AAR 1943 Eastern Front: The Nikopol Bridgehead by Mark Luther

Dreary village and farmland

The Germans occupied the village that ran across the ridge. With only a couple of platoon and support weapons they are spread thin.

View from possible Soviet entry edge

The Russkies could come in on practically the entire East edge. They had the option of dividing their force or coming in closer together.

View from other possible entry point

This became the actual area that the Soviets brought all their force on board. The weather had been foggy so this allowed them to get as close as the edge of the table before being spotted/identified.

View from the North edge

The village sits across a ridge line that has a crest with a windbreak of scrub running along it. This evenly divides the village, and forces the German defenders to split their units to cover both sides.

The Germans start with two platoons of infantry, three MMGs, a 75mm infantry gun, a Pak 38 and a Pak 40. There are also two 81mm mortars at the back of the village. They have an FO for a battery of 105mm guns. They also have a halftrack mounted 37mm AA gun. Everything can be dug in.

First wave

The first units that appear are T34s and a platoon of tank riders. Even though the terrain is muddy, the Russian tanks have no trouble. They do lose a pip of movement when going up the slope though

Defenders open fire

The left side platoon and a couple of MMGs try to peel some tank riders off the T34s as the Soviets advance up the hill towards the vilage.

Under fire from the T-34's cannons

The 76mm put some devastating hits on the defenders. The German mortars are off target or not firing as they fall victim to a 'random event' card of lost communication.

Storming up on foot

Dave P elects to dismount his men and use the T-34s as artillery. The group of MMGs and ATRs crews actually take the lead up the slope. There are more troops coming up behind this group. The other company and the KV-1s are behind to the left.

Soviets in the village

The German platoon is overwhelmed after getting stomped on by the 76mm guns of the T-34s and KVs. An infantry gun is at the lower right. It managed to take out one section of Russkies but has not done well on the follow up efforts.

Nothing but charging Russians

Dave's troops continue to flow on to the table as the return fire slackens. Looks like a successful assault.

AA in a direct fire role

The 37mm AA halftrack attempts to stem the Soviet tide. The ATR teams take a few shots at the track and cause a hit on the weapon system:  -1 to hit from now on.

Soviet wave

So at the end of the first phase, the Russians have successfully entered the village. They did take a few loses. The Pak 38 did take out the KV in the foreground and put one shock point on a T-34. The Soviet right hand infantry company lost 2 sections: 17 men overall. The left hand company also lost a few men. One of the ATR teams is down and a couple of crew from the MMGs have been hit. They are still a pretty potent force with two KVs and five T34s.

Meanwhile, the Germans had almost their entire left side platoon eliminated. Two MMGs are gone and the infantry gun crew has also been zapped. However the reinforcements/counterattack force has just come on the table and the remaining grenadiers on the right side of the village are also capable of swinging around to take back the village.

Soviets moving into the village for round 2

Notice the different lighting? Greg & I played this part in my basement. I took over the Russians and he got the counterattacking Germans. I replaced a couple of the isbas with ruins and sorted out the infantry a bit.

Looking for Germans

The only German units left on this side of the village firing at the Russkies were the AA halftrack, a MMG and a PaK 38 on the ridge. The remains of the defending platoon was gathered up to form a section and moved in around the MMG on the ridge. The 81mm mortars tried to put some fire down on the edge of the village but it was pretty ineffectual.

Russians up to the ridge top

Having cleared out the defenders form this portion of the village, the Soviets move up to the top of the dividing ridge and the windbreak scrub line to peer at what's over on the other side.

Meanwhile the firefight with the German MMG and supporting survivors goes in the Russian favor. The armor however can't seem to get a card and just waits on the out skirts of the village. The AA halftrack decided that it needed to pull back in the face of the T34s.

More short range firing

Two of the three sections deployed to defend the southern half of the village turn about to cover the wind break ridge. Maybe if they were to face towards the enemy they might have a better chance of getting more hits. You would think that having two Big Men there would sort that lot out.

Sturmpanzer IVs

The counterattack force arrives and starts to shell the far edge of the village. The T-34s trade some shots and actually do a bit of damage to the lead gun. A hit on one of the T-34s shakes it up but otherwise no damage from the 150mm gun. The escort section jumps off as soon as the enemy tanks are spotted.

