Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

Turn 14 Russian



Turn just done. Results above. Losses kept down and a few hexes gained. 



Breakdown of results above. VP level climbing but big losses looming. Maps coming up.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 14 Russian player



Not many moves for the pocket. 

I'll pull back in the west 1 hex with my disrupted stack. They can't spread out anyway. 3/753rd will be the back stop. Hope its in the right place. The disrupted 2/427th pulls back as well BUT everything else sits tight.
The weak spots are where he is massed (eg opposite the 2/676th/3/676th) but he might content himself to firing rather than assaults. 
The south will also fold this turn (415th/303rd) although thankfully he does not have many units in this area.

I made two assaults in the south east. (Low Ammo so not much point firing). I pushed his Pioneers back and also used my Sappers to assault his Recon company. The 40th Sappers are one of the few units which are not Ammo Low so the results were pretty good. 
Of course I had to bring the 644th down to fill the gap.

Will post other maps in a few hours. They are a bit more cheerier.....

[Plain Ian]

Turn 14 Russian



1)     I’ve pulled back my exposed units in the south. I have quite a strong well rested line so I’m happy for him to probe. The 223rd AA is disrupted by return fire. 153rd motorised pulled back before I fire.

2)     Its the Russian two step. Assault on 113th. T-34’s fire (358th) then T-70’s (359th) assault. It only works if they are not Low Ammo so you must make the most of it. The T-70 is becoming the preferred assault unit because the Motorised infantry are too slow and easily disrupted.

3)     Another assault on the 305th but artillery and T-34’s (370th) are used to prep. 169th and 1/863rd assault despite penalty for different organisations. The 370th moves up as it only fired twice and has mp’s left. 3/20th also brought up.

4)     1259th launched into gap and pins the Pioneers.

5)     3/863rd moves up to provide cover. Strong def fire but no disruption.

6)     1/884th assaults Pioneers. Decent Def fire but thankfully no disruption. T-70 fire (379th) against artillery is pretty woeful? I expected better. They are not Low Ammo but there are only 9 T-70’s so I suppose this is the reason for the results. I may have to swop the 379th with the 650th.

7)     173rd Motorised brought over to be used for possible assault. Hopefully it will still be able for flank protection but my moves on east map may keep him from trying? See east map.

I seem to have finally reached his ‘gun line’ as I’m up against 3 of his artillery positions. He is in no mood to move them though? Things fluid from Yeseyev – Nizhnyaya but he has quite a strong line running n-s just below Manoylin.

I’m not sure how much further north I can go at Manoylin. It all depends on supply and I have been lucky with Ammo rolls the last few turns.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 14 Russian Player



Moves for the east. A barrage by my artillery (only -2) actually Broke the enemy unit south of Mukovkin. 
This allowed me to flood forward with most of my units. Because the 1/133rd was slightly blocked by the Broken unit I assaulted it out of the way using the AA unit. Streams are pretty difficult for tracked units as are built up towns when they are in non T mode. 
The 3/22nd was put into T mode and wheeled up after the 133rd moved over to replace it. This doesn't leave much of a reserve in the north so I will have to fall back if he presses...

Like 1st Army in the south, 4th Army has been lucky and supply/Ammo has been good for the last few turns. Finally approaching Buzinovka. His 88's actually got off defensive fire at the 397th. (T-70) It looks like I will need more infantry.

[Plain Ian]

Oh and fighting restarted at Osinovka. His AT guns undisrupted so I had to fire. I managed 1 gun but did not disrupt the unit. 

I noticed that my spreadsheet is wrong as I missed this so I've updated it. The next one will show this loss.

[Plain Ian]

Mikes turn. No surprises really.

[Plain Ian]

Plenty of assaults. The cut off pocket [A] is hit by 3 assaults. Losses are heavy but he suffers disruptions in every attack.

The 2/40th in the north finally ran out of luck. He hit it with artillery killing two tanks and disrupting it. An assault then pushed it north east. Yep just unlucky..........

Two other bad news.
The 1/84th in Svechinkovskiy disrupted under fire despite being in town and Trench
The 1/427th and 2/427th have been cut off. [C]

Some good news. 
The 303rd recovered from disruption and like the 3/753rd is one of the few units with Full Ammo. The 303rd could possible assault sw and restore a link with the cut off pocket if it doesn't disrupt from def fire. Pointless but things have reached that stage anyway. 

I also have artillery support available although the range of targets available is limited but it offers possibilities of assaulting if I get lucky with my artillery?
Air is also available.

However its probably better to use these assets in the south or east.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 14 German



Sorry for delay. Mikes moves in the south. He made quite a lot and the hangover made it difficult to follow most of them. 

He managed to pull out the artillery unit next to my AA unit and has pulled out some units to cover it. He has not bothered to do this with the other two artillery units? Mmmmh? 

No ground fire but that's probably because he does not have many targets? Most of the adjacent units are armoured/hard targets. 

He hasn't pushed any further down in the south and is content to watch. 

He's pulled out some units and pushed them north? I doubt if he is seriously concerned about my moves towards Manoylin but just wants to make sure.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 14 German



Last map for Mike hooray. New Year must be Pio-neer.....hmm joke fail. So now you know why the Germans were able to throw in lots of Pioneer Battalions in Stalingrad several months later. There are millions of them!

I see that we have reached his gun line in the east and he has no intentions of moving them. High tide for the Russians. Gettysgrad.

Nice to see my T-34's disrupting units at 2 hexes. This is the second time its happened nd the last one was a Pioneer as well?

Two units recovered from disruption. The 2/22nd which disrupted under artillery fire during his turn and the 182nd. The really good news is that supply is holding up and I've only two units on ammo low. 
Osinovka is still a 'disruption zone' with no sign of recovery. 

Admittedly for games lasting 2-3 days this does give us a nice game effect of a lull in the fighting and not the frenetic 24/7 stuff in PzC that happens in most games. Slightly annoyed though as I've a T-34 unit sitting down here drinking vodka waiting on undisrupting! Time to move it?

Anyway time to do my turn tonight. I've kept Mike waiting and so are the 88's in Buzinovka....

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 Russian



lets start in the south. 

The 358th/359th change direction and do the 'Russian combo' with some artillery also thrown in. 358th fires and 359th assaults. The 359th is now adjacent to his stack with atg's (X) and StuG's (X). So maybe 9 atg's and 5 StuG's versus 11 T-70's? Its artillery though that will cause the problem?

The 364th (Disrupted Low Ammo) and 2/20th also try the same thing but fail miserably. The 5th Gds Mortar Rgt finally came on line and supported this effort. After the long wait they cause minimal casualties (for a rocket unit) and suffer the loss of a 1 gun to counter battery fire. 

The 370th Tank Bn (T-34) and 169th Motorised both are disrupted during fire fights against his atg/artillery stack. They manage to disable 3 guns between them.

Further east the 1/884th assaults his Pioneers back and the 1264th falls back and carries out some long range fire.

The 650th and 379th finally switch places and the 650th gets a gun with its first shot.

I'm sure lots of artillery is about to descend on the thin skinned T-70's of the 359th followed up with some fire from his StuG's once the T-70's are disrupted. 

Its pretty demoralising seeing the hoards of German infantry swarming in the west. I realise that some of these are XX units and same are fairly battered but if you've ever visited Scotland and seen midgies then you will know small things can make big things run........