AAR-2B WWIII 1958: First Big Clash (Part 2 of 2)

This is the part 2 of 2 of an after action report about my WWIII battle set in 1958 West Germany; part 1 is located here.

The setting is June 1958, a little west of the inner German border, the Soviets have attacked Germany on the day before NATO was planning launch an attack on East Germany to relieve West Berlin from a total blockade.  Links to back story for my alt-history timeline is located here.

The battlefield centers around Sottmar West Germany and involves the Soviet 10th Guards Tank Division attacking 6th UK Armored Division.  It is early afternoon with a low overcast and intermittent light rain and mist.

Thus far Soviet forces have forced the withdraw of British forces east of, and inside of Witmar in the northeastern corner of my table.  Soviet losses have been heavier than expected with destruction of a T-55 battalion for the expence of only about half of a UK tank squadron.  Soviet artillery have been controlling the flow of the battle otherwise.

Part 2

The T-55 battalion to the south advanced behind walls of artillery smoke, while the T-10 battalion in the center was still forming up.  The remnants of the northern T-55 battalion, now joined by a company of T-10s began to advance as well.

The situation from the Soviet view looking east.

The British forces in and around Sottmar waited for the Soviets to move into range.

British armor in the field immediately north of Sottmar watch for 

Soviet tanks to appear out of the haze

As the T-10s in the center and T-55s to the south advanced, a wall of smoke began to form to protect them from long range British fire.  This would help to ensure that the Soviet tanks would enter the fight at optimal range from enemy forces.

Sovet artillery laying smoke in front of the advance.

As the Soviets closed, the withdrawing forces from Witmar moved into position to support the defense from Sottmar.  The British straddled the town with armor both immediately north and south of the town itself.

Withdrawing British forces reposition near Sottmar.

Finally the Soviet tanks began to take form out of the mist and the shooting was resumed, initially the British had better luck, killing a couple of the attacking force, but as the range closed to under 1200 meters the T-10s started to have an effect.

Conquerors were still nearly impossible to destroy, but even mobility hits would in time functionally kill the target, as a British withdraw would be forced.

British forces take casualties at Sottmar.

As the British and Soviet armor immediately north of Sottmar beat each senseless, to the east of Sottmar proper, T-10s began to appear out of the artillery smoke, which was starting to dissipate.  

The battle for Sottmar begins.

To the south of Sottmar, the T-55 battalion closed on the British infantry in the treeline.  The infantry held their fire, as their only anti-tank weapons were M20 bazookas.  The T-55s came under fire from British armor on the hill north of the treeline, behind Sottmar.

T-55s approach the British held tree-line.

An overall British view of the situation at this point. 

As tanks exchanged fire into and out of Sottmar, the Soviet T-10s continue their advance, with British artillery dropping high explosives on them to little effect.  

Soviet forces close on Sottmar.

As the Soviets closed in on the town, British tank losses started to mount, and as Soviet artillery fell first on the field west of town and then on the town itself, remaining British forces had to withdraw.

As the Soviets came into range, they began to receive fire from the hill west of Sottmar, but the Centurions located their simply could not penetrate the T-10s at such a range.  This fire drew the attention of artillery dropping white phosphorous, and then guns, rockets and heavy mortars delivering high explosive onto the British forces on the hill.  Losses were taken from both tank gun fire and the artillery, and finally the British gave the order to break off the fight, with British forces withdrawing through the next line of defense.

Soviet artillery falls on the field north of Sotmar and on the hill 

west of it.

A view of the British perspective of the situation.

Southwest of Sottmer, a now reduced T-55 battalion closed on the treeline, blindly firing a few high explosive rounds, but not really seeing or hitting anything.  Finally at only 400 meters, the Soviet tanks finally began to spot the British infantry and engaged directly.

T-55s engage British infantry.

With a mix of cannon and machinegun fire, the T-55s began to engage the British troops, who fired back with small arms and three M20 bazookas (which all missed). 

