Fire in the East - 1941-1945.

[Pegasus]

August 8th, 1941

Commander. Leningrad Front.

The Fascist hordes have reached the Luga River. This is the last natural barrier before the great city of Leningrad. Comrade Stalin and General Zhukov have advised me to resist at the Luga river. Now is the time to halt the enemy advance. Marshal Zhukov had promised at least two more Armies - as well as reinforcements for those I already have deployed - within the next two weeks. .................

August 8th 1941 -- Overview. (Turn 15)


Here I am, planning a rebuff, and my opponent has adds some spice to the mixture with his amphibious end-run. With an assault force of 2 Infantry Divisions, he has captured the anchorage hex west of Kronstadt, however; only 3 Regiments of infantry have made it ashore. The other 3, and both Divisional HQ’s are still on the water.
Whilst this is an imaginative tactical approach by my opponent, it’s way too soon. Once those troops land there, the only way they will get any supply is by either linking up with forces at the Luga River or capturing Leningrad.
Small amphibious operations like this are more likely to end up like Narvik or Anzio than Normandy or Sicily. Unless they are massive assaults with part of the main effort being to secure a source of supply very quickly, they are very risky ventures.
Anyway, to the tactical challenge of defending a ‘line’ line from Lake Il’men, along the Luga River to the Baltic Sea. The map below shows the terrain, without the units. (After all, those carefully crafted patches are not just there to make the game look pretty.)

Map - Planning the defence


If only I had more troops! - I’m sure every commander has cried that before. Ideally, you would want strong units fortified all along the dotted orange line - and the town of Luga as well if you’re feeling bullish - with tactical reserves right behind, and ‘Depot’ reserves a bit further back............
I haven’t enough troops to form a line or the support behind it. I know I will receive significant reinforcements over the next few turns at least, and then more beyond, so my objective will be to defend the critical parts of that line, until I am reinforced sufficiently to ‘take’ that line and hold it. (Or of course, the other option being that my opponent kicks me off the battlefield and back to Leningrad).
The purple areas are the critical zones. These will be the focus of my defence. Zone A controls all the road and rail crossings in the Northern half of the battlefield. Zone C the same in the centre and zone F the South. These areas are well supplied, with good defensive terrain.
The yellow zones will be defended but not with as much strength or aggression. Zone B is covering mostly impassable terrain (the Red X’s). Relatively weak forces should be able to hold this position. The impassable terrain in zone E creates bottlenecks and there are no roads to support any rapid penetration. I will defend here but not aggressively. Yield ground if I have to; counter attack cautiously if an advantageous opportunity arises. Zone D is the “backstop” for this position.

Back to the Battle


My actions for this turn: The 107 Mech will attack the Axis units that have crossed the Narva. With the recon and NKVD unit attacking from the rear, these should be dealt with easily with little loss.
The 32 Army HQ and an NKVD unit will move back and attach the Recon unit south of KIngisepp, supported by the engineers from the town. One of the NKVD units will stay where it is to hinder any pursuit.
The 8th Army has been outflanked on both sides now. Its HQ and 2 of its Rifle Divisions will pull back down the road and attack the axis units approaching Luga. I doubt they will break through, but with the unit in Luga joining in (with limited attacks, on limit losses) they should cause a bit of grief. The rest of the 8th Army will hold where it is and die frustrating the enemy advance.
The 2 RD and HQ of the 52 Army that have arrived so far will move to contain the amphibious landings; supported by some rail art moved up from Kingisepp. All my available air units will attack the Axis units still in on the water. The outcome of my turn is shown below



Pretty much everything went according to plan. 6 Rifle Divisions of the 58 Army have arrived by rail in a reasonable state of supply, along with a few other units. I moved some more air units into the area to support operations.My air attack on his embarked units was a phenomenal success. Most of them wiped out. I managed a brief attack with my advanced forces on the landed units towards the end of my turn before it burned away.However, in my state of smug hubris, I made a big mistake and forgot to redeploy my fleet to prevent any reinforcement of his landings.

Map – Possible Fleet Options.


There were two options, the safe and feasible blockade by occupying the Red X’s, or blockading the Purple Hexes with the destroyer flotillas and using the battleship to attach the Axis Naval units from beyond their range. Whilst the latter is feasible, I doubt I would have got enough combat phases out of the turn to achieve much with the attacks.


During his turn, the Axis again pushed across the Narva to the south of the Town as well as attacking the town itself. The attack on Narva Town cost him dearly, with 3rd TK Div responding as Tactical Reserve to support the fortified engineers he did not take the town.
The remnants of the 8th Army forming the screening/delaying force south of the river are badly beaten up but still hindering his advance. He has pushed forward slightly near Batetskiy and Novgorod. From watching the playback, He appeared to suffer a big “turn burn”, ending his turn before being able to exploit the outcome of his initial attacks.

