HSG AG Steamroller - Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

17 July 1944 Widomlja, Russia The Soviet offensive was running out of steam. It was also running into very stiff resistance. The Soviets had been on the offensive since the 22nd of June and now, almost a month later, they had achieved more success than in their wildest imaginings. The cities of Mogilev, Orsha, Vitebsk, Borisov, Berezino, Bobruisk, Slutsk, Minsk, Vilna, Lida, Slonim and now finally Pinsk, had all fallen to the Soviet spearheads. In the process more than 300,000 German soldiers had been either killed or captured. But now German resolve was stiffening, just as the Russian Steamroller was running out of steam. The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was called in to stop the flood of Russian units to the west. This was not just any division, but the one German Division the Soviets considered the "best" German Division, on the entire Eastern Front. This division would be the one to restore the situation on the eastern front for the German Army. This division would be given the task of stopping the Soviet 65th Army and with it the entire continuation of Operation Bagration. The 65th Army was assembling in the Bialowiezer Forest. Here in the forest, the Army was able to make it's deployments, unseen from German air reconnaissance. The 65th Army had the 1st Tank Corps, 1st Mechanized Corps, and the 4th Guards Cavalry Corps attached, and was itself attached to the 1st Belorussian Front. It was with these forces that the Soviets planned on continuing the advance to the west in the area of Widomlja. It was here that the entire Panzer Regiment of Wiking was employed to stop their advance. It was here that the Russian steamroller would crash into Wiking's tanks.