Kursk - Part Six - The Battle of Prokhorovka

Tanks of the Soviet 5th Guards moving forward under fire, covered by infantry

Well, Ladies and Germs, this is, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear, the final Kursk battle report. To be honest I thought I'd posted this some time ago, so if you've forgotten where we are or what's happening you can read the previous sections here. 

The final scenario was Prokhorovka, which is just the mother and father of all tank battles. Hundreds of tanks meeting in the most extraordinary clash of armour the world has ever known. We used a slightly modified version of the official Memoir '44 scenario for this game. 

"The tank battle of Prokhorovka was a clash between two immense armored forces. As the SS Panzer Corps started its advance, the Soviet artillery erupted and soon after the 5th Guards Tank Army under Gen. Pavel Rotmistrov accelerated toward the German advance. Rotmistrov's plan was to close quickly to negate the advantage held by the longer range German tanks.

The fighting became a swirling melee and soon the battlefield was littered with the shattered remains of smoking armor. Losses on both sides were enormous. Combined, over 700 tanks were lost and because the battlefield remained in Soviet control the Germans could not recover and repair their losses."

From the official scenario background by Richard Borg

The Luftwaffe begin proceedings.

Now, both the Germans and the Soviets had kept the majority of their reserves for this battle. The Soviets deployed extra armour in a solid wedge in the centre, while the Germans deployed all their remaining Tigers on their right. The opening move of the game was a massed German air raid on the Soviet armoured reserve. The result was predictably brutal. 

Get him Laika!

The Soviets responded by deploying their own aircraft to drive off the Luftwaffe and a massive furball erupted over the Soviet centre. Neither side managed to down the other, but the struggle took some of the heat off the men on the ground. 

Tigers in the woods
(note: the telephone poles in the right foreground of the picture mark hexes that are not in play)

Meanwhile the German Tigers started to advance on the Soviet left. The woods echoing with the revving of engines. 

 

Some archive footage

The game is progressing along quite happily (my apologies for the poor quality). The German advance on the right and in the centre continues. 

A Panzer four takes aim

This was one of a little collection of German armour that I picked up from Ian Hinds Minatures to round out my Panther and Tiger heavy collection. It's an entirely metal piece and weighs a ton, not sure what manufacturer it comes from. 

Carnage in trees and in the fields

Meanwhile on the Soviet left, the infantry are dashing for the cover of the trees as the German attack goes in. The Soviets were quite short of cards on this section and as a result their counter attacks were bitty and piece meal. 

A graveyard of Soviet brothers

Meanwhile in the centre, the Soviets were in real trouble. Not only had the Germans managed to keep their airpower on station, but they'd managed to back it up on the ground. The resultant wedge of German heavy armour took serious damage, but wiped out the Soviet central reserve in return. 

The Red Armour is burning

The Soviet counter attack in the centre does some damage, but it's not enough to stop 
the rush of the Panzers. 

The Tiger reaps a deadly harvest

German airpower and aggression the ground meant that the Soviets were fighting from their back line a great deal of the time and didn't have as much room to move.  It also allowed the Germans to drive them back onto their rear areas, block their retreats and pick up extra kills from those Flag results on the combat die. 

The battle in the Soviet rear areas continues

In an attempt to win back the tempo of the engagement, the Soviet armour bypass the advancing German heavy armour and hit the retreating German arms our in their rear area. They wipe out the weakened German units, but it's too little too late. 

Laika lays down his life for the Motherland

The game actually ended with the downing the Red Airforce sole remaining fighter at the battle, which had attempted to end the Luftwaffe's reign of terror over the Soviet rear areas.  This clinched the German win and we all repaired to the bar for some refreshments. 

This was a tough game for the Soviets as the Germans hit hard right from the start and never really stopped piling on the pressure. By the time their attack was beginning to flag, the Soviets were already trialing so badly that they were unable to make up the lost ground.  The key to the German success was a canny collaboration between heavy armour and airpower, The Soviet artillery wasn't able to compensate and a recurring theme of the game was heavy panzers engaging Soviet armour that had been pushed by and that had suffered casualties from air attack. 

This was the fastest of all the games and finished in just under an hour.  This victory took the Germans to an overall victory in the campaign and ensured that juvenile conscripts would be fighting in the ruins of Berlin in November rather than May. 

Kursk - Part Five - Moving Picture Show

Tigers burning in the fields outside Ponyri

I'm working all the hours that God sends at the moment and frankly I've been neglecting the blog.  In the vain hope that I can distract the public with gimcrack gimmicks and moving picture shows, I offer this footage. 

