F-111 Missions

 Work to develop a scenario looking at F-111 Operations.  

In late September 1972 two squadrons of F-111 had arrived at Takhli Airbase in Thailand.  Following training missions and orientation the crews were gradually given more missions over NVN.  In the middle of October, the 474th TFW began scheduling 24 combat sorties per night primarily in Route Pack 6 with an occasional sorties in Route Pack 5. During the week of 14-20 Oct 72, the tempo of enemy reaction to F-111 strike sorties stepped up to indicate an increase in awareness of the presence of F-111 aircraft.

On the night of 14/15 October there were 13 strikes recorded into RP6A with another 3 sorties suffering an Air Abort.  For just over 8 hours the targets reported as struck were:

Hoa Lac Airfield 2035

Dac Duc Petroleum Pumping Station 1427

Thai Nguyen RR Repair Yard 0728

Vu Cha RR Bridge 0918

Vinh Yen Ammo Storage 1232

Bac Giang TPP 1421

Viet Tri RR Yard 1337

Phuc Yen Aircraft Dispersal area 1329

Qua Chau Barracks (Thai Nguyen) 0628

Dong Thon RR Siding 1528

Kep POL Installation 0919

Trai Hop Military Barracks 0429

Lang Lau RR Bridge 0626

BG Kursk - Hill 220.5

Hill 220.5

Second phase of the LSSAH attack on 5 July from Hill 228.6 across the road to Hill 220.5 and Hill 217.1

Platoon Sized game - Uses "High Ground" scenario

Forces involved:

German Attackers - LSSAH
(Forces taken from the Panzer and Panzer Grenadier lists to create the LSSAH forces involved)

3 Officers - 37 BR

Assault Pioneer Platoon (flamethrowers and sweepers)
Grenadier Platoon
StuG III Squadron
2 x Tiger I (+ Tiger Ace)
2 x Supply trucks
Arty Op on foot
Off table 105mm Battery
Off table 80mm Mortar Battery

Soviets Defenders - 52d Rifle Division

4 Officers - 29 BR
Rifle Company
4 x 45mm AT Guns
3 x ATR Hideouts
2 x Dug-In T34s
Minefields x 2
Wire x 2
AT Ditch x 2
Trench system/Foxholes for all infantry
Arty Op
Off table 80mm Mortar Battery
Off table Zis-3 Battery

7 Days at Kursk - Day One - Game 1

LSSAH Sector Game 1
This is snapshot of the terrain in the immediate vicinity of the starting actions on the first day. Hill 228.6 is on the left hand side and 220.5 is slightly North East.

This pitches the elements of 8.Komp/II.Rgt-2 against elements of the lead battalion of 151 Rifle Regiment.

German Platoon (1 Officer)  Points=182   13 BR       
Grenadier Platoon                 100 Pts     11-r BR
- Platoon HQ (6 men)
- Squad 1 5 men + 3 man MG42 team  +4 Pts
- Squad 2 5 men + 3 man MG42 team  +4 Pts

- Squad 3 5 men + 3 man MG42 team  +4 Pts

- Combat Medic                      8 Pts     0-r BR
- MG42 Team (3 men)                18 Pts     1-r BR
- Medium Mortar Team               24 Pts     1-r BR

- Foxholes for 20 men              20 Pts       0 BR

Soviet Company (4 Officers) Points=188  16 BR
Rifle Company                     188 Pts     16-i BR

Company HQ (4 Men)

- Platoon HQ (3 men)
- Squad 1 8 men
- Squad 2 8 men
- Squad 3 8 men
- Squad 4 8 men

- Platoon HQ (3 men)
- Squad 1 8 men
- Squad 2 8 men
- Squad 3 8 men
- Squad 4 8 men
                
- Platoon HQ (3 men)
- Squad 1 8 men
- Squad 2 8 men
- Squad 3 8 men
- Squad 4 8 men

WW2 - BG Kursk - 7 Days at Kursk - Day One

I am not one to chase the perfect list and have always tended to try and follow "reasonable" historical structures.  So I have thought about doing the same for BG Kursk.  These are my interpretations for specific games on the Southern Pincer for a series of games covering 5 - 12 July 1943 which I have called the 7 days at Kursk.  The ideas of the games is that it lets me field specific forces which in turn drives the painting progress :)

Day One - 5 July.

