Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

GT 18 German - south



Not much to see from Mike. 

Basically he tidied up his lines and pulled units back. He left one isolated stack behind which contains a 305th XXX sized coy and a 305th XX sized artillery unit. There is also a stack from the 113th (which I did mark up) but this isn't isolated.

Mike did make an attack against the 61st in the west (I got it right this time I said west in a post above) but he got mauled by defensive fire and disrupted. (5th Gds Mortar did a great job) He also made a probe against the 398th AT.

My moves. I've marked up my units which have full supply and are not disrupted. (Disrupted are outlined in red as per PzC) German units below 100 (XXX) are marked up but even a 90 man A rated unit from the 100th Jaeger is still a potent unit. Of course if its fatigued or Low Ammo it wont be A.

61st Rgt is raring to go and has an easy assault but I'll probably just hold and fire. 

To the north of them I only have the 163rd fit for offensive action which isn't much as Motorised units are only good for assaults and most of my units are disrupted or low in ammo/fuel.

The centre looks a bit more healthy thanks to the 196th Division rolling well and its units being in full supply/ammo. The HQ is in the right place. 

My ace is the 650th Tank Bn with its 22 T-34's. This can cause damage and disruptions. 

Artillery for turn is reasonable. I have two heavy artillery Rgts...but 1 might be used for the pocket?

Lastly off to the east is 4th Tank which I'll look at in my last map.

Edit: map labels for 1st and 4th Tank Armies corrected. They were reversed.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 18 German east



Last map with correct labels I hope. Mike readies his defenses of Verkne-Buzinovka pulling things back where possible. He is a bit unlucky in that two of his moves triggers defensive fire which disrupts him.

Prospects for 4th Tank Army/196th look good. They seem to be in the perfect spot. However Russian infantry is not the most mobile.

Only 3 units are Ammo Low. Unfortunately the T-34 unit adjacent to Verkne-Buzinovka is one of them. 

I can see two possible assaults against disrupted units and maybe a 3rd IF I use the 378th (17 T-34's) to disrupt rather than move. However that leaves just the 397th (T-70's) for probes. There is a large gap with 1st Tank Army to the left so no support from here. 

No prospect of any big advances as he will have something waiting to the sw of Verkne-Buzinovka. I guess I just push north/north west and see how far I get? The 133rd will keep up the pressure at Mukovkin whilst the 22nd Rifle Bde recovers.

[Plain Ian]

Corps attachments?



I went to do my turn and thought I'd have a look at Corps attachments. This is the second midnight turn in the game. With the first midnight turn I had a quick look at the Corps Attachment Menu, saw it was blank, assumed that there was no option to reassign commands so closed it and played on with the pre set command structure.

The game begins with 3 army commands; 62nd Army, 1st tank Army and 4th Tank Army. However only 62nd Army has a unit HQ on the map. The Tank Armies don't have an on map HQ but do have Tank Corps sub HQ's on the map. (and Motorised Bde HQ's under the Tank Corps)

I've looked at the menu tonight and realised that I could change attachments. Doh! Not sure why I keep forgetting how to use the Corps Attachment Menu. Maybe its something to do with my age! Or the fact that I don't play many scenarios which stretch over days.

So I have attached everything to the 62nd Army. Now the funny thing is that supply and command has been quite reasonable for 1st and 4th Tank Army. Not great but just enough to  keep me going. I'm hoping that this change will make a big difference to the units outside of the pocket?

I guess I should have done this on the previous midnight turn. I'll check the threads. I'm sure there is a discussion about off map HQ's that I've read somewhere.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 19 Russian



Scores below folks......



Quick map with the breakdown of the scores. I'll do a more detailed map tomorrow night to bore the pants off everyone. 
I've jumped back into the black thanks to the fall of Osinovka which nets me 50 Objective Points. I did not kill a lot of Germans but I did get some more real estate. Unfortunately no progress made towards the pocket.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 19 Russian



Close up of the pocket. 

Preliminary plans were based on his Stugs being a weak point. Artillery and tank fire would weaken or disrupt them allowing the 2/84th Gds to assault. The second part would be the 1/40th disrupting the infantry next to them and again clearing the way for the 3/753rd to assault. 

Well things didn't work as planned. Artillery could only manage fatigue hits and the disrupted 644th did its best but just managed 1 Stug at the cost of a T-34. Nothing ventured nothing gained. The 2/84th (Low Ammo) moved up and charged....... and failed. They did not disrupt. 

