SS Totenkopf - "Fire Brigade" (M44 Campaign)

[von Nev]

Fast forward to turn 8.

Although darkness is now on the battlefield Totenkopf is rapidly moving into the front line within the 337th Inf Div's area of operations. They are passing broken and smashed infantry companies from the 337th going the other way.

One of the first engagements for Totenkopf was the Panther battalion and the PzIV battalion (-) arrived in a key village and quickly destroyed with one shot (56 casualties) a Russian engineer unit that was acting as a spotter for the mass of Russian artillery on the eastern side of the Pronya river.

You can see that the Russian artillery is tremendously powerful. A recon company from Totenkopf is defending a village just to the northeast of the Panther battalion and in one turn it was reduced to 50% strength.

The green circles represent where I will be digging-in and defending with Totenkopf. These hexes give a continuous line of defense around the expected Russian bridgehead. Additionally, they are located in hexes with the maximum possible defense (i.e. +20% because it is either a village or forest and can be improved into a +40% trench). The theme for this campaign is dig-in, dig-in and dig-in. The Russian artillery and tanks are incredibly powerful.

I also dispatched Totenkopf's engineer battalion to assist the A morale 12th Infantry Division to dig-in. Many units of the 12th are still fixed and are not in the right locations to form a contiuous line of defense.