July 6 1943: a 6mm I Ain't Been Shot Mum encounter gamed remotely in August 2020

I was in the mood for a tank bash and I try to do a Kursk game every July - this time pushed back a month due to C19.

It was based on the lopsided engagement in the area between Step' and Hill 227.9 on the morning of July 6, 1943 involving the 107th Tank Brigade and the StuG IIIs of StuG Abt. 245 and off-table Tigers of s.Pz. Abt. 505.

Road to Druzhavetskii

This shows the relatively flat featureless terrain that the latest 6mm IABSM remote texting game was played over.

This view is from the SW corner and close to the entry area of the 107th Tank Brigade.

Northeast side of Hill 227.9

Looking west from the slightly higher east edge. The German player, William, units consisted of 2 batteries of 3 StuG IIIs with 2 lvl 1 Tank Aces. I would roll for the offbd Tigers. On every German Blind card I would have a chance to shoot 1 or 2 of the 88s (50/50 chance of 1 or 2 tanks firing). William's Stugs came in from the higher ground in the NE corner.

The lead tankers of the 107th

The 107th had a mix of 30 T34s and 20 T70s. That would overwhelm the scope of a 4 X 6 table so I went with 2 companies of 9 T34s and 1 of 10 T70s. Jess had the right company, Sheridan took the center and Martin was on the left with the light tanks. Only their company CO was rated as average with 3 Action points, all other crews were Green.

I gave the Russian players the option of how they wanted to deploy and they decided on a wave of 3 companies across, with Jess on the right staggering his entry over 3 turns.

Stug blinds are on the left edge They look bigger than they are. Each btty has a blind for the vehicles, a blind for their CO and 1 dummy blind. William also had 1 extra dummy blind on top of that.

Sheridan's lead platoon in the center was spotted first.

Center of the Soviet line

It was obviously easy to spot this wave. William began firing from his right and started off with a couple of misses.

It didn't get much better.

Initial hits

There were no instant knockouts from the StuGs. It was taking at least 2 hits to stop a single T34.

The Tigers off table didn't even fire for the first several phases.

Hits on the center company

Sheridan took a couple of gun/turret hits and a couple of mobility hits. Only 1 T34 was knocked out after 2 turns of firing.

Activity on the southern edge

Jess was sending his company around the right and William sent a battery to meet them. William's 3rd gun is whacked early due to his inability to roll a 5 or 6.

One explosion on the Red right

Jess was not having as good of luck with his robustness throws as Sheridan and lost 2 T34s quickly.

Run around the right

Jess gets a platoon around the flank of the StuGs. One of the assault guns brews up and the battery CO's vehicle (with a +1 tank ace) is immobized. I allow William to relocate the crew to the remaining runner.

Tiger scores

I finally hit a tank with the off table Tiger(s)and did some damage. The T70s have an armor 5 and the 88's strike is 12. Plus the fact that the shots were coming in from the flank gave me an almost guaranteed chance of knocking out the light tanks. But, I had to hit them first and that was seemingly beyond my dice rolling ability.

However in William's brief absence, I rolled some damage for him and managed to knock out the gun of his tank ace on the right. This was followed by his return and he failed to get a single 5 or 6 in his damage rolls and lost another StuG.

I as initially afraid that this game would be too easy for the defending Germans.

Nice wave of tanks

And if we could hit them they would be in trouble.

The continuing onslaught

The Germans saw at lest 3 tanks burning, and assumed several (4) non moving vehicles were probably bailed. But the Stugs were down to 2 runners with a pair of Stugs coming in as reinforcements.

Entrenchments spotted

A random event put a set of entrenchments on the table in front of the T70s. They were abandoned Russian works with a minefield in front, but none of the players were sure of their current occupancy.

Another random event was a grass fire starting next to one of William's burning Stugs. At least he was able to retreat his surviving 2 Btty Stugs behind it

Duel

The tank ace crew takes over the remaining 1 Btty vehicle and faces off against the flanking platoon.

2 of the T34s took turret hits and then had trouble hitting the Stug.

It's a Stug Life

The 2 reinforcing Stugs had no better luck. A T70 got a lucky hit and KO'ed 1 almost immediately and the other had a temporary immobilization hit. The surviving 2 Btty vehicle pulled back to use the smoke from the burning field to cover its left flank. It had 2 mobility hits at this point and was not moving worth a crap.

Another T34s burning

But the transferred crew has its gun knocked out and starts its retreat. William continued with his dreadful robustness rolls.

Fire on the steppes

Nice view of the Soviet advance.

Surviving Stugs backing into the NE corner

William sent his 3 dummy blinds off to his left in attempt to divert more Russkies off to the angle but the Soviet players just kept plugging ahead.

Only 1 good T34 left

And no viable Stugs here. William is backing out the last vehicle with the nonworking main gun

The wave overwhelms

Time to call this one.

William had 1 undamaged Stug and another with -2 movement left. The Russians had 6 undamaged T34s, 3 damaged, and Martin still had 6 T70s running. Russian loses were 9 T34s and 4 T70s.

Total loses for the Germans were 2 destroyed Stugs, and 5 damaged or abandoned.

Analysis

The story was in the dice though. Sheridan was hot and William and I were not. 3 out of 18 shots from the Tigers scored. William had terrible robustness rolls for the entire game. What I feared might be a one sided affair became one, but with a completely opposite result.

Mark Luther