McIvan's View - Clash at Pavlograd - McIvan v [hirr]Leto

[McIvan]

Right! Will this be a disaster for the upstanding tankers of the Heer? Will we be P three-less by the end?

The opening moves don't look like favourable omens to me....only 5 seconds into the turn and all three T34's have fired, for two hits...versus one shot (a miss) in return, as the PIIIJ's ponderously turn their turrets. Even the bailing out crack PIII gets a bit of T60 20mm for good measure. This is not good.....I had not thought that the T34 at the bottom of the little hillock could see my PIII, but it clearly can.




But maybe not such a bad omen at all.....it's not everyday that a 76mm penetration results in a "no effect"...I was right to be worried about the prospect of a side hit, no matter what the angle. And, if you recognise your telltale descriptions, you will realise that the hit on the PIII on the left is an HE shell. A T34 firing HE in preference to Ap at this range? Unlikely....so the alternate explanation is that Pete's T34s have stuff all AP...or, at least, THAT particular one has stuff all HE. It continues to fire HE through the turn, hitting my PIII twice more for no serious damage. With AP I suspect I might have been another PIII down.

BTW I've changed unit scale to +3 instead of my normal +2 to help in visibility.

Twelve seconds in...



Both PIIIs on the right have just fired their first shots, both tungsten. One misses, but the other slams home through the turret front of the target T34!

On the left my PIII misses its second shot in a row, as does one of the T34s, but is hit for the second time in return by the HE firing T34. No damage from the HE...whew!

The T60 has switched to the already bailing out Sd251/10 and knocks it out for good to remove any doubt.

The veteran PIIIs swiftly reload and fire off a second set of tungsten....



....one of which chunks through the T34's turret again, and with this the metal beast is knocked out. Both the PIII's slowly move forward, hoping to acquire the T34s pummeling their compatriot

At the same time, the left PIII finally gets a hit, but the shell simply breaks up...just ordinary AP shot. The T34 then commences to roll backwards a trifle down the hill, taking a another hit from the PIII a few seconds later, but again the 50mm AP simply bounces off the tough Russian's hull.

A third time he hits, and watches the projectile bounce skyward in absolute frustration. The Russians fire back with two rounds of HE, both hitting a crest slightly forward of the PIII, but having the incidental result of killing a Mg34LMG crewmember and sending the survivor routing rearwards.

The forward hunt of the right two PIIIs has an unexpected result as one picks up the T60, now scurrying backwards to the cover of a hut...



....but not quite fast enough.



A second round of 50mm AP and the Russian light tank is knocked out.

Contrary to what I had thought would happen, neither PIII picks up the T34s, leaving their comrade to the T34's tender mercies. The stalwart German tankers bounce a fourth round of the T34's hull....HIT THE TURRET, DAMMIT!!!

Oooop..I didn't mean for the Russians to do it...but happily it is the Russkies turn to see a round bounce.

My PIII bounces its fifth hit of a Russian, and takes an HE round full in the turret in reply...no serious damage.



A sixth hit bounces off Pete's T34, this time from the turret...grrrr!!! An HE round impacts the PIII's gun...no serious damage. Clearly there is some kind of "no result" forcefield surrounding these two tanks. The HE firing T34 has really found the range, whereas its compatriot at the bottom of the rise has only hit the once...probably only seeing a low percentage hit view of the topmost portion of the PIII. Eleven seconds to go!

My PIII finally decides discretion is the better part of valour, and retreats a bit. Both Russian tanks fire one last time, and I take another gun hit, again for no damage. The PIII's shot misses in return and 60 secs comes to an end.

Phew! I can't complain about that, very lucky I feel to have my PIIIs intact and un-gun-damaged. Although conversely I do feel a bit unlucky to have scored six hits in turn without result. I bet Pete is hoping the retreat of the PIII meant no functioning gun.

Although my other two PIIIs failed to pick up the remaining T34s and help out, I was pretty happy that they took out a T34 and a bonus T60. I was also pretty happy that Pete didn't bring his T70's out to play...that could have really complicated things.

It is pretty plain that my PIIIs have no real chance against a T34M43 except using tungsten through the turret front. If I can, I'll disengage from the T34s with my leftmost PIII...just not worth the risk. The other two can duel while the tungsten lasts.

Elsewhere...

Over by the right of the Small Arms Factory, the Sd 251/9 eases into position to cover the T70 cowering behind the light house. The T70 will get some HE wake up calls next turn.

On the left...



The armoured cars have gone all over the place and I didn't give sufficient pause to allow my Pz grenadier platoon commander time to get of...sigh, now he's stuck all to buggery over the left away from his troops. Pity he has such an inept overall commander. Meanwhile the Stuart briefly appears, as predicted, following the Russian HTs into the rear of the Grainery, along with another Russian HT or possibly one of those lend-lease scout cars. I dunno how interested I am about duelling the Stuart with armoured cars. What I have suddenly become quite interested in is sneaking a car or two across the river if at all possible, because there quite seriously is a good shot at some Russian HTs from a keyhole position down by the river, if I could only get something there. Not the PIIIs....they're way too heavily engaged. But to get across the river means going over the bridge in front of the church (too exposed) OR a ford behind the woods to the right of the church, where my Sd251/1 is presently holed up...little bit to the right of the lower right corner of the picture. Fords and wheeled vehicles. And they'll probably take some fire from the T70 on Hill 165. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe something else will come up on the right side as reinforcements.

The HMG on hill 161 spots and guns down a Russian squad....three bursts and the Russians sprawl to the ground with an audible shout of pain. Good HMG! (pats crew and gives them a bone).

On to the orders.....