Quiet Flows the Donbas

 Having acquired much of Tims old 20mm Eastern Front Megablitz collection, Tom was keen to put on a game. He arranged for us to play at Crookes Working Mens Club rather than our usual Tapton venue.  Tom provided the toys, Tim wrote the scenario and umpired the game, while I provided the aircraft.

The general area of operations. This is a fictional scenario set in May 1943 before Kursk, and covers one of the proposed 'pinching out' operations Hitler was so keen on in the runup to the main offensive in July. The battlefield is roughly 130km x 60km, the Donets is the large, looping river in the west, Krupiansk is the city in the east and Balakaya in the southwest.

The German aim is to cross the river, take Krupiansk and then wheel north to set up further offensive operations (so they need to open up the relevant toad network). The Russians initially have 7th Army defending the Donbas. After the game I learned that the German force was modelled on Armee Abteilung Kempf, but I didn't know that at the time.

The map translated into three large tables (maybe 6x10?). Two parallel tables covering the northwest and northeast, and a last table at right angles covering the east. The layout of the room precluded putting the last table at 90 degrees unfortunately.

Tim briefing the players. We had four Russians and seven Germans. I was cast as the Russian CinC, while Chris Kemp was the German CO. I didn't know any of the other players apart from Tom, and all the others were new to Megablitz.

The Russian initial forces were 7th Army with three Rifle Corps, 27th Guards (Dex), 48th (Tom S) and 57th (Tom D). I also had a moderate amount of Army assets - artillery and some independant tank brigades. Looking at the configuration of the roads, the obvious German schwerpunkt was down the main road running from the northwest, so my plan was to put two Corps up and one back with the third able to cover the main road in depth.

27th GRC had the hardest assignment, holding the lower Donets bend. I reinforced it with a tank brigade and two Army artillery regiments as it had a long frontage to hold all on its own, although my expectation was that this would be a secondary front, as the road configuration here is awful for a German attack.

Dex deployed the 27th with two divisions holding the bridges and one in reserve. The relatively short artillery range and horse drawn transport precluded spreading out much more than this. 

The 48th were concentrated to defend the river crossing at Nuguyev, which was the obvious Rollbahn. All three divisions were fairly close together on a short front.

The 57th was more dispersed, with two divisions on the river line in depth and a third holding the road leading north. This Corps could deploy south to support the 27th if required or reinforce the 48th. It seemed unlikely the Germans would bridge in this sector given the lack of a road network west of the river.

Army HQ set up around the junction northwest of Balakeya. There were good lateral roads from here so it was easy to keep all three Corps supplied. I assigned another Tank Brigade to 48th Corps but kept an SU85 Regiment and towed 76mm AT Regiment in reserve.

The Russian airforce. Air support could only be requested by written message, passed to me via the umpire. In fact all Russian communications was via umpire message, unless our HQs were in base-base contact.

The German airforce. The Germans still had to communicate by message, but didn't have to go through the umpire. That makes quite a big difference!

Well, blow me down. What looks like at least three entire Panzer Divisions rolls on from the southwest. 

They promptly roll up to the river and start building bridges. It looks like I may have made a mistake in the initial deployment... the front is too long to cover for one Rifle Corps. Well, they are Guards, so I'm sure they will do their best.

And down the Rollbahn, the Germans commit.... what look like two horse drawn infantry divisions. One of the 48th RC divisions nipped over the river to occupy the town and was promptly bombed for its efforts. Looking at the force-space ratios here it is going to take ages for the Germans to even get the river here, and when they do, I reckon 48th RC can hold them up for some time. 

On 27th GRC front, the force ratios are a bit less auspicious, but at least our guys are well dug in. I'm glad I put that extra artillery here. So far no-one has sent Army HQ any messages reporting enemy activity, so I can't react in any way.

I finally get a message from 27th GRC reporting enemy armour across the Donets! Fortunately, the message also includes some geographic locations, so the entire Soviet airforce is sent to bomb them. German fighters intercept but my La-5s holds them off. In river crossing mode, the Germans are very vulnerable and the VVS inflicts heavy losses.