Then one of those odd little moments in a big battle happened.  The southernmost T-55 fired on and missed the British rifle section in front of them, and the section, believing they had no other option, close-assaulted, and destroyed the T-55.  

T-55 (in cloud of smoke, foreground) is destroyed in infantry 

close assault.

Another T-55 was eventually killed by a bazooka, but in moments, the infantry broke, and tried to escape.  The T-55s followed and destroyed the retreating vehicles.  The surrender of the surviving infantry was not accepted.

British infantry attempting to flea from the advancing T-55s.

Results

The battle ended as the British withdrew and the attacking Soviet forces, which had lost about two thirds of their engaged battalions, needed to regroup.  In all about a regiment of tanks had fought, and only about a battalion remained alive, roughly half or which was immobile.

Though there was no mutual infantry engagement, the British lost nearly half  (about a company) of their infantry, and Soviets lost about a third of their infantry battalion to British artillery file.

The British destroyed two batteries of artillery with counter battery fire.  

British recce had light losses, while Soviet recce losses were about 50 percent, including an instance where a T-55 ran over a BTR-40 in a bank of artillery smoke (I accidently set a T-55 on the BTR-40 under the smoke during movement, so called the BTR a loss).

Some Thoughts and Observations

I really screwed up by not forming up all of the Soviet battalions uniformly for the advance.  Trying to cheat and exploit the roads lead to a piece-meal attack, that could have been much more effective if the center had been passing the northern UK units by, while the northern T-55 battalion engaged them.  The British would have either had to withdraw earlier of get encircled.

The British armor achieved an almost 2 to 1 kill ration in armor, which wouldn't have been good enough had the real thing happen.  The Centurion III's 20 pounder was just not quite enough gun against the T-55 and nearly useless verse the T-10.  In 1959-60, they would be been up graded to the 105mm L7 guns, and in that case, more than a match against those same adversaries.  

The Conqueror was an absolute beast.  None were destroyed outright, and all Conqueror losses were from mobility hits, that later had to be abandoned.  The other armored regiments in 6 AD don't have these, and I imagine this battle with all Centurion IIIs would have resulted in losses proportioned at more like 1:1.2 in favor of the British force.

The rules are homebrew, and I cranked all the numbers for the Soviet guns, but even so, I was surprised at the limitations imposed by the earlier Soviet ammunition.  Still, useful engagement ranges were roughly twice what I am used to in most WWII games, and more like half of what I am used to in all those mid-1980s Cold War games that I played many years ago.

No ATGMs.  Given the longer engagement ranges of the tank guns, getting infantry involved is going to be an adventure.  I'm going to have some learning curve there.

TO&Es

Generally, for this battle and campaign, I am relying on army Lists from MicroMark / Mark Bevis.  These are the most comprehensive of all of my sources for this period, for which I am finding a lot of variation in TO&Es from various sources.  For this battle the Soviets were built around the 1958-64 Russian Tank Division, and British forces based on the 6th Armored Division 1956-1957.  

I made some minor changes to Soviet air defense vehicles, mostly replacing BTR-40A with BTR152A, as I didn't have the BTR-40As in miniature.  

Of particular note is the peculiar organization of the British tank squadrons, incorporating a single Conqueror heavy tank in three of the four troops in each.  The presence of the Conquerors proved to be very important in this battle, as there were only nine of them present, and they accounted for nearly half of the Soviet tank losses.  The troops are otherwise equipped with three Centurion Mk III, armed with 20 pdr as mentioned above

British forces in the late 1950s saw a lot of evolution and changeover in hardware.  One change I made from the published army list was to replace the infantry pltns M-3 halftracks with Alvis Saracens, figuring that this had been in production since 1952, and that upgrading might have been rushed, given the events in my timeline.  In this game, I don't think they mattered much, maybe saving a couple of artillery kits verse what they would have seen int he M3 halftracks.

I also have considered that British reorganization of divisions may have been postponed on the eve of a third world war, and decided not to institute changes that started to happen in 1958.

That's all I have for now.   Be well and stay safe.