Michael Bay better watch out, I think you'll agree. 

An overview of Prokorhovka - the final game in the campaign. 

And for those of you that made it this far - Kittens!

Kursk - Part Four - The Battle of Ponyri

German infantry moving past a knocked out KV 

The battle of Ponyri was our second game of the day.  It was different from the Assault of Cherasskoye in that the deployment was set from the beginning.  The players got to determine where their reinforcements went, but beyond that they were pretty much stuck with the scenario as written. 

But, to go back to Ponyri for a moment.  This battle was like the first taking place in the northern axis of attack, the Germans had advanced deep into the Soviet positions, but kept running into yet more lines of defences. Ponyri or more particularly Ponyri station was a vital rail link between Kursk and Orel. The XLI Panzer Corps was tasked with taking the town, while the Soviet 307th Infantry Division heavily supported with artillery and other assets, had to hold it.  The fighting was fierce and the town changed hands over a dozen times.  The fighting was compared to Stalingrad in intensity. 

Combat Pioneers advance

The German advance in the centre was spearheaded by four units of Combat Pioneers armed with flamethrowers, demolition charges and harsh language. The seven hexes of the town were a majority medal objective for the Germans, if they could control more of the town than the Soviets they would gain two medals.

Meanwhile on the right...

...the Panzers are revving their engines. This was a different kettle of fish from the last game.  While the attackers would have to advance into the teeth of the Soviet defences hidden in the fields and woods around the town, this time the Soviets would have a mobile reserve of armour to counter any breakthroughs.

On the German left, the advance was led by two units of Tigers.

I was not looking forward to this one little bit as unlike Sydney on our left, I didn't have an armoured reserve.  All I could do was hang tough and try and outlast the Germans, doing as much damage as I could before they ground me into powder. As it happened, I managed to nail one of the big cats with a lucky shot in the first turn, much to Krisztians dismay.

But his retaliation was savage and emptied some of my forward defences.

The Red Air Force gets it's act together

After it's poor showing in the first scenario, the Red Air Force pulled its collective socks up and set to laying about the German armoured reserves in fine style, hitting them before they could get into the fight. This weakened the German armoured thrust on the German right and made it difficult to convert their superiority in armour into a decisive advantage.

Dakka dakka dakka 

Not to be outdone, the Luftwaffe attempted to return the favour, but poor dice rolling and a canny Soviet dispersal of their armoured reserves prevented the Germans from causing too much damage. 

General Von Kerrigan moves forward in the centre

The Germans pushed hard in the centre, while the Soviets held back, letting the Germans spend their momentum while they shelled them with mortars and artillery. The Germans bought ground, but at terrible cost and the casualty list was rising in the Soviets favour.

General Von Kerrigan pushes forward, just before the Germans make a fatal mistake

General Von Kerrigan took the town of Ponyri, albeit at great cost. Unfortunately, his success was undone by a breach in operational security.  General Von Kerrigan had quite rightly divined that the Soviet players had no idea that the German objective was the town and had been remaining very tight lipped about it.  While the Soviet players had some inkling, one of the German generals who shall remain nameless, blurted out the German objective.  This led to an immediate and concentrated Soviet counterattack, which not only cost the Germans badly in casualties, but also lost them their extra victory points.

The German advance stalls

On the Soviet right, with no reserves and a seemingly unstoppable tidal wave of German armour coming at me, I had battened down the hatches and determined that my lads would sell their lives as dearly as possible.  Curiously enough, with some luck as the Panzers tried to penetrate my minefields, I was able to hold them at bay.

Here comes the Red Army

With the German advance on the Soviet right stalled - the Soviet counter punch on the left started. It had just started going wrong for the Germans at this point - but this was really where the wheels began to come off the wagon. Comrade Sydney, never the most offensively minded of generals, confounded expectations, by just putting his head down and going bald headed for the enemy. 

General Von Kerrigan views the ruins of his plans and his panzers

In the fields the Panzers are burning. 

The battle on the Soviet left raged for several turns, but the Germans were unable to recapture their previous momentum and were reduced to tried to contain the Soviet counter attack.  Even though the Soviet infantry wasn't able to get into the fight, they prevented the German armour outflanking the main position. Meanwhile the artillery kept firing and that made all the difference. 

