Minsk ´44 - The Long Left Hook

[Fhil]

TURN 3

10:00 hrs

   Heavy fighting continues and now that the 43rd Army joins the attack and launches it´s first assaults against enemy trenches, the casualties rise even faster. 1st Baltic Front engineers are released this turn, they have a lot of work clearing all those minefields around. Their comrades that work from the very morning cleared nine minefields this turn and constructed a bridge across the stream (1).
  

    The artillery continues to bombard enemy units, Mosoroto now left without heavy shelling. It´s flanks were bombarded though in order to weaken the defenders before assaults that will aim to bypass the village and surround the units in there. Both air units -the 723rd and 825th AARs picked up the withdrawing German companies as their targets, but the 723rd was intercepted and had to redirect away. Based on the reports of the 825th, German fighters followed the 723rd´s 36 Sturmoviks away so the sky was left open. It´s Sturmoviks thus bombarded the poor enemy infantry and killed or wounded 18 of them. The ground was now ready for new assaults. Those will be shown on the next screenshot.

Enemy Response



   Two assaults were executed in the 6th Guards Army sector. The first assault (1) was launched against enemy trenches guarding the way to Pligovki from the east eitherby the 90th GRD alone or in cooperation with the 51st GRD, exact report was not received by the commanders as of yet. So or so, the assault was a costly failure, 45 men were left dead or wounded in front of the enemy positions. The enem lost only 8 men and remained firmly in his place. Meanwhile, Germans to the north and west of the village are retreating south. There is an enemy unit hastily improving fortifications in the Pligovki village (A). The second assault was more successfull - the 1/199th Gds Rifle Rgt forced the Germans out of their positions. Both sides lost 4 men. Defeated unit then withdrawed further south out of the marches. The way to cut-off the Mosoroto is now open. White arrows show next planned actions.

   The first of the 43rd Army´s assault (3), conducted by the whole 219 Guards Regiment is shown here too. Here, the ratio was better - 4 men lost in the attack while 18 Germans were left dead or surrendered in the trenches. The unit then withdrawed further too.



   Next two assaults in the 43rd Army´s sector by the 306th Rifle Division were repelled. Both assaults costed 8 men for the attacking units, while Germans lost 14, respectivelly 22 men. The terrain in the area is difficult, there are only few ways to assault through the river. All three enemy northernmost units are disrupted, but as the attacking units disrupted during the assault too, they were unable to gain the positions. Shown on the detail here is German AT-gun positions two kilometers away from the first line. 105th Separate Tank Regiment (34 T-34s) and the 1203rd SP Art Regiment (21 SU-85s) are getting ready to give hell to the enemy, they are alread behing the 71st Guards Rifle Division.