In the morning you have:

• 8.Komp/II, Rgt -2/LSSAH capturing Hill 228.6 and then being subject to a counter attack by units of 151 Rifle Regiment. 
• Once the counter attack had been dealt with, LSSAH then prepared to launch its attack on Hill 220.5. This was an attack with dismounted Grenadiers supported by Tigers and Sturmgeschutz;  then, onto the second belt with the Panzergruppe being brought forward with an intermediate action involving the Tiger company against 230th Tank Regiment counter-attack
• DR attacking Beresoff/Beresov and then the second belt with dismounted Grenadiers and no armour support which includes facing a counter attack by Soviet armour in front of Beresoff/Beresov.
• T attacking Gremuchi with dismounted Grenadiers supported by Tigers and Sturmgeschutz with the Panzergruppe being brought up very quickly to continue the attack

As a taster this is a small snapshot of the terrain in the region taken from Google Earth with the Kursk historical maps overlay

My initial idea was to break each of the engagements down into constituent parts but as BG Kursk is a game and not a simulation, pieces of it don't quite fit the game system.  So I have decided to bathtub up each Divisions actions into one game per day (3 Divisions, 7 Days = 21 games) and play some more generic type games.

So the new sequence will see LSSAH and T having a mix of forces while DR will be mainly an infantry and artillery fight up. In all cases the Soviet defenders will see a strong infantry contingent supported by armour and artillery.

Ambush in the Bekaa Valley - Arab Israeli 1982 - Play testing ideas

Spent half an our or so over lunch time musing about aspects of the initial scenario which is based on an ambush of the leading platoon of a battalion on the coastal road.

The game scenario needs to follow the standard AA/FOF asymmetric sequences as that gives me a simpler situation and troops already in contact.

I can start either with the PLO having already initiated the contact and the effects already applied to one or more vehicles or play this out from the moment contact begins.  If I go with the second option there are a lot of options for either player which may or may not completely change how the game plays...Imagine all the RPG shots hitting and catastrophic effects result...a very short game; the other way around means that the PLO miss with everything and the Israeli's dismount and clear the ambush site in very short order.  For me this is too much chaos to handle so I am going to go with the assumption that an initial round of fire has occurred from the PLO, an Israeli Vehicle has been disabled and a situation which includes casualty treatment, evactuation and clearing the Ambush site has to be handled.  This also means that the PLO force doesn't have to be very lucky with its dice rolls in the the first place.

With the idea that the IDF force is fixed in place this means that I might be able to play this on a 2' x 2' board.  Terrain pieces probably need to be stone walls, ditches, possibly a culvert section of road citrus trees, bushes and vines.  If I put the ambush site towards one site then the PLO can be given the job of holding up the IDF and then retreating while the IDF have to clear the site.  I can make a scenario situation up that off the short side of the board is a ravine which is impassable.  This would also allow me to keep the IDF vehicles from freely manouvering.

Something like this.

PLO can be in Ambush for the first turn and then act as elusive afterward which will offset the IDF numbers and quality a little bit.

Ambush in the Bekaa Valley - 1982 Arab Israeli - Israeli Infantry Organisation

Israeli Platoon Structure would follow the line of

Platoon HQ
1 x Platoon Commander w/Galil
1 x Platoon Sergeant w/Galil
1 x Radio Operator w/Galil
3 x Rifleman w/Galil
1 x DMR
1 x 52mm Mortar
1 x Dragon ATGW

3 x Sections each comprising:

Section Command:
1 x APC Driver
1 x APC Gunner (MAG Gunner while section is mounted, moves to become Track commander when section dismounts)

1 x Section Commander w/Galil

 Fireteam 1:
2 x Rifleman w/Galil
1 x Grenadier w/Galil & 40mm GL

Fireteam 2:
2 x Riflemen w/Galil
1 x FN MAG gunner

Fireteam 3:
2 x Rifleman w/Galil
1 x Rifleman w/RPG & Galil

In addition as a lot of images show the M113 carrying two FN MAGs I might allow a second FN MAG to be dismounted but needing at TQ test to bring it off the vehicle

