Escape from Tula

 This the last in my One Hour WW2 trilogy covering the battle for Tula in late 1941. This one has Guderians 2nd Panzer Army trying to escape Soviet encirclement as the great Soviet winter offensive unrolls.

This action takes place on 16th December 1941, and I managed to run it in December 2025, so sort of seasonal. I've done it as our old friends 24th Panzer Corps trying escape Boldins 50th Army. The German units are all at around 15% strength, so entire divisions are represented as a couple of units. The Russians are stronger but still under strength. 

Battlefield from the south. Apologies for the quality of the first few pictures, I set this up in the afternoon on one of those winter days of blazing sunshine with the sun skimming the horizon, so there are a lot of shadows.

Main features are the railway line running east-west and a ridge in the northwest plus a few woods dotted around. The river is frozen and the villages are purely cosmetic.

We've actually done this exact scenario before in my pre-hex days, and the general scenario on two other occasions as it is one of my favourite 'flank attack' OHW scenarios. Lets see if the players remember.

The Germans start strung out along the railway line with a couple of Russian units ahead blocking the way while the other Russians charge on from the north. The Germans need to get three units off the west rail hex to win.

Here is a the raggedy German column, lots of horse carts and not many lorries! I've put the logistic and artillery elements on too as it adds to the Grand Armee 1812 look of the thing.

It is thick snow but given the units involved it all sort of cancels out, so I left the movement rates as standard, although the German 'motorised' units are treated as leg infantry. Making everything move just one hex per turn would slow the game to a crawl.

Tim, Mark and Terry commanded the Germans.

In the way of the Germans is 7th ski brigade. I let this move as cavalry cross country over the snow. It has literally just arrived, so hasn't dug in yet. Ian commanded this on Tuesday.

And the rest of Russian horde! Commanded by John A, Jerry, Simon, Russell and John B. Some players could only do one night, it added to the command confusion. These guys all come on from the north on turn one.

The main striking elements, 15th Cavalry Division (Jerry) and 18th Rifle Brigade (Simon/Russell). Each has two units and an attached field artillery battalion without much ammo. All the transport is horse drawn as  the minor roads are snowed in. You can also see the Russian logistics, two more horse cart columns.

The more modern stuff is 141st Tank Brigade, under direct command of the CO (John A) and a wing of IL4s. The weather is appalling so their sortie rate is low, if they do rock up, they can attempt to bomb the German supply lines or drop supplies to partisans.

The partisans have more chance of success attacking supply lines, but need regular supply drops.

4th Panzer 'Division' commanded by Mark. One armour unit, one mechanised infantry, both veterans. You can also see the Germans single logistic unit, a horse drawn ambulance.

The Germans came up with the innovative idea of putting the armour at the back of the column, which I think is a great idea.

In the middle we have 3rd Motorised Division with two 'regiments', each of one infantry unit and a load of horse carts. One of them is dragging some heavy infantry guns along. Terry commands these as well as running the Corps.

And in the lead with have Tims 3rd 'Panzer' division, with two leg infantry units and more horse carts, although the lead Regiment has some 37mm AT guns.

And finally we have a wing of Ju 52 supply planes. These are available every turn and can't be interdicted, but there is a chance their drops will scatter. Combined with the horse carts, this actually gives the Germans a much better supply situation than in the last game. As they are falling back along their LOC that seemed sensible.

Right, to battle!

The Russian offensive opens with a fortunate strike by IL4s (through the snow storms) on the German supply units.

And the Russian army streams on in the northwest. I realised to my horror that I'd forgotten to restrict the Russian entry to the eastern half of northern edge. With unrestricted entry they could just run their entire force down the the exit hex. Was the game over before it had started? Too late to change it now. The ski brigade started digging in.

The German response was interesting, 3rd Panzer pushed forwards a hex or so into the range of 7th Ski, while 4th Panzer and 3rd Motorised fanned out north of the railway line. Putting the most mobile troops at the back was paying off.

