Minsk ´44 - The Long Left Hook

[Fhil]

TURN 1

06:00 hrs

The attack begins with a massive artillery bombardment - all of the supporting artillery brigades and divisons are stockpilled here. Although this usually has some fire value bonus, this time the value is 100%. Here it represents all of the ammunition prepared for the offensive and the initial artillery attack. So the bonus is that instead of my artillery unit getting unavailable when not passsing the supply test, it will instead just loose it´s Stockpilled status, thus it´s like one free suply test passed. Interesting idea from the designers.

This is what hit the enemy forward lines during the opening two hours - 144 rocket launchers of 300mm barrel, 48 Katyushas (132mm), 180 heavy mortars (120mm), 216 divisional guns (76 and 122 mm), 72 x 76mm light artillery guns, 212 pieces of 122mm guns, 90 pieces of 152mm howitzers, and finally, 24 pieces of 203 heavy howitzers. In total, exactly 986 artillery pieces of all kind. That means, with the front counted from the north of Savchenki to the Mosoroto (cca 20kms), that´s 50 guns per kilometer of the front. Incredible concentration was achieved by the Red Army here.

Following the artillery bombardment, famous Shturmoviks are coming to the scene to further worsen the morning for the Germans. But they are not as effective as the artillery. The air part of the Panzer Campaigns is generally deeply underestimated, so it is not such a big factor like it was in reality.



   The offensive by the ground forces began in the 6th Guards Army sector, the 43th Army joining the attack two house later. All of the spotted units you can see were hit by the artillery - around 60% of this fire was concentrated on the sectors marked by yellow circle, while the bunkers to the north of Mosoroto received only limited shelling. I do not plan assaulting it, could be too costly, it will be better to bypass it, thus there´s no need to waste important ammunition on it.
   Three air assault regiments were able to sget from the ground due to the weather conditions (visibility of 2kms - 25% availability of the air assets). Their targets are marked on the map too, though the 723rd AAR was intercepted before reaching it´s target. 43rd Guards Aviation Assault Regiment lost one Shturmovik due to enemy ground AA fire. These aerial bombardments were not that effective against enemy prepared positions - only 8 men lost on the enemy side. The arillery on the other side killed or wounded 255 enemy soldiers in the trenches..
   Marked is also the movement of the 47th Separate Tank Regiment that is going to support the 47th Rifle Division´s sector. One of the T-34s (76mm versions here only) was lost one the way due to a malfunction. It will be repaired in the field conditions and sent to the unit as soon as possible. (Russian breakdown value - 5).

   There´s nothing special to report for my first turn. Rifle regiments are closing in on the enemy to be able to assault his positions from the next turn. Engineers are clearing the obstacles and minefields, while those with the flamethrowers are moving in with the rifle battalions.

Enemy Response

   Enemy infantry units on the flanks are retreating to the secondary positions, including the bunkers were left, while those in the center are standing in their first lines and are chopping poor riflemen with their MG34s and 42s. The bulk of the German artillery response concentrated on the areas marked in orange (I will stick to this system of marking for the rest of the AAR). Especially hit by the artillery shelling and then even by Stukas that killed and wounded 16 men at once was the 1st battalion of the 268 Guards Rifle Regiment. This unit was already down to 70% as it took part in the recon in force of the previous day, now it lost another 10% in just two hours. This battalion is thus more or less out of serious action for the rest of the day. It´s high losses are also due to the March terrain which gives 10% bonus to the enemy fire. So we have hardly hit units opposite each other on that part of the front as you can see that the German company was reduced to less than 100 men after my artillery attack.



The enemy lost 326 men during the first two hours, while we lost 169 men, 5 units are disrupted (though the battle started with 4 of them being disrupted).