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MISSION: Stop German's 15th Composite Regiment, which was dispatched around Stalino to encircle Russian forces. Keep open an escape route for retreating Russian forces.

DATE: February 28, 1943 - 18 turns

LOCATION: Near Ilovaysk - 25 km east of Stalino

FORCES: Elements of the 89th and 117th Tank Brigades: 3 plt T-70, 9 plt T-34 M41, 9 plt T-34 M43, 6 plt KV-1 M42, and a small mixture of infantry support. REINF: Mostly infantry support from North and east start at turn 2. A company of assault guns from north. 2 BM-8-36 82 mm and BM 13-16 132 mm Rocket Launchers showed up later. This was the most important reinforcement.

ENEMY: Mixture of Pz IIIL's, Pz IVF2's, Marder II plt and Stu IIIG. Their infantry units were some Pzgr and Engineers. Various reconnaissance units. I counted 4 air strikes.

CONDITION: Major Win 900
Minor Win 600
Minor Loss 300
Major Loss -100

TERRAIN: Rolling hills dominate the map. Gruzskayo valley is located in the middle of the map. The valley runs north to south with towns Egorovskin, Gruzsko-Zaryanskiy, Archadinskiy, Gruzsko-Lomovskiy, Ust'-Ocheretenskiy, and Mospino located within the valley. These towns are connected by a paved road and a railroad. A frozen river, Gruzskayo River, runs in the middle of this valley. The approach from east to Gruzskayo Valley is a completely open Steppe with a town of Greko-Zaytseva as the only cover. There is no cover from the North. Ilovaysk is located on the east edge of the map. There is a paved road runs between Ilovaysk and Gruzsko-Zaryanskiy. There are several other unpaved roads connecting Ilovaysk and the valley. A rail line connects Ilovaysk and Ust'-Ocheretenskiy. The area west of the valley has a few rolling hills.

There are 7 VP hexes. 4 with 200 pts and 3 with 100 pts. To start the game, all of the VP HEXs are under the Russians control. Unfortunately, there are no Russian forces anywhere near the VP HEXs. All of the VP HEXs are located in or near Gruzskayo Valley. The visibility is excellent even though the ground is snow covered.

OPPONENT: Philip Prete

Germans Move First:

As I looked that the map, the only way to win this scenario for the Russian was to push toward Gruzskayo Valley as quickly as possible. It also helped me that I played this as Germans a few times. Once German forces establish positions in the valley, it would be virtually impossible to drive them out since German Panzergrenadiers were much more powerful than Russian infantry units.

The Russians had two groups of forces: one from the north near Verbovaya and the other from Ilovaysk. The northern group was sent toward Gruzsko-Zaryanskiy. A company of SU-76 and a company of SMG units were sent toward Egorovskin as a possible flanking move. The reinforcements from north were held back for the time being. The thrust from East moved toward Greko-Zaytseva using a paved road. 2 platoon of T-34 were sent south of Ilovaysk to monitor enemy's possible flanking movements.

There was no action for 4 turns. Curiously, I could not see any forces until most of T-34s and KV-1s got close to the valley. My infantry units followed behind the tanks. They were unloaded when the trucks carrying them arrived near Greko-Zaytseva. They were sent toward 200 VP HEX in the valley near the center. (I can see that Germans took this victory hex since the victory hex color was changed.)

The quiet nature of our battle changed very quickly during turn 5. I spotted several platoons of Pz IVF2 on a hill near Archadinskiy. Also, my eastern group came under fire near Gruzsko-Lomovskiy. Strangely, my opponent used Pz IIIL as the main force for the attack instead of much more powerful Pz IVF2. Because of this, the damage to my forces was minimal. This is when I directed both of my groups toward Gruzsko-Zaryanskiy. For the time being, only two platoons of T-34s were sent over to Gruzsko-Lomovskiy from the south of Ilovaysk as a diversion.

Germans were waiting in the valley as expected. I used infantry units as a cover to approach the valley north of Archadinskiy. While KV-1s and T-34s carved up Pz IIIL without much difficulty, infantry units started to take pounding from German Panzergrenadiers. My opponent was leaving Pz IVF2 in the open within a firing range of T-34s. This made my job easier. For the next few turns, I concentrated on taking out Pz IVF2s and StuG IIIG tanks to reduce my opponent's firepower. My enemy had at least 6 platoons of Pz IVF2s. I preferred to slug out with Pz IVF2 at a close range anyway. My southern group managed to destroy a platoon of Marder II and two platoons of Pz IIIL before they were destroyed. He never tried a flanking move as it turned out.

The fierce fight continued on near Archadinskiy. I used KV-1 to absorb Pz IIIL fires. KV-1 was also used to disrupt PzGr units, and then T-34 was used to capture them. Another important weapon was the Rocket Launchers. They inflicted heavy damage to German infantry units. Most of his infantry losses were due to capture. It seemed that he was trying to use infantry as the screen, but did not follow up with his Panzers quickly enough. I was able to isolate his infantry from his Panzers easily. This was the real turning point. Before I was able to isolate his forces, casualty rate was extremely high on both sides.

By turn 12 most of his Pz IVF2 and StuG IIIG were destroyed or captured. My opponent realized that he was not able to win this scenario. He surrendered without playing turn 13.

RESULTS Allies Major Victory

LESSONS: 1. KV-1 tanks can take a lot of punishments. Use them for most important assaults.
2. BM 13-16 Rocket Launchers are extremely effective against fixed infantry units!
3. Do not try to engage Panzergrenadiers with Russian infantry alone.

CONCLUSION: This was a relatively easy victory due to some mistakes by my opponents. Usually, this one favors Germans slightly due to a long firing range of Pz IVF2s. However, this is one of my favorite scenarios due to heavy tank engagements. I recommend this one highly to anyone.

Sottotente Prete was too eager to battle Russian tanks straight on. He also forgot to use the long firing range of Pz IVF2 to his advantage. His infantry support needed better coordination. He also did not react to the rocket fires at all even though the damage to his infantry was extremely high. Having said that, he used op-fires very well. He showed some promise in mobile defense once he realized where my main thrust was heading.

Yong Park
XVIII Airborne Corps
"Not all pain is gain."