The final German push

In the centre, General Von Kerrigan attempted to wrest possession of the town from the Soviets in a last gasp attempt to wrestle victory from the jaws of defeat.  Von Kerrigan pushed his Ferdinands forward supported by the remainder of his infantry, but it was too little too late.  The defenders concentrated their fire on the infantry, stripping the armour of its support, and then a swift counter attack did the rest. 

This was a tough game and hard fought. The Germans did so much lose as the Soviets won it.  We improved our play, bringing combined arms to bear, relying more on our artillery and making much more inteligent use of our airpower. The tighter Soviet play meant that the Germans had far fewer weaknesses to exploit and that and a little bad luck ultimately cost them the game.  

Kursk - Part Three - Assault on Cherkasskoye - An Alternative View

The field of Mars

One of the advantages of running a multi-player game is that sometimes you can learn things about the game after the fact. As the Duke famously put it, the account of a battle is like an account of a ball, everyone may know something of it, but no-one knows everything of it.  

These are a collection of pictures sent to me by Krisztian, one of the players. They are all from the first battle and include something that I'm afraid that I missed completely. 

General Du Gourmand studying the airpower available. 

We had set up the table, but hadn't put any of the Soviet troops out yet.  The German players knew that the minefields were there and the location of the Soviet main line of resistence, but they had to deploy their troops without knowing exactly what was where.

The village of Cherkasskoye

The Germans also had two preliminary bombardments, which they were able to call in before the first turn of the game. I completely forgot to mention this in my previous post.  The Germans used one to hit the Soviet front line and then debated whether they would drop the second on Cherkasskoye, where they believed the Soviets would mass their reserves or in the main line again.  I can't remember exactly what they went with in the end. 

The central position

The Germans were tasked with driving straight up the middle and breaking through the Soviet position in order to get troops past this defensive line.  This was a bit of a change from the usual emphasis on destroying the enemy's army.  Still the swath of minefields gave them considerable pause. 

German Panthers

These were painted by Krisztian and a very nice job he did too.  They represented one of the three classes of German army at the battle. 

Another Panther

We used Tigers to represent Tigers (obviously enough), Panthers for Elite Armour (four strength units) and anything in Panzer grey (an mixture of Panzer II, III and IV) for regular Armour.

A Panther preparing to more forward

I had tried to work out special rules for the Soviet defences and ended up tying myself in knots to no good purpose.  One of the things that came up again and again from my reading about the German side was the idea of blundering into these concealed defences and not being able to work out what going on before they were plastered with artillery and anti-tank fire. 

In the end, I simply ruled that the field blocked line of sight and equiped the Soviets with artillery and mortars that could fire without line of sight.  This managed to give the right impression to my mind, without needing to mess with the rules. 

German infantry supporting a Tiger

Infantry-Armour co-operation was key, where the Germans were able to practice it on the left and in the centre, they were generally successful.  On the right, where they managed to separate them, the Soviets though eventually defeated were able to extract a far higher toll. 

Soviet Reserves

The Soviets brought on Katyusha batteries from their reserves and supported them with infantry.  Unfortunately, they weren't able to make best use of them, I think because the player got distracted by the savagery of the German attack. As mobile artillery, they could have been a lot more powerful if they could have been kept in the game.  

Fighting through the fields

This a picture from the German perspective on the Soviet left.  The tanks are moving through the fields supported by the infantry.  What the picture doesn't show is the concentration of airpower that was kept going on this flank.  The tanks are more powerful in open country, but they need to kick the Soviet defenders out of their prepared defences before they can really start to dominate. As the Soviet infantry ignore retreats in their defences, this was a tough proposition. 

Infantry in the centre

The German infantry was a bit more successful  at booting the Soviets out, but they weren't as capable of capitalising on the breakthrough and were often slaughtered as soon as they tried to move through the position. 

A Panther with a hit marker, just after the breakthrough on the Soviet left. 

Here, the German attack was a lot more successful, mainly because Krisztian to co-operate with Von Fatzington to hit my line with Air, Armour and Infantry in successive turns.  The airpower hammered my reserves and drove my main line from their defences, the armour then broke through and the infantry consolidated on the position. It was almost impossible to defend against.

Where Tigers come to die

In the centre on the other hand, the story was very different. The Germans had suffered badly from artillery and mines, in part no doubt because they were concentrating so many resource on their right. This was a scenario where the Soviets had the odds stacked against them, but I think we might have done better if we'd counter attacked here rather than trying to shore up the areas where we were losing. In the end, the German left wiped out everything on the Soviet right and was able to support the centre.

