Stalingrad 42 Breakout Group Zhuravlev

[Plain Ian]

Turn 20 Russian

Turn played and on its way back to Mike. 



Points back to positive until his turn. 



Slightly better results for German losses. 



Map to follow........

[Plain Ian]

Turn 20 Russian



Sorry its a bit 'kitchen sink' graphics. I'll keep the next one simple.

I've shrunk the pocket slightly and shuffled everything south in the bottom pocket towards the relief force.....
In the northern pocket the 1/40 clanked its two tanks into the safety of the village to await the final assault.
Casualties from defensive fire were pretty low.

South of the pocket I basically scheduled assaults to push his units out of the way or backwards. 

1) 371st assaults the disrupted Pioneers and this allows 650th to advance and begin pounding the next stack.
2) 397th is brought over to assault the 305th. Its pounded before by artillery (-20) and presumably disrupts as the assault succeeds. 397th pulls back. 
3) 379th follows up and hits the same enemy unit pushing it back on his armour stack. I hit the armour with two air attacks. The Marders are easy and I kill two, but I only manage a fatigue hit against the StuG's.
The 378th also joins the party and kills two StuG's. The 173rd is left to hold the line.

At Buzinovka I manage two more assaults. 
4) The 552nd pounds his 305th unit and racks up -17. The 2/893rd assaults on the assumption that he has disrupted which proves to be correct.
5) The 3/884th assaults his disrupted infantry and pushes it back on the Pioneers. 

Mukovkin
6) The 1/133rd preps his Pioneers with tank fire and the 182nd assaults. (despite being yellow fatigue)

And that was most of the action in the north and east. Sufficient artillery or tank fire is almost guaranteed to disrupt his fatigued company sized units making them vulnerable to assault even with my Low Ammo units. (1/2 strength)

I'm now within a kilometer but Mike will be able to throw more units in the way. Or possibly start up a small offensive in the south? We will see. Map of the south shortly. Fewer lines so easier on the eyes......

[Plain Ian]

The situation in the south. The 31st Gds AT disrupts from return fire during the normal shoot out. It joins the 881st which is also disrupted. The 398th AT disrupted last turn but recovered. Not sure why these units are so easily disrupted? 

The 166th is moved up to support the 398th as he had two units here. I've spent a lot of time diggin the TRENCHES down here so I don't want to be thrown out of them easily.

The 398th is pulled back and the 364th clanks off east, not far as its low fuel. It can't go far anyway as I think Mike is going to summon up the Borg and swarm me here. He needs a diversion. 

I managed to kill a few guns with artillery and direct fire. Unfortunately the 358th disrupted after its first round of fire.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 20 overview



The big picture.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 20 results....



VP Chart below....back to negative.



Breakdown.....



No large scale losses in men but 5 tanks and 6 AA guns/vehicles lost. Quick map below. I've updated the pockets and shown the main losses but have still to add in movement. Will update map tomorrow night.

Edit: Map updated and moved to next thread.

Interestingly in 2 of the groups pocketed outside of Svechinkovskiy (B/D) I have at least 1 undisrupted unit. There are two single disrupted German units adjacent to them? Possible assaults? 

Map update tomorrow night.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 20



Mikes moves above. 

The pocket is reduced to 4 hexes. The hex at Svechinkovskiy is supplied but the only non disrupted unit are the two tanks of the 2/40th. I will continue moving the pocket south and I might attempt an assault from hex D north east against his disupted unit. 

Mike has reinforced the hexes south of the pocket and is sliding more units around the south west edge of the pocket to join them. In another turn I'm going to be faced with a serious defense. Some of these units are 100th Jaeger. 

In the south his artillery picked on an AA unit and killed 6 guns with ease. He did not make any moves to close up with my defenses. As usual he did not fire.

He did make one surprising assault against the 2/20th Motorised then pulled back? The 2/20th was already disrupted and it suffered light casualties. Its currently Fatigue 34 so is still battle worthy once it recovers from Disruption and Low Ammo.

The light tank unit 379th was badly mauled by artillery and is down to 3 T-70's. 

At Verkne-Buzinovka his Nebelwerfers and artillery pounded the 2/893rd. They are currently Fatigue 80 so will slip to yellow Fatigue if he does it again!

Still to look at map properly and work out my moves. The Isolated units in my rear are a pain. 
I think I've got as far as I can go without leaving gaps. I guess I can make one more go at reaching the pocket. 
I doubt if I can make any progress at Buzinovka without the 22nd Motorised Bde recovering disruption.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 21 Russian



Saturday afternoons are for playing PzC. Turn played and its on its way back to Mike. Scores below.



And the breakdown in losses. 



Pretty dismal but I think the elastic is about to snap folks. Map shortly.

[Plain Ian]

Turn 21 Russian


In the pocket I keep shuffling my units south. I attempt an assault. The 2/84th is the best unit 284 men Fatigue 67 but it fails the assault and disrupts. Nothing ventured I try the 3/753rd 234 men Fatigue 117 No Morale and surprisingly it wins? 

South of the pocket the 650th joins the 378th. The 378th moves over just in case the tank unit to its right (397th) is hit by artillery and assaulted which threatens isolation. The battered 379th is pulled back.

Edit: map amended 3/2 and text above updated. The 378th and 650th were wrongly labelled.

In the south the 166th Motorised assaults after the 59th Guards Artillery Rgt inflicts enough damage to disrupt the unit. The 177th pulls back to its TRENCH after the assault.

The only other notable move is the advance of the 2/863rd. 5th Gds Mortar Rgt had hit his 305th unit and it Broke? The 2/863rd moves up and fires to make it withdraw. This will isolate the artillery/ATG group to the south. He will be able to rescue it though. 

At Verkne I pull back the 3/884th which was Low Ammo.

So this high tide I think. The assault from the pocket is just to distract Mike.

[Plain Ian]

Turn back from Mike. Very quick.......



The bad news...



Breakdown of the losses.



Biggest loss to date. I'll watch the replay and record the losses. The southern isolated pocket has shrunk one hex but Svechinkovskiy still holds although the 2/40th tank Bn is not there any more. (2 of the 3 vehicle losses for the turn)

[Plain Ian]

Quick map. I'll update with the losses later. It shows current state of the pocket. Interestingly it shows that Mike has left group A slightly vulnerable? I moved the 378th slightly last turn and this turn he has left a few empty hexes behind goup A? It doesn't look like he tried to assault 3/753rd back? 

Is it possible to force group A to retreat away NE? Its as if he wants me to do this? Of course it means risking my best units on the map? (378th/650th)



Edit: Map updated to show losses. 

Assault 1 pushes my units back on to stack B.
Assault 2 looks like a failed assault against my stack B? I did lose a T-34 though. He has disrupted units in the blue German stack C.
Assaults 3/4 against the Svechinkovskiy Redoubt. Almost 700 men and 2 T-70 tanks lost. Just under 200 more men left.....to go into the bag.

There were some other losses but I've not shown them. Mike lost two 88's at Verkne-Buzinovka when he moved them. I won't map the south or east.