Attachments from the Asset cards would provide the additional support to either the platoon directly or supporting forces such as:
Shot
Magach (M48 and M60 variants)
Merkava
M163
M125
M150
M113 Carrying HMG Section of 2 .50 Cal HMG
M109A2 in a direct fire role or needing to be escorted
Engineers
UAV support

More to follow as I think this through

Ambush in the Bekaa Valley - 1982 Arab Israeli - Initial thoughts

Getting the Israeli armour painted has continued well so I couldn't resist getting the toys out on the table.  Question is what rule set...I have AA/FOF, TW&T and a host of others. In the end I wanted something quick which didn't take a lot of setting up, or thought so went back to Ambush Alley/Force on Force.  Not everyone's' cup of tea but I like them, well at least I like Ambush Alley.....

So how to play out my 1982 games using these rules as a base?  I like to tinker with things and actually do enjoy putting some thought to my games.

The size of the game needs to cover my desire to have mechanised forces on the table as well as capture the closeness of the fighting in a mix of both rural and urban environments.  I had gone a way to setting up a basic platoon force (allowing for either an Armoured Platoon or Mech Infantry) with various attachments. AA/FOF has this ability as well as also creating random events and effects which could be tailored specifically.  So keeping the platoon as the basic force element would work and creating some asset and fog of war cards would then follow and would reflect what I actually have in my collection.  Table size would be variable and go from the small 2' x 2' close range engagements up to larger games on a 4' x 3' and everything in between.

So the rough force structures would be as follows:

Sayeret
TQ D10
Morale D10
High Confidence

Paratroops/Golani
TQ D8
Morale D10
High Confidence

Regular Troops
TQ D8
Morale D8
High Confidence

Reservists
TQ D8
Morale D8
Confident

PLO/Syrian
TQ D6 - D8
Morale D6 - D8
Low Confidence - Confident

Downtown- F-111 during Linebacker II

While refreshing my interest in Downtown I have gone back over the info I had on the F-111 Operations and decided to fill in some holes.  The Day 1 strikes were in support of the B-52 missions which attacked:

· Kinh No Complex        - 3 Raids (36 Ac in total)
· Yen Vien Complex       - 1 Raid (27 Ac)
· Hoa Lac Airfield           - 1 Raid (6 Ac)
· Kep Airfield                  - 1 Raid (9Ac)
· Phuc Yen Airfield         - 1 Raid (6 Ac)
· Gia Lam Railroad yard - 2 Raids (24 Ac)
· Hanoi Radio                  - 1 Raid (21 Ac)

As an intro style game, I could use a variant of D14 to just fly the 8 F-111 attacks ahead of the B-52 missions.  Could be good for a multiplayer game anyway....I ramble on as usual.  D14 covers the first wave of 48 (which I can't reconcile via the ToT report) of B-52 preceded by the F-111 strikes, so It is relatively easy to brealk out the early F-111 missions on 18 December Day 1.  There were 15 (16) F-111 sorties flown against 9 (10) targets (figures in brackets are correct if I account for the loss of SNUG 40).  The first attacks began at 1910 hrs local with a strike against the DRV Airfields.  The timings are taken from the Linebacker II report and the conversion to local is mine using the +7 hrs GMT timezone difference.

1210Z (1910 Local)
· Hoa Lac Airfield
· Yen Bai Airfield
· Kep Airfield
· Phuc Yen Airfield

1225Z (1925 Local)
· Yen Bai Airfield
· Phuc Yen Airfield

1244Z (1925 Local)
· Yen Bai Airfield

1300Z (2000 Local) - 
· Hanoi Radio - This is pure supposition on my part as the loss of SNUG 40 is recorded at 1300Z while being flown against Hanoi Radio but that mission doesn't appear on the sortie list in the Checo Linebacker II documents. The Checo F-111 in SEA report indicates that the ToT was 2053 local and that last radio contact was at 2054 but that could just be my time zone conversion.

