Complete AAR "Forgotten Front"

[Cap'n Fantastic]

The scenario is B&T's "Forgotten Front," sent in Autumn 1942. I've included the briefing for the German player (suggested against the AI) along with a preview shot of the map.

My forces are spelled out in the briefing. In terms of deployment, I have a 50mm Pak hidden behind a house on the road coming in from Zubtsov. Its primary arc covers that elevated road/ridgeline which crosses the river from Rzhev. Enfilading fire against elevated targets should be nice, especially as the gun's exposure is minimal. It can also bushwhack any armor coming from Zubstov, at a range of 100m or less. It's hanging in the breeze, but to be honest it is meant to serve as nothing but a speedbump (along with the second Pak, stationed in one of those clumps of scattered trees on the edge of my deployment zone) until my reinforcements arrive. To strip any tankriders from T-34s, I also have a MG34 and both 50mm mortars also stationed in that wooded terrain, covering Obg. Froebbel's ass.

My infantry platoons are set up in kill sacks near the town's two Victory Flags near the Rzhev and Zubtsov
roads. My riflemen are dug in behind buildings (not positioned inside them) so they enjoy narrow, overlapping fields of fire and won't find themselves exposed to long range tank fire. I've got another MG34 in a small structure near the Zubtsov-Rzhev intersection.

Next comes the opening rounds...

[Cap'n Fantastic]

OK then...

The battle starts with big old column of T-34s trundling down from Zubstov. Obg. Froebbel (commanding the 50mm Pak inside town) targets the lead tank at 100m as it draws abreast of his position. Soviet infantrymen can see him, but shrapnel from my mortar tubes (puny as they are) is doing a good job of keeping them suppressed - especially as they're teamed with a HMG. No one targets these assets in reprisal, so it looks like they're far enough away that they're only providing the AI with sound contacts.

Anyway, panicked shouts from nearby Soviet riflemen fail to alert the crew inside the buttoned T-34, and Froebbel is given enough time to pull of about five shots - finally killing his target after bouncing three underpowered AP shells of its thick armor plating. The rest of the column slows - and is walloped in turn by the second Pak hidden in the foliage behind the town. The crew enjoys a choice location - scattered trees and a slight incline prevent it from being blasted, even though no fewer than AFVs are looking to kill it. While 500m is too far for the gun to be overly productive, it manages to KO a second T-34 and immobilize a third before it runs out of AP ammunition.

Eventually the 50mm mortar tubes run dry and the lone MG34 isn't enough to save Froebbel as Russian infantry overrun his position. But the traffic snarl that's resulted gives time for my first reinforcing platoon
of Panzer IIIGs (under Lt. Luft) to arrive from the road to Sychevka (all my reinforcements will be pouring in off that approach).

They move to overwatch the elevated road from Rzhev -- that flank has been exposed due to the loss of Froebbel's gun -- while the second batch of reinforcements, a pair of Stug IIIFs, moves to the wooded ridgeline providing LOS to the road from Rubtsov. I want those beauties to do all the long range fighting. Their drivers burn the air with curses as they grind their gears in an effort to push through.

The Stugs come through in spades and will manage to kill six T-34s over the course of the battle. They only drop out of the fight due to a lack of ammo. One of the screenshots below shows nifty, modded T-34s getting slaughtered in a long range (800m or so) gun duel. All the Russian tanks in that image are out put of action. Write up the lopsided exchange to inferior optics, low crew quality (the Reds are all green) and the fact that the few Soviet shells which do hit bounce harmlessly off the assault guns' thick armor plating.

[Cap'n Fantastic]

Elsewhere, it made sense the Russians will come from both directions, and Lt. Luft's platoon is the first of my assets to spot T-60s moving in from Rzhev. Shouting wildly in their unleashed desire to kill, they wipe out three light tanks without suffering a scratch. But when I try to be aggressive and catch them in the flank, my panzers are either slowed by bad ground (there's a thin strand of scattered trees) and are slaughtered by flank shots from the T-34s forced to abandon the road from Rubtsov in favor of the nearby fields. I misjudged just how exposed my crews would be, and I pay for it - but not until they've taken a few T-34s with them.

Here's the other downer. A second platoon of Panzer IIIs which has arrived during this time is moved on to
Slosk's back roads to form a reserve -- bolstered by the panzergrenadiers riding on their hulls. Sadly, they play little part in the fight as Russian fighter bombers drop one AFV with rockets and strafe a second into oblivion with 20mm? 30mm? cannon fire. Indeed, three of the seven tanks I'll end up losing in the scenario fall victim not to Russian tank crews, but their air support. 14 or so infantry are also killed by bloodthirsty bolshevik aces. One bomb run in particular blows the holy hell out of three light buildings and a nearby squad of grunts. The pics attached here provide bird's eye and close up shots of a airborne rocket attack on my column. Those panzergrenadiers ran like rabbits and still got turned into hamburger.

Other than that, however, things swing fully in my favor. A third platoon of Panzer IIIs (Hs this time) shows up and resume where Loft left off. Lt. Thieser and his command kill four more T-60s with impunity, and the road leading into town from that direction is soon littered with burning wrecks.

Russian infantry, BTW, turn out to be a non-issue in the battle as they are soon bogged down in the fields running parallel to the river. My infantry inflict 40 casualties without losing more than 1-2 men to small arms fire. By the time the credits start to roll, the Russians have been stopped cold outside of Slosk at a loss of 19 AFVs and 78 total casualties. I have to think the body count would have been far higher (for them) if their armor had been supported by anything more than a couple of platoons of tank riders. As it is, I suffer 30 casualties - half of which came from those damn planes - a 50mm Pak and seven tanks (three killed by air to ground strafing runs). I receive a Tactical Victory.