This post focuses on NORTHAG combats. CENTAG, SOUTHAG and overall situation map will follow shortly.
Hamburg and Around
With 2nd Guards Tank Army guarding the East side of Hamburg, a reinforced 20th Guards Army overran the Southern approach to the city and moved North West toward Bremen, destroying elements of the 11th Panzergrenadier Division and a German reservists Regiment in the process.
Hanover
With 3rd Shock Army closing the Southern pincer around Hanover, two armored divisions of 20th Guards Army surrounded the city from North, using a SSM-delivered chemicals bombardment to neutralize 8/3 German brigade and open up a passage between the city and Weser river. Once the trap was closed, they proceeded to attack and destroy two Belgian and one German brigades defending the urban area.
Minden and beyond the Weser
With the Hanover area secured, spearhead divisions of 3rd Shock Army assaulted Minden, defended by elements of German 3rd Armored Division.
The lead Soviet division achieved a breakthrough that allowed five division to cross the MittelLandKanal and move on the West bank of the Weser, infiltrating from the rear the defenses of British 1st Armored Division. At night, combat engineers repaired Minden bridge allowing supply convoys transit.
The lead Soviet division achieved a breakthrough that allowed five division to cross the MittelLandKanal and move on the West bank of the Weser, infiltrating from the rear the defenses of British 1st Armored Division. At night, combat engineers repaired Minden bridge allowing supply convoys transit.
Gutersloh and Osnabruck
After the failure of the reconnaissance in force at Dortmund, 1st Guards Tank Army followed the well-known Red Army's motto "never reinforce a failure" and changed its axis of advance to Osnabruck.
First, the three NATO brigades at Gutersloh airport were surrounded and destroyed with the support of a division from 3rd Shock Army.
NATO decided to stand fast and dozens of helicopters moved in to hammer the advancing Soviet tanks, but paying themselves a high price in blood and assets. Despite the violence of Warsaw Pact's assault, at the end of the day the city was still in British hands and the attackers were too exhausted to renew the attack.
Second, Soviet 31st Guards Paratroop Division was transported North of the city by MI-6 helicopters to block any NORTHAG attempt to reinforce the city.
Having secured the rear, three additional armored divisions with heavy artillery support launched the main attack at Osnabruck, defended by BAOR mixed elements.NATO decided to stand fast and dozens of helicopters moved in to hammer the advancing Soviet tanks, but paying themselves a high price in blood and assets. Despite the violence of Warsaw Pact's assault, at the end of the day the city was still in British hands and the attackers were too exhausted to renew the attack.
Kassel
Two Soviet armored division were detached from 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies to reconquer the city, taken by 26th German paratrooper Brigade with a surprise airdrop.
At the end of the day Kassel was back in Warsaw Pact's hands, with the encircled Germans still able to fight.
NORTHAG Overall Situation at D+5, 01:00 Zulu Time
Excellent AAR! I noticed you seem to have some Czech formations up there with 3d Shock Army. How did you manage that?
ReplyDeleteKeep 'em coming!
We're playing the tension scenario, so I had 3 full turns to place the czech with 3rd shock army.
ReplyDeleteSupply is not a problem as wp division are able to get it from any HQ regardless of nationality.
Nice. I've never played the tension scenario. We usually went with the Spring maneuvers version, figuring it was more likely than some of the other scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI need to try the tension one sometime!
True, but we wanted to play a more balanced scenario, also taking into account Warsaw pact's weaknesses emerged after the fall of the iron curtain. We are using several house rules for this, particularly in the EW and supply area.
ReplyDeleteI would be curious what your house rules are. I think we played the game OOB, though I added the northernmost stretch of the Berlin-Hamburg autobahn to my map. Can't recall if we fiddled the OOB, though we did use Tony Doran's alternative air combat CRT tables, along with some of the stuff from Moves magazine that came out back in the old days.
ReplyDeleteI never have figured out what the "Putlach Trench" is supposed to be down there in Bavaria.
There's a summary of our house rules at this link:
Deletehttp://warwithoutkia.blogspot.it/2014/01/the-next-war-operation-attila-startup.html
Regarding the Berlin Hamburg autobahn, I don't think it's a good idea. I've found some 1980 photos:
Deletehttp://www.autobahn-online.de/images/alt5.jpg
Puttlach river has a steep sided valley that flows into the Main.
DeleteWhen did they finish it? I was usually thinking of my games taking place in the early to mid-80s, though the game was published in the late 70s
ReplyDeleteThe site tells it was "finished" in 1983, but I don't believe communist propaganda ;)
Delete