1328Z (2028Z local)
· Lang Truoc Radio Transmitter

1337Z (2037 Local)
· Hanoi/Bac Mai Airfield

1430Z (2130 Local)
· Hanoi Port Facility

1607Z (2307 Local)
· Hanoi/Bac Mai Airfield

1820Z (0120 Local 19th December)
· Hanoi Port Facility
1848Z (0148 Local 19th December)
· Hanoi Port Facility

2105Z (0405Z local 19th December)
· Bac Giang TPP

In terms of airframes there is plenty of documentation out there.  What I want to do going forward is find out who was involved on each of the respective days and flew which missions.  From what I have now read the tailcodes should all have been HG once deployed. So the NA codes on the 429th aircraft painted previously might be transitional.


429th TFS
67-0059
67-0060
67-0061
67-0063
67-0064
67-0065
67-0066
67-0068
67-0069
67-0070
67-0071
67-0072
67-0074
67-0075
67-0076
67-0078
67-0079
67-0080
67-0083
67-0084
67-0086
67-0087
67-0088

430th TFS    
67-0073
67-0077
67-0085
67-0091
67-0092
67-0093
67-0094
67-0095
67-0096
67-0097
67-0098
67-0099
67-0100
67-0101
67-0102
67-0103
67-0104
67-0105
67-0106
67-0107
67-0110
67-0112
67-0113
67-0114  

67-0090 Replacement aircraft
67-0062
67-0067
67-0058
67-0089
67-0109

Downtown - D3(A) - USN Planning Oriskany

Oriskany is first up in this scenario.

The USN have the following possible targets

1 = Vu Cha Railroad bridge
2 = Bac Giang POL storage
3 = Doung Nham POL storage
4,5 = Haiphong POL storage
6 = Co Trai Railroad bridge

The target roll was a 1, so the target is the Vu Cha railroad bridge..

I had previously decided which complexes the located SAMs would be in and I rolled for the actual placement hex which gives the following:

2315
1122
1129
1138
2626

Onto the raid planning itself.  The Oriskany Air Wing for the mission comprises the following

Pre-Raid Jamming
2 x {1} EA-1F, Jamming

Iron Hand
2 x {2} , A-4E, SEAD
2 x {2} , F-8E, Armed Escort

MiGCAP
2 x {2} F-8E, CAP

Strike Mission
4 x {4} A-4E, Bombing
2 x {2} , F-8E, CAP

Post Raid Recon
1 x {2} RF-8G

I also chose to site the USN Rescue Helo

13 Aircraft.  The EA-1F will be kept over the Gulf of Tonkin, The RF-8G has a simple job of following up the strike so just needs to be timed remembering that I need to leave at least five turns from the last bomb to the photo bird arriving.  The CAP need to cover Phuc Yen, Kien An, Kep and Gia Lam
As there are now SAMs in the game I am going to take the strike mission to the East of Haiphong, down behind Phantom ridge and a similar route going back.  This should limit my exposure to SAMs to the target complexes CHARLIE and BRAVO.  The SEAD will need to close off DELTA on the ingress and TANGO during the run in as well as possible FIRECAN units on the target and at Kep Airfield.  I will also place a rally point near 1607.

My inital plan looks like this.

 Now need to rehearse the timings.  In terms of gaming surface I am going to need a larger board than the last game as this will need 5 x 3 tiles so will need to reconfigure the garage to get it set up.  Still need to do some more painting on the boards.

Downtown - D3 - Planning

We move ahead to July 1966

For the US Navy we add in the Shrike missile has been available since April.  RWR and defensive jamming is just being fitted but isn't available for this scenario.
For the USAF, the RF-4C has arrived for BDA tasks, the RF-101C has had defensive jamming since July 1965, and the F-105F can carry the shrike as well.
Both the USAF and USN can use CBU on SEAD flights

I am going to split D3 into two games only to give me some longevity and also try out different force compositions.  (A) will be the USN themed game and (B) a USAF game. I only chose A for the USN because my table is currently set up for USN entry points.  I might make this three games but only because the USN get the option of flying off Oriskany and Ranger so the larger jets only appear if I go for the USS Ranger.....

There are 8 potential targets which are split as USAF only, USN only or an option to choose either USAF or USN.  This helps me split them into the two game options.  As luck would have it there are 6 possible options for each force....:)

The USAF force is a standard mission but with the insufficient weasels.  The F-105D and F bomb strength goes up to 3 as the defensive jamming pods aren't yet available.

