No one would have
believed in the early years of the 1940’ies that Russian affairs where being
watched by intelligences that inhabited the growing 3rd Reich. No
one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized
as someone with a microscope studies creature that swarm and multiply in a drop
of water. Few Russians even considered the possibility of war with Germany and
yet, across the Polish border minds immeasurably superior to theirs regarded
this land with envious eyes, and slowly and surely they drew their plans
against them.
Que music
German plans
The plan was
simple in effect, the majority of a panzer division under Jon’s command would assault down tables C and D with the
possible objective of isolating table 1C reducing their supply before
eliminating the forces there.
The armored train
was a worry as most German anti-tank
values were too low to guarantee a hit, coupled with the Katushka rocket
ability made it a force to be recond
with.
If 2C could be suppressed
then the recon battalion was poised to strike down the right hand side and
cross over to 2B behind the river.
Our CandC would
feed units into the advance to keep the pressure on whilst maintaining a reserve.
Tables A and B commanded
by mark were the push and hold.
He had 3
battalions of infantry , 2 battalions of panzer 38’s and an engineering
battalion . The original plan was to take A1 and B1 and then demonstrate at
tables A2 and B2 collecting the points
on the near side of the river and possibly drawing reserves to the A and B
tables away from the main thrust.
The Germans had from
army reserves a battalion of Falchemjager
to use, and the plan was to wait until 3 pm before deploying onto 3A to
suppress the airfield and put any Russians on A and b tables out of supply,
this coupled with the recon battalion appearing behind the river at 2B and the
forces at A and B going over to the offensive with the engineers constructing a
bridge to keep the Falchemjager in supply.
What enfolded was
very close to the plot from the film “A bridge too far”.
A dug in Russian
battalion on table A sucked in 2 German battalions who should have had no
problems clearing the area except for a devastating air attack that destroyed 1
battalion and by the time the Russian were cleared the other battalion was a wasted asset.
3 pm came and the Germans could not get over the river to
support the paratroopers who were annihilated by the Russian reserves. The
Recon battalion couldn’t get thru and the engineers laid the bridge but only
provided the Russians a means to cross the river.
Air capabilities
were managed by the CandC and decisions would be made on requests by front line
commanders.
Due to the devastating
effects of the Russian bombers suppressing the forward airfield was the right
plan.
In hind sight the
push and hold plan could have been achieved with fewer troops and the
falchemjager used for a different mission.
In conclusion the
German plan succeeded but paid a heavy price for the small gains.
Well played Jon, Ozz
Yet another fab game gents, C and C positions worked and
added another layer to the overall experience
1 comment:
Good to get your view of the game.
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