Debut of the 22nd - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

March 20 5:30 am outer defensive ring of Sevastopol, best played as allies or against human, In March, with the weather improving following the long winter siege of the city where both armies had become well entrenched and lines more or less stabilized , AG South is preparing for the spring offensive to finish off the remainder of the Russian forces in the Crimea. In preparation, the newly formed 22nd Panzer Division is ordered to attack and take the villages of Korpetsch and Tulumtschak and more importantly the hill to the east of the villages. Just after dawn the 204th Panzer Regiment with 2 companies of infantry in support left the start point. Almost immediately things went wrong for the new commander of the 204th. The morning had brought a dense fog reducing visibility to less than a kilometer at times and in the first 30 minutes of the advance the two battalions of the panzer regiment became separated with the first Bn missing its assigned turn to the east and advancing alone while the second Bn had turned to early and ran up on the heels of the infantry. Thinking the first BN panzer’s were on his left flank as planned, Colonel Koppenburg, Continued the attack on the first village, soon how ever he begin to hear over the radio that first panzer Bn was locked in a tank battle and requesting aid from the second Bn which was by now committed to supporting the infantry company attacking the village. To add to the confusion a lucky shot from Russian artillery destroyed the radio van of the second panzer Bn which had continued to advance beyond the village toward the hill not knowing the trouble of the first BN or that the infantry had hold up in the village and was no longer with them. With a very unclear command picture and his forces now widely dispersed Colonel Koppenburg ordered a general withdrawal back to German lines. Not a good debut for a new division’s first combat experience.