The USN force can come from a choice of two carriers.  No USMC jamming support is available.

So I will produce a separate planning post for the USAF and USN.  The rest of this post will concentrate on the DRV defensive set up which to be honest isn't going to be a great deal.

Only downside is that the DRV gain double VPs for all US aircraft and crews shot down by MiGs

The DRV can operate from Phuc Yen, Kien An and Gia Lam with the MiG-17F and Phuc Yen, Kep and Gia Lam with the MiG-21F-13.

There are 18 possible SAMs in the game, 5 of which set up located at the game start
There are 9 AAA, and 8 FIRECAN points which will appear in the game.  Rolling for the AAA points I get a 2 which is 1 Heavy, 2 Medium, 1 Light.  2 of these concentrations need to set up on the table at the start.

0628 - Medium
0918 - Empty
1337 - Light
1421 - Light
2013 - Empty
1529 - Medium
2411 - Heavy
2927 - Light

Which is pretty easy then, one concentration in 0918 and one in 2013.  Roll on the day 1 - 5 medium, 6 - 7 Heavy, 8 - 0 Light

SAM placement.  Five are on table located.  I can either use the solo tables or come up with my own layout.

Within 1 hex of
1139, 1221, 1228, 1625, 1832, 2022, 2110, 2314, 2320, 0427, 1729, 2309, 2428, 2727, 2732, 2811, 3119, 3325, 3519, 3623.  I need to place a SAM within 6 hexes of target starting with the ones closest to Hanoi and Haiphong first and then working out.  If all targets are defended then start back adding a second SAM.  Sounds simple.....
So first step is the SAM planning map

Overlay it with the Targets and "defended" radius

Means I can defend all 8 targets with 5 SAMs and leave the remaining units all to be activated in play. So I picked the, DELTA, TANGO, PAPA, OSCAR, KILO.  I will keep the actual hex allocation to a random roll between the possible hexes when I actually start the US planning (which lets me make minor adjustments to each of the options.

So onto the US planning

Downtown - D2 - Planning

D2 is more straightforward and doesn't use any SAMs. The Targets are known to both sides and the purpose of the scenario centres around Air to Air combat.  The scenario has the potential to be quite large with Phuc Yen being in play. By actually checking the map about the likely route I would take, I have now decided that this will be on 10 tiles using row 2 and 3 boards.  This gives a playing surface like this

The terrain shot is an early one. I have since changed the river colour to a brown and started work on the Hai Doung and Me Xa bridge complexes as well as Thai Binh and Nam Dinh.  Once I have completed those and added in all the additional rivers it will be time to go back and start painting the bare white target hexes.  I have held off doing those until I have done all the other ground work just in case I need to revisit the colour schemes and also how much terrain representation I need to do.

USN Aircraft will come enter from the South West, come West between Hanoi and the Hai Doung bridges before heading to either Kep or Vu Cha. Alternatively I could come in between Haiphong and Hai Doung.  Either way the MiGs will come up from either Kep or Phuc Yen which are central on the map surface.

I did think about coming along and behind Phantom Ridge but there aren't any SAMs and the idea of this scenario is to conduct Air to Air missions in support of the raid.

Downtown - D1 - Planning

So getting an opportunity to try out my new hex board and get some additional details painted or modelled onto it.  I am going to run the missions from the scenario book in chronological order.  First up is D1 strike warfare early 1965. Bare Aluminium airframes or USAF fighters in the same Gull Grey as their USN counterparts.

Background
On 24 July 1965 an F-4C flying CAP was hit and shot down by a Russian-supplied S-75 Dvina missile. This was the first attack by SAMs on US aircraft and the shootdown took Washington by surprise. American reconnaissance had been watching construction of the SAM sites for some time but President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara were afraid of inflicting casualties on Soviet advisors at the sites and had determined to avoid further escalation. So through the spring and summer of 1965 attacks against the sites had been forbidden.

Now the SAMs had gone live a reprisal was necessary. On 27 July a large raid of F-105s was launched against the sites and nearby barracks where the SAM crews were living.

