AAR-3: West of Ohrum

The following is the third battle in my World War III-1958 campaign.  It comes 18 months late, as my campaign, started in late January of last year lost some luster given real world events.  In any event, I am back to gaming WWIII, and the latest battle between Soviet 10 Tank Division and British 6 Armored Division follows:

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As the Soviets advanced into West Germany, the British army found itself deployed very far forward; in fact, well forward of the defensive lines that they had practiced defending for so long.  The result being that the Soviets rapidly and repeatedly ran into hastily prepared British lines of defense.  Thus far, the war was really unlike what either side had expected, given the starting positions of NATO forces and with the weather radically impacting the battlefield, nearly eliminating the affect of air power.

Though losses had been a little higher than expected, the Soviets where making good time, and quickly resumed the advance a little west of Sottmar and north of Kissenbruck.  They once again ran into fresh British forces defending generally along the forested hills west of Ohrum.

The Soviets intended to punch through the heavily wooded Oderwald and then turn north, avoiding the city of Wolfenbuttel, as the Soviets wanted to avoid getting bogged down in city fights, preferring to isolate cities and let follow-on forces deal with clearing them.

The region was still covered by the low cloud deck with intermittent rain, limited visibility and little to no air support.

THE MAP

I've taken some liberty (more than I would have liked) in adapting my terrain to the map, trying to capture the major terrain elements that I think will be important to the game.   Photos of the battlefield on the table follow:

Soviet view of the battlefield looking west.  Ohrum is if the 

foreground, center

British view looking east.

BRTISH FORCES

British forces feature a fresh armored regiment, the 20th Hussars Armored Regiment, with three squadrons equipped with Centurion Mk III tanks, supported by two companies of infantry from the 2nd Motor Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle regiment.  Six batteries or artillery are now available for support, though that could change during battle.

UK 20th Hussars Armored Regiment.

    The two infantry companies and recce assets.

SOVIET FORCES

The Soviet attack is built around a T-55 regiment and a heavy tank battalion featuring T-10s, supported by two infantry battalions in BTR50P, and other supporting elements, including six batteries of tube artillery and three rocket batteries.  

Soviet BHQ and T-10 battalion

T-55 regiment, HQ, and models denoting available artillery 

batteries.

The two infantry battalions, all are in BTR-50P.

Divisional recce and air defense.

THE BATTLE

The Soviets are attacking generally east to west from a point just east of the town of Ohrum, with British forces defending on a north/south line in the cover of the forested Oderwald.  Once the Soviets advance through the cover of the town and growth along the north south stream running through Ohrum, they will traverse 1800-2400 meters of open farm land, however, the misty light rain has reduced visibility to no more than 1600 meters.

BRITISH DEPLOYMENT

Two British armored squadrons are deployed across the leading edge of the Oderwald, supported by two infantry companies.  Both companies are holding their Bren mounted sections as a reserve and the third tank squadron is also being held in reserve.

Various reconnaissance platoons are located in two lines, the first just west of the north south road to the west of Ohrum, and the second further west in the open farm land between Ohrum and the Oderwald.

THE SOVIET ADVANCE

Soviet recce elements advanced on three lines, following the north, central (Ohrum), and south roads.  Each lead by a platoon of the BDRMs, and followed by platoons of PT-76 light tanks in the center and south.

First siting of a soviet BRDM by Daimler armored car occurred on the west edge of Uhram at only about 800 meters range, the Daimler had a clear shot but missed, scattering the BRDM platoon, until the PT 76s could arrive to offer some return fire.  The Daimler shifted position slightly, but stayed put as they were hoping to be able to report more than having seen a single Soviet armored car.

First sighting, the Daimler misses its shot at the now 

panicked BRDM.

The two advancing platoons of PT-76s moved to engage the British near Ohrum, with one platoon advancing through Ohrum, and the other advancing south of the town, hoping to possibly flank any British recce watching the road out of the village.

Pt-76s moving across the stream south of Ohrum...

... and through Ohrum itself.

The attack through the town resulted in the one PT-76 being destroyed, and the British losig two armored cars.  The PT-76s to the south were advancing through trees and underbrush around the stream and weren't sited until at very close range. At which point, the two remaining Ferret Mk Is attempted to flee, but were destroyed by the PT-76s.