To the north the 1/40th shot poorly despite being fully supplied and the enemy only benefiting from a 5% defensive bonus. (Improved) I was hoping for 15-20 losses which would give me a fair chance of expecting disruption. Reluctantly I aborted the assault by the 3/753rd as there was no chance of success against a non disrupted German infantry unit. 

Instead the 3/753rd was brought down to join the 2/84th for one last assault next turn?

Elsewhere the 614th unlimbers and are told to hold the back door open. The disrupted masses spread out as best as possible. The 2/40th and 1486th take a chance and reinforce the disrupted 2/262nd. I expected a deluge of defensive fire but only one unit fired and I lost 2 men.

And that is it. Surely my supply line within the pocket will be cut next turn?

[Plain Ian]

Turn 19 Russian



Situation in the south west. The 881st AT disrupts under defensive fire during the usual fire attacks by the 91st. My artillery manages to kill an ATG and the 364th does well despite being Ammo Low.

Dawn turn coming up next for the lat day. I guess I'll just pull the 61st north now since no point in keeping them down here. It may mean moving some artillery so I'll decide next turn. I doubt if mike will try to sneak anything behind me. He doesn't seem to be that type of player and of course he is winning so doesn't need to play that way.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 19



Most of the map has comments and arrows showing movements. 

I didn't make much progress south of the pocket. The 397th managed a hex but I kept the 650th in place. (and forgot to fire it!) He'll possibly pull the 305th unit back next turn so I want the 650th here. I moved up the 1/884th but kept them west of the steam rather than move them east to isolate the other 305th unit. Streams cost a lot of movement points so the unit would be doing nothing for the next few turns. 

South of Verkne-Buzinovka things went well. I had to feel my way forward in the dark but I had everything concentrated so it was a case of using the right unit for each job. The 378th was ready to begin pounding the 305th unit but it made more sense to swing it west after the 397th. It managed one round of fire on teh unlucky Panzer Jaegers. 
I've swung the 196th west rather than fight my way north through town hexes. 

At Mukovkin the 182nd (I forgot to label them) assaulted and artilley and tank fire disrupted most of the defenders. Its taken a while but I'm slowly getting there. 

Osinovka fell this turn. This will release three units. An AA unit is already south of V-B and I have two more units to bring up, although I might send the Sappers north to watch the northen flank at Os'kinskiy. (a long march) 

Dawn next turn so lets see how things look. Lets hope subordinating everything to the62nd Army HQ pays off.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 19 German



Turn back from Mike. I had a bit of a problem downloading it but I've got it now. Results below comrades.



Hey good news we are still positive. The bad news is that Mike finally killed the supply from Svechinkovskiy in the pocket. Ah well. Breakdown below. Pretty hefty losses. Will try and post a quick map of the situation. 

[Plain Ian]

Turn 19 German



Situation at end of Mike's turn 19. I've not watched replay so this is just what I see. Will look at replay and start planning.

[Plain Ian]

I’ve watched the replay and it confirms that most of my losses comes from the pocket. No big surprise.

Assault 1 comes in after heavy Nebelwerfer fire disrupts the 40th Motorised (-43 men). The 40th started the turn with 333 men and Fat 90 and end it with 227 men Fat 227. The 4th Gds Mortar lose one gun but somehow cling on to the game with one left. The link to the supply source at Svechinkovskiy is finally cut.

Assault 2 and 3 constrict the isolated pocket further.

The 303rd Sappers and the 1486th sappers are hit by combined fire and are disrupted. The 3/84th also is disrupted.

There are a few units not disrupted but most of them are Low Ammo. (40th Sappers, 1/40th Tank, 1/84th, 2/84th) The 3/753rd is the only unit not Low Ammo.
 
Elsewhere Mike forms a line in front of my armour approaching from the south. He does lose a tank using it to allow an infantry unit to withdraw from a zoc to a zoc. In fact he’s got a double line formed as you can see with stack A.

In the east he has pulled back his units as best as possible to protect his disrupted units. There are two which I can assault. The assault into the town against the Pioneers isn’t feasible as the tanks have no support and it just puts them adjacent to 88’s. (and of course it might not win)

My plans. Well it looks like 22nd Tank continues pushing north west whilst the infantry of 196th push north east against Verkne-Buzinovka’s back door. Artillery support is reasonable this turn and two Shturmovik groups are available.

One thing though. When I look at the amount of German units surrounding the pocket I know what Hitler felt with 6th Army at Stalingrad. If the pocket collapses quickly I will be swamped. I doubt if his units are accumulating a lot of fatigue and a large portion of these troops are A class units. However with 7-8 turns left I think Mike will take his time and finish off the pocket slowly whilst minimising his own losses so hopefully I won’t have to face this.