Road to Dvinsk

[manchildstein (ii)]

to start with... thanks again to everyone who commented on the 'pskov' thread... hopefully the force here is 'semi-historical' (semi-hysterical?)...

Play as Germans against Soviet AI, Default Setup

June, 1941

47+ Turns

Map: 2k by 1360m

Approx 3500 points per side

Fanatical Soviet Mixed Force

Crack Axis Mech Force

Day, Damp Ground, Warm and Clear weather, Breeze out of NW

10 Small, 7 Large Flags

In the opening days of Operation Barbarossa the German Panzer Spearheads plunge headlong into the Soviet hinterlands. One such unit is the 8th Panzer Division on the Road to Dvinsk which is itself on the Dvina river. As the Division's 10th Panzer Regiment and 8th Motorized/Mechanized Infantry Brigade (28th and 8th Regiments) are momentarily tied up elsehwere, the 59th Recon Battalion is tasked with taking the town of Divina on the approaches to the Dubissa Gorge, itself the last natural obstacle before Dvinsk on the Dvina river. Once this area is cleared of Soviet resistance then the thrust to Dvinsk/Dvina proper can take place. By then the 10th Panzer Regiment and the 8th "Mechanized" Brigade should be available for the main thrust.

Over the past couple of days aerial recon has shown a fairly substantial Soviet presence in and about the "town of Divina." Aerial photos show potential Soviet positions, which are marked by flags on the scenario mapboard. It appears as though some work crews have cleared LOS/LOF through the woods from the top of the hill - the Command Post - to the town and sections of the road below.

As for the road itself: In reality it is not much more than a sandy track through the trees and swampy ground. But not 2 clicks beyond this mapboard is an intact, apparently undefended bridge over the Dubissa. The Soviets have decided to make their stand here before the gorge, with the benefit of the hill position overlooking the road.

In any event your Battalion is the only unit available in this sector, and the Soviets must be dislodged without further ado.

For some "starch," Corps has managed to provide you with a 105mm FO and a Light Tank Company.

As for Soviet opposition; expect infantry, tanks, and guns, backed by fortifications and minefields.

If you can sweep through this area in good time, this "Road to Dvinsk" will be clear for the main body of the 56th Panzer Corps.

Your force is made up of:

Battalion HQ

Motorized Recon Company(18 LMG, 2 HMG, 3 50mm Mortar)

Motorized Heavy Company(3 LMG, 3 FT (Pioneer), 2 75mm sIG, 3 37mm AT, 1 LMG)

Attached: 1 105mm FO, 2 Sharpshooter

Combined Armored Car Company and Light AC Platoon:

10 4-Wheeled (MG)

6 8-Wheeled (20mm)

4 4-Wheeled (20mm)

Corps Light Tank Company:

15 Panzer IIC (3 Platoon x 5)

3 Panzer IIIH

Your trucks and motorcycles have debarked their troops and are now away from the immediate area. The infantry platoons move forward amidst the the awaiting AFVs and the 37mm, 75mm, and HMGs scramble to quickly get into some kind of decent overwatch positions.

In the default setup, the Pioneer FTs are riding on a platoon of PZ IIs; same with the Pioneer CoCo.

Thoughts:

1) The Panzer IIIs and the 105mm FO are the backbone of this KG.

2) The PZ IIIs are the only vehicles with any kind of decent ammo loadout. If you can keep them operational they should be able to provide direct HE support for the duration of the scenario. The PZ IIs and Armored Cars on the other hand will probably run out of ammo during any kind of heavy engagement.

3) You could attack the town whilst bombarding the hill with pre-planned 105, or vice versa.

4) You can make good use of the 37mm ATs and 75mm IGs if you move them into good firing positions.

5) The 20mm guns on the PZ IIs and Armored Cars are capable of destroying all Soviet AFVs except for the T-34 and KV series.

6) As always, the key is in having more firepower at the point of contact, whenever and wherever contact is made.

7) It should be possible to get a draw, even if you fail to take both the town and the hill within the allotted time.

8) Your setup zone has been swept of Soviet snipers.

9) Your infantry platoons are well-stocked with demo charges, molotovs, and rifle grenades.

[manchildstein (ii)]

ok... despite the force allocation, how does this one play? in playing these self-designed scenarios i always try to use standard, general tactics and then see what happens.

aar spoiler:

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In this scenario there is this huge fire lane, ostensibly cleared by Soviet workers, from the top of the "command post" hill down into the town of Divina, and even up further along the 'road' toward the area of the Axis setup zone.

With this in mind the Axis can't really afford to expose their thin-skinned AFVs on the road itself.

I went with a partly default setup, but transfered everything from the right side of the road and put all over on the left.