To the north, a pair of Daimlers spotted and destroyed a BRDM that had crossed the stream, and then disabled a second BRDM as it crossed the train tracks on the north road.

Given reports of the PT-76s to the south, followed by cannon fire, the Daimlers and Ferrets to the north dropped back to the second recce line, unknowingly taking fire from PT-76s advancing out of Ohrum.

The Daimlers withdrawing after engaging the BRDMS 

on the north road.

During the recce skirmish, both sides lost four vehicles.

After a few minutes to reorganize, the BRDMs in the center and south continued the advance, following by the PT-76s.  The British second recce line located the Soviets recce assets, again, about 800 meters distant in the misty rain, and received orders to withdraw, after contacting the advancing Soviet recce.

British recce can be seen just east of the farm 

at the top center above.

To the North, British recce formed a line some 1400 meters ahead of the Oderwald, and could hear the rumbling in front of them for some time, prior to seeing the lead platoon of T-55s.  The armored cars reported possible Soviet battalion strength and were soon ordered to withdraw.  Unfortunately, Soviet artillery landed as they were withdrawing and destroyed three of the armored cars.

British recce to the north, just before the Soviet atillery hit.

To the south, British recce was just arriving at the farm in the center of the open land between Orhum and the Oderwald, when Soviet artillery began to fall, killing the last of the recce in the center, and setting the farm buildings on fire.  British forces deployed in the trees to the west could see the low hanging smoke, and smoldering fires of the farm through the mist and rain.

Looking west, fading artillery fire to the north (left), the farm 

burning (right of center), PT-76s advance on the south 

(right, center), and T-55s ling the battlefield in the distance.

To the North, the T-55s came into view of the Centurions in east edge of the forest, and they began taking shots, destroying the first T-55 at about 1200 meters.  Over the next couple of minutes, shots were exchanged, with the British slowly taking casualties, and succeeding at mostly bouncing 20pdr shots off of T-55 turrets.  The T-55s continued to move forward, while exchanging with the British.

The first T-55 is hit.

In the south, the last platoon of BDRMs continued to advance until making contact with the Centurions in the trees, but having no where to hide, and no way to fight, they didn't last long.  The PT-76s following the BRDMs could see the shots from the Centurions and called for artillery along the leading edge of the woods, which came, but not before several of the PT-76s were destroyed.  The Light Tanks shot back, but scored no hits.

Soviet Artillery hits (top center), while the surviving PT-76s 

get to into some cover (lower left).

Artillery fell on the Centurions to the south, putting the one tank out of action, and forcing the others to move.

To the extreme south of the Birtish line, three PT 76s happened into the southernmost Centurion III troop, some British infantry, and one of the British infantry company HQs.

PT-76s rushing into cover and British forces.

One PT-76 engaged the M3 scout cars from the HQ section, while the others bounced rounds off of the front of the Centurions.  The Light tanks were able to maneuver into position to get side shots on the first Centurion, destroying it, while the one PT 76 continued to the shoot up the infantry CHQ.

Initially, the Centurions could neither see, nor fire on the 

PT-76s.

The last Centurion of the troop managed to kill two of the PT-76s before being destroyed, while the infantry desperately tried to get a Bazooka (M20) team close enough to the last PT- 76 to get a shot.  The remaining elements of the CHQ skedaddled, while the tank tried to pick off infantry with its machinegun.  The bazooka finally got into position and fired at the side of the light tank, tracking it, but were killed by the PT-76's MG.

The Bazooka team missed their first shot, hit their 

second, immobilizing the PT-76, but did not survive.  

Their effort did allow the rest of the British infantry 

to get away from the PT-76 though.

The PT-76 found itself still able to fight, but being in a slight depression, could no longer see any of the British infantry.  

Elsewhere, a line of T-55s was sited to the south and then in  the center, quickly turning into successive lines of advancing tanks.  

The "Red Hoard" advances.

Just as the Centurions in the center and south were starting to fire, Soviet artillery came down along the eastern edge of the forest, interrupting line of site and British fire.  Initially at least, no British casualties were taken, but the Centurions were not able to do much about the advancing Soviet tanks.

The Artillery was lifted and the tanks began exchanging shots, as the T-55s continued to advance.  The Centurions held their own in the center, covering for the loss of the the platoon to the PT 76s  at the extreme south. 