My starting positions for turn 8, August 13th 1941 are shown below.


I will again attack the force that has crossed the Narva river. With my rear attack advantage I should push them back easily. The 32 Army will pull back North of the river and start to fortify.
I will attack the enemy troops on the roads to the SW and SE of Luga town. I am most concerned about the situation around Novgorod. This needs some reinforcement so I will redeploy the forces in the immediate area, move in the fort units and bring some elements of the 30th Army (Off Map) from the south of Lake Il’men.
I will not commit the 58th Army yet, but I will reposition it east, Allocating them and some artillery assets to the Northern Front HQ (as theirs is not yet on the map) and It will be with able to reach both Novgorod or Luga within 1 Turn from this position, whilst still being on the rail net to receive optimum supply.
The Outcome of my turn is shown below.



In the vicinity of Navara all went to plan. In the North, although I didn’t recapture his beachhead, I inflicted heavy losses whilst taking little. (Note, however, the continued inactivity of the Navy! I will have to execute some Admirals to make me feel better about my mistake.)
My attacks around Luga went too well and the 110tk went on a bit of a rampage, the engineers and recon unit in the hex SW of Luga town retreated before combat, as did the HQ South of them. During combat I then attacked the PZG and infantry in the hex SW of Betetskiy forcing them to retreat, The attacks on the road to the SW of Luga were also successful, and at this point I still had 60% of my turn left. I decided to attack the units in the Hex due south of Luga, with the intent that the 110 take would take the hex. This didn’t quite work out as planned. Most of the units in the hex retreated but they went the “wrong “ way! One unit hung on and burned up the rest of my turn. This has left the 101 Tk and the Artillery unit north of Luga in weak positions.
7 Rifle Divisions of the 59 Army arrived in the theatre by rail, as did two more Divs of the 52 Army.

During his turn, the Axis forces continued to press, the outcome shown below

Start Turn 17 August 17 1941


Well, serves me right for not deploying my Navy when I had the opportunity. He has reinforced his beachhead with 2 more complete infantry Divisions and pushed me back inland. Its not quite as bad as it looks. Underneath the 52nd HQ unit – along with several routed units - are two RD in good shape. I released two Tank Divisions of the 10th Mech Corps and some artillery from the Finnish Border, and a couple of militia units from the Leningrad line to help sort this out. The Navy will respond this turn!!
At Narva, (A) The Axis forces again assaulted the town with little effect. However it is time to pull back across the river. I will leave the engineers in the town and pull everything else back North of the river.
At Luga, the 8th Army was counter-attacked and soundly beaten and the town itself was taken. Luckily, my artillery unit survived intact. I will pull this unit back across the river.
South of Luga © i will counter attack with the 110 Tk, Bringing a rifle Division down from North to attack on the Flank (and ensure he retreats the right way!)
The Axis forces at Novgorod attacked in several places but made no gains. I will counter attack here two. I have released the 104 tank to attack the stack of units at D, along with the RD from the 5th Shock Army (Purple unit).
Now that the 59th Army (7 Rifle Divs in the stack) is rested and replenished, I will once again redeploy the 58 to a more central location.
The outcome of my turn is shown below.



My counter attacks at near Luga © went well. I have pulled the Rifle Division back North to defend the river crossing, rather than leave it in support of the 110 Tk.
My attacks in the Novgorod area were also successful, and I have pushed back his beachhead, inflicting heavy losses. My Navy has finally answered the call. Destroying the Axis fleet and blockading the beachhead from any further reinforcement.
Although I didn’t receive any more new Armies , the 52, 32 and 42 Armies all received one or two additional units.

The Axis continued to push aggressively, and made the gains shown by the yellow chevrons on the map below.



I need to be cautious here, especially in the Batetskiy – Novgorod area. The situation in the Novgorod area is not as bleak as it looks; underneath the routed units there others in reasonably good shape.
I will continue with my zonal defence. The 59th and more of the 30Th will move to Novgorod. I will not commit them to the line yet, but they will be close by. The 59th HQ is not on the map yet, so I have redeployed the Leningrad Front HQ to look after this formation.
The Bulk of the 58th Army and Northern Ft HQ have move to form a forward depot position at the road/rail junction as marked. Here they can support either of my Critical Zones, as well as the backstop should he manage to move through the lightly defended marshy ground.
They only attacks I will put in this turn are against his beachhead in the North, and I will remove the recon & light infantry unit from the hex NW of Novgorod to restore a more cohesive defensive position.

The outcome of my turn is shown in the next post........

ctd....