Blocking Force - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Krupki, 110km NE of Minsk: [Best played as Allied] With the capture of Orsha by the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, Hitler and the German High Command began to transfer reinforcements into the Minsk area even though they still believed that the main blow of the Bagration Offensive would fall in the northern Ukraine. The first of these reinforcements to arrive was the 5th Panzer Division with the 505th Heavy Panzer Battalion attached. A blocking force was rushed into place northeast of Borisov at Krupki to buy time for 4th Army's retreat across the Berezina River. Late on 28 June contact was made with the leading Russian armor spearheading the advance of 3rd Guards Tank Corps towards Minsk. In the fading light the German commanders were puzzled by the odd outline of the tanks mixed with the dreaded T-34s in the Soviet columns. However, as both sides opened fire, lighting the evening with the funeral pyres of burning tanks, they recognized the box-like shape of American lend-lease M4s.