Thanks to my opponents...

[Jim von Krieg]

For you Steve... a chance to rekindle the fear... LOL...

Comrade von Krieg finished surveying his plan... at every turn the Imperialist Fascist Invaders had snipped at his heels... nothing seemed to have gone right in the fight since the slaughter of the enemy's scouts... but still victory may be possible... the enemy had ceeded the initiative since the beginning... and unexpectedly continues to do so...

With the T34s stumbling into the panzers laying in wait...

as well as the Luftwaffe roaring overhead unmolested sending large oily black smoke columns heavenward where the twisted steel carcuses of the mighty KV's fell...

and as the Fascist artillery probed the countryside, looking for the careless... the few Red Army infantryman that had made it forward were mowed down by shadowy figures in the treelines as they probed forward..

too many had been stuck on snow and ice bound paths as they slowly snaked forward towards the raging inferno... they were only now moving to the forward jump off positions... too late for the final push...

Only once had a solid blow been landed... a panzer company is caught hiding in a draw along the ridge... luckily for the Heroes and Defenders of the Rodina, many T34s were moving through the area at the time... the fight was a tremendous affair, but was over quickly... burning Kruppe steel littered the hillside where once Hitler's Legion had stood waiting to continue their ravaging of the Rodina...

Even with all this friction, victory remained a possibility... It would ride on the backs of those that had been fighting since the beginning... they moved into position for the final push on to the objectives...

As the Red Army formations moved forward, panzers emerged from the just below the lip of the ridge... tearing into the raiding party in the South... as the company surged forward it was cut down... burning T-34 and T-70's dotted the plateau... the raid will not get close to the objective... but they do garner an unexpected benefit...

Some of the enemy forces guarding the central objective engaged the raiding units... this has weakened the central defense as the T-70s, T-34s, and KVs surge to the second objective... Panzers exchange fire with T34s sweeping across the snow... burning Panzers, halftracks, T34s, and T70s litter the landscape... Once more, the Red Army fails to take the objective... but the burning German vehicles are beginning to add up... as they are getting pounded by the larger guns of the Soviet tanks...

Finally, the main assault goes in... mortars and rockets erupt in and around the village on the valley floor that is the objective...

Comrade von Krieg's remaining infantry slowly moves forward... as they approach the village they drop down as the the SU-122s, SU-76s, and KVs engage the village teaming with enemy engineers and panzers... In the chaos and confusion of the bursting shells.. faint whistles can be heard... followed by shouts of HuZZA, HuZAA, HuZAA... the Heroes and Defenders of the Soviet Union jump up and race forward to eject the hated enemy from the village...

SUCCESS!!! the village has fallen... and the German defenders are routed by the slimmest of margins...

While not without cost, the German attack has been contained...

Take care,

Jim von Krieg