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Some thoughts on soviet operations in smolensk 41
Hi everyone,
last spring sensing something great as an avid wargamer since 1978 after many years waiting threw in 200 dollars for four disks of panzer campaigns one of them smolensk. My dream battle. As a kid i was one who romanticised the whermacht as something speacial as a unit. They certainly were as france 40 in my opinion the greatest feat of arms in history. As most of us i was facinated with the russian campaign. My first read was in my school library. It went something like this. The germans were smart the russians stupid. Hitler was stupid and the snow was smart. In 1983 i saw a book at waldens..Brand new. Right off the press. Operation Barbarossa Strategy and tactics on the Eastern Front 1941. Bryan Fugate. Presidio Press 1983.
I loved all the detail of the opening phases of the war. But he kept reminding me that not only were the russians not suprised by the german offensive..duh..They had a sophisticated defense strategy superior to the germans ideas. Not to mention the greatest heresy of all. Soviet summer 41 tactics were superior to Guderians blitzkrieg.
This unreal historian proved to me this was true with many examples from both the drama at the front and that of the german officer corps.
For our discussion tho the front is what counts.
As of now i'm fighting my dream battle with a very good friend of mine i met playing ef in the early days. This man is of the most loyal kind and a ruthless enemy. He quickly learns how the stuff works and applies it to his ideas. He agreed to play the campaign with explicit supply after about 6 weeks training with me..Both of us green. We play strictly tcip ..The game is up all the time...its war!
When i went into it with him as the soviet i knew that in order to counter his relentless drive and superb tactics, I would have to have something different. This guy is a fantastic german going in green like guderian did..Yes green.
To this end i had to consider the russian strengths. We all know them artillery, endless infantry(actually its not) Space and one thing that guderian understood while a whelp. Belorussia is not tank country.
Not to mention the german mission.
First i must discuss artuillery under the setup rules. Russians are slow. yeah..Also it is everywhere. This is ok at first. But this guderian is going to find the weak spot...load it up and exploit down path of least resistance. The spot just south of kopys is ideal. Qukly he will cut the nice road between mogilev and orsha. Then his superior mobility will reak havoc. It is easy to defend this erea for a time. All one must do is move the stuff from mogilev. Guderian wants nothing to do with it or the marsh south and its unkowns. But the german pressure in the orsha region is to much and soon you find your self walking while he is concentrating 3 of the 5 panzercorps through the bridghead at Kopys. In my opinion this is a serious threat since most of the russian reserves depend on the rails or a wait and see policy wich is un adequate with the size of the field...and its a long time to july 15th!
With that in mind i suborndinate all my actions to servicing the artillery. If a position cant support it...go east ..east..along the route from orsha. This means everything is torn down on turn one and sent north. In Panzer group 3 erea it is much different. Here the russians can make a fortified stronghold with ample supply to squash any rush atttack at the main site of vitebsk...the tanks go behind the river and hide while sacrifice of many inf. At the same time all artillery from the north of orsha is torn down and moved to vitebsk..That land bridge is to dangerous and soon germans will be on both sides of the dvina before you know it.If the germans attack frontal...well i dont have to tell you the details. If they ignore it..vitebsk will exert pressure on the german rear one day or another. If it ties down the germaN 5TH CORPS... job well done.
These tactics mean the sacrice of many russians. A passive advance will wind up with to many russians on the flanks of the attack fall backtrategy in this regard for the russian as it lls into the blitzrieg's hands hook line and sinker. The answer to blitzkrieg against insuffient force of the first side is echeloned defense in advance going forward not bakward. Key terrain features with good roads bring in your heavy stuff preferably on a flank. Try and draw the german into a large battle for a place he considers important..aka stalingrad..rofl..He will win tommorow but you will sleep well next week
The biggest insult to human intelligence which is considerable in my opinion. Is the notion that the universe made itself. Has anyone ever see a star form? Come on people. what will they tell us now? The earth is flat?
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Some thoughts on soviet operations in smolensk 41
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