Soviet T-55s continue the advance in the North.

In the north, the Centurions did well, but were simply outnumbered, and were in danger of being overrun, possibly allowing the Russians to turn the flank, so the reserve tank squadron was committed to shoring up the British north.  They arrived on the eastern crest of the Oderwald, while the T-55s were about 800 meters from the wood's edge.  The forward deployed infantry where withdrawing to the same crest as the Centurions, with the hope being that the reserve Centurions would break the T-55 battalion and then turn south on the central T-55 companies.

The southern British infantry company sent their reserve platoon mounted in Bren carriers to try to stiffen the extreme southern edge of the line, as they currently had little to no anti tank capability.  The company commander was now rethinking the decision to not deploy their 6 pounder AT guns.  While they were nearly hopless against T-55s, nearly hopeless was better than the utterly hopeless that they now found themselves with.

In the center, the Soviets had taken more casualties than in the north, and the battalion HQ raced forward to urge on the attack, but this quickly faltered, as casualties mounted.  The surviving T-55s were too few, and to scattered, and began looking for cover amongst the cemetary of dead tanks.

The photo is slightly out of sequence, but shows the burden 

endured by the T-55 battalions to in the center and south 

portions of the battlefield. The artillery hitting to the left above, 

are Soviet BM-13 rockets, mentioned a few parapgraphs below.

British leadership sighed in relief, but had not yet spotted the battalion of T-10s advancing along the center and southern portions of the battlefield, and similarly had no indication of the two infantry battalions behind them.

The Soviet T-10 battalion, still just out of site.

At this point, Soviet losses had been heavy, with two of the T-55  battalions having stopped their advance, and the third  in the north on the verge of the same.  British tank losses had been heavy, and their commanders were already at the limits of their ability to hold the line, which their superiors were very much hoping to do here.  The next few minutes would be crucial to both sides, and the battle was very much up for grabs.

The T-55 battalion to the north was reduced to abut a 

company in size, but British numbers were equally depleted.

The range had been closed such that the exchange of cannon fire was quite lethal.  The British armor in the center simply couldn't hold out, and began to withdraw, taking their infantry with them.  The T-55s facing them were fragmented, in disorder, and began inching rearward.  British artillery began to fall just forward of the T-55s, missing the Soviet tanks due to their stalled advance, but afforded some cover to the now withdrawing British forces in the center.

To the north, the T-55s kept coming, and began to exchange with the reserve squadron of Centurions deployed further back in the Oderwald.  For the moment, the battle continued here.

T-55s in the north, on the verge of entering the Oderwald.

In the center and south, behind the T-55s, was the the battalion of behemoth T-10s.  Their guns had shorter effective range against the Centurions, but their frontal armor was nearly impervious.

The T-10s followed by the two BTR-50, were just 

entering into view as the British began withdrawing.

In the north, tanks exchanged fire, slightly to the favor of the British, until Soviet rockets began falling on the British.  Losses weren't heavy due to the rockets, but their blast obstructed the Soviet tanks from the view of British gunsights, and the decision was made to withdraw.

The Soviets had won another battlefield, though at siginificant cost.

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This battle took a long time to play out, dozens of turns, but in the span of four turns late went from the possiblity of the Soviets being stopped or flanked, to breaking the British line.

The combination of destroyed and immobilized T-55s proved a tremendous challenge to the Soviet battalion commanders, who were successful at pushing their shattered forces forward until just before the very end.  

From the British perspective, command had been similarly challenged, somehow holding the line longer and with far greater casualties than one could reasonaby expect, admirable, honorable, but not victorious.

Loses were as follows:

Soviet:

7xBRDM

9x PT-76

39x T-55

Additionally, 1x PT-76 and 9x T-55 were temporarily lost to mobility hits, but recovered after the battle.

British:

4x Ferret Mk1

4x Daimler

4x Daimler Mk2

1x M3 halftrack

2x M3A1 White Scout car

1x UC/Bren Carrier

22x Centurion III (two were mobility losses)

This was another brutal game, and despite the British inflicting heavy loses on the Soviets, 6AD looks to be in trouble.  I'm going to move north with the next battle, and see if the West Germans fare any better than the British.