Background
The tank battle near Alytus between German tanks and those of (the) Soviet 5th Tank division was probably the hardest combat ever conducted by 7th Panzer Division in the Second World War. German forces launched Operation BARBAROSSA on 22 June 1941. Within von Bock’s Center Army Group, the 3rd (Hoth) and 4th (Hoepner) Panzer Groups (Armies) were to conduct a double envelopment operation to encircle Soviet Forces before Minsk. A quick advance by the panzer divisions of the Groups was critical. Within Hoth’s sector, the securing of bridgeheads across the Niemen River became vitally important. The two road bridges and one railroad bridge in the vicinity of Alytus (approximately 60 km from the frontier) became the first day’s objective for the 7th Panzer Division.
During the morning of the 22nd the 7th Division’s advance elements, consisting of Panzer Regiment 25 reinforced by Kradschutzen (Motorcycle Infantry) Battalion 7, raced toward Alytus. In fact, the advance was so rapid that units and sub-units were intermingled. Tanks that dropped out temporarily because of technical problems were unable to keep up with their units, and tanks moving too slowly were overtaken by faster vehicles. However, various units quickly pushed across to the east side of the River against light Soviet opposition and established two separate bridgeheads . . . one at the northern road bridge and one at the southern road bridge. However, by late morning, elements of Soviet Colonel F.F. Fedorov’s 5th Tank Division from the 3rd Mechanized Corps launched strong counterattacks against both German positions that prevented any further expansion of the 7th Panzer’s footholds.
In the course of the ensuing battle, German sources claimed the destruction of 70-85 Soviet tanks, but the 25th Panzer Regiment did lose at least 7 Pz38(t)s. The arrival of the 21st Panzer Regiment of the 20th Panzer Division allowed for the 25th Regiment to go over to the offensive and break out of the bridgehead toward Vilnius and then on to Minsk.
http://www.fireandfury.com/scenarios/scenalytus.pdf
The Game
The Germans set up first with Tony placing the infantry in the village and most of the armor behind a hill in the rear area. The German observer was placed in the woods on a hill in the Southwest of the position. Extra dummy counters were placed around the board. The Russians started with one player with a T-34 unit, infantry and T-28 HQ on the right and one player on the left flank of the attack, with the rest of the maneuver units. Both sides believed that they had serious vulnerabilities that would cause them to play cautiously.
During the first couple of turns, Russian right flanks units tried to run his units thru the woods, resulting in about half of them bogging down each turn. This would seriously affect the Russians as they could not extract the tanks from the woods until Turn 5! The left player, on the other hand, ran his tanks up the road and into the combined fire of the Pz38t and Pz IVEs They bravely stood and exchanged shots with the Germans until both the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were destroyed.
The Game Master gave the Russians another battalion of T-28/T-26s to keep him in the game, which entered the table on Turn 5 as Delayed Reserves. During Turns 3 and 4, the Russians were able to begin to shoot up the German AT guns and infantry, using combined artillery and tank fire. The Russian infantry stayed safely in the woods.
On Turn 6, the two T-34s from the woods and towards the village. This caused the Germans to pause as they had no direct fire weapons that could affect the T-34s. Out of desperation and because the T-34s were side by side, the Germans decided to fire a 105mm bombardment. With an AT of 3 and the T-34 top armor was a 1, only a minor miracle would be needed. Surprisingly the Bombardment landed on the first try, hitting both tanks. The Russian player rolled a double 1 for the save, resulting in both tanks being destroyed!
At this point, the Russians conceded the game. With the Germans still holding the village and with a 17 to 5 destroyed unit ratio, the Germans won this one.
Comment
The Play went pretty much as expected. The Russians moving through the woods to protect from fire may have not been the best choice, in hind site.. If they had moved up the road, the game might have turn out much differently. Then again, who knew the German artillery was fielding Copperheads against the T-34s!
Also, the correlation of forces seemed to initially be unbalanced, but the Russians could have used their superiority in artillery to reduce the village first and then engage the German armor with the T-34s.
Next time, need to plus up the Russian Infantry!
- The Real GC