Battle for Stalingrad - The City Centre

- By Sean Smith

Introduction

This is a battle report for one of the battles in the excellent ongoing Campaign for Stalingrad, which Paul Goldstone has been organising at Warlords in 2002. It was played using the Rapid Fire rule set.

 This battle must have been the most successful multiplayer game ever run at Warlords, we had 13 players fighting battle on 6 foot by 4 foot table!

Terrain

 The jump off point for the German offensive was behind a high railway embankment. Immediately beyond the embankment was a factory. On either side of the factory there were avenues. Behind factory there were several rows of houses, separated by streets that ran at right angles to both avenues. On the Northern flank (i.e the German left flank) the avenue ran out two rows of houses before the river. Palov's house was the last house before the river. On the Southern flank (i.e the German right flank) the avenue ran through two squares, imagine an hour glass shape. The final square before river had a line of trenches through its middle and a Chemical Plant between it and the river.

Deployment

 The German plan was simply. The majority of the forces would punch down the Northern flank. The centre would act as a reserve and mop any minor points of resistance left behind. The Southern flank would act as pinning force, exploiting gaps, if the Soviets left to smaller a force to protect the Southern flank.

 The Soviet plan was to have the NKVD battalions form two lines of resistance, to delay the German forces, until Guard battalions arrived as reinforcements. The Guard battalions would be used to plug gaps and to create new lines of resistance as necessary.

The Beginning

 The battle began literally with a bang! The Stukas providing air support attacked a platoon of T34s dug in on the Northern flank and wiped them out to the last tank (The odds of this occurring were 1 in 60!). The black smoke bellowing up from the successful Stuka attack was the signal for the German ground attack to begin.

On the Northern flank three companies of Panzers supporting two battalions of infantry rapidly over ran the first line of Soviet resistance. The Soviets made Germans pay for the rapid advance by destroying two platoons of German Panzers with anti-tank rifles. However, this did not slow German advance. The second line of Soviet resistance was just as rapidly overcome. The German advance was so fast that the second battalion, which had originally intended to deploy parallel the first battalion once the terrain permitted was unable to do so, because of the rapid pace of the advance. Consequently, all of the casualties were inflicted on the battalion commanded by Von Sean Smith.

At one point, in a suicidal attempt to stop the German advance, a company of Soviet infantry (all that remained of a NKVD infantry battalion) successfully charged a platoon of Panzers in the open, but then failed to destroy any Panzers and were butchered.

 On the Southern flank the advance was just as rapid for different reasons. The terrain allowed two battalions of infantry to be deployed parallel to one another. Lack of Soviet anti-tank rifles and the large squares allowed the Self propelled guns to pour devastating supporting fire into the Soviet positions. Soviets were not help by Soviet General Aidan failing three morale tests for three different NKVD battalions in a row!

The Centre did not advancing as fast as either of the flanks. Two particularly die hard battalions of NKVD infantry used the wider than normal street between the factory and the row of houses directly behind it to full advantage.

While the ground battle was going on the Stukas were reassigned to interdict Soviet Guard battalions crossing the river Volgar. In this role they manifestly unsuccessful. Five turns in a row they failed to hit any Soviet ferries. In the whole of the battle the Stukas only managed to destroy half a battalion of Soviet infantry (five battalions of Guards arrived as reinforcements).

The Germans would pay the price for the failure of the Stukas and the slow advance of the centre later in the battle.

The Middle

 On Northern flank the Soviet defences appeared to be cracking. The German commanders spotted a golden opportunity, even through it went against all the rules of fighting in a city. The Panzers could advance through a gap in the defences and cut off the Soviet defenders from their reinforcements, by creating a fire lane down the very wide streets near Pavlov's house, using the Panzers MGs. Who dares wins!

One depleted company of Panzers and full strength company of Panzers seized the opportunity. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Undetected Soviet anti-rifles destroyed another platoon of Panzers in the depleted Panzer company and it failed its morale test. To make thing even worse, the combination of a Soviet sniper killing the Panzer company commander and a platoon of Panzers being ambushed resulted in the other Panzer company routing as well! In spite of these losses the German infantry on the Northern flank continued their rapid advance, with the support of the remaining Panzer company (now only two platoons in strength).

In centre Von Wesley's battalion of Panzer Grenadier battalion broke the deadlock with a daring assault.

On the Southern flank the self propelled guns wiped out the NKVD battalion occupying the entrenchments in the square and the two German infantry battalions rapidly advanced toward the chemical factory.

The destruction of the two German Panzer companies allowed the Soviet Guard battalions to reinforce both the Northern flank and the Centre.

The Finale

The strain of being the sole spearhead battalion finally showed and the battalion commanded by Von Sean Smith broke. The battalion following took up the baton. However, it only managed to advance one more row of houses before it was halted by the wider street, lack of direct fire support (because of the loss of Panzers) and Soviet Guards battalions.

In centre the two German battalions wiped out the remaining Soviet resistance and sniper who had killed the Panzer Company Commander. Von Weasley's Battalion attempted another daring assault, in order to get the attack on the Northern flank moving. However, Guard reinforcements caught Wesley's Panzer Grenadiers in the open with MGs. The remaining Panzer Grenadiers routed.

The German commanders on the Southern flank recognising the attack on the Northern flank and Centre had stalled dispatched a battalion to assist (the remaining battalion was assigned to take the chemical factory with the support of the self propelled guns). Using the cover provided by tenches in the square this battalion began the process of outflanking Soviet positions in the Centre and Northern flank. However, it was too late. The battle ended before it could outflank the Soviet positions.

To Sum Up

It was one hell of battle. Although the battle ended slightly earlier than intended, it was clearly shaping up to favour the Soviets.

All players thanked Paul for organising an excellent multiplayer game.