Hunters from the Sky - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

32 km northeast of Smolensk (Hypothetical; Best played as Axis vs. computer): This scenario postulates the employment of the Luftwaffe's elite parachute division during Barbarossa had Hitler chosen to cancel the airborne invasion of Crete. With Panzergruppe 3 driving hard to encircle Smolensk from the north and Panzergruppe 2 forming an armored pincer to the south, the opportunity to trap a huge number of Soviet troops in a vast pocket was assured... if the far-flung German vanguards could only close the inevitable gaps. To ensure a decisive victory, Hitler ordered Gen. Student, the Fallschirmjäger C-in-C, to prepare his 7th Flieger Division for a mass combat jump into Russia. Code-named Operation LOKI, the paras' mission is to seize vital bridges and block important roads, helping to form the eastern shoulder of the pocket until link-up is achieved with Hoth and Guderian's panzers. The commander of 7th Flieger's 3. Regiment, Col. Heidrich, was given one of the operation's key assignments: capture of a bridge over the Dnepr on the highway between Smolensk and Yartsevo. Good weather, strong Luftwaffe support and the lack of credible Russian AA defenses in III Regiment's DZ augered well for a textbook jump. But no large-scale paratroop drop ever goes according to plan. The Red defenses were stronger than anticipated; the 38th Rifle Division had just taken up positions roughly corresponding with the German drop zones. Fortunately for the Germans, the Soviets were not expecting an airborne assault and had not wired the target bridges for demolition.The men of 3. Regiment's II Battalion found themselves landing almost on top of a Soviet rifle battalion dug in on the river's southern bank. It was all they could do just to hold their positions -- though they did prevent the enemy's 29th Rifle Regiment from moving toward the bridge from the west. Luckier was I Battalion, which landed mostly unscathed a few kilometers SW of the bridge and began quickly advancing on the objective. Maj. Heilman's III Battalion had the most dangerous assignment: it would land 4 km SE of the bridge on the Dnepr's opposite bank... If the paras failed to take the bridge, III/3.FJR would be trapped across the river, isolated from the rest of the division. (Inspired by the Parachute Drop scenario in HPS Simulations' PC game "Panzer Campaigns: Smolensk '41.")