Repairing a Flakpanzer 38(t)

After my last battle I managed to drop one of my Flakpanzer 38(t)s. When it hit the floor part of the gun housing broke off. Actually it shattered. I am rebuilding it with plastic card.

Flames of War - Version 4 - Tiger Kompanie Versus Soviets - Somewhere in Hungary - 1945

Got together for a Late War Version game today. The mission scenario was "Dust Up." I chose to try a Tiger company from the new late war book. This was a very tank heavy formation. It consisted of:

Kompanie HQ - 1 X Tiger
1st Zug - 1 X Konigstiger
2nd Zug - 1 X Tiger
3rd Zug - 1 X Tiger
1st Tank Hunter Zug - 1 X JadgTiger
2nd Tank Hunter Zug - 2 X Marder IIIM
Arty Battery - 3 X Hummels
Infantry Observer

The Russians had a mixed force that included:
Tank Company HQ - 1 X T34/85
1st Tank Platoon - 7 X T34/76
2nd Tank Platoon - 7 X T34/76
3rd Tank Platoon - 3 X Lend Lease Chruchills
1st Infantry Platoon - A Huge Number of Stands of Infantry
2nd Infantry Platoon - More infantry
1st Anti-Aircraft Battery - 4 AA guns
1st Rocket Battery - 2 X Truck Mounted Rocket Launchers
1 Sturmovik with Bombs and Rockets

The scenario starts with 60% of both forces off the table and these are brought in on a dice roll starting in the third turn. Now for the battle narrative.

Somewhere in Hungary 1945. The terrain included; a river which was impassable except for 2 fording sites and two bridges, many buildings, some forests, a heavily cratered road network, and some wheat fields. 

Vasily was told by the Podpolkovnik to keep his formation moving and that the Germans were on the run. So far there had been little opposition to his advance. It was strange that divisional recce had not sent back its usual reports, but everyone knew radios could be unreliable. Still Vasily hadn't survived years of combat, by being careless so he decided to prepare for deliberate crossing of the river to his front. As he pondered the crossing, one word came over the radio тигр! Tigers had been spotted moving among the houses across the river.

A Jadgtiger awaits its prey. 

Vasily decided to have his infantry cross into the main town, while his armoured forces used the railroad bridge and one of the fords to outflank the German forces. As his forces began to move, heavy artillery barrages struck the Russian assembly areas. There was nothing for it, but to advance.

Russian T34/76s Cross the railroad bridge. 

A Jadgtiger and Tiger emerge from the village to engage the Russian flanking force.

Russians moving through the town towards the ford.

Vasily worried that he had started the assault without all of his forces, but there was nothing for it. What he didn't know was that the Germans were awaiting reinforcements as well. In fact, the German High Command had decided that holding this insignificant town, actually the river crossings through and around it,  in Hungary was vital for the defence of the Fatherland and the crossing needed to be controlled for a counter attack that was being planned. So the Germans has dispatched a whole Tiger Kompanie to the town and it was slowly making its way there. Vasily would have to act fast to capture the town before the rest of the German forces arrived.

Marders pounce on the Russian tanks as they emerge from the
the ford. 

Vasily moved his left flanking forces up through the town and directed his infantry across the stone bridge while the armour headed towards the ford on the extreme flank of the German position. As the Russians maneuvered through the town, German heavy artillery fire rained down on them. The infantry sought shelter in buildings, while the tanks kept moving through the barrage and onto the ford.

Hummels engage the Soviet infantry.

Meanwhile, to shouts or Urrah! Urrah! The Soviet infantry charged across the bridge and towards the large church which was the objective. By holding the church they would be able to control the river crossing. As they moved across the cross roads they had to seek shelter in shell craters as the Hummel battery commander had his vehicles engage the Soviet infantry with machine guns.







Things seem to be going well for the Russians with their forces breaking into the the town, crossing the ford and the bridges, and successfully inserting forces on the German left flank. However, out of the mists emerged part of the German reinforcements directly on the flank of Russian right flank force - a Konigstiger!

The Kingtiger emerges to engage the Russian forces. 

Having destroyed a whole platoon of T34s.

Russian infantry attacks the German observation post and object.

Close on the heels of the Kingtiger, the remainder of the German force arrived to bolster the defences. It was just in a nick of time as the Russians in the the town had managed to knock out the Marders and storm the objective and kill the infantry observer occupy the church tower. 

The Russian has knocked out the Hummel Battery and Marders. They dig in to defend the objective.

Jadgtiger engaging Churchills. 

Having disposed of the threat in the center of town. Meanwhile, a troop of Russian Lend Lease Churchills appeared and attempted to cross the bridge. They were met by the devastating fire of the Jadgertiger which, quite literally, blew them to pieces.