So I have plotted all the target hexes (Red Circles) and then placed the nine potential SAM locations.

Rolling a 3 on the AAA table gives me 3 Medium AAA to place.  Two need to go on table and the other will appear during game play.  As they have to go on targets closest to an entry point which don't already have a barrage marker this means that the two targets closest to Yen Bai in the bottom LH corner get an AA concentration which is activated.

So the USAF raid now rolls for the actual target and gets assigned to hit SAM 1537.

The DRV have just one hidden AAA and four FIRECAN units to disrupt the raid.  MiGs can potentially come from either Kep to the North East of Hanoi of Phuc Yen just on the outskirts of Hanoi.

As it is a SAM target the strike mission comprises some 6 flights of 4 F-105D supported by a single MiGCAP and two EB-66C with their own CAP escort flights.  No wild weasels or defence suppression are available this early in the war.  I am also restricted to using entry points: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Next up.....will be the raid planning and then time to get the models onto the table

Modern - DOTR - Eight Souls On Board - Background and setting up.

After looking around the model shop I picked up a couple of MH-60 Blackhawks in 1/100th scale from Italeri.  Diecast lower fuselage and plastic body and uppers.  This meant it was relatively straightforward to carve out the windows and doors to turn two of these models into MH-60 for a Blackhawk down based scenario.

The DOTR book from Ambush Alley Games has a range of scenarios and I fancied trying out my new models on the Super Six One rescue mission which in the book is title "Eight Souls On Board", which is a reference to the crew of Super 61.

I didn't replicate the actual crash but made a generic objective or terrain piece up using one the helicopters.

I did some reading and couldn't quite match the scenario as written with events recorded and depicted in the film "Blackhawk Down".  Film events I could ignore as you have to put up with a lot of hollywood, however there were still some things that I fancied tinkering with.

Super Six Eight is the CSAR helicopter.  The scenario has 15 guys in the Helo fast roping in.  As far as I can tell this is a bit overboard as in reality the ground element arrived at about the same time.  The narrative of the battle (plus the film :) ) indicates a smaller CSAR team based around the two PJs and the CCT with some Delta support (not sure it needs five) and a Ranger security element.  Add to this Lt DiTomasso's team plus a Little bird which dropped to pick up Sgt Busch and it is a lot and would probably overwhelm the defenders (unless the VPs are amended)

So I have changed the scenario (which my opponent doesn't know yet and he won't read this until later :)  )

I am changing it to have:

• Super Six One on the table with Sgt Busch defending.
• CSAR Bird will be 2 x PJ, 1 x CCT, 4 x Delta Operators and a Single Ranger team without the M60 addition to Fast Rope in as the game progresses. I don't fancy letting everyone disembark in one turn.  In real life Super Six Eight is also hit by RPG fire as it dropped off its team, so I fancy dropping that in on my opponent as well ;)
• Ranger 1 will be a Ranger fire team from one edge of the board which will be Lt DiTomasso's team plus a M60.
• Ranger 2 will be a second Ranger fire team from the same edge but not closer than 12" or something along those lines to the other unit.  This team will arrive after Ranger 1 but not too sure how long after.

For the CSAR team I didn't have any "correct" figures so used a couple of USMC with headswaps as stand ins.  They will do as a first attempt :)

Simple swap using a WW2 Fallschirmjager helmet from Peter Pig Range 8.  I then used a small drill to make an indentation in the top of the helmets (on visible on the PJs)

And then added goggles and knee pads using greenstuff.  Painted them in "Coffee Stain" or DCU camo and painted the web gear and boots in VJ Black Grey.

The USMC Medic set is pressed into service as the medics.  I haven't done the CCT yet though

Last up is to base Super Six Eight as a fast rope bird.

Need to make the base a little bit bigger as it doesn't take much to make it tip over.

Terrain is my standard AA terrain set 

WWII - BG Kursk - 5 July - DR Attack (Part 1)

The attack in the DR section was led by Rgt.Deutschland commanded by SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Harmel.  