The headlong Russian advance continued. 18th Rifle Brigade was marching down column C and 15th Cavalry down column D followed by the 141st Tank. The cavalry fanned out a bit as they approached the rail line and the tanks pulled up alongside.

There was a certain amount of jostling for position. Most of the units hung around a long range, and everyone had suddenly realised there wasn't much cover out here. 7th Ski Brigade finished digging in, a very wise move. The question now was who could concentrate sufficient superiority of force at critical points. With lots of units strung out in long lines, that wasn't looking too promising.

To everyones surprise the Luftwaffe managed to mount an air raid. I'd actually forgotten I'd given the Germans a (small) chance of air raids, so had to press the Ju 52s into service as bombers. They flew around the Russian rear areas and missed.

A certain mount of fighting now broke out, the Germans mainly concentrated on 15th Cavalry, both units were shot up, one enough to become disorganised. The Germans used up some of their artillery, both sides were very short of ammo due to the transport problems in deep winter.

The Russian cavalry fell back to reorganise, while the Ski troops concentrated their fire on 3rd Panzer very effectively and one Regiment became disorganised. 141st Tank moved up in a very threatening way, opening up the possibility of an overrun attack.

The Germans responded with an artillery barrage on the disorganised Russian cavalry, which was enough to finish them off and then the battered German infantry fell back to the rail line.

Everything in range opened fire on the 141st Tank as 4th Panzer Regiment moved up. The Russian tanks had moved in range of the German anti-tank guns and suffered such heavy losses they became disorganised too.

By now 18th Rifle had lined up with the cavalry.

The Russians fired everything they had, including all their divisional artillery, at 4th Panzer Regiment and inflicted enough hits to disorganise it. The battered Russian tankers withdrew out of range and parked up next the Ski troops.

The Germans put in a maximum resupply effort to resupply their guns and reorganise the panzers. The Luftwaffe dropped urgently needed supplies of schnapps and chocolate laced with benzedrine. 

Russian partisans were busy attacking the German supply lines. The partisans only had a certain number of attacks available, but could be resupplied by Russian bombers (if they could get airborne).

The German infantry pushed forwards covered by 4th Panzer. The battered infantry unit was still awaiting resupply. The Russian cavalry took enough damage to become disorganised, and the Russian have apparently failed to resupply 141st Tank.

The battered Russian cavalry fell back out of sight behind the woods while 18th Rifle Brigade put one of its units in a bold outflanking manouvre behind 4th Panzer Regiment.

The Germans in turn concentrated every unit in range on 141st Tank, including some of their resupplied artillery, and inflcited enough losses to cause it to disintegrate. Burning T26s and Matildas littered the snow fields.

With their ground supply disrupted by partisans it was up the Luftwaffe to resupply 3rd Schutzen Brigade, which they did in fine style. So far the Luftwaffe hadn't missed a single drop. I'm sure Goering will make a note of that for future reference.

Russian supply units reorganised the battered Russian cavalry.

In a very exciting move, 18th Rifle Brigade put in an assault on 4th Panzer Regiment, covered by its brigade artillery and fire from its elements in the village. The assault was repulsed but not without inflicted yet more damage on 4th Panzer Regt which became disorganised.

Time for the  Luftwaffe to step up, more supplies rained down on the Panzers from the air. The other German units in range, plus the last of the German artillery ammo, poured devastating fire into the village and routed the Russian infantry inside. It didn't provide much cover at all. The very deliberate German approach was paying dividends, but how were they doing for time?

Back in the southwest, 3rd Panzer realised they were just presenting an easy target for 7th Ski Brigade so pulled back out of range while the battle in the north took place. They even dug in!

In a serious blow to Russian hopes, the last cavalry unit moved south only to be destroyed by German fire as it moved adjacent to 7th Ski Brigade. The Germans took the opportunity of the collapsed flank to move 4th Panzer around the northeastern side of 7th Ski Brigade. 

