S
Strachwitz
Guest
The Centre Battle is also in progress now. The primary mission is to get over the river and to establish a beach head on the enemy side. Secondary mission is to expand the perimeter and secure at least one square containing a bridge or ford for the next turns.
The ford on the left flank is not suited very well for a crossing as there are buildings and good defensive positions right at the ford.
The ford on the right flank is too exposed and difficult to approach and offers long and open fields of view for the enemy. There are also a lot of ditches on the right flank and I guess there will be at least placed some AT-Guns.
So I decided to try a breach by force at the center 2 bridges and the one ford and hope at least one crossing is not too good defended. Fields of view are limited from large parts of the map there and at least a bit concealed. I suspect the crossing points are guarded by TRPs, minefields and obstacles. I don't mind if I loose some tanks to AT-Mines and hope to secure the square to get the immobilized Tanks back after that battle according to the rules.
To achieve my mission objectives I set up a quite complex preplanned artillery and mortar bombardment to cover my approach by smoke and weaken supposed enemy positions close by the river and the woods behind the river. For that purpose nearly all Artillery assets have been massed for that battle. 18x82mm Mortars, 5x120mm Mortars, 2x76mm Field Hauwitzers (4 guns each), 4x132mm Rocket Artillery and 2x152mm Batteries.
The 82mm Mortars are ordered to form a smoke shield right from the start. About 3 Minutes in the smoke should be dense enough to rush scout vehicles, tanks and tank rider infantry close to the bridges.
6 82mm mortars are firing a heavy barrage at the stripe of woods left and close to the left bridge to suppress enemy units there.
After 5 minutes 2x 120mm and the 76mm Field Hauwitzers fire another volley of smoke rounds to intensify the density of the smoke curtain and make it lasting longer.
10 minutes in the remaining 120mm mortars drop another firing mission on the right flank to hide hopefully already crossed units from flanking fire.
2 Batteries of Rocket Artillery will hit the enemy hard at 5 minutes into the game in both patches of wood nearby the crossings and will last 5 minutes. Hopefully this will enable me to get hold of the woods fast with infantry and tanks starting at the 10 minute mark.
One other Rocket Artillery Battery in conjunction with one 152mm Artillery Battery is ordered to take care of the first part of the village with a long lasting harrasing mission right from the start to suppress the enemy there and if the gods of war are with us maybe we can also secure that part of the village sometime later into the game (I hope to attack there about 20 minutes into the game).
The remaining Rocket Artillery Battery is firing a long lasting Harassment & Intesiction Mission starting 10 minutes into the game on the western part of the village to deny or at least hinder enemy reinforcements towards my positions.
The last asset, a 152mm Artillery Battery takes care of a long patch of woods that possibly contains enemy units threatening the hopefully secured woods at the centre.
2 Minutes into the game:
One of my flank guard ISU-122s from 1.Company/376. Guards Heavy SU Regiment on my far right flank spotted an Jagdpanzer some 1500m away. His 75mm L/48 should not be able to penetrate my Selfpropelled gun but in reverse my 122mm gun should be able to penetrate this threat. Even at this distance. But hitting is not easy and the Jagdpanzer just has to move a few meters back into a small ditch to avoid fire. At least I now know about this tank killer.
The smoke screen is slowly developing and I think it is safe to get the first movement orders out for the breaching elements:
2.Company/1.Btn/50.Tankovy Brigada (11 T-34/85) together with the Tankrider Company of Submachinegun Btn are ordered forward to their final starting positions. They are the Arrow Head of my Breaching Force.
1.Company/1.Btn/50.Tankovy Brigada will move forward cautiously to provide fire support later.
2.Company/Submachinegun Btn/50.Tankovy Brigada is ordered to get to their final staging area. They are supposed to be the second wave of units crossing the river if everything goes well.
My main fear for now is one IL-2 Sturmovik. It could arrive anytime and I hope it doesn't arrive to early and hits my own tanks moving forward in the open.
