Threat from the South - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

[Historical, best played against Human opponent] Location : 18 km west of Minsk. While the 3rd Byelorussian Front was surging towards Minsk from the north, Rokossovsky's 1st Byelorussian Front was advancing towards Minsk from the south. The first day of the offensive had not gone weIl in the 1st Byelorussian Front sector due to the swampy conditions in many of the key parts of the front. On 24 June the situation changed dramatically as the main offensive was launched. The 3rd Army made a penetration 1Okm deep against the German 134th Infantry Division. The 9th Army commander, Gen. Jordan, received permission from Field marshal Busch to commit his major reserve, the 20th Panzer Division, in an attempt to blunt the Soviet advance. The 20th Panzer Division was only partially up to strength with a single regiment of 71 Pz.Kpfw.IV tanks; its other tank batallion was re-equipping with Panthers at the time.As the 20th Panzer Division began to move forward, Batov's 65th Army secured an even more definitive breakthrough of the German tactical defences on the southern approaches to Bobruisk. This penetration continued to deepen and Marshal Rokossovskiy committed the 1st Guards Tank Corps to exploit the breach. Alarmed by these events, Jordan changed his instructions and ordered the 20th Panzer Division to turn around and move south instead. It's forces became tangled up on the poor roads in the area, clogged with refugees and retreating German troops. The lead infantry elements of the 20th Panzer Division forces (folIowed later by the tanks) met the Soviets near Slobodka, south of Bobruisk. There were a series of disjointed tank and infantry skirmishes occured. The Germans destroyed about 60 Soviet tanks but lost nearly half their own in the process, without halting the Soviet advance. The relentless assault by the 1st Guards Tank Corps and the Soviet rifle divisions northward to Bobruisk not only threatened the city, but threatened to cut off the German infantry divisions still on the east side of the Berezina. In the meantime the Soviet 3rd Army committed its own mobile force, the 9th Tank Corps, which began moving on Bobruisk from the east. Busch, fearful of HitIer's wrath, refused to allow the infantry divisions to withdraw westward while there was still time. By 26 June the 20th Panzer Division had been forced back to the outskirts of Bobruisk, with the 1st Guards Tank Corps threatening it from the south and the 9th Tank Corps from the East. By the morning of 27 June the 9th Tank Corps had captured the major river crossings over the Berezina from the west side, effectively trapping several German infantry divisions. The complete collapse of any German defensive position prompted Rokossovskiy to commit a cavalry-mechanised group, made up by units of the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and the 1st Mechanised Corps, to exploit the situation and race west for Baranovichi before any German reinforcements could be brought forward. In their way they found the remaining forces of 20th Panzer Division reinforced by all remaining mobile troops in the area. The division was fighting to keep open an escape route to the west.