Midnight Madness - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Pliski, 65km SSE of Rzhev: NIGHT [Best played as Axis] Not to be forgotten in the history of the Eastern Front is the desperate and savage struggle that lasted from October 1941 through March of '43, along the lines of the Rzhev Salient 210 kilometers west-northwest of Moscow. For nearly seventeen months the Soviets tried in vain to pinch off the bulge pointing at their capital held by the German Ninth Army. Through summer heat and winter cold, the Rzhev Salient held like a rock! Finally at the beginning of February 1943, Hitler authorized a withdrawal to straighten the lines and allow the formation of a theater reserve to deal with the many crises developing on all parts of the front, codenamed Operation Buffalo. To cover the infantry division's preparations, the armored divisions were instructed to carry out hit and run "raids" to prevent the Russians from discovering the planned retreat. Just before midnight on the 19th, Kampfgruppe Wrede slipped through the sleepy Soviet rifle formations covering the 20th Army's front lines with the 2nd/31 Panzer and 1st/14 Panzergrenadier Battalions. Approaching through a layer of deep snow, their target was the 80th Tank Brigade bivouacked in several small villages near Pliski.