For The Motherland! - TOAW PBEM AAR: Raptor1 vs. Crécy

[Raptor1]

It is time for yet another AAR. There are quite a few of these around lately, it appears, and I might as well write one of my own. This one will be about a PBEM game, much like other (much more interesting) AARs on this board, for which Crécy has been dragooned...I mean, volunteered to be my opponent.

The subject this time is The Operational Art of War III's 'Wintergewitter 1942' scenario, covering the last part of the Battle of Stalingrad from the start of Germany's Operation Winter Storm counteroffensive and the Red Army's Operation Little Saturn to (slightly before) the surrender of the Sixth Army. Each turn is one standard Earth day, and map scale is 5km/hex. I will be playing the Soviets, and Crécy is playing the Axis.

I do not know if Crécy will make his own AAR, but try not to leak any important military secrets to him anyway. If you catch him nosing around here before the game ends, feel free to execute him for espionage.

Due to budget constraints, this opening post will not include anything relevant. That will come...soon...

[Egan]

Cool. Looking forward to it. I have this game somewhere but was never able to get into it for some reason. Looking forward to seeing it in action.

[Raptor1]

Day 0 - December 11th, 1942

Over half a month has passed since the Red Army's Operation Uranus left the German Sixth Army enveloped and trapped outside of Stalingrad. Though the casualties continue to mount up on both sides, the front lines have been relatively static in their new positions.

STAVKA is certain that the Germans will attempt an offensive to rescue the encircled Sixth Army. The most likely route this attack will take is along the eastern bank of the Don river at the 51st Army's front; though the German lines there are over 60 kilometers from the perimeter of the Stalingrad pocket, it is also the most thinly defended part of the Soviet line. The second axis of attack that might be taken by the Germans is straight through the corridor southwest of Kalach, the closest position from the German line to the pocket, but this approach will meet heavy resistance from fortified forces of the 5th Shock Army. An attempted breakout from the pocket itself is also a dangerous possibility, but the ability of the increasingly starved and battered Sixth Army to break through the Don Front's positions is doubtful.

The Red Army's next offensive, Operation Saturn, is set to begin in a matter of days. It will aim to break through the weakened Axis lines along the Chir and Don rivers advance to the Donets and Rostov, thereby trapping large parts of the German Army's Army Group B and cutting off all of Army Group A in the Caucasus. This attack will be spearheaded by the 1st and 3rd Guards Army, as well as the 5th Tank Army and parts of the 5th Shock Army. The 2nd Guards Army, recently arrived, has been placed in the center of the line between the 5th Shock and 5th Tank Armies, and is also planned to take part in the offensive. However, if the Germans manage to achieve a major breakthrough to the south, the 2nd Guards Army might be detached from the offensive and moved to block it.



December 11th turns out a cold, cloudy and unexceptional day. Nothing important happens as each side awaits the following day...

[Raptor1]

Day 1 - December 12th, 1942

Soviet troops on the southern flank find themselves under intense artillery bombardment on the dawn of December 12th. Within minutes, German infantry and armoured vehicles cross the lines and attack. STAVKA has not anticipated the Germans to be able to mount a counterattack so quickly, and despite correctly predicting the direction, Soviet troops are cought by surprise as the 4th Panzer Army's LVII Panzer Corps cuts into the Soviet 51st Army.

To the east, the 23rd Panzer Division outflanks and attacks the 38th Motor Rifle Brigade's position on Hill 169, capturing Talochkin in the process. Barely managing to hold onto its position, the Soviet unit loses over two-thirds of its strength. The 6th Panzer Division and 15th Luftwaffe Field Division simultaneously strike at the center of the 4th Cavalry Corps' line; though the Soviet line is breached, the defenders manage to retreat in good order. German engineers set up bridges across the Don river across from Krasnoarsky, allowing the 17th Panzer Division to cross the river and capture the town. German units advance up to 10 kilometers.

With the first line breached and outflanked, the 4th Cavalry Corps is ordered to abandon its positions. Because of the disorganization caused by the German attack, most units are unable to make it behind the Aksay river, which will serve as the next defensive position, so an ad-hoc line is created south of the river. Due to the lack of prepared entrenchments, however, this position will not be able to hold on for long. The troops of the 13th Mechanized Corps, behind the lines and available as an immediate reserve, are ordered to dig in behind the river while the 4th Cavalry Corps delays the enemy advance.

To the north, Soviet units of the 51st Army Rifle Corps and 4th Mechanized Corps successfully attack small German units still on the left bank of the Don. After this area is secured, these units will be moved southwards to block the German offensive.



Other areas do not see much action. German units occupy the southern half of Bolshin with no resistance and contact the Soviet defenses across the Chir river. Some movement is spotted inside the pocket, but there appear to be no attempt by the Sixth Army to break out. More worrying, large amounts of troops and equipment are spotted to be moving by rail from Pavlomaya towards the southern Chir salient. These units possibly belong to the German 19th Panzer Division, but that is not certain.

[Raptor1]

Day 2 - December 13th, 1942

The German offensive continues. The 17th Panzer Division on the western flank of the offensive exploits a gap in the line west of Genarlov to send a tank battalion and an armoured car battalion behind the Aksay river line. Elsewhere, the utterly outgunned line of the 4th Cavalry Corps is cut to pieces by the Germans with little difficulty. The 6th and 23rd Panzer Division appear to shift their attack eastwards, advancing with recon elements to the Aksay and forcing the 245th Tank Regiment out of its holding position on the road.

