Battle Ticket #12 - Baltic States [Archive]

carl_brisgamer

05-31-2007, 11:58 PM

"Shivering in the intense cold of the Russian winter, SS-Obersturmführer Erwin Meierdress of the SS Division (mot) Totenkopf peered through his Zeiss binoculars, searching the ground in front of his position for any sign of the enemy. Standing in the cupola of his StuG III, he lowered his glasses and glanced around at the modest forces he had been alloted to defend this section of the front. Two StuG's, all that remained of his battery. An understrength platoon of SS grenadiers, two dozen men barely recognizable as German soldiers dressed in winter clothing looted from dead Russians. He also counted himself fortunate to have a platoon of Pzkpfw 38(t) light tanks from the Wehrmacht's 8. Panzer Division supporting his Kampfgruppe.

Just a few weeks ago it seemed as if the Soviets could not stand under the hammer blows of the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS formations, smashing all before them. But now like the wind that came howling down from Siberia, the Bolsheviks were launching attack after attack at the German positions around Demjansk. Again and again the lines of brown-coated Soviet infantry were mown down by the SS machinegunners, and their excellent but poorly handled T-34 tanks blasted by the guns of his StuG's. But after every attack a few more of the SS Totenkopf Division's men lay dead or wounded in the snow, attrition shrinking their numbers day by day. The men who crushed Poland in two weeks and France in six were giving their all for the Fatherland in the forests and steppes of Russia.

Meierdress' reverie was broken by the unmistakeable sound of tank engines drifting across from the 'neighbour's' lines. The SS officer barked a warning into his throat microphone, and raised his glasses again. Through the mist he could see activity, enemy armoured vehicles and a mass of infantry forming up for yet another attack. The men under his command readied themselves for battle, as they had done so many times over the past two years. Closing the hatch to his StuG, SS-Obersturmführer Meierdress gave the order to load an armour piercing round into his vehicle's 7.5cm gun. The Ivans would not break through, not here, not now."

carl_brisgamer

06-01-2007, 08:42 AM

Battle Ticket No.12 – Standard Assault
Baltic States
Fall-Winter 1941

Random Map - Knife fight
Defender Choices - select side (no stream), move obj 2 squares into cover.

ATTACKER – SOVIET UNION
Elements 34th Army, Soviet Northwest Front

Elements 25th Cavalry Division
3 x Cossack Cavalry (12)
2 x BT-7 (26)

Elements 245th Rifle Division
1 x Commissar (5)
1 x Hero of the Soviet Union (8)
1 x Fanatical Sniper (8)
1 x KMT Machinegun Team (6)
2 x Degtyarev DP-27 (8)
3 x Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 (9)
2 x PPsh-41 SMG (6)
1 x BM-13 Katyusha Rocket Launcher (12)

Total Points: 100 (38 vehicle, 62 soldier)
Total Units: 17

DEFENDER – GERMANY
Elements LVI Panzerkorps, Panzergruppe 4

Elements Panzer Regiment 10, 8. Panzer Division
3 x Panzer 38(t) (30)

Elements SS Division (mot) Totenkopf
2 x StuG III Ausf.D (30)
1 x SS-Haupsturmführer (7)
1 x Grizzled Veteran (8)
1 x Wehrmacht Expert Sniper (11)
2 x SS Panzergrenadiers (14)

Total Points: 100 (60 vehicle, 40 soldier)
Total Units: 10

After Action Report, by SS-Kriegsberichter Gerhard Wittmar, assigned to the SS-Division (mot) Totenkopf -

"Near Demjansk, December 1941 - A company of Bolshevik infantry began their advance across a frozen stream on the left and centre of the SS Totenkopf position, whilst two Russian light panzers moved up on the right flank. Meierdress orders his StuG forward to engage these enemy panzers. He sees a BT-7 skirting the edge of a wood and his gunner fires. At a range of 800 metres the 7.5cm round tears through the Soviet vehicle, which explodes in a gout of flame. The three Panzer 38(t)’s advance to occupy high ground on the right flank, exchanging desultory fire with another BT-7. The second StuG and the platoon of Totenkopf grenadiers advance on the left flank towards a line of trees.

As the Red Army infantry continued their advance a troop of Cossack cavalry rode forward into the tree line firing at the SS grenadiers. A Maxim MG also opened up from high ground on the left, and Russian snipers also took their toll. Then a Russian Katyusha rocket launcher broke cover and moved up across the stream. The second StuG III quickly targeted and destroyed the vehicle, but not before it unleashed a salvo of rockets into the SS Totenkopf positions, the blast killing the Totenkopf platoon commander and half his men. On the right SS-Obersturmführer Meierdress’s StuG III destroys the second enemy BT-7 with another long range shot.

The Cossack cavalry charge forward, following up on the Katyusha rocket salvo. The Cossacks and dazed SS men engage in a close quarter battle. The last squad of Totenkopf grenadiers were cut down, but the Cossacks are also wiped out. The second StuG destroys the Russian Maxim MG on the high ground 300 metres from the tree line. With the enemy panzer threat defeated on the right flank, the Panzer 38(t)’s open fire on the mass of Bolshevik infantry moving over some low hills towards Meierdress’s position. The panzers wipe out the enemy’s HQ group, including the Russian commander. Despite this fortunate turn SS-Obersturmführer Meierdress knows that without infantry support his vehicles are vulnerable to close assault by enemy infantry.

But the SS assault gun commander still has two SS infantrymen on the ground - a sniper team that had not been hit by the Katyusha rockets. Alone these two men opened fire on the remaining Cossacks and Russian infantry in the trees, killing a dozen or more. Pulling back from the wood, Meierdress then engaged and destroyed a Russian LMG team. The Panzer 38(t)’s continued to rake the Russians with 3.7cm gun and machine gun fire. This did not stop a small party of Russians making it to the trees and working their way forward towards the second SS StuG, which continued to fire at the enemy and destroyed another LMG. Following Meierdress’s example this StuG also pulled back from the trees, but one Russian trooper braved a hail of fire to close assault the SS vehicle. The Russian was still throwing grenades when he was cut down by one of the SS sniper team. The death of this Red Army soldier seemed to take the fight out of the enemy. Pinned down by fire from the panzers and StuG’s, the surviving Red Army troops surrender.

Standing in the open cupola of his Sturmgeschütz, SS-Obersturmführer Meierdress lit a cigarette, Russian of course, and regarded the scene. Once again the SS-Totenkopf Kampfgruppe had repulsed a Soviet attack on Demjansk, but at the price of another score of veteran infantry soon to be buried in the cold Russian earth."

Soviet Troop Points Lost
Destroyed - 86
3 x Cossack Cavalry (12)
2 x BT-7 (26)
1 x Commissar (5)
1 x Hero of the Soviet Union (8)
1 x KMT Machinegun Team (6)
2 x Degtyarev DP-27 (8)
2 x Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 (6)
1 x PPsh-41 SMG (3)
1 x BM-13 Katyusha Rocket Launcher (12)

Captured - 6
1 x Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 (3)
1 x PPsh-41 SMG (3)

Total Points Lost 92

Surviving Units
1 x Fanatical Sniper (8)

Total Pts: 8 (8 soldier)

German Troop Points Lost
Destroyed - 21
1 x SS-Haupsturmführer (7)
2 x SS Panzergrenadiers (14)

Captured - 0 -

Total Points Lost 21

Surviving Units
3 x Panzer 38(t) (30)
2 x StuG III Ausf.D (30)
1 x Grizzled Veteran (8)
1 x Wehrmacht Expert Sniper (11)

Total Pts: 79 (60 vehicle, 19 soldier)