III./Rgt. Deutschland (SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Wisliceny) and II./Rgt. Deutschland (SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Bissinger) were to lead the attack with attachments from 16./Komp/Rgt.Deutschland.  I./Rgt. Deutschland (SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Weidinger) was in reserve.  Due to the poor going in the area the support provided by the Tiger company and the Sturmgeschutzabteilung didn't materialise so the attack is only supported by Regimental assets.

Nipe indicates that the Russians were deployed in an arc around 3 sides of the town of Jachnotow (Iakhontov).  Glantz & House show the position as being a platoon sized forward outpost and not the main defensive line. Nipe goes on to state that the main position in the village was ringed by Minefields and a deep tank ditch.

From the map you can see Iakhontov almost in the centre of the map south west of Beresov and the road that takes you upto the main cross road.

The accounts do seem to indicate that there were forward positions but not how far out they were.  

The first stage of the attack into the village sees 3./Kompanie SS-Pioniere-Bataillon (SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Arnold) clearing paths for the assault teams into the village under heavy mortar and artillery fire.  Once they have cleared the paths they then start breaching the ditch and the assault battalions pass through.

The Assault battalion attacks the forward bunkers and then advance deeper into the village under increasing fire. At 0230hrs SS-Sturmbahnfuhrer Wisliceny reports by radio that the village was in german hands.  45 minutes later the division's artillery begins shelling the russian main defences at Beresoff (Berezov).  

Lucas (p.104) has a line that by 0300 III./Rgt Deutschland has become involved in bitter fighting after moving off.  The objectives of this subsequent attack were the line of trenches in front of yet another tank ditch and then the village of Beresov (Berezov, Beresoff).

So this scenario will end when the SS battalions have reached their intended jump off positions for the main attack.

WWII - BG Kursk - Scenario 1 (Preliminary Moves - Part 1)

BACKGROUND
The SS Panzer Korps operations during Operation Citadel occurred later than their Army counterparts.  The German operational art involved preliminary attacks as part of any operation to dislocate the defender and place the attacking forces on a strong footing.

The Plan for the preliminary attacks was for a night assault on the Soviet outpost line.  Starting at 2300hrs the German assault units drawn from II./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt 2 with attached Pioneer units began infiltrating towards the soviet outpost line.

GENERAL IDEA For this scenario I am looking at the operations of this single battalion from the LAH.  A similar attack by III./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt 1 found abandoned positions and they then occupied the positions until first light. So will be trying out some ideas for the II./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt 2 attack.

What do I know about the II./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt 2 attack then?

The objective was the outpost on Hill 228.6.  George Nipes 'Blood, Steel & Myth; Page 56' describes the objective as  "The hill was located adjacent to a main road that extended seven kilometers north to the town of Bykowka (Bykov)".  Glantz and House 'The Battle of Kursk' has a good map (Map 5) which shows the village of Bykov (Bykowka) and measuring back the 7km would put the hill approximately where 2Bty/1008ATR strongpoint is, however forward of that is another hill which is where I think 228.6 is and even further forward is a platoon forward post but no defensive positions are shown on where I thought 228.6 was in the immediate vicinity.  I may be mistaken but it appears that the scale ruler at the bottom isn't correct.  The distance between this attack on the one on Jachontow (Iakhontov) is about 1km but the rule seems to put this a huge distance apart.  if I use the mile ruler and measure it puts 228.6 where I think it is.  I have since downloaded the Kursk Map for Google earth and using the measuring tool does indeed show that the Glantz map scale of Page 5 is wrong.  The soviet map overlays are from 1942 and use 2km grid squares and you can now see the area in its glorious colour.

Nipe's account states that 8./II.SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt 2 is the first company into the position which is then reinforced by the rest of the battalion before being counter attacked by up to two companies of Soviet infantry who assembled in an Anti-Tank ditch.  Other accounts state it was 9.Komp which is what Karck commanded when he won the Knights Cross in August 43.

I wouldn't think that an AT Ditch would be well forward as it would be easy to breach if it wasn't covered by fire. So sort of tempted to think this is on the main defensive line in the 151 Guards Rifle Regiment area and is the one in front of Hill 220.5.  If so then it makes the game a little bit more of a contest at Company level .  Neither side are going to have any armour involved in it at this early stage.

