7 DAYS AT KURSK (2) – Hunting the hunters

 SITUATION REPORT

Morning of 5^th July 1943. The Russian outpost lines have been cleared by the preliminary attacks and the 2^nd SS Division’s attention now turns to the main defence position anchored on the Village of Beresoff (Beresov) with the 3^rd Battalion of the 3^rd SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment leading.  Due to the poor going on the approaches the Tiger Company and Sturmgeschutze battalion assigned to support the Grenadiers have not arrived to support the attack.

In the vicinity were M3 Stuarts of the 230^th Tank Regiment deployed in a security role.

The German attack started at 0330 hours. To prepare the way, the village was subjected to an Artillery preparation. This was then followed by an attack by Stukas.

As the dust began to settle, the leading companies launched their assault.  Soviet defensive artillery fire intensified and a unit of M3 Stuarts carrying soviet Infantry launched a counterattack towards the flank of the battalion companies.  The lead German company, seeing this, then launched its own desperate counterattack with a platoon of grenadiers.

Scenario Type: Platoon

THE BATTLE

Play the game on a 4 x 2 table.

The Soviet security unit is defending and is deployed on table in the top left corner no more than 12” from the edges, facing towards the bottom right corner.  The soviet Infantry platoon must begin mounted on the Stuarts as tank riders. 

After the defenders are placed, the Germans are deployed up to 9” from the Northern Table edge, up to half of the table width. The German player is the attacker and takes first turn.

 VICTORY CONDITIONS

The soviet unit must exit the Eastern table edge with 50% of its Strength or force the Germans to retire.

The Germans must prevent the exit.

Special Rules (Optional)

Due to the confused fighting the Soviet units do not benefit from the Stal, Stal, Stal Special rules.

The German infantry sections have the assault troops special rule.

Remove the 5BR Counters

 

FORCES

GERMAN FORCES (elements of 10th Company)   Separate Panzer Grenadier Platoon Command Squad (with AT Grenades)   Panzer Grenadier Platoon (All German squads have AT Grenades) (All MG Teams have the MG42 Upgrade)   Total Battle Rating: 19 Officers 2

RUSSIAN FORCES   Armoured Security Patrol 4 M3 Stuart Tanks   Soviet Rifle Platoon (as Tank Riders)     Total Battle Rating: 13 Officers: 1

 

Pacific in 15mm

 The new BG Pacific War supplement means a couple of figures can move up the painting queue.

Additional Winterhose 43 figures

 

Revised WW2 Soviet Platoon

 For some reason I thought I had posted these over a year ago, but I can't find the post. So here goes.  This was to refresh my WW2 soviets with some of Martin's new range and a repaint of some of the very first figures he produced.

Crete - Semi Arid bases

My FJ bases have attracted a couple of comments.  This is the process I follow:

First off is the VJ Earth Texture.  I had a pot so I used it.  Dark Earth.

Next I put on some spots of Flat Earth.  You could also use US Field Drab.

En Masse

Next is a patchy drybrush of VJ Salmon pink

Base edged are then given a coat of VJ Stone Grey

Which is then drybrushed over the Flat Earth and Pink

Finally a dry brush of VJ Dark Sand

A couple of spots of PVA glue. I use some water with it but only to get it to flow.  The trick here is to use it to hide any points where the edge of the base might show through.

Dunk the model into my basing mix.

All done.

Crete - LuftLande Sturm Regt at Maleme

While looking at something that I can use for Battle Group. I thought about the engagement between C Coy, 22nd Battalion and Plessen's force at the mouth of the R Tavronitis.

Plessen commanded 3/LLStR less its 4th Platoon (Zug) that was the special bridge assault force.

So the landing force would be based around something like this:

Glider 1 - Kompanie HQ (Forward HQ plus runners, Combat Medic, Comms Relay team)
Glider 2 - Funk Trupp (Forward Signals Unit)
Glider 3 - sMG (Tripod mounted MG34 w/loader team)
Glider 4 - sMorser (81mm Kurz w/loader team)
Glider 5 - 1st Platoon HQ plus AT Rifle
Glider 6 - 1st Platoon Section 1
Glider 7 - 1st Platoon Section 2
Glider 8 - 2nd Platoon HQ plus AT Rifle
Glider 9 - 2nd Platoon Section 1
Glider 10 - 2nd Platoon Section 2
Glider 11 - 3rd Platoon HQ plus AT Rifle
Glider 12 - 3rd Platoon Section 1
Glider 13 - 3rd Platoon Section 2

Points wise about 600-650 so a platoon sized game ? Restriction would normally be two platoons but as you loose 3 sections in the way they are organised I would say about for this scenario about right.
However, the accounts say that only 7 (or 8) gliders reached the objective. A bit undecided on how to translate that into on table units. 7/12 or 8/13 might change the Glider Landings rule to say 1 Not arrived, no effect other than loss of units and no BR and then have 2 being destroyed on the way in as normal, 3-4 Rough Landing and 5,6 Perfect

Crete - Supply Containers

A lot of information but not all of it consistent.  This is taken from the excellent NZ at War records


"Meanwhile, transport planes flew over the coastline and began releasing small specks into the sky that blossomed into parachutes in a dazzling array of colors—white, red, green, and yellow. The troops floated to earth under white parachutes, while chutes in other colors denoted weapons canisters, equipment, or supplies."


This appears to be for the Maleme sector.

Crete - Forward Signals Unit/Comms Relay Teams

I was looking at the different options for the Forward Signals Units and the Comms Relay Teams.

The new FJ Packs from Peter Pig have, what looks like, two figures carrying between them a Torn.Fu.d2 radio set which is a VHF set.  This is a two man set with the battery pack carried by the second man.  The figure wearing the main radio set is holding the radio set cover in his hand which you cannot see from the site photo

but you can see it here.  

This was my first idea until I realised which radio model was represented.

So a couple of observations.

• The figure carrying the accessory set is the one pointing.  He is wearing a headset which should connect by cable to the bottom front of the main radio set carried by the other figure.  This will need a bit of wire to replicate.  The wire that is modelled will need trimming off/down.
• The cable which links the two sets together also needs replicating it was long enough to allow them both to be able to walk together.

This is from the German manual and you can see the connections.  The antenna is made up of 6 sections (32cm each) which are connected together and added on to the antenna adaptor (with what we used to call a goose neck to change the angle of the antenna).  This puts the overall length at just over 2m ( Which is about right using a rough calculation of 72/Freq in Mhz  which we used for copper wire)