Kursk

[Rob]

I’ve recently read a book by Mark Healy entitled Zitadelle which as you can probably guess is about the German attack on the Kursk salient in the summer of 1943. I have read a few accounts of this battle but was mightily impressed with the Mark Healy’s version because he described in enough detail the attacks on each line of defence resulting in a clear picture of the fighting. So much so that it has had me itching to have a war-game of fighting through these defence lines.

We planned to play this game over xmas but in the end never did. Last weekends rugby was cancelled so we took advantage of this and spent half the afternoon and the early evening playing through about 15 - 20 turns. (can’t be too exact as dinner took up a couple of hours with me falling asleep and pushing out some zzzzzzzz’s before the evening session!  )

I intended to take piccies all the way through but it was quite an absorbing game so they are more patchy than intended.

The game was played on a 5’ by 4’ table, lengthways. The ground scale used was 2” = 250 metres because this was a large game (in smaller games we use 3” = 250 metres).

The forces involved were:

Germans â€" The tank regiment of the Leibstandarte SS Panzer Division with a total of 3 PzIV companies, 3 PzIII companies and a Tiger company. They had under control the divisions armoured infantry battalion and for exploitation the division’s recce battalion.
Artillery support consisted of a preparatory bombardment by all of the divisions guns (2 105mm howitzer battalions, 1 mixed 150mm howitzer and 100mm gun battalion, 1 armoured artillery battalion Wespes & Hummels, 1 170mm battery) with the armoured artillery battalion also providing close support during the battle.
Air support consisted of a preparatory attack by 4 flights Ju87 dive-bombers & 2 of FW190 fb using cluster bombs. Close air support during the battle was to consist of 4 flights of dive-bombers and 4 flights of Ju87G tank-busters.

The German objectives’ were to break through the Russian defence, beat off any counter attacks and use the recce battalion to exit off the far edge of the table.

Russians â€" 1 infantry division well dug-in and concealed on a ridge in prepared defences. All of the divisions 45mm at guns were present and all of the 76.2 artillery dug-in and deployed in an anti-tank role. Artillery support was provided by 2 regiments of 122mm how, 2 regiments of 150mm how and 1 regiment of 203mm how. If the Russian commander thought the Germans were going to breakthrough he could call on a tank corps to counter attack. The tank corps had 3 brigades of T34 with a katyusha rocket battalion and 4 flights of Sturmovik ground attack. The Russian front was covered with mines.



The Germans deploy:

They are in a wedge formation with Tigers at the point flanked by PzIV with PzIII on the outer flanks and behind. The infantry were allocated in three reinforced company groups one to each panzer battalion and one to the tiger company. The recce battalion was at the rear.





A view of the Russian defences showing the belt of mines.



The Russian cunningly left gaps that allowed the enemy to pass through at the cost of anti-tank guns firing into their flanks.




Ropey pic showing the view from the Russian division HQ.





A mounted panzer grenadier company with the battalion command and sIG33.




Part of the preparatory barrage and air attack showing a dive-bomber and (ahem) Fw190s attacking. (I don’t have any Fw190s so I substituted some Me109s.)



The advance begins with the Russian DF fire starting to come down.



The Germans start to work through the gaps in the minefields on their left. The flanking Russian anti-tank guns found that as soon as they disclosed their positions they were hit by supporting artillery & dive bomber attacks as well as tank fire, resulting in few chances to fire as this kept them pinned down, and steadily battery after battery were eventually destroyed. This was not a swift process and the Russian artillery although not decisive against armoured troops did exact a steady toll on the Germans. It had been intended that the infantry dismount and attack the defences but the level of Russian artillery fire around the leading tank units made that idea suicidal so they stayed mounted for the time being.





Similar progress was being made on the German right at this time.



The Tigers intended to move through the mine field after it was gapped by engineers but these succumbed to Russian artillery and never reached the mine field.



As it was looking like the Germans were going to break through the Russian called in his tank reserves which arrived very quickly.



Good timing as it turned out as pressure on the Russians started to tell as the Russian left collapsed.



On the Russian right they were running out of troops and the German armour was now driving through.



The Russian armoured commander immediately charged the Germans with his left and centre brigades and this produced a crisis for the Germans. On the German right they managed to stop the Russians who fell back but in the process their battalion command was destroyed and they fell back also, both sides on this flank remained static for the remainder of the game.

The Russian centre brigade which was his strongest attacked obliquely the German left and was met with the tank-busters, remaining dive bomber mission and every tank that could fire. It came of second best and suffered very high losses. It reacted by falling back to the rear off of the table.



The Russian took more care with his last brigade and didn’t attack until all of its support was in place. It attacked the remaining German dangerous thrust on the German left. All Sturmovik attacks concentrated on the Tigers.

The Germans tried to right hook this attack with a PzIII company moving through the debris of the previous attack and intending to turn into the Russian flank. They were delayed by locating the Russian armoured corps and engaged this destroying it.

The crisis was reached with the Russian attacking brigade assaulting to point-blank range. 2/3 of the Tigers though not destroyed had suffered enough damage to be unable to continue until running repairs were complete and the company was pulled back. The Russians were just held and they fell back to reorganise.



At this point it was found the Tigers were not repairable and would be unavailable for the rest of the game so with the panzer battalion on the right still leaderless the Germans did not feel strong enough to push on so went over to defence. They left the PzIII company well forward to see how things developed but the Russian armour was now without leadership and lapsed into defence.

At this point we said game over and called it a draw.



About half the infantry are Pendraken, I mix them with others to the point I cannot say which they are

Only a few of the vehicles are Pendraken being concentrated in the recce battalion.

Anyway hope you like the piccies. Cheers, Rob 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report sir! Looks like a great game. 

[Techno]

Great stuff !
Cheers - Phil.

[petercooman]

Awesome! Really inspiring if you see the soviet tank company come up!

[Albie Bach]

Thanks for the report. 
Looks fun and nice looking models.
What rules were you using?

[Hertsblue]

Nice game, Rob. Oddly enough I'm reading the same book. Highly detailed, although I find the style a bit turgid.

As for the result, historically spot-on. Failure to take Prokhorovka means failure of the southern push, which in turn means failure of the entire operation. So, strategic victory to the Soviets. 

[Malbork]

Great report and pics.

Looks a good game. Would also be interestred to know what rules you used?

[nikharwood]

Very nice Rob 

[Bernie]

Good to see a massed WWII game

[Rob]

Thanks very much fellahs. It was a fun game with a number of amusing episodes such as me throwing a double one when trying to get the two disrupted Tigers back into action. 

Regarding rules, this is 50% of the hobby for me and I enjoy writing my own. I am personally fascinated by technical and tactical progression through history and like to try and model these. For instance why was it possible for the German armoured troops to consistently get 4:1 kill ratios over Russian armoured troops etc?

Possible one day I will try and get them published. I did once get a set of Napoleonic rules published by the long defunct Guardroom and also sold by the now long gone Chariot Miniatures. This taught me that no one gets rich by selling war-game rules but you do land yourself with a lot of extra work when you do so, and in the end it’s probably better to just to write them for yourself and friends. Anyway my target with writing these was to be able to have relatively quick flowing and simple, multiplayer games involving brigades and divisions and still be able to model into the game the differences in command methodologies, artillery, armour and infantry tactics / doctrine, and armour / gun effect of the various vehicle / gun and ammunition types.

Cheers, Rob