More to follow..as usual and when i remember that I am working on WWII and not another project ;)

WWII - BG Kursk - Scenario Work - Intro

I like playing games that have meaning, in that I mean it isn't just 1500 pts a side but a reason for the engagement and also that sometimes things just aren't fair :)

BG Kursk is no different and I want to be able to try out some different ideas

I have thought about my model collection as well and while it isn't a driver to use the models I have painted it certainly helps, so I am looking at writing up the engagements that involved the LAH and DR.

The  opening of the offensive has some events that may translate to the gaming table as well as providing some flavour for some of our more standard games.  As we keep going off and playing other things it is useful sometimes to have some smaller games which just concentrate on one element of the rules at a time to refresh elements of the rules without having to work out orders of battle and objectives etc, it is nice if someone has done that work for you.

Central Front - BAOR Variant (West German Update)

Following in this four parter (Warsaw Pact will be part 4) is the update for the West Germans.  This update is needed because:

• The game concept allows WG forces from both I Ge Korps and III Ge Korps to commit troops into the 1st British Corps area rather than make them occupy their own "historical" deployment areas.
• Unit designations for Heerstruktur4 formations need updating as does start locations.

The update is as follows:

• Change the Covering force screen assignments as for the British.  This then places 1st Pz and 11th Pz in roughly the correct place.  As the detail is on the British page it isn't updated here.

I (Ge) Corps
16	Attack Helicopter	Hex 3640	12	New
130	Engineer	Hex 3620 (1)	12
1. PanzerDivision
11/1	Artillery Battalion	Hex 3334 (2)	12
12/1	Rocket Artillery	GT1 : 3931	9
1. PanzerGrenadierBrigade
11/1	Mech Inf (Mixed)	Hex 2336	12	Change
12/1	Mech Inf	Hex 0935	12
13/1	Mech Inf	Hex 3248	12	Change
14/1	Armour	Hex 2336	12	Change
15/1	SP Arty	Hex 1826	12
2. PanzerBrigade
21/1	Armour (Mixed)	Hex 2345 (2)	12	Change
22/1	Mech Inf	Hex 2345 (2)	12	Change
23/1	Armour	Hex 2345 (2)	12	Change
24/1	Armour	Hex 2345 (2)	12	Change
25/1	SP Arty	Hex 2345 (2)	12	Change
11. PanzerGrenadierDivision
331/11	Armour (Mixed)	Hex 3943 (1)	12	Change
332/11	Mech Inf	Hex 3248	12	Change
333/11	Armour	Hex 3943 (1)	12	Change
334/11	Armour	Hex 3943 (1)	12	Change
335/11	SP Arty	Hex 3648 (1)	12	Change
7. PanzerDivision (NORTHAG RESERVE)
211/7	Armour (Mixed)	Hex 2612 (1)	12	Change
212/7	Mech Inf	Hex 2612 (1)	12
213/7	Armour	Hex 2612 (1)	12
214/7	Armour	Hex 2612 (1)	12
215/7	SP Arty	Hex 2612 (1)	12
AufKl/7	Armd Cav	Hex 2612 (1)	12
2. PanzerGrenadierDivision (III (Ge) Corps
21/2	Artillery Battalion	GT 1 : 0116	6
22/2	Rocket Artillery	GT 1 : 0116	6
4. PanzerGrenadierBrigade
41/2	Mech Inf (Mixed)	Hex 0627 (1)	12	Change
42/2	Mech Inf	Hex 0119	12	Change
43/2	Mech Inf	Hex 0627 (1)	12
44/2	Armour	Hex 0627 (1)	12
45/2	SP Arty	Hex 0627 (1)	12
6. PanzerBrigade
61/2	Armour (Mixed)	Hex 0911 (1)	12	Change
62/2	Mech Inf	Hex 0513 (1)	12	Change
63/2	Armour	Hex 0911 (1)	12	Change
64/2	Armour	Hex 0513 (1)	12	Change
65/2	SP Arty	Hex 0911 (1)	12	Change

• What is still to do:

• Work out how any other element of 1st Panzer Division will need to be handled
• Add the Jaeger Bns (if required) there are two on the map in the North
• Finalise the GT1 entry locations