SS Totenkopf - "Fire Brigade" (M44 Campaign)

[von Nev]

Turn 15

Despite overwelming odds, up north the 110th Infantry was able to keep the Russians in front of them (for at least this turn). They have pulled back to several better defendable areas including a village with a bunker and several dug-in hexes with trenches. The Tiger battalion has spent the turn slinging 88mm rounds at the hundreds of Russian tanks roving about including over 100 Shermans!! I lost 2 Tiger tanks this turn but managed to destroy about 10 Russian tanks. As a result of the exchange, a bulk of the Russian armor has pulled back a bit and then moved north to engage the infantry of the 110th. The only Russian tank unit that is still within range of the Tiger battalion is a company of ISU-152 guns (they are in the engineer stack just northeast of the Tiger battalion).

I pulled out the SS company that was battered. It will be spending a lot of turns recovering once it is safely away from the front.

In the center the Panther battalion and battalions of dug-in SS infantry are inflicting a lot of casualties on the Russian infantry that is pressing forward. As you can see in the screenshot, in one firing by a SS infantry battalion 24 Russian infantry were eliminated.

Finally, in an interesting strategy my opponent, whenever he has the chance to get next to my lines, immediately digs in. As I think about it, this is a great strategy! By digging in he can create entrenchments that get nearly the same defensive benefit as my troops and then he can stack them with hordes of Russian infantry and start an exchange of attrition that I won't win.