The Last of the Maikop - World at War

Most challenging to play: Russians [Allied] against Chechens [Japanese]. Conditions: Normal. Size: Small.

Background: January 2, 1995. Grozny, Chechnya.

The 131st Maikop Brigade, roughly 1,000 men supported by AFVs and APCs, faced no resistance on entering the city and advanced to railroad station in the city center, which it easily captured. Colonel Savin assumed, like most Russians, that the Chechens routed and fled.

Suddenly, without warning, Chechen fighters appeared behind the train station, and all hell broke loose. The Russians did not understand initially what had happened. Since the situation appeared so calm, they had gone into the train station, hardly securing their vehicles or even bothering to post guards. In the meantime, Chechen mobile units had fallen back on the city center and had surrounded the train station. They began methodically to destroy the Soviet BMPs with RPG fire.

On January 2, Colonel Savin and his remaining officers abandoned the railway station. They found some abandoned armored personnel carriers and attempted to escape the area, but were attacked by Chechen fighters and Savin was killed. By January 3, the 131st Brigade had lost nearly 800 men killed - a further 75 were captured, and only 160 reached safety - including almost all of its officers. In addition, 20 of 26 tanks and 102 of 120 other armored vehicles were also lost.