A Lesson to be Remembered - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

[Historical, best played against human opponent] Location : 20 miles north of Rostov. In the last days of the winter offensive the Soviets conquered a bridgehead over the Don river, near Manutschskaya. Elements of 2nd Mechanised Corps had begun fortifying their positions and awaiting reinforcements so that they could continue their offensive, aimed at at cutting off 1st Panzer Armee. The germans quickly realised this threat and Herman Balck's 11th Panzer Division was ordered by manstein himself to eliminate this threat. History has not been kind upon this German commander. He could be considered the 'Rommel' of the eastern front. His tactical and operational genius allowed him to retake the village, destroying in the process some twenty Soviet tanks and inflicting about 500 casualities. His own forces counted the loss of one tank, four killed and thirty wounded! In this battle the Russians were thaught a valuable lesson in the use of combined arms groups. Once again the German Kampfgruppe concept proved itself to be extremely efficient on the eastern front.