General Von Fatzington watches as a Sturmovick begins its attack run

Towards the end of the game, the Germans were far ahead on points, but couldn't claim a victory because they were unable to get their troops off the back of the Soviet line. They shifted armour into the centre in order to make that breakthrough and the Soviets used their last remaining airpower in an attempt to stop them.  It was an interesting demonstration as it showed that while the airpower was important, it damaged the German units trying to breakthrough, it wasn't decisive. Without the support of troops on the ground, it wasn't capable of stopping an attack in its tracks. 

Kursk: Part Two - The Assault on Cherkasskoye

The Nazi war machine begins to roll

So, the campaign day kicked off with a planning session. Each team was given a briefing covering the three battles to be fought and the number of reinforcement and air sortie tokens they had to play with.  The Soviets because of their superior intelligence apparatus (to say nothing of Ultra intercepts) were told where the German reserves were being put before they had to assign their own.

Field Marshal Von Fatzington led the German team up to the bar where they did their planning, while the Soviets luxuriated by the board.  Now, normally Memoir '44 scenarios come with the troops pre deployed. everybody has a position on the map before the game begins, for the first game, I deployed the Soviet troops pretty much as they were in reality.  The Soviet players were allowed to pick and choose where they put their reinforcements however.  The Soviets also had the advantage of being deployed behind a 26 hex by two hex deep minefield.

The game was beginning on the second day of the assault, so the Germans had already been beaten back once, were aware of the minefield and had sent engineers forward during the night to knock gaps in it, so they were allowed remove seven hexes worth of mines from each sector of the battlefield.  This was a surprise to the Soviet players and monkey wrenched their plans somewhat.  The Germans also were allowed a considerable degree of latitude in deploying their troops, though in the end, they settled for the same plan - a heavily armoured wedge spearheaded by Tigers designed to blow a hole in the centre of the Soviet line.

The German Team surveying the field of Cherkassaye. 

Note the position of the central road.  The Soviet board edge by the road were exit hexes for the German players, which means that they were able to claim victory points by exiting units from the board via those hexes. The Germans had to reach 16 victory points to win, but three of those needed to be from units exited from the board. 

Soviet defences facing the fields 

As we were a player short, I took up the cudgels for the Soviets on the right flank and faced Krisztian leading a combined combat group of German armour and infantry at my defences.

German armour advancing in the centre

General Von Fatzington opened the ball with an infantry led assault on the centre. He used infantry units to clear the way for his heavy armour with the plan of bursting the Soviet centre wide open. 

General Von K on the German right led with his armour. Time would tell how effective that would prove to be. 

Despite some casualties, Krisztians armour charged through the gaps in the minefields to dispute with the Soviet defenders. I had concentrated fire on his infantry, but it remained to be seen whether it would be enough. 

Airpower over Cherkasskoye

A key part of this battle and the battles to come was the use of airpower.  The Germans put their airpower into play first before the Soviets really grasped what was going on (it was the first time we'd played with these rules) and were able to achieve near total aerial dominance for several turns before the Soviets managed to assemble an appropriate counter. 

Interestingly, the Germans chose to focus their attacks on the Soviet reserves and second line, rather than supporting the immediate attack.  This proved to be a very successful tactic as it crippled the Soviet ability to plug gaps in the line. 

Comrade Sydney reflects as Stukas pummel the Soviet left and the Soviet Katyusha launchers in the centre. 

Meanwhile over the German right, General Von K's advance has gotten hung up on the Soviet minefields.  The infantry eventually breakthrough, but not before the panzers have taken a severe kicking and the Germans have been punished by the Soviet artillery. 

The game ended with the Germans breaking through in the centre. In the end, the score of 19-12 was an interesting one. The Germans only needed 15 medals to win, but couldn't break through the Soviet centre despite decimating the Soviet left and right. This meant that despite racking up plenty of kills, the score line was 16-8 at one point, they weren't able to claim a win immediately. The Soviets managed to claw back some German units, but the combination of German heavy armour supported by air power was just too much and they managed break through.  

This was the longest game, in part because the campaign setup and the pre game deployment.  The German players had to do quite a bit of homework. It was rewarding, but it did take time and I don't think the day would have benefited from a second dose of it. It would have disrupted the pacing rather too much. 

But after the first game, the Germans were one campaign point ahead and were looking like they were in good shape heading into the second battle.