Moscow '42 AAR: Sukhinichi II : We Will Rescue You

[Strela]

Fresh from our dramatic fight at Efremov, Dog Soldier & myself (Strela) decided to replay one of our favourite scenarios from play testing. The scenario chosen is taking from the historical Soviet counteroffensive during the winter of 1941/42 and covers the German attempt to break the siege of Sukhinichi.

The scenario briefing is as follows:

#a0122_03 Sukhinichi II : We Will Rescue You Turns : 24

Sukhinichi - Jan 22nd to Jan 24th, 1942. The Sukhinichi garrison had held out for over two weeks, despite constant Soviet assaults. Von Schweppenburg's XXIV Korp (mot) was pushing hard to relieve 216th Infantry Division and 18th Panzer Division was only a few kilometres away. In addition 208th & 339th Infantry Divisions were ordered to keep a corridor open so that the garrison and 18th Panzer Division had a safe route to fall back on. Rokossovsky had been sent by Zhukov to conclude the Sukhinichi siege and was shocked at the units the German's suddenly had available. (Size, Medium)

This scenario is recommended for HTH play preferably. The German player has to be mindful of casualties. The primary goal is to break the siege and rescue 216th Infantry Division, while keeping a corridor open. It will be difficult for the Soviet player to directly confront the very strong German forces, so it is best to inflict casualties where possible and harry the corridor the Germans need to hold.


We are going to write this after action report up as we play through the game. Brian has pulled the short straw and got the Soviets while I will attempt to rescue my kameraden at Sukhinichi. The plan for the AAR is that we will alternatively post each turn to try and ensure the readers can follow the ebb and flow of the game.

During testing we found this scenario really represented the winter fighting well with company & battalion sized forces holding wide areas. Units such as self propelled flak became important for speed and range and every type of unit played a role. Hopefully some of this will be evident on this play through.

To start off we will both post our thoughts on our initial strategies and then we will launch into the turns.

Starting Positions

The map area is focused on the drive to Sukinichi. Note that there are a significant number of 10 point victory locations, the bulk of which the Germans have to control at the end of the game. Though weaker, the Soviets do not need to control many of these to win.



The various opposing forces;



The German Initial Plan
The 208th & 339th Infanterie Divisions have just arrived from France and are very strong, but are both missing their third Regiments. These had been detached to fight elsewhere on the front. Both of these Infanterie Division are to immediately confront their opposing Rifle Divisions (323rd & 322nd) and attempt to cripple as many Soviet units as possible. 18th Panzer Division is to move up onto the high ground west of Sukhinichi and break into the city from there. The logical route up the road was in a valley and the defenders have the advantage of height. The move from the west is to mitigate this. 208th Infanterie is to focus on capturing Vertnore while defending Dumnich. 339th Infanterie is to push west while ensuring Zimnitsy and Khludnevo are held. For the moment 18th Panzer will have to break the siege on its own. 216th Infanterie is to assist when the Panzers got closer. The arrows in the below screenshot shows the basic initial moves for each Division.




With the scene set, I will hand across to Brian for his view from the Soviet side.