Ferdinandes also arrive

The two heavy Jagdpanzers swing to the right and come into center of the village. Their infantry support also jumps off to hunt some Russkies.

T-34s try to run around the left

Three of the T-34s and the the surviving KV-1s aim to get to the outside of the village and the flank of any German armor coming up. German mortars land between their infantry and the wind break.

You can finally see the brown & green camo on my T-34s in this picture.

Tank Ace heading away from the battle

I decided to try out the new Tank Ace rule in IABSM v3, so I set this game up to have Lt. Kretschmer of Sch Pzjdg abt 653 make an appearance. During this actual period, he managed to destroy 21 Soviet tanks in one day.

I rated him as a Level 2 ace, which allowed him to add two pips to either his to-hit or Strike dice. With a Strike value of 15 on the long 88mm, he really shouldn't have to add to that factor. Greg decided to run him out of the village and take advantage of the gun and crew's ability to hit anything it could see on the table.

Staying close

The other Ferdinande moved in closer, hoping that the grenadiers would provide cover.

T-34s slowing down

One of the T-34s that tried to get around the flank got hit by the Pak 40 that had just set up to cover the ridge. The hit damaged its engine so slowed it down. The T-34 on the ridge tried to take out the Pak but failed. The remaining T-34 just didn't seem to go anywhere. The KV-1 stayed back to spot for targets. Meanwhile the infantry is blasting at each other.

Kretschmer sets up

Kretschmer spins his Ferdinande around and prepares to take on the flanking T-34s. The T-34s failed miserably at their chance to hit the beast in the flank as it was racing out to the other hill. That was really their only chance to take out these heavy panzerjagers.

Note the burning tanks at the top:  sorry I forgot to take a picture before he fired.

Three dead T-34s

It only took one shot from the two Ferdinandes to destroy the moving T-34s. The Pak 40 finished off one in the scrub line with a few shots.

Soviets stalled

This looks like the limit of the Russian attack. The Germans aren't going anywhere either. The uneven exchange between the grenadiers behind the hedge and the Russians on the ridge leaves next to nothing left of the German infantry. The 37mm AA halftrack pins down any of the Russian infantry that comes up to the top. The Pak has taken some hits but is still functioning. Meanwhile the Sturmpanzers are moving into postion to pummel the ridgeline with their 150mm guns.

Overview of the kill zone

Not much chance of running any armor through this area.

Sturmpanzer IVs now in action

Greg had one move up to enfilade the Russkies on the ridgeline. The other one fired down at the village. Two T-34s were also engaged there, manoeuvring about and trading shots with the assault guns.

The small woods to the left has caught fire (random event) forcing the covering section of grenadiers to move out.

Through the village

Another German Big Man goes down in the center. When the support grenadiers moved into the vacated Pak 38 dug out on in the center of the village on the crest, it came under fire from one of the Soviet MMG teams and lost its CO (just off to the right of this picture). The 81mm mortars teams can be seen right of the wooden shed. Another Grenadier section is moving up to the walled house unit.

The center holds

The remaining German infantry stops the advance of the Soviet infantry with the help of the AA halftrack. The sections out to the right are about to lose their bottle and head back.

Kretschmer awaits his next victim

Alas, we were out of Soviet tanks in this game. I really need to get some better Russian buildings The old JR Miniatures ones are terrible.

The Russkie High Tide

With one of the Sturmpanzers working its fire down the ridge, it's only a matter of time before they are forced back down. The KV is not going to be around much longer either if it tries to duke it out with the Ferdinandes.

End Positions

We decided to end it here. There was hardly any German infantry left to retake the village. But the firepower available to them would force the Soviet infantry to hunker down and occupy a quarter of the village. The issue would be decided by the next reinforcing unit. Overall casualties were high for both sides.

The Soviets lost three T-34s, and had one damaged, and two KV-1s, so three tanks still running out of eight. 53 of the original infantry is KIA. Of the four each that began the game, two ATR teams and one MMG teams are also down. One platoon CO also KIA.

While the Germans lost 41 out of 60 of the original defending grenadiers. The Infantry gun, the Pak 38, and all three of the MMG teams were wiped out. One of the COs from the incoming infantry was also killed. One Sturmpanzer was also damaged.

A hard-fought game that would be a tactical victory for the Soviets since they are in village with three functioning tanks and over half of their infantry able to claim some landscape.