It was starting to look rather like a cauldron, but with the Russians inside it and not the Germans.

We broke for the evening at that point after seven turns. With 7th Ski Brigade now isolated, it is a question of how long it will take the Germans to reduce the Russian entrenchments and get their units off. All the German units are now carrying two or three hits, apart from the panzergrenadier brigade.

The Russians still have the battered remains of 18th Rifle Brigade outside the cauldron, along with its accompanying artillery. It is in a position to run interference and disrupt the German plans, but needs to be careful.

OK, lets see what happens tomorrow.

The Russians realised fairly quickly that the partisans were far more effective than their rather erratic bombing missions, so used a timely appearance of aircraft to drop supplies to the partisan instead. During the game the Partisan attacks never failed, although they did burn through their supplies of explosives and ammunition. 

The Germans weren't left with much option other  than a frontal assault.. They spent a turn shooting the Russians up from the north while infantry in the centre closed for a potential assault. At close range the Russian defensive fire was devastating and one of the German units was left reeling with five hits on it. 

The Russians simply reorganised the battered unit holding the rail line, they could go on doing that forever unless the Germans did something a bit more decisive....

The panzers  and resupplied artillery shot in an assault by 4th Motorised Rifle Regiment, accompanied by Geyr von Schweppenburg himself! . The Germans cycled some of their more battered units to the rear and resupplied one by air. 

The assault was (just) successful. The Germans were slightly lucky, I thought it would take two assaults. 6th MRR rolled forward and occupied the exit hex.. The remains of 7 th Ski declined a heroic counterattack,  but instead shot the Germans to bits as they milled around in the open. Under the stern eye bof the Corps commander they (just) hung on. 

The Russian partisan kept hammering the German supply lines, hampering their efforts to keeep their battered  units in good order. 

18th Rifle Brigade moved up to attack the rear of the German units, covered by it's artillery. The weakened 3rd MRR be came disorganised in the face of this unexpected attack. 

The Germans now had the interesting problem of how to get their units off through a Russian zone of control! They didn't really have to time or strength to clear the rest of the Russian position. 

Essentially they could exit one unit per turn. The first battered infantry  marched off, it's place taken by 4th Panzer Regiment. Von Schweppenburg stayed in the exit hex to direct traffic and boost morale. That will look good on the cover of Signal! 

The units queuing up to leave engaged 18th Rifle Brigade and a vicious fire fight broke out in the German rear. 

The Panzer managed to escape and their place was taken by the Panzergrenadiers. 

The Russians managed to destroy 3rd Schutzen Regiment as they queued up at the exit, but not before  18th Rifle Brigade had finally succumbed. 

As the clock counted down, the Panzergrenadiers made their escape, leaving the last German infantry to fend for themselves. They  could slip away later. With three German units exited, we called it there with two turns left on the clock. 

Well, that was just great. I'm still not not not not quite sure how the Germans managed to blow most of the Russian army to bits and only lose one unit in the process but for the first ever playing of those scenario, the escapees have managed to escape! I think it just shows what a deliberate approach rather than a mad dash for the exit can achieve. Perhaps that was the key? It was the Russians making a mad dash for the exit, while the Germans managed to position themselves to gain fire superiority over small portions of the Russian force. Obviously it helped that unit for unit the German units are better, but they still have the task of attacking a force superior in size and forcing their way offtable. 

Iron Crosses  all around to the Luftwaffe for their sterling air supply efforts, Order of Lenin to the 7th Ski Brigade and the Red Partisans who contribute so much to blocking the German advance. 

I really enjoyed running that trio of games, early war kit on snow boards, fabulous. It was also good to deploy lots of toys for the first time, my Lend Lease Matilda, 85mm AA guns and Sdkfz 251/10. Many thanks to all the players for taking part in such good spirit and for displaying outrageous levels of hat wearing. 