Generally things could be going a bit better on this front though. The Germans have got the lead elements of two divisions across the river now and all three divisions of 27th GRC are engaged. So far, they are hanging on OK though.

Menwhile on the northern Donets, the German infantry are still trudging forwards. Slowly.

As the marching columns approach the town, they are a perfect target for the Russian airforce.

The German infantry finally reach the river line and start building bridges.

Night fell (finally) and I could do some reorganisation. 57th RC had already been ordered south, and it was time to pull out the remains of 27th GRC.

Next morning the German panzers were well across the Donbas, but 27th GRC was now in a roving pocket heading east. They could still interdict the German advance, so as Army HQ relocated further east, the reserve AT units were allocated to 27th GRC.

57th RC was well on the way south now. Its leading division was already off the map and en route to support 27th GRC.

The German advance was puzzlingly slow as they reorganised their two lead divisions, which gave plenty of time for 57th RC to deploy on the critical crossroads. The Army AT units took up position further forward, and the 27th GRC pocket proved an irresistable attraction for the rest of the Panzer Corps.

Meanwhile the Germans were (finally) across the river in front of 48th RC. Tom S fought for the town then fell back over the river. All very professional, he gets a star for that.

While further south, 57th RC was finally in position and deployed, with the Army AT detachments out front. Quite how they had managed to outmarch on foot, two Panzer Divisions, to get there first might be a question for the German road traffic control. The Germans may have been distracted by the 27th GRC pocket behind them I suppose.

The rather racy car in the bottom left is me, coming to talk to the Corps commanders myself. I'd been deluged with messages like this:

Which weren't very helpful. Some intel on what enemy forces you are in contact with and where they are would be useful guys! I had stacks of these by game end. The message based C2 certainly added to the game and reflected the limitations of the command apparatus.

I only issued five operational orders during the game apart from the initial deployment, three in writing and two verbal, one to each Corps and a further verbal order to another, but there was still plenty to do.

The 27th GRC was now tying up an entire Panzer Division. I don't think the Germans had quite figured out that all the units were at 0SP and could be safely ignored. The Panzers finally overran the shattered Russian infantry. What heroes! Orders of Lenin all around.

The German PanzerKorps HQ had also now realised that the road network was pretty rubbish for sustaining an armoured advance, and their trucks milled around in the rear trying to find a road forward!

Back in the north, the German laboriously deployed in front of the depth positions of 48th RC. Top class job by 48th RC here.

In the south 57th RC was fully deployed now. The German had what appeared to be two Panzer Divisions in their first wave, and what looked like two more 10-20km further back. One of the lead Panzer Divisions was trying to slip around the southern flank. Without that road junction the Germans weren't going anywhere.

However Stavka had other ideas. With the Panzer Korps dispersed and over-extended, it was time to let 23rd Tank Corps loose. It was quite an impressive column! As the Corps HQ passed my Army HQ, I was able to give it verbal orders. The plan was to engage the isolated Panzer Division to the south, while 57 RC kept the other one busy.

And now for the master stroke. I'd designated another defence line to the rear, and 48th RC packed up and pulled out just as the Germans were about to attack them. It is much faster retreating than attacking, so there was little chance of the Germans intercepting the march columns as they had few motorised units on this front.

As night fell they retreated further, and thoroughly broke contact with the Germans.

At dawn, the Germans got stuck in to 57th RC with one division while their other two moved up (they had done a certain amount of shuffling overnight). The other lead Panzer Division seemed a bit non plussed by the arrival of Russian armoured cars on the scene and there was a certain degree of shuffling around of combat units. 

Which gave plenty of time for 23rd TC to deploy and engage. After some brief tactical instructions en route, the Russians are maximising their firepower by using the infantry to  support their Tank Brigades. 11th Panzer (for recce finally revealed its identity) had already been weakened by airstrikes and amazingly we had achieved a local tactical superiority.

Meanwhile 57th RC attracted the attention of all three other Panzer Divisions! I'm sure that will go well.

48th RC was able to occupy its new position well ahead of the advancing Germans and started to deploy and dig in. The idea is to hold the narrow neck between the river and southern table edge.

Unfortunately 57th RC was losing the fight against the mass of German armour. Two divisions were overrun, but the survivors were still holding the vital road junction. One of the German divisions set off northwards.

