[BT] Another Winter Storm
Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:00 am
To honour the season and imminent anniversary for the turning point of World War 2: Here is a new scenario covering the german attempt to relieve Stalingrad. (well its in the community scenarios tab).
Thought I'd throw it in here as well since I found some interesting things while making it: I Used scans of original "Lage Ost" maps to make this one. Pardon my french but boy were the Germans screwed. Here are just two examples (the maps are HUGE - so these are just snippets). Keep in mind that the Soviet forces shown are only those known/guessed to be present by german intel and recon. Most places things are alot worse than they already look as also described below:
DECEMBER 13th, Front section just east of Stalingrad pocket:
German northern section:
One Regiment of the 294th ID
Remnants if Romanian 14th ID
Most of 22nd Panzer Division & Romanian Armoured Division
These units face an infantry corps and an armoured corps with plenty of more forces inbound
German central section:
610th security regiment
354th Grenadier Regiment
Gruppe 'Oberst Stahel': An ad-hoc luftwaffe battlegroup made up of ground crew/staff (such units were usually about battallion strength with little combat experience or training).
(306th Infantry Division is inbound to (try to) shore up this almost empty sector)
These units face a guards infantry corps and two cavalry corps with plenty more coming
Southern section:
Gruppe ' Gen.ltn. Stumpffeld': another adhoc battlegroup of rear area troops
11th Panzer Division
336th Infantry Division
Small parts of 7th Luftwaffe Field Division
Gruppe 'Oberst Adam': Yet another weak battlegroup
Divisional staff of 384th Infantry Division (Division itself is inside the 'Kessel')
These units face an infnatry corps, a guards cavalry corps and a tank corps
DECEMBER 20th, German attack a week after its launch.
North of the LVII. Panzer Corps' attack the section of front shown in the last map can be seen.
Gruppe 'Adam' has been destroyed and along with this the germans lost the important bridge this unit was holding (marked on map). This bridge was actually missed by me in the game as there is no bridge here in-game. And it would have been nice to have one as I needed to fiddle about with correct unit placement so as to not allow the player to cut off Soviet units too easily. Anyway: This section is now held by 336th Infantry Division, parts of 7th Luftwaffe Field Division, Gruppe 'Stumpffeld' and the divisional staff of the 384th Infantry Division.... All in all what ammounts to little more than a single Division. Now facing this is two tank corps and a guards cavalry corps
Immediately to the south of this one sees the german attack
Most shocking to me, having looked at hundreds of these maps, is the ABSOLUTE lack of support units or reserves (trust me - nothing is hiding further south outside this picture - this is "it")
North to south there is:
17th Panzer Division
6th Panzer Division
23rd Panzer Division
5 Romanian Cavalry Division
1/3'ish if 8th Romanian Cavalry Division
As can be seen there are too many Soviet units facing this force for me to be arsed to write it down . But eventually the whole thing boiled down to this: Those four divisions tried to break through large parts of three Soviet armies: 51st, 57th and 28th (all of these with a littany of attached armoured units). Later 5th Shock army (already arriving according to german intel as can be seen on map north of 17th Panzer) and 2nd Guards Army were sent in as re-inforcements just to make sure the attack would falter completely. However this mattered little as the section of front shown in the first map collapsed along with the rest of the front further north. This made any further attacks towards Stalingrad too dangerous and we all know the end result.
Hope ya'll found this interesting... And enjoy the scenario
Thought I'd throw it in here as well since I found some interesting things while making it: I Used scans of original "Lage Ost" maps to make this one. Pardon my french but boy were the Germans screwed. Here are just two examples (the maps are HUGE - so these are just snippets). Keep in mind that the Soviet forces shown are only those known/guessed to be present by german intel and recon. Most places things are alot worse than they already look as also described below:
DECEMBER 13th, Front section just east of Stalingrad pocket:
German northern section:
One Regiment of the 294th ID
Remnants if Romanian 14th ID
Most of 22nd Panzer Division & Romanian Armoured Division
These units face an infantry corps and an armoured corps with plenty of more forces inbound
German central section:
610th security regiment
354th Grenadier Regiment
Gruppe 'Oberst Stahel': An ad-hoc luftwaffe battlegroup made up of ground crew/staff (such units were usually about battallion strength with little combat experience or training).
(306th Infantry Division is inbound to (try to) shore up this almost empty sector)
These units face a guards infantry corps and two cavalry corps with plenty more coming
Southern section:
Gruppe ' Gen.ltn. Stumpffeld': another adhoc battlegroup of rear area troops
11th Panzer Division
336th Infantry Division
Small parts of 7th Luftwaffe Field Division
Gruppe 'Oberst Adam': Yet another weak battlegroup
Divisional staff of 384th Infantry Division (Division itself is inside the 'Kessel')
These units face an infnatry corps, a guards cavalry corps and a tank corps
DECEMBER 20th, German attack a week after its launch.
North of the LVII. Panzer Corps' attack the section of front shown in the last map can be seen.
Gruppe 'Adam' has been destroyed and along with this the germans lost the important bridge this unit was holding (marked on map). This bridge was actually missed by me in the game as there is no bridge here in-game. And it would have been nice to have one as I needed to fiddle about with correct unit placement so as to not allow the player to cut off Soviet units too easily. Anyway: This section is now held by 336th Infantry Division, parts of 7th Luftwaffe Field Division, Gruppe 'Stumpffeld' and the divisional staff of the 384th Infantry Division.... All in all what ammounts to little more than a single Division. Now facing this is two tank corps and a guards cavalry corps
Immediately to the south of this one sees the german attack
Most shocking to me, having looked at hundreds of these maps, is the ABSOLUTE lack of support units or reserves (trust me - nothing is hiding further south outside this picture - this is "it")
North to south there is:
17th Panzer Division
6th Panzer Division
23rd Panzer Division
5 Romanian Cavalry Division
1/3'ish if 8th Romanian Cavalry Division
As can be seen there are too many Soviet units facing this force for me to be arsed to write it down . But eventually the whole thing boiled down to this: Those four divisions tried to break through large parts of three Soviet armies: 51st, 57th and 28th (all of these with a littany of attached armoured units). Later 5th Shock army (already arriving according to german intel as can be seen on map north of 17th Panzer) and 2nd Guards Army were sent in as re-inforcements just to make sure the attack would falter completely. However this mattered little as the section of front shown in the first map collapsed along with the rest of the front further north. This made any further attacks towards Stalingrad too dangerous and we all know the end result.
Hope ya'll found this interesting... And enjoy the scenario