substantial panzer unit in the Army Group was Schwere Panzer Abteilung 502 with its Tigers. But these had to be parceled out to several units to “stiffen” infantry defenses as the Red Army broke out of Leningrad and threatened to storm into the Baltic countries of Estonia and Latvia south of Russia.

By March Soviet Marshal L.A. Govorov’s Leningrad Front had besieged the northern Esontian city of Narva. His Second Shock Army under Col. General I.I. Fediunsky had also established a dangerous bridgehead across the Narva River south of the city that cut the main rail line and threatened to pocket all of German Armee Abteilung Narva.

Army Group North Commander General Walther Model had pleaded for armor reinforcements but there were none available. In February the Führer finally reluctantly released his own body guard unit, the combined-arms Führer Begleit Battalion from the Grossdeutschland division, with 1 company of Mark IV tanks! Such was the state of the Wehrmacht’s panzer reserves in early 1944. The unit was designated “Kampfgruppe Bohrend” after its commander, and it became part of “Panzerverband Strachwitz”. The Count had no division, but he did command a force again, bearing his noble name.

By March 22, the fierce resistance of the III. SS Panzer corps had held firm in Narva, and 25 kilometers to the south General Johannes Freissner’s 18th Army had barely managed to stave off a Soviet offensive attempting to break out from the swampy, two-pronged bridgehead on the west side of the Narva River. This victory was largely due to the heroics of the tankers of the 502 Tiger battalion’s second company under the command of young tank ace, Lt. Otto Carius. Thus a Soviet breakthrough to the Baltic coast and the entrapment of the III SS panzer corps had been narrowly averted. However, the two bridgeheads, named the West Sack and the East Sack by the Germans, remained under Soviet control and enabled them to cut the main north/south railroad and threaten a future pocket attack. The Ivans from Lt. General I.P. Alferov’s 109th Rifle Corps were starting to fortify their positions. They had to be eliminated.

The call went out to the Panzer Count: work your magic, come hell—or high water.

After his usual meticulous study of the situation, Strachwitz decided to eliminate the West Sack first with a surprise attack at dawn on the 26th of March. He would naturally man the lead tank.

The “Last Cavalry Man” rides again . . . with tank ace Otto Carius under his command.

[Mies]

Originally posted by George Mc:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Mies:

Are these battles depicted in Otto Carius' book Tigers in the Mud? The descriptions above do sound familiar.

Mies

This action gets a mention in Cariu's book - but it does not cover the latter ones he describes.

..... </font>

[patboy]

Originally posted by George Mc:

Hi Patboy

How you doin? We could'nt find any definitive proof there was snow on the ground - I'm sure there was some patches, but we thought it unlikely that 'Der Graf' would attack into a heavily snow covered swamp. There was more snow in early April granted. So given that CMBB does not do 'bits of snow' we elected to have no snow. If you have definitive evidence that there was a lot of snow at the time of this attack for sure we'll revise it - like to see some of your snow mods drive into action.

The orginal map had all the other details, but at the end of the day the map was too large and for this action these features were academic. This attck focusses on the small scale thrust into the swamp to isloate the 'westsca' and is not the action that Carius describes in detail in his book.

In reality for this action the Tigers were not used in the swamp but launched a diversionary attack to draw the Soviets away from the main effort. We give you the choice of taking Carius and his Tigers into the swamp

Cheers fur noo

George

[George MC]

Hi Patboy

I think we might be talking about differant battles here - the account in Carius's book covers the latter ones. He only mentions briefly the action we describe - in this the Panzer IVs went into the swamp via a small embankment/corduroy road.

Cheers fur noo

george

ps mind this area is very near to the coast so I guess it could have milder weather. Even in the Soviet hinterland snow did'nt/does'nt lay on the ground all the time - re Kharkov winter 1943. Be keen to hear what you come up with though

Cheers fur noo

george

[patboy]

Hi George

I found this video about Narva counterattack, interresting : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYPZtZQLfg

and this one about "Narva campaign" the latter part could be the action describe in "operation Strachwitz" when Nebelwerfer and "stuka" dive bomber were used : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYZhW4dyQ4s

Another video about Narva battle , also known as the "Battle of the European SS":

Pat

[ May 24, 2007, 01:32 AM: Message edited by: patboy ]

[George MC]

Hi Patboy

Good selection of videos - some interesting combat footage. Still not convinced though

I passed the link to Charlie (who did the major chunk of research on this for his opinion), here are his comments:

"The videos are great but as with everything on the Internet I have doubts about what we're actually seeing. And given the source, doubts are certainly in order: nothing like Nazi propaganda films for truth. So, with some very few exceptions, I can find no hard evidence that this footage is even from the Narva region, and there is no indication at all of dates. There was bitter fighting around Narva throughout the depths of the winter. By the end of March the Soviets had called off their offensive, and I'd guess that thawing weather was a consideration. There are some clips that look right to me--swampy woody type terrain with little patches of snow.

I remain unconvinced that there was serious snow on the ground in the area of our particular battle at the end of March. This area is not far from the moderating effect of the Baltic. Patches? Probably, especially in the trees. Freezing over during the night? Probably. But I just can't imagine any competent commander taking armor into a snow-covered swamp. Show my a shot of Strachwitz in a Mark IV heading into a snowy swamp and then I'll believe." Charlie Meconis.

Another consideration from a CM game play view is that we had real problems balancing terrain Vs movement. Snow on the ground a la CMBB would slooow the whole attack right down that it would have little or no fun. So guess as it stands we'll stick with no snow. Be great if CMBB allowed patches ect just for 'atmospheric' purposes bit it does'nt, so it's on or off. We'll stick with off for jst now

Many thansk for digging out the videos and for your comments on this, it's much appreciated. I'd rather people took critical interest than no interest. If you dig up conclusive proof - yeah of course we will change it

Now it's off to Riga...

Cheers fur noo

George

[patboy]

quote by George ________________________________________________

Another consideration from a CM game play view is that we had real problems balancing terrain Vs movement. Snow on the ground a la CMBB would slooow the whole attack right down that it would have little or no fun. So guess as it stands we'll stick with no snow. Be great if CMBB allowed patches ect just for 'atmospheric' purposes bit it does'nt, so it's on or off. We'll stick with off for jst now

__________________________________________________

I agree with you, deep snow on the ground slowed attacker in CM but light snow less. If I find a proof I'll tell you.

Pat