While this was happening a fierce fight had broken out around the objective in the church. The remaining Soviet T-34s and infantry attacked a German Tiger that was trying to seize the objective. The T-34s managed to force the Tiger to bail out and the Russian infantry quickly killed them off. The Russians could not afford to rest on their laurels as the rest of the German Tiger Kompanie moved to destroy them

Vasily swung his turret around, while he shouted into the radio, "Engage the Tiger! Destory it!" Round after round impacted on the Tiger, but just bounced off. Soviet infantry charged out of the rubble in an attempt to place mines on the Tiger. They were cut down in a hail on MG fire. Then the mighty Tiger turned its gun on the Russian tanks. Vasily last words were, "Driver! Reverse!" The turret of T-34 was blown completely of his tank. The other German Tigers moved in a shot up the remaining Russian tanks and the Konigstiger move across the ford to secure the other side of the crossing . 

With their commander dead and no forces on the table that were able to damage, let alone kill the Tigers, the Russian forces beat a hasty retreat.

The commander's hatch on the commander Tiger opened and he surveyed the destruction around him. He could be well satisfied with the result. For the loss of 3 Hummels, 2 Marders, and 1 Tiger, the Kompanie had sent the Russians packing and secured the river crossings for the counter attack.

Flames of War - Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket

Got together with a large group of gamers to refight the attempted breakout of German forces during the Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket. The scenario saw 4 players on each side with each player having a 1500 pt force. The table was set up so that one end had 2 German players as the attacking force trying to breakthrough and reach the two other German players at the far end of the table. All 4 Russian players set up in the middle of the table. Now when I say table, I really mean several tables.

The Huge Table(s) with the German relief force on the left and the beleagured German force on the right. 

We created special rules to take into account the deep snow the forces were facing. Off road movement required a cross check each time a vehicle moved.

The German forces prepare to break out. The infantry marries up with armour to attack the Russian ring of steel.

The Russian move to defend the frozen river and hold off the German relief force. 

German panzers move up with panzer grenadiers to try and force their way out of the pocket.

Massive Russian fire stops the German break out force. 

Meanwhile the German relief force take heavy casualties. 

The German relief force keeps advancing, but casualties are becoming heavy.

The Russian hold the line at the river and repel the relief force. 

It was a great scenario. It included air support in the form of Sturmoviks and Stukas (one piloted by Rudel). However, he seemed to be occupied with collecting medals in Berlin as he rarely appeared over the table. Much more effective were the German artillery and nebelwerfers. Both of these really made the Russians pay and nearly broke their ring of steel, but it wasn't enough. Many of the Soviet tanks were T-34/85s or assault guns. The German tanks had a hard time killing them. 

Flames of War - 29th Armd Recce Bde (Cdn) South Alberta Regiment versus Panzer Grenadiers

More Flames of War. This time it is the 29th Armd Recce Bde (Cdn) South Alberta Regiment led by Major David Currie VC facing off against German panzer grenadiers in Holland. This was a delayed reserves game which means you don't get to start with all of your forces on the battlefield. 

The Canadians started by pushing up their Stuarts to identify the German axis of advance. They could only see a few units of infantry dug in and zug of Stug IIIs. Back in his Command tank Maj Currie identified 2 key objectives one of which would have to be taken to allow the Canadian advance to continue. 

As he planned his advanced, the RCA deployed two sections of their land mattress rocket batteries. Assisted by the recce Stuarts these soon ranged in on some dug in German infantry. The affect was awesome with the German infantry being forced to abandon their defensive position. 

Meanwhile Canadian Shermans and supported by fireflies and M10s began their advance. The stugs took a toll but we're soon knocked out. 

Things were looking grim for the Germans but the timely arrival of a platoon of 3 - yes 3! - Tiger Is quickly tilted the scales. 

However, Major Currie didn't win the VC for lack of aggression. The Canadians decided to leave a troop of tasks and some Stuarts in their left to hopefully delay the tigers while the bulk of their force swung right to aid the tigers and take the objective. 

The arrival of Canadian reinforcements at the right time and place in the form of a platoon of infantry mounted in RAM APCs and a troop of tanks added real punch to the right flanking. 

The Canadian were in for a fight. The Germans were dug on the objective and despite repeated assaults by the Canadians backed up by an absolutely massive amount of mg fire from RAM APCs, Stuarts, and Shermans the grenadiers seemed rooted to the ground. 

A Stuart rushed one of the dug in AT guns and managed to take it out before brewing up. 

At this critical juncture, the platoon of Tigers burst over the hill and engaged the Canadians. While several tanks, apcs, and spgs were brewed in the smoke and confusion the tigers missed hitting the firefly. This firefly proceeded to knock out 2 of the tigers. 

The Cdn infantry took this opportunity to launch another assault on the objective and despite being targeted by the tigers mgs managed to avoid serious damage only to fall prey to the stout hearted grenadiers who once again force them back. 

The grenadiers had suffered heavy casualties in fitting if so many assaults and even they have their breaking point. The lone survivor tiger decided it was time to quit the field and the grenadiers stream off behind them. The kampgruppe comd stayed on the object and paid the price. 

The battle was a very close one. It was the first time I have been able to best a force with tigers in it. Destroying two has made my day. The only thing missing was bags of smoke and a hot meal on the objective.