First Clash

[dragonwagon]

It had been a long hot day for the German tanks of 17th Panzer Division , edging slowly forward through the patchwork of patato crops and cornfields around Senno, in front of the Dniepr river. Here and there , colomns of oily black smoke rose from the smoldering grain or scrub,marking the last fight of a light Russian T-26 or of a German Mark III. The German armor,outrunning its supply echelons in the onward rush since it had launched Operation Barbarrossa seventeen days before,was short on ammunition.Just as the tired gunners, crouched in thier hot reeking turrets,had recieved orders to cut down the amount of gunfire,a single Russian tank with a squat unfamiliar silhouette emerged from the corn.Several German tanks engaged it-and watched thier shots ricochet from its turret.The Russian tank swung along a farm track,at the end of which waited a standard 37mm anti-tank gun.The German crew pumped shells at the oncoming tank untill it reached their position,pivoted on it's wide tracks,and crushed the gun into the ground.Leaving a burning Mark III behind it,it lumbered on into the German rear for more than nine miles,until eventually it was destroyed from behind by a shot from a 100mm gun.Such was 17th Panzer Division's first glimse of a T-34. The date was 8th July,1941.

This a a small bit of a book I have called T-34 Russian Armor.

Just a little something of things to look forward to with the new game .............