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

[McIvan]

On the left flank....the Stuart...will it stay still for either my infantry to creep into assault distance OR the Psw223s and Sd251/9 to sweep round its rear?

Errr....no. Off it goes, heading unexpectedly inbetween Hill 161 and the wooded hill to its left behind which my armoured cars and halftrack are traversing. I guess leto is trying a bold move to get behind MY AFVs and pick them off one by one, starting with the Sd251/1.

As the Stuart clanks past my infantry, it comes into assault range for a few seconds. Too much to hope that my boys would manage a close assault, but they do fire off their two rifle grenades...and one thunks into the Stuart's side.



Looks like it was a no effect tho, as the Stuart rolls blithely on.

Meanwhile my boys are doing the same thing....but in reverse...



As the Stuart rolls round the rear of the woods, however, it sidles into the view of my quad 20mm AA halftrack sitting at the back of Hill 161, which acquires, turns, loses sight of the Stuart, then picks it up again.....



Niiiice.......let's hope that did some damage. Even if it didn't, a quad 20mm has a real high fire rate. I'm real hopeful that it can knock out the Stuart.

An overview of the forward portion of the left side.....The Russians have pushed one T34 forward, the other is stuck on a fence with some kind of movement order stuff-up. The Russian infantry was once again pushing forward through the trees by the river, taking fire from my troops and halftrack without much effect apart from one squad going face down (but no screams).



On the right, the duel between the PIII and T70 continues.

Again the PIII fires, for its third attempt to hit at a miserable bloody 133 metres. The result: a useless gun hit....since the T70 immediately fires back and scores a partial front armour penetration, but for no serious damage. Hmmm! The little fellas have teeth....of course they're going to have a few tungsten rounds of their own.


Once more the PIII tries to get its sorry act together. This time it manages to hit the turret.....and the 50mm AP simply bounces off! Is it just me, or is the long 50mm completely and utterly useless?!?

The T70 shows its derision by scoring a clean 45mm penetration through the PIII's turret. That's two shots for two hits and two penetrations, as the Russians show the German gunners how it's done. But unfortunately they must have been using Ap shot manufactured by German prisoners of war, because again there is no result for the luckless (result wise anyway) Soviets.



FINALLY the PIII slams a round into the T70's interior, and knocks it out, just as the other T70 noses forward.

The second T70 noses about a bit, retreats, then comes forward again, pushing the other knocked out T70 out of the way. Both PIIIs (the second has now arrived) acquire it, and fire three shots for a single hit....



Sadly that doesn't seem to do any damage and the T70 retreats again.....

That's all there is of note...on to the orders.