Collins Encyclopedia of Military History

 I'd not come across this book before but John A saw a copy in a local charity shop and asked if I wanted one. 

The Collins Encyclopedia of Military History by R and T Dupuy, the latter obviously famous for his work on military science, "Numbers Prediction and War" etc.

I've got several military encylopedias already, but they tend to be period specific and of distinctly patchy quality. This one covers a vast period, from the earliest recorded history (Sumerians etc) up to 'the present day', which apparently means 1991. I guess they are subscribers to the End of History thesis. It covers the first Gulf War anyway.

Ignoring the missing ultra modern stuff, this is a really, really good encyclopedia. Each military epoch has a chapter on significant military methods and developments in the period. This one is explaining the Philip IIs, Macedonian Army.

And then there are fairly standard encyclopedia type pages covering the few hundred years of ensuing military history, covering the entire globe, as far as we know about it anyway. Where appropriate, key battles are illustrated, but for me the fascinating thing was the coverage of areas I know little about (India, China, South America etc) and it also filled in lots of gaps about periods I do have some knowledge of (who on earth were the Phoenecians?)

You also get the inevitable campaign and regional maps, which are also very useful. 

I really can't recommend this highly enough. I'm sure wikipedia covers a lot of this stuff these days, but you need a starting point about what to look for, and this is as good as any. What a great book, thanks very much John!

One Page Bulge

 Regular readers may recall that I was frustrated by apparently losing my original copy of Steve Jacksons 'One Page Bulge'. I tracked down a replacement copy on ebay, and having got it, I thought I may as well give it a play. The original will no doubt turn up now, presumably tucked inside an old copy of the AHGC General or something. 

This is all very familiar, although I last played this over 30 years ago. The map is a pretty decent representation of the battlefield, the Meuse is that long river running across the northwest corner. There is a well represented road net, one wrinkle being that mechanised units can only enter or leave the numerous areas of 'rough ground' via roads, coupled with the many rivers, it severely limits movement and combat options in some areas. The rivers aren't impassable but impose a significant movement penalty unless at a bridge. 

All set up for turn 1 (the turns are days) and pleasantly surprised to find all the counters are there. The seller had even provided a custom turn marker (which isn't provided in the base game, I used to use a coin) ! The Germans are a coiled fist ready to strike west, while the US has a rather gappy centre but Elsenborn Ridge in the north  and the south around Diekirch are strongly held. Sorry, it is hard to see the white Allied counters on the map. 

The units (regiment sized or equivalent) all have designated setup areas marked on the map, sadly they don't have individual unit IDs and are very generic indeed. All infantry have a combat strength of four, while the armour is a bit more varied. Mech infantry are four (Allied) or five (German) and armour is eight (Allied) or nine (German) and the Germans have two 10 factor units which apparently represent 1st and 12th SS Panzer Regiments. The Allied units are all significantly more mobile, representing their greater provision of transport and fuel. The Allied infantry are faster than the panzer units!

One of the reasons for the generic units is the reinforcement track, there are more Allied reinforcements than counters, so you are supposed to use counters from the dead pile. It is a play balance mechanism, as if the Germans haven't destroyed enough units, the Allies wont get extra reinforcements. Clever.

The CRT is quite eccentric. Terrain gives minuses to the dice (towns and rough ground -2, rivers -1), which is a very powerful effect, far more so than column shifts or doubling, although 7:1 odds is an automatic victory. Combat is mandatory unless across a river or out of a town, and while units can soak off, entire stacks must be attacked, so it encourages stacking rather than distribution. The CRT also includes 'no effect' results, and if a unit is unable to retreat due to ZOC, the attack is re-rolled with DR treated as DE, while exchanges are on a unit not CF basis. These sorts of things all favour the defender and make attacking quite frustrating.

