Fire in the East - 1941-1945.

[Pegasus]

Battle of Chernigov

Stavka.....July 23rd 194.....Intelligence reports many Axis Pz and Inf Corps moving through the Pipryet.........attempting to cross the Sozh River West of Chernigov...............

The terrain here is so advantageous to me and disadvantageous to the enemy I decided to commit some forces to hold Chernigov; counter-attacking enemy units as they try and cross the rivers and struggle through the marshes.



Two Rifle Divisions (RD) of the 21st Army will defend the river crossing at point A. Two more RD of the 21st will defend crossing B, Supported by a Tank Div(TK) from the 5th Mech Corps and the 21st Army Art (positioned so that it can also support the RD on the river crossing north of point A as well. I want it at 2 hexes range, because although the range shown on the counter is 3 hexes, 30% of this units firepower is made up of high cal 150mm guns with a range of only 2 hexes)

The Mech Div of the 5th Mech Corps will remove the Axis commandos from Chernigov and halt there as a reserve.

The 2nd Tk Div of the 5th Mech Corps will support the units defending crossing points C and D as a Tactical Res.

Units dug in and no attacks made, leaving the end of turn positions as below.



The Axis pushed to cross at all points and made some gains but it cost him dearly.

The 13th TK reacted as tactical reserve and was badly beaten up and forced to retreat itself (not surprising with a proficiency of 38%), but this action burned a lot of turn. The 17th TK reacted to the assault at crossing C and succeeded. However it was then unavailable for the assault at D where the recon unit was easily beaten back. The most annoying action was his commandos beating up the 21 Army art. T

The map below shows the positions at the end of his turn.



Underneath the routed RD at crossing A is a healthy, fortified Recon Reg, with a reasonable proficiency of 70%. It can hold there and the RD behind switch to tactical reserve. Even if he pushes me out of the way, that big, target rich stack of attacking units on a river hex will suffer.

The 21 Army HQ and an RD will move south to sort out the Axis commandos and support the defence of crossing point B. With the HQ adjacent, hopefully the art will recover quickly and in the meantime the HQ can provide fire support.

The 109 Mech Div will move up to crossing point C to defend. The 17th Tk and the 227 RD (sitting under the Recon Reg) will attack the PzG regiment that advanced at crossing point D, taking advantage of rear attacks I should shift it. The recon unit will shift east to prevent any retreating the wrong way!

The Map below shows the positions at the end of my turn.



While I forced the PzG Regiment to retreat, my units didn’t advance as they were only conducting “limited attacks” in order to keep my losses to a minimum. The attacks were over with some turn left to dig in again, but not enough mp’s to move into the vacated hexes.

I moved up the two tank Div’s of the 19th Mech Corps from Kiev, forming a reserve at Chernigov. (Although called Tank Divisions, and having the same symbol as a Panzer Division full of Panthers, these units have a dozen early KV and T34 between them. Most of their armoured equipment consists of T 26 and T37s. Wiki them and laugh).

Another RD of the 40th army has railroaded from its entry hex to as far as the river, where the line has been broken previously by another of his pesky commando units.

The Axis forces continued to push. At crossing A he used engineers to cross the river to the North of the bridge. The original defending RD retreated Northwards. The Tactical Reserve RD joined the fight and held the hex. The flanking force then attacked the retreated unit routing it then cutting the road.
At crossing C/D He further consolidated his bridgehead, but again with heavy losses.

The Map below shows the outcome of his turn.



The situation is not as grim as it looks,. Beneath the two routed RD at crossing C/D, the 5th Mech is still in reasonable shape, the 2 Tank Divisions are at 45 % readiness and the Mech Div at 89%. The 21 Art has recovered from routed with 33% readiness to rallied and 50% readiness - shows the value of a well supplied hex and an adjacent HQ.

Two more RD’s of the 40th Army are also available to form up at Chernigov, and the 23 Mech Corps pulling back from the Brezhina River (see post 1) is available to support actions at Gomel/Crossing A.

I attacked 3 hexes as shown with the intention of re-taking them. These Hexes are all road hexes so if I do I will achieve reasonable resupply.

The map below shows the outcome and positions at the end of my turn.



While forcing the Pz Unit to retreat at crossing A, by the time the successful attack was concluded, the attackers had insufficient mp’s left to occupy the hex. I successfully captured the attacked hexes at C&D.

The Axis Countered vigorously during his turn, with the results shown in the map below.



He pushed me right back again at crossing A, and although the RD at the top of the stack looks healthy, the units under it are either routed or seriously depleted.

However, the attacking forces have ended their turn in “mobile” status. I will ambush his force with the 23rd Mech from the East and elements of the 24th Army from the North.

He attacked a crossing B, but My Cav Div and RD in tactical reserve responded and repulsed his attack, leaving a stack of seriously depleted attacking units. I will counter aggressively here and push him back across s the river.

He advanced as shown at C/D. The 5th Mech Corps is reorganising as an entire formation, and the rest of the units underneath in both stacks are in a similar shape. Not as bad as it at first seems though. Although the 5th Mech Corps won’t respond to move or attack orders, they will dig in. All the reorganising units will have the opportunity to rally before the enemies’ next moves, (as well as a round of resupply) and if they do so these stacks will end up quite strong at the start of his turn.

I will counter-attack the SS PzG Reg with the 3 Rifle Divisions of the 40th Army.

Map below shows the outocome at the end of my turn



My Counter Attacks were a great success. At Crossing A, the 9 unit stack under the PzG Reg are all badly beaten up whilst my units emerged relatively unscathed.

A similar story at crossing B, I pushed him back across the river at a reasonable cost, although my turn ended at the conclusion of this battle so I never got the opportunity to dig in.

The Elements of the 40th Army pushed back his grenadiers at crossing C/D, and this battle ended earlier in my turn allowing me to dig in.

I have pulled the depleted 46 RD and a Recon Reg out of the line, and brought up a couple of RD’s and some Art to bolster my position.
I found an Air unit that was responding to orders and moved it up to the battle. I set it to CS and It joined in two battles during my first round of combat, but promptly decided to reorganise after that. (Proficiency 31% and still on the receiving end of an Air Shock penalty LoL)

The Axis forces continued with his brute force approach., with the outcome shown below.



He didn’t achieve much with his attacks at the Gomel crossing at the North edge of the battlefield .

At the south he has linked up two of his crossing points. However, the expansion of his crossing points has only been “lateral”, he has not made any forward gain or gained position to compromise the integrity of my overall position. He has taken enormous losses and his units are in poor positions in terms of resupply. Even with my poor proficiency levels, my units are recovering much quicker than his. Every one of the units I have intel on is severely depleted with red boxes showing.

My main concern is the formation at the south that is threatening to outflank me to the South. I might have start thinking about withdrawing soon.

ctd.........