Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 Russian



In the east skirmishing continues. 

The 396th is brought forward after lines are shortened.

An assault on his Pioneers fails and the 2/22nd becomes disrupted. I have brought forward the HQ because I was worried he might isolate the 2/22nd and 1/133rd.

The 397th shifts so that it is out of los of his 88's and helps the 1/22nd against the blocking infantry in the south. The results were not great but at turn end I saw that I had done enough to disrupt him. 


Fighting at Buzinovka continues. The disrupted 3/893rd makes a few bayonet charges to distract the Germans and draw their fire. They do a good job! The 3/884th and the 173rd Motorised then let fly and score a respectable -5 against the enemy. The 173rd congratulate themselves (soft attack value 2/1) after achieving their high score of 1 man. 
Amazingly the enemy at Buzy did disrupt. Turn end results show this. However he has a unit just a few klicks away to the north east so I expect him to swop his defenders over....boohoooo. The 173rd sharpen their sticks and prepare to do it all over again. The 3/893rd look aghast!

And that was that. If he falls back in front of Gettysgrad, sorry Verkne-Buzinovka then I may get a bit closer next turn.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 Russian



Operation Deckchairs on the Titanic - final shuffle

General Zhuravlev is ashen faced as he stares at the reports. 62nd Army has cancelled his artillery support and doomed his breakout plans. "We do not support failure comrade, that is not the Russian way". 
The 644th Tank Bn is puled out and sent west to shore up the southern perimeter. The 40th Sappers pull back over the stream they attacked over only a few short hours ago. 

The orders to 303rd Sappers to attack south west and link up with the cut off pocket do not reach them in time. The unit pulls back east after the 3/753rd moves up to allow them to escape! There is nowhere to run for this group and they will be caught and isolated soon.

News from the northern perimeter is grim. The defense is now a rabble and there are only a handful of formed undisrupted units left. The Germans are about to sweep away or cut off everything.

Svechinkovskiy still holds! The 3/84th Guards formed up and moved into the village to support the wavering 1/84th Guards. 

There is a low roar as ground attack planes swoop in and make a half hearted attack of the German Pioneers (its always a damski Pioneer!) blocking his forces south of Svechinkovskiy. The 62nd Army have not forgotten us General Zhuravlev cries. (Actually they did because I forgot that I had air until I was about to finish the turn....doh)

Time to find my best dress uniform he thinks. I must look good when the Germans arrive.....

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 scores



Victory dialogue above.



Fancy spreadsheet above. 

Pretty poor results. I did kill 3 of his artillery pieces and 1 atg. 
I lost 1 gun/rocket launcher (5th Gds Mor) and one AA vehicle/gun (1264th) 

I think next turn will see my VP's down to 0. Mikes turn will be back soon.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 German results



Yes that's a -12. I have 150 VP's in objectives and -162 VP's in losses. As you can see the Germans are well ahead in terms of casualties.



Breakdown of losses above. I lost 641 men this turn. A net loss of 551 men when you take the German loss of 90 into consideration. That translates into a 44 VP swing. 

Most of my losses come from the Zhuravlev Pocket. So lets look at that first.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 German



Most of the action as usual is in the south west and north. In fact most of the south remains very quiet? 

Pocket A receives two assaults and direct fire. The 184th HQ are destroyed but miraculously arise from the dead 2km's to the north east. The Russian OOB now has 48 extra zombies in it now. 

Pocket C is pummeled by direct fire to ensure both units are disrupted then assaulted.

The large stack B is pushed back. I think he used 5 company sized units? He was going to win as I was disrupted but the casualties were fairly even?

The rest of the assaults are shown on map. Again some of them were costly in relative terms of casualties and in fact disruptions. 

In the west we see the appearance of armour? The dreaded Marders appear! Not sure why but I guess he needs these to deal with my armour? 

All in all I was very surprised. I expected worse than this. The 303rd and 3/753rd have not been trapped and 4 units have undisrupted this turn. I can't see me making a breakout but at least I get to rearrange the deckchairs on the SS Titanic for another few turns....um has anyone seen General Zhuravlev?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 German



Not much to see here. Mike makes a move on my Sappers in the south and reinforces the Manoylin area. 

There is no point in moving I guess, plus if I don't fire at the unit then they recover fatigue.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 15 German



Again all quiet on the eastern front. He shuffles the Pioneers back and also pulls back the disrupted unit? Thats a bit unusual as he normally just leaves them but in this case it would be trapped so he pulls it back.

The enemy unit at Nizhnyaya-Buzinovka has not been moved??? Mmmh? Is he running out of units?

The 1/22nd is lashed by artillery but the omens look good for my forces here. 4 units have undisrupted plus nearly all my units have full ammo apart from two!!! Onwards to Gettysgrad!!!!

The tankers of the 378th are dancing about. No disruption PLUS ammo. So comrades do I send them back to Osinovka or east??? Umm make that west.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 16 Russian



Hey looking better there. 24 point swing. Won't stay positive for long though. 



Well a healthy tally of German losses but I did lose a few tanks and guns. 2 T-34's and a T-70 plus some AA guns which are classed as vehicles. Also a 76mm ATG. I guess if JTS was doing this game again he would breakdown the game into 'types' of vehicles so we could see tanks separated from other vehicle types.

Lets look at the maps.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 16 Russian



Since things held together last turn I thought I would try another assault. 62nd Army artillery was diverted to the pocket. Unfortunately it failed. The 148 men of the 40th Gds Sappers gave it their best shot but the 305th Recon unit held firm. (it did disrupt though)

The 644th was able to swing back to the east in anticipation of a success which never materialised. 

The 303rd Sappers (105 men) was used to fill the gap. The 3/753rd and 2/84th are my two other backstops. 

That's about all I can do.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 16 Russian



Things are looking better in the south. Hopefully I've caused Mike a few headaches but he usually has things in hand and copes. 

From east to west -

I've pulled back my Sappers. Lets hope Mike gives up as I don't want a battle down here. The 91st are dishing out decent hits on him but it doesn't seem to disrupt him. 

Manoylin was a bit of a disaster. I tried to swop the 358th and 359th and lost a tank and received a disruption. 

I had a couple of lucky breaks in the centre. The 2/20th pushed back his 113th Recon unit and one of units Broke after I hit it with artillery. I have manged to push armour into the gap. The 370th was already disrupted but it loses a tank when it bumps into a hidden artillery unit.

Artillery was used against a third target and the 1/884th was brought up for an assault. However I received quite heavy defense fire (-4) so I did something I don't usually do and cancelled the Assault. The enemy were clearly not disrupted and were not Ammo Low. I then went for direct fire and scored quite well. 

The 650th Tank Bn managed some serious damage on the German artillery. 

A lot of disrupted German units (XX sized) showing but they might all recover. I need another good turn of undisruptions and ammo supply though.