All this activity of course left 23rd TC go on battering 11th Panzer, the latter was now looking increasingly ragged. The Russian airforce arrived to help. By now the air support was quite ragged (after two days of intense combat), and we had to roll dice for the rearming time in turns. I'd also lost all the Russian fighter by now.

Oops! One of the German Panzer Divisions arrived behind 48th RC. That could be better. Hilariously the German infantry have also just about arrived at the 48th RC positions, so all those tanks and trucks don't seem to add much to manouverability. 

Meanwhile the titanic tank battle continues. Some extra German units intervene, but it is too late for 11th Panzer which hardly has any SP left.

48th RC is in a tight spot, but I'm sure they can break out overnight.

23rd Tank Corps is still battling away, and most of the German armour is still milling around on the southern table. Their reluctance to engage 23 TC implies that they are also quite weak. 11th Panzer has actually started removing bases now, so that is very good news.

As night falls on the third day, Kupiansk is still firm in Russian hands, with not a single German unit in sight. I think we can safely say that is a significant Russian victory, the Germans are nowhere near breaking to to the north, haven't cleared the road network and have three Panzer Divisions crippled. The Russians have lost a couple of Rifle Corps, but we have lots of those. OKH was quite right to convince Hitler not to attack in this sector irl.

That was really good fun and went extremely well. Hats off to the players, amazing job considering most of them had never played a game like this before. The message based C2 system worked really well, I shied away from it in the Sicily and Crusader games, but having seen it in operation again, I'm minded to resurrect it.  We also rattled through the turns, and the time pressure added to the enjoyment and meant we made mistakes. I only issued three written operational orders in the entire game, and I managed to send one of them to the wrong Corps.... very funny indeed.

The NKVD would obviously be interested in what we were dong, so I rated units for their socialist efficiency. 23rd Tank Corps and 57th Rifle Corps both had some creditable actions and gained 2 stars, but each was offset by a black mark, for a net score of 1 each. 48th Rifle Corps was exemplary with 2 stars and no black marks, but the outright winner was 27th Guards Rifle Corps which gained 3 stars. It was completely wiped out of course, but we have plenty more budding Guardsmen.  

Along with the stack of messages, I did keep an Army Diary for any ensuing enquiries.

1st May 1943

0600    All Corps deployed. Went to visit 57th RC.

0800    All quiet.

1000    Enemy crossing of lower Donets reported by 27th Guards Rifle Corps.

1200    Massive airstrike launched on enemy crossing sites. Pilots report many successes.

1400    Air support assigned to 48th Rifle Corps. Engage enemy marching columns.

1600    57th Rifle Corps ordered to move south and defend the crossroads NE of BALAKAYA

1800     Army HQ relocated further east

2nd May 1943

0600    Request release of armoured reserves. HQ deployed in vicinity of KUPIANSK

0800    Tactical HQ en route to front for fact finding visits

1000    German infantry assault NUGUYEV

1200    23rd Tank Corps arriving in the sector east of KUPIANSK

1400    Visited 57th Rifle Corps HQ at the front. 27th Guards Rifle Corps overrun.

1600    Ordered 48th Rifle Corps to deploy to second line. 23rd Tank Corps moving forward rapidly

1800    Mass airstrike on Panzers near BALAKAYA. 23rd Tank Corps recce made contact with enemy

3rd May 1943

0600    23rd tank Corps heavily engaged in a winning battle with 11th Panzer Division

0800    48th Rifle Corps deployed along new line of defence. 23rd Tank Corps in heavy fighting.

1000    57th Rifle Corps overwhelmed. 23rd Tank Corps continues to fight.

1200    23rd Tank Corps engaged by two Panzer Divisions. 48th Rifle Corps outflanked by panzers.

1400    11th Panzer Division destroyed by 23rd Tank Corps. 48th Rifle Corps partly surrounded.

1600    Enemy attacks suspended.

1800    Enemy break contact and retire.

I am sure future historians will welcome the treasure trove of detailed information there!

Chris Kemp has already got his memoirs in, so I expect they will become the definitive record: https://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/2024/09/26/megablitz-a-grand-day-out-kempfing/