Mopping Up - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Krasny Luch, 120km E of Stalino: [Best played as Axis] In early 1942 Hitler requested that the Italians expanded their expeditionary force in the Soviet Union and by July Mussolini had nearly 227,000 men serving on the Eastern Front in the Eighth Army. Following the failure of Stalin's spring offensive at Kharkov, on June 28th, the Germans launched their planned attack toward Stalingrad and into the Caucasus, known as Case Blau. Relegated to a secondary role, the Italians began to move on July 11th, mopping up Russian rearguards and by-passed units behind the German spearheads. The Soviet 274th Rifle Division had been badly mauled in the fighting south of Kharkov and was unable to retreat in the face of the German assault. Instead the determined Russian troops dug-in at Krasny Luch, west of Severdlovsk, and prepared to fight to the death rather than surrender. The task of clearing the town fell to the Bersaglieri and Cavalry of the Italian 3rd Celere Division.