Terror at Arnswalde - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Arnswalde, 32km SE of Stargard, Poland: [Best played as Axis] The arrival of 1945 found the Soviets and Germans preparing for the next phase of the Red Army's drive toward Germany. During the four months since the Soviet 1944 northern offensive had run out of steam along the banks of the Vistula River, both sides had taken the opportunity to regroup. Expecting a repeat of the Bagration offensive, where the main attacks came on the flanks; the German High Command concentrated its defenses and reserves in East Prussa to the north and east of Krakow in the south. This left the Axis center extremely weak in terms of men and equipment. The attack would come in the center in mid-January, smashing across Poland to the Oder River where Marshal Zukov's 1st Belorussian Front was forced to pause and reorganize. Because of the rapid advance, in early February pockets of German defenders scattered across Poland found themselves the focus of enemy clearing operations to eliminate the threat to their badly stretched supply lines. Late on the night of the 13th, German outpost to the east of Arnswalde reported movement to their fronts. Hastily shouting orders to re-deploy his ad-hock command of regular infantry and poorly trained volks-grenadiers along with a few anti-tank guns, armor and tank destroyers to meet the threat, Major Kohler said a silent prayer. News had been received just a few hours before that a counteroffensive, codenamed Sonnenwende, was planned to strike from the north. All he and his men had to do was survive the terror for a few more days until they could be relieved, but even a few hours could be an eternity in the snow of the Russian Front!