To kick off our Barbarossa theme month, some players requested the Battle of Brody (1941), which ran over the course of several days in late June 1941, and which might have been the largest tank battle of the war. Our game featured part of the battle on 26 June, pitting part of the Soviet 8th Mechanized Corps against part of the German 2nd Panzer Regiment, of the 16th Panzer Division, led by Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz — the infamous “Panzer Count”! We played using Flames of War rules.
The long axis of the table ran south to north, with the road from Brody running the length of the table. The terrain was mostly open, with several small villages. A marshy stream running east to west ran across the northern end of the table, and another marshy stream ran halfway across the center of the table and exited the western side. Vehicles attempting to cross the streams and marshes ran a risk of bogging down (which was a very great risk for the untrained Soviet tank crews). The southern half of the table was mostly flat, and the northern half of the table was covered with gently rolling hills. Small stones marked the crest lines of the hills.
The Soviet force was organized into five tank companies and one motorized infantry company with three platoons, supported by AT guns, HMGs, and 82mm mortars, all in trucks. After suffering horrendous march attrition on the way to the battle, each Soviet tank company was reduced to 12 tanks. Soviet tank commanders rode in T-34s or KV-1s, and each company had a platoon of 3 T-34s and a platoon of either 8 BT-7s or 8 T-26s (one company had two small platoons of 4 BT-7s and 4 T-26s). The total tank force had 18 T-34s, 2 KV1s, 20 BT-7s, and 20 T-26s.
The Soviets would gain victory points for every tank that crossed the stream at the northern end of the table and extra points would be gained for any tanks that exited the northern end of the table. Points would also be gained for knocked out German tanks and guns. The Germans would gain victory points for knocked out Soviet tanks and guns.
The Soviet players were given their choice of four companies that would start on the table on the southern end, and the other two companies would enter the table as delayed reserves from a road entering the table on the center of the eastern edge. The Soviets deployed a fast tank company (with T-34s and BT-7s) in the lead, followed by a second fast tank company. The third company had a mix of T-34s, BT-7s, and the slower T-26s. The fourth company was the motorized infantry in trucks. The two slowest companies, with KV-1s, T-34s, and T-26s, would enter the table as delayed reserves (entering play when two more players joined the game).
The first German force to arrive was a motorized force of panzer grenadiers and panzer pioneers, with three antitank platoons (two towed — with either two PaK 36 or two PaK 38 AT guns, and one with four PanzerJager I self-propelled AT guns), and a battery of 15cm artillery with four guns. This force arrived on the northern end of the table and swiftly moved to occupy the villages on each side of the stream, taking up positions to defend the two bridges.
The main force of German tanks (a mix of PzIIIs and some PzIIs, totaling about 40 tanks organized into two large companies) lurked off the table on the northwest side, hidden from the Soviets by the hills. German air observation gave the German commanders a perfect intelligence picture of the Soviet movements, so the German players could choose the moment when their tanks would enter the table. The Germans also had priority air support in the form of Stuka dive bombers.
(Using the FOW Version 3 “Barbarossa” book, both sides had roughly 6800 points.)
Unopposed on the ground, the Soviets advanced as quickly as they could. The two leading companies with BT-7s outpaced the third company with the slower T-26s, which in turn hindered the movement of the truck column in the rear. Thus a gap opened between the leading and the trailing companies. After the leading tank companies passed the stream mid-way across the table, they fanned out, with the first company veering to the right (east) and the second company veering to the left (west). This opened a gap between the leading companies.
While the Soviets moved, Stukas started to appear (each turn had a 2/3 chance of a Stuka attack), and began to bomb concentrations of T-34 tanks (which were the most threatening tanks in the Soviet force). Once the 15cm battery was unlimbered, its began to fire bombardments at the T-34s. Thus a few T-34s were lost to air and artillery attacks during the first few turns of the game.
When the leading Soviet company moved into range, it was engaged by the PzJg Is. Three BT-7s were lost, and the return fire eliminated three PzJg 1s. The Germans chose this moment to move their main force onto the table. The leading platoons took up hull down positions behind the crest lines. Their initial fire concentrated on the western-most Soviet tank company, and knocked out a few of the lighter Soviet tanks, but the tough armor of the T-34s bounced most of the hits they received (one stunned T-34 absorbed the fire of an entire Panzer company for two turns before it was finally eliminated!).
The last two Soviet tank companies entered the game on the eastern side of the table soon after the German panzers appeared in the west. Being composed of slower KV-1s and T-26s, it took these two companies a few turns of movement to reach the fighting. The last of the diminishing Stuka attacks were directed at these companies, and a few T-26 tanks were lost.
The Soviet motorized infantry company deployed one platoon with AT guns near the marshes at the center of the table, while the rest the truck column drove off the road and continued to move north cross-country, using the hills to stay out of the line of fire. Other than losing an AT gun to a Stuka, the Soviet infantry suffered no other losses.
At the climax, the game was a swirl of moving and shooting tanks, as both sides tried to kill the others’ tanks. Even though the Soviet tanks had relatively good guns, and the German tanks had relatively weak armor, the better German training (and good dice rolling) saw the Germans get the better of the exchanges. The Germans were also able to mass their fires against each Soviet company in turn. Thus the first three Soviet tank companies took heavy casualties.
After 3.5 hours of hard playing, the pub was calling and we called the game. The Soviets managed to get one T-34 across the stream and off the table, but had suffered the loss of 33 tanks — over half their force, and the losses included about half of the valuable T-34s. The Germans lost 9 Panzers (including three PzJG Is) — about 20% of their force. We didn’t bother counting up the points, but the game was a major German victory!
Thus our game generally mirrored the historical result of this engagement. On the day of the battle, in their first encounter with T-34s, Graf Strachwitz’s panzers defeated the Soviet tank force in detail, hunting isolated detachments into the night. But the battle of Brody would last several more days, and many more Soviet and German tanks would be lost before the battle ended.
- TJ