The Germans also attempt to cross the Chir river in an attack against the 5th Shock Army north of Bolshin and east of Surovinko, but they fail to advance against the heavily defended Soviet lines.

Clearing operations to the north of the German offensive are concluded as Soviet units assault and capture the Don bridge east of Nitzsky Chirskaya from a German security regiment. With that finished, most of the 4th Mechanized Corps, the 38th Rifle Division and the 33rd Guards Rifle Division are sent southwards to counterattack the 17th Panzer Division. A hasty assault against the 27th Reconnaissance Battalion is launched by the 38th Rifle Division, but it fails with both sides suffering moderate casualties. Further south, however, the newly arrived reinforcements operating alongside partially cut off units manage to drive a Panzer battalion into an encirclement north of Genarlov and annihilate it, destroying 70 armoured vehicles*.

Elsewhere, Soviet units managing to get behind the river start digging in. However, several units, including three cavalry regiments, are unable to disengage and remain south of the river. The 5th Shock Army's 4th Tank Corps is sent southwards from the perimeter of the Stalingrad pocket to act as mobile reserve for the 51st Army.



A worrying amount of Germans are sighted moving by rail and road behind the lines. The 19th Panzer Division's presence is confirmed, but there are yet more unknown units. Perhaps they are moving them back and forth to make us think there are more of them than there actually are?

* - 12x Armoured Cars, 6x Panzer IIs, 12x Panzer IIIs, 40x Panzer IVs. Soviet losses in these engagements come up to approximately 420 men killed and wounded and several guns and mortars.

[Krauter]

Hmm...

Looks like if you cut a wedge from Oblivskaya to Krasnoyarsky you could put a squeeze on their headquarters battalions.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Krauter

Hmm...

Looks like if you cut a wedge from Oblivskaya to Krasnoyarsky you could put a squeeze on their headquarters battalions.

That will be one of the main objectives when I launch Operation Saturn, and is the reason I'm keeping the 2nd Guards Army in reserve there. The problem is that I really have no idea how many troops there are in the salient...

[Krauter]

If anything it will relieve pressure on the troops encircling Stalingrad

[Raptor1]

Day 3 - December 14th, 1942

51st Army Sector

Either due to the last day's successes or because of the disorganization of German forces, the offensive has noticeably slowed down today. While German units continue to move forward to the Aksay river, pushing aside the stranded remains of the 4th Cavalry Corps' position south of the river, they make only one concentrated attempt to breach the new line northwest of Shestakov, with the 6th Panzer Division establishing a bridgehead across the river. However, with the Soviet position now reorganized and reinforced, the 51st Army and 4th Tank Corps is able to mount a rapid counterattack, smashing the 114th Panzergrenadier Regiment and pushing the Germans back to the southern bank of the river.

Elsewhere, units on the Aksay river line continue to entrench into the new prepared positions, and local reserves are established to reinforce any position facing a German attack. A German recon battalion is mauled south of Shestakov, finally allowing the 245th Tank Regiment to get back to the Soviet lines. The 27th Reconnaissance Battalion is attacked again, forcing it back south but failing to destroy it. Meanwhile, utilizing the recently captured bridge, the 15th Guards Rifle Division and 36th Mechanized Brigade cross the Don, assaulting and capturing Nitzsky Chirskaya.



Operation Saturn: D-1

With the German attack seemingly contained, STAVKA orders final operations for Operation Saturn to commence. Across the Chir and northern Don river line, Soviet units shuffle positions and move to contact with the enemy. Preliminary attacks on the Italian II Corps and Alpine Corps are attempted by the Soviet 6th and 1st Guards Armies, but they do not manage to break through the heavily fortified lines yet.

[Raptor1]

Oh, right. This thing...

Day 4 - December 15th, 1942

Operation Saturn opens with a massive attack across the entire front north of the Chir salient. In the north, the 6th and 1st Guards Armies launch a concentrated attack on the line held by the Italian 8th Army across the Don. The Axis troops show unexpected resistance and hold for several waves, but after several hours their fortifications are finally rendered untenable by artillery and assault and they break. Soviet troops move up to 10 kilometers into Axis lines, but further advances are stalled by the time wasted on the first attacks. On the right, attempts by the 1st Rifle Division and its supporting Tank Regiments to advance into Boguchan run into the heavily dug in German 525th Infantry Regiment and utterly stall in bloody urban combat.



To the south, three Soviet Armies assault the German positions along the Chir salient on a broad front. The 3rd Guards Army assaults Axis forces apparently consisting of the Romanian II Corps supported by troops from the German XVII Corps and 22nd Panzer Division. After a long bloody battle, the Soviet troops manage to dislodge the defenders from most of their forward positions along the main axis of advance to the south, but fail to advance any more than 5 kilometers.

The 5th Tank Army and 2nd Guards Armies fares better. Faced by little more than the thin line of security troops of Kampfgruppe Spang, Soviet units advances 5 to 10 kilometers along the entire front, inflicting heavy casualties on the Axis troops and capturing their entire defensive line. A large portion of Kampfgruppe Stumpfeld is encircled over the course of the fighting.



No offensive operations are attempted by the Germans, but there are still signs that they are bringing in reinforcements to the southern front, so a recommencement of the offensive in following days is still a possibility. Overall, the first day of Operation Saturn is a mixed success. Heavy casualties are incurred by both sides, and no breakthrough is achieved anywhere yet, but most of the fortified Axis positions have been taken or nullified, so greater advances in following days are likely.