Moscow '42 AAR: Sukhinichi II : We Will Rescue You

[Dog Soldier]

Russian Turn Twenty Three
Night, 18:00 24 January 1942 Visibility 1km

Sukhinichi Front
Five Russian units rally. All rifle regiments, no cavalry.
I bombard, fire upon then link the three rifle battalions of the 324th rifle division together and rush the Germans in the center of Sukhinichi. Bloody hand to hand to hand combat in the dark ends with 61 Russians and 41 Germans dead. The German infantry hold their position while the Russians will attempt to rally and have one more go at the Germans next turn. Everywhere else Russian rifle battalions shoot it out with the Germans in the dark. I manage to disrupt the German infantry holding the last southern village outside of Sukhinichi. None of my rifle battalions that move up for next turn’s assault remain in good order. The dark and cold disrupt them all. Still I have to try. If they all rally and the German infantry do not I will have a shot to swing 10 more VP my way. All are low fatigue, so they have a good chance to rally. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I advance two units of the 83rd Cavalry and they disrupt. The AA gun is very vulnerable in travel mode. They may be safe as they are out of any German LOS. A cavalry squadron manages to get a volley off after disrupting to eliminate a single IG in the German stack before it. It was a small hope. I would have liked the cavalry to get an assault in this turn. It just did not turn out that way.

In the NW, a heavy German artillery bombardment disrupts the riflemen from launching an assault on the German ATG company. Not much of a chance, but maybe they will rally next turn. I move the rest of the 323rd to rescue the two rifle battalions surrounded in the German half of the turn or to get out of German LOS to prevent any more German direct fire attacks. The entire division is now disrupted. I think they will be safe though.

All else is quiet. My aggressive moves this turn drop the VP total gained in the German turn back by 10 victory points. David only gained 15 VP instead of 25. This will most likely end a German minor victory, though the German 18th PD will be threadbare at the end.

Dog Soldier