The briefing mentions that probable Soviet positions are marked by victory flags so by attacking on the right I avoided the large flag on the far left of the road.

The briefing also mentions using the 105mm FO to either prep the hill and attack the town or vice versa. Realistically, attacking the hill first off would take extra manuever. This time I did neither of the suggested methods and instead set the FO prep fire onto the area of the cemetary in the town; I was going to both shell and attack the town, while avoiding the 'main fire lane' off of the hill at all costs. Once the town had been cleared I would worry about the hill.

The shelling started and all of the AFVs and infantry bounded forward through the scattered trees. The armored cars stuck to the right side of the road and the tanks moved through the areas further right and off of the road.

The 37mm AT and 75mm IGs stuck to the road along with the HMG 34s.

Early on the BTs across the road were discovered, and one PSW 222 from an armored car platoon managed to take out 2 of the tanks. Soviet infantry also appeared in that same patch of woods as the BTs and was engaged by the PSW 221s and MG 34s.

After that position had pretty much been nullified the guns continued to push forward and the armored cars provided overwatch. I lost 1 222 and another fired so much it ran completely out of ammo. On the right my tanks and infantry approached the woods just across the road, s-se of the cemetary. Contact was sporadic until my infantry first made it into the woods proper, backed up by PZ IIs right behind them.

Then it was discovered that there was a belt of wooden MG pillboxes (even as the scenario designer I forget these sorts of things) and I tried to insert an infantry platoon backed by flamethrowers (FTs) into the area closest to the cemetary and out of covered arc of the 'end' wooden pillbox.

In the meantime some T26s were discovered in yet another patch of wood at the back (N) of the town and various piecemeal attempts at dislodging them met with varying degrees of success. It became apparent at this point that exposing my armor to the T26s also often meant exposing the same to guns on the hillside.

The 105 barrage died down and it had apparently done its job as resistance was not too heavy.

The infantry and PZ IIs, along with some 8-rad ACs cleared the main patch of woods there by the cemetary, and on the right of that same patch they dispatched a series of Soviet Guns, MGs, and Ampulomets across the road.

One 37mm AT gun had pushed all the way to the e-w road and was directly across the street from the now rubblized church. It took out one of the T26s.

Several armored cars were sent piecemeal to attack a wooden pillbox on the other (W) side of the road leading into town. I never learn. These piecemeal moves resulted in the loss of 4 armored cars, mainly to fire from guns from behind them and on the hill. I'd thought that maybe the ACs could have gotten deeply into the scattered trees over there without being hit, but it didn't work out that way in practice. These armored cars were actually trying to save two sharpshooters who had earlier made their way across. There at the wooden pillbox was an accompanying DP LMG and the sharpshooters were within about 5 meters of both, and at a standoff. As it turns out, the Battalion HQ was sent over there and dispatched the pillbox. By then the sharpshooters had already taken out the DP but they could do nothing against the MG pillbox.

In the meantime the 2 75mm IGs were engaging targets on the left side of the road from a patch of woods directly on the right. I can remember when they first started firing. I'd been so used to the sounds of my own 20mm cannons that when those 2 boomed out with their low report, I was wondering what was going on. At the end of the movie I realized they'd been engaging Soviet infantry which was attacking piecemeal from across the road.

The HMG 34s were switched from overwatching the road, and moved due east, then north and finally into the church rubble, along with my lone LMG 34 and a platoon HQ.

After the town had pretty much been cleared, my Panzer IIs regrouped and began assembling in the woods on the hillside, just short of the fire lane and pretty much east of the town.

In the briefing I had mentioned that the PZ III tanks were going to be pivotal to this scenario, but in my case that hadn't ringed true. 1 was knocked out by a gun on the hillside when it got into the main fire lane from the hill by accident whilst hunting for the T26s at the back of the town (those T26s - actually OT 134s - were now all silent). Another PZ III had its gun damaged so there was for the greater part of the battle only 1 serviceable PZ III. As it turns out all of the 'heaving lifting' was done by the PZ IIs.

One infantry platoon had been kept in reserve during the initial fighting - this was the pioneer platoon with its 6 small squads. I'd wanted to keep one with some ammo and as it turned out, the other 3 motorized recon platoons were almost all 'low.'

As the tanks - and a couple of remaining 8-wheeled ACs - assembled at the bottom of the hillside, my infantry platoons bounded forward and into another large patch of woods. There was a tough firefight there as the Soviets just kept throwing men into the inferno. As my squads were mostly 'low' on ammo they often had to sneak right up to the defending Soviets and eliminate them in hand-to-hand. The tanks snaked their way up through the scattered trees in a NE direction with the main firing lane from the hill on their left and embattled patch of woods on their right.