After turn 1, 5th Panzer Army has gained a foothold over the river in the centre, 7th Army has locked down the south but is too weak for major offensive action but 6th SS Panzer Army have had great success and largely cleared Elsenborn Ridge and Camp Elsenborn. St Vith held out though as the Germans couldnt bring enough force to bear. 

The Allies get 1-6 Air power points power turn (representing variability in the weather), and even just one point can be enough to shift the odds of an attack down as it is applied after the Germans declare their attack. It was air which saved St Vith.

I'm not being overly precious about min maxing the SP of the various attacks, as far as possible I'm stacking up units in divisions and fighting with those, although I am more careful with the allocation of regiments in contact to specific combats. The road net and terrain preclude fancy manouvering anyway.

The red counter behind Elsenborn is the US blowing up a fuel dump. The victory conditions are harsh and require large German forces to cross the Meuse for even a marginal victory, and my recollection is that is almost impossible to achieve. One optional rule is to use various supply depots marked on the map. These are worth varying amounts of VPs and may be captured outright, blown up or evacuated. The Germans get half VP for demolished ones but none for evacuated ones, although it is very hard to evacuate larger dumps due to the time (measured in movement points) required. 

Behind the demolished dump is a large fuel depot northwest of Malmedy, if the Germans capture it intact, it will give them a movement bonus. It is worth 10VP and would require US units to spend 10 MP to demolish it (or 30 MP to evacuate it).

Day 2. St Vith falls and 2nd Panzer Div makes good progress towards Bastogne. 7th Army grinds slowly forward, reinforced with 15th (?) Panzergrenadier Division. In the far north the US dont quite have enough units to demolish the 1st Army fuel depot, and instead the survivors from St Vith focus on shutting down the road routes west as it really isn't far to Liege from there.

In the centre, the US defence has now become a screen to impede German road movement, but it has taken the Germans too long to get across the rivers, and US reinforcements are well on the way to Bastogne now.

A big turn for the Germans in the north and centre. Volksgrenadiers capture the 1st Army fuel depot giving the Germans a short lived move bonus. 1st and 12th SS Panzer are halted at Trois Ponts and Vielsalm however, the US defences were just strong enough to hold them as the German infantry is lagging behind.

Panzer Lehr pushes back 9th Armored Div in front of Bastogne and 2nd Panzer starts to bypass from the north, also pushing back an armoured Combat Command. 5th Panzer Army isnt going to get to Bastogne first though.

Two more panzer divisions arrive from reserve (I guess these are 9th and 10th SS?), I assign one to each panzer army.

The US decide it is time to cut and run rather than fighting in the open. Bastogne is strongly garrisoned while units in the south fall back to key road junctions. Other units fall back behind the river northwest of Bastogne, blowing fuel dumps as they go.

The real US problem is in the north where they are very thin on the ground, however in the nick of time a fresh infantry division (3 x 4-7 units) arrives and added to the remaining US mechanised units, locks down the roads through the rough ground west of Trois Ponts.

The Germans have two potential road routes to the northwest though, both north of Bastogne. The Germans have to stay within three hexes of a road to remain supplied, so the road net is crucial.

Another important turn. 7th Army continues to grind forward slowly in the south. 6th SS Panzer Army makes contact in the north but isn't strong enough to do more than push one US stack back. They are now thoroughly enmeshed in the horrible terrain up here. It may look there is a big gap opened up, but until the SS can clear the road junction in front of them, they cant move through the rough ground to exploit it.

In the centre, 2nd Panzer suffers a catastrophic defeat as it attempts a river assault. US airpower intervenes to dropthe odds to 1:1, and they they roll a 1. Attacker Eliminated! Ouch! Panzer Lehr doesnt like the look of Bastogne at all and bypasses to the north but naturally the rivers and lack of roads make this a slow job, although the fuel captured by 6th SS helps.

Fortunately 9th and 10th SS Panzer are now arriving at the front to bolster the attack.

