Barbarossa, Turn 1, June: AAR 3 - Lithuanian Border West of Kaunas

Fire in the East map, hex 2822, Lithuanian border, somewhat west of Kaunas.  German and Soviet reconnaissance forces clash in the opening minutes of the offensive:

The German forces advance across the border on their bicycles, leaving the unmanned checkpoint behind them, they passed through a forested area and approached a small bridge.  Maybe a thousand meters ahead of them where some farm buildings, and likely Soviet forces.  The young lietenant looked skyward on hearing the engine noise above him, and felt comfort in seeing the Messerschmitts high above.

Looking through his binoculars, he scanned the farm for signs of the enemy and wondered what lie ahead.

German Forces

Elements of the 2nd Recce Btln, 2nd Infantry Division

1x Recce Compny (Bicycle)

    1x CHQ w/ HQ section, 2x MG sections, Kubelwagen, Truck

    3x Recce Pltn w/ PHQ, 3x Recce Section, 1x ATR

    1x Support Pltn w/ PHQ, 3x 5cm Mortar

1x Recce Support Company

    1x HQ section, Kubelwagen

    1x ATG Pltn w/ 3x 3.7cm PaK 36, 3x Truck

    1x Gun Pltn w/ 2x 7.5cm IG 18, 2x truck

    1x Arm. Car Pltn w/ 2x Kfz 13

Support Company (left) and Bicycle Company (right)

Soviet Forces

The 9th Recce Company and 11th NKVD Company greet the Germans.

9th Recce Company

    1x CHQ w/ HQ section

    3x Recce Pltn w/ PHQ, 3x Recce Section, 1x 5cm Mortar, 3x Truck

11 NKVD Company

    1x CHQ w/ HQ section

    3x NKVD Rifle Pltn w/ PHQ, 3x Rifle Section

9th recce Company (left) and 11 NKVD Company (right)

The Battlefield

The battlefield is located in FitE map hex 2822, slightly east of the border with East Prussia and west of Kaunas.

German view of the battlefield looking east.

Soviet view looking west.

The Battle

The Soviet NNKVD Company was deployed south of the road at the eastern edge of a lightly forested area surrounded by farm fields.  The Recce Company was deployed north of the central road along foliage lines separating farm fields.  

View looking to the northeast, showing NKVD troops dug south 

of the east-west road.

The Soviet Recce Company spread thin in the foliage lines 

separating fields north of the road.

The Germans advanced along the road, lead by the bicycle company of the 2nd Recce Btln of the 2nd ID.  Just the first German troops started to cross the little bridge of the creek, they spotted the Soviet Recce troops just north of the road and immediately started to deploy off road.

German troops advance east, the blurred sides of the bridge 

straddling the road in the distance above.

One platoon of bicycle troops deployed immediately north of the bridge, while two platoons moved south.  Both German company HQs deployed a little behind the trees to the north of the bridge, while the 7.5cm infantry guns deployed along the stream ahead of the HQ sections, and the 3.7cm anti-tank guns advanced to support the bicycle troops south of the road. 

The two Kfz 13 armored cars were temporarily held at the HQs, and two batteries of 10.5cm artillery awaited fire support orders.

German forces deploying and advancing.

The bicycle troops south of the bridge advanced from one field line to the next, until taking fire from the tree line in front of them.  Additionally, they took fire from Soviet recce troops north of the road, but took no casualties.

The Soviet recce troops started to receive fire from the German 10.5cm batteries and quickly took casualties at their southernmost point.  Immediately after this, the bicycle troops to the south started to take more fire from the tree line and the 10.5cm guns were re-directed to fire there.

The Soviet s lost two recce sections to the first couple 

volleys of 105s.

During this time, the German 3.7cm AT guns were moved into position south of the bicycle troops and began firing at the Soviet infantry positions in the trees.  Slowly, hits were scored against the NKVD troops dug in along the tree line.  The German 5cm mortar section tried to hit the Soviet positions also, but struggled to get within range.

To the north, the 7.5cm guns began firing at the Soviets in the field lines, while infantry on both sides sporadically engaged each other without causing much damage.  Eventually the infantry guns scored a couple of hits, as did the NKVD troops against the German bicycle troops south of the road.

Soviet fire from the tree