After 4 or 5 turns of intense woods combat the second Soviet woods position was broken (2nd if you count the one with the line of pillboxes just S-SE of town as the 1st).

By now it was about turn 35 of 47+ and there was just enough time for the infantry to regroup and follow the panzers up the side of the hill.

It was discovered that there were two routes onto the strip of trees on the hill; one from E-SE of town and another from the cemetary in the town itself. 1 platoon of PZ IIs took the latter route, careful not to get into the main firing lane from the hill lest they be exposed to withering fire from an assortment of Soviet guns and as it turns out, KV2s.

At some point one friendly recon squad was spotted by a KV2 situated in the main firing lane off of the hill. Since the distance was now generally 100 meters or less, I ordered my entire force to close to the edge of the scattered treeline and take on whatever might be there in the rocky ground of the main firing lane itself.

Also by then there were friendly tanks and infantry near the top of the hill as well.

My infantry and tanks all moved toward the edge of the woods, where some of their positions would be within 50 meters of the lumbering KVs and their supporting guns. A platoon of 3 (out of an original 5) PZ IIs at the top of the hill tried to curl around and get behind of the KVs, but as it turns out they were bushwacked by some BTs dug in even further east, ostensibly facing one of the secondary fire lanes from the hill but by then with LOS to the approaching PZ IIs.

The first KV fell victim to a demo charge from one of the squads. The surrounding gun positions melted under a fusilade of 20mm fire and hand grenades. A turn later, another KV fell victim to the infantry. Another turn and the last KV was taken out. By then the BTs on the right were also silenced without the further loss of any AFV on my part.

There were still scattered guns on the other side of the main fire lane, but my tanks by then were able to overwhelm them, and in the end the command post was crawling with friendly infantry, and PZ IIs advancing along the east side of the hilltop silenced a further 3 BT tanks on the opposite (north) side of the hill.

At some point I had wondered about the KV2s and why they hadn't moved much but what did them all in was the fact that when I reached them they were all 3 immobilized, probably because of the rocky ground.

I will say one thing about the PZ II... it sure 'gets around' in scattered trees and rocky terrain. I noticed this in contrast to the armored cars and panzer IIIs - one of which I was using as a decoy because of its shattered main armament.

The "hero" of the battle was one of the 75mm IGs still down in the patch of woods on the road below. It had 25 infantry kills and knocked out 2 BTs.

Unfortunately, during the height of the battle where my forces had engaged the KV2s, apparently one of them - one of them or perhaps one of the Soviet 76mm guns - had gotten off a lucky shot at 2 of my 37mm AT guns crossing the road by the cemetary. Both 37mm guns had been knocked out by a single shot. This was one of those things where I didn't actually see it until I'd ended the movie and was in the orders phase of a turn.

During the move-making just before engaging the KV2s on the hillside, those two had been ordered forward into some scattered trees at the bottom of the main fire lane from the hill. TOn the way to that they had been caught in the e-w road by the ruins of the church and had both been knocked out by a single shot... The crater was there and all that remained were two 'burnt out' guns and a 2-man crew off to the side.

What's interesting is that, at the end of turn 47 the computer had 'had enough' and actually surrendered. This gave me an 80-20 win whereas if the thing had just ended the battle instead I think that the ratio would have been more like 60-40 in my favor due to the fact that I never took any of the flags on the left (w) side of the road leading into town; instead the AI simply surrendered them to me at the end of the scenario. In actuality there was a platoon of BTs over at that large flag on the left which never saw action; again the AI just surrendered them.

Maybe that's par though for a 1941 conscript force.

So the concept of shelling the bejezus out of the town with a prep 105 barrage worked quite well. As a matter of fact, as the last shell fell my forces were right there across the road on the south side of the cemetary, looking at - more than anything else - already ruined Soviet positions.

The intense fighting for the woods patch on the side of the hill right after that was a bit surprising. Then the fight for the hilltop proper was anticlimatic as by then I just had too many 20mm guns and high explosives for the computer to handle.

I was lucky that the KV2s showed only 5 kills between them at the end of the battle.

Honorable mention in my forces were a PZ II with 19 infantry and 2 guns, and an 8-wheel with 16 infantry and 1 gun knocked out.

My platoons averaged about 35 kills apiece for the loss of about 40% of their strength (10-12 men).

On thing about the briefing is that it lists 3 platoons of PZ IIs while there are really 4 platoons.

I like that tank. Like I said; very good in scattered trees and rocky (and soft ground), and the cannon is effective against T26s and BTs as well as against infantry. More than its poor gun against heavier armor; or its own thin armor; I would rate its biggest drawback as its fairly limited ammo load.

For 1941 it was fairly common from what I hear.