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

[McIvan]

With bated breath, I watch to see how long it will take the AC smokecreen to disappear. Leto's T70 keeps advancing ominously....dips into a hollow and back out again. Hasn't he seen the snoke indicating my armoured cars? Or does he just think its ony the one?

About thirty seconds into the turn, the smoke sputters and dies. Two Psw 223s immediately acquire the T-70, with the other two Psw 223s and the Sd251/9 following a second or two later. The AC's turn their turrets and spatter the T70 with 20mm fire harmlessly; the T70 responds by targeting the Sd251/9, being the only thing that can really hurt it. But the 251/9 is well on the way to its first shot and with a thump a hollow charge round is sent crashing into the T70s hull.

That probably killed it, but just in case it didn't, the relentless hail of 20mm rounds continues. A track hit immobilises it, a lucky shot actually gets a penetration through the side armour, before the Sd251/9 puts matters beyond doubt with its second hit....


Beaten to death by a hail of sharpened toothpicks...helluvaway to go

Meanwhile, the Stuart has also advanced. It picks up the Mg42 on Hill 161, which has been squirting some rounds at Russian infantry advancing down by the river, and suppresses it to cautious status with MG fire. The HMG42 recovers later in the turn and fires a burst at a Russian halftrack which is pretty much 90 degrees broadside on...and the Russian HT does an excellent impression of a vehicle that has been knocked out...coasting slowly to a halt...but it also looks like a spot where it could have been ordered to stop, or maybe it's just shocked. I'm cautiously optimistic however (later turns out I was wrong).



On the right, the Sd251/9 doesn't get a chance to fire again before the Russian T70 scoots to safety. Oh well.

In the middle right, one of my two PIIIs performs as ordered and advances down the road and turns, acquiring one of the T70's behind the burning wheatfield hillock. The other PIII rotates in place....clearly, in giving it multiple waypoints, I've forgotten to change a "reverse" to a "fast" after moving the relevant waypoint. Will fix that up next turn.

In the interim, the PIII that has acquired a T70 fires twice and misses twice at a miserable 135 metres range!?! The bloody PIIIs are shooting like graduates of the Helen Keller gunnery school of late.



Down by the river, Russian infantry are working their way forward through the scattered trees and woods. They are engaged by one and a half German squads and a little bit of supporting MG fire from a Sd251/1, but it doesn't seem to cause any appreciable result. The Sd251/10 that I sent across the river is coming close to the bridge area and should be able to give some supporting fire next turn.



Our own infantry that are advancing toward the church on the left side of the river receive some long range MG fire from Leto's T34s and halftracks, and take two casualties with the squads concerned going to ground.

Losses so far:

Germans
2 x PIIIJ
1 x Sd251/10
1 x Psw222
4 x infantry casualties or so.

Russians
1 x T34/M43
2 x T60 light tanks
3 x T70 light tanks
1 x M5 halftrack (maybe two)
1 x LMG team
1 x half squad

Still nothing much in it!