German losses mount. So far I've managed to mainly take exchanges from German infantry who have kept up due to the generally slow progress. Most German infantry divisions only have two units, so that is four divsions gone. The tank casualties are from 2nd Panzer.

The Germans are  largely ignoring Bastogne now, instead focussing on setting up 7th Army to screen the south. This in turn allows the US to route reinforcements up to the centre, using their superior mobility and access to the roadnet.

In the centre and north however, the Germans score some successes now their infantry and the two extra panzer divisions have caught up. Panzer Lehr and 9th SS push forward in the centre, while 1st and 12th SS score big tactical victories in the north with (unplanned) 7:1 attacks which annihilate the US defenders and finally open up a route out of the awful terrain.

Large US reinforcements arrive from the north,  they don't have any option but to defend Liege (with a 20VP main supply dump!) and to attempt to limit progress down the roadnet by holding key junctions. There  is a big gap in the US line south of the Meuse, but fortunately no roads through it.

1st SS Panzer Div reaches the Meuse! They push the US defenders across it. The rest of 6th SS Panzer Army is struggled forwards, but they've even managed to keep two infantry divisions with them.

5th Panzer Army thinks about going for Celles and Dinant, but there are just enough US and British forces in the way to make that unattractive. They instead focus on moving parallel to 6th SS PA, and mass armour and infantry ready to advance northwest. The US focus on screening the route west as it will take two turns for 5th PA to reach the Meuse going north.

US forces cluster around Liege to limit the extent of any river crossings.

1st and 10th SS bludgeon their way across the Meuse, but 12th SS is repulsed from Liege.

Panzer Lehr and 9th SS approach the Meuse but strong Allied forces deny an easy crossing to the north west. The Germans start to worry about their ever extending southern flank as more US infantry arrive from the south, allowing US armor to concentrate.

5th Panzer Army closes on the Meuse but fails to cross. However a massed assault sees Liege fall to 6th SS Panzer Army, but not before the depot is demolished. All the available panzergrenadier regiments are assigned to support 7th Army protecting the southern flank, and a final panzer division (9th? 116th?) has been released too.

US and British armour is now advancing east along the northern bank of the Meuse to limit the size of the German bridgehead,

Allied counterattcks north of the Meuse push the Germans back but don't inflict many significant losses. The German front is looking quite solid, and has two supply routes leading back to Germany.

In the south more Allied armour concentrates around Bastogne. The German lines look quite sketchy here. The two critical points are the towns north of the 5-6 panzergrenadiers as they control 5th Panzer Army's supply route.

The Allied counter offensive breaks the German line north of Bastogne. The writing is on the wall as unless the Germans can get a blocking force in the way, the Allied armour can cut off the entire German armoured spearhead in one move  now.

The Allies counterattack north of the Meuse and compress the German bridgehead but again fail to inflict decisive losses.

And with the Germans firmly established around Liege, the game ends on 26th December. Even without the VP for the blown or captured fuel dumps, it is a decent German win, although with Allied armour pushing up from the south, it is likely to be quite short lived!

Well, I think that is the first time I've seen quite so much German armour over the Meuse, my memory is more of the Germans beating their heads against huge Allied stacks sitting in bad terrain. I'm probably a bit rusty on running the defence, but the Germans maintained a high enough rate of attrition that it was very difficult for the Allies to accumulate enough reserves for local force superiority. They barely had enough to maintain a line, and were constantly playing reactively, although the US could probably have been a bit more aggressive in the south once the main panzer spearheads had passed.

Anyway, that was a lot of a fun and I'm glad I played that again. It is a lot of game in a small space and manages to capture the essence of the campaign in a playable format. I'd originally intended to play it over an afternoon and a morning, but in the end it only took three hours including setup, so I got it down in one session. I'm not minded to try it again immediately, but I may revisit it at some point. It has got me thinking about playing some of my other old boardgames though, probably not Third Reich, but I do have some other fairly accessible games.