Forcing the Wotan Line - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Akimovka, 20km SW of Melitopol: [Best played as Allied] After nearly a year of costly retreats and continuous defensive fighting, October 1943 found the reconstituted German Sixth Army deployed along the Wotan Line covering the lower Dnieper and the approaches to the Crimea. Facing the single battle weary army were six Soviet armies of General Tolbukhin's 4th Ukrainian Front. While efforts were made in the north to cross the wide Dnieper, the Red Army's forces in the south paused to gather their strength. Then in mid October Tolbukhin opened his southern offensive around Melitopol with one objective - the annihilation of the German Sixth Army! After two weeks of continuous assaults Melitopol finally fell, giving the Russians an opportunity to thrust southwest through Akimovka and seize the entrance to the Crimea. The 6th Guards Tank Brigade was chosen to spearhead the attack and force a gap through the entrenched 79th Infantry Division and elements of Colonel Hake's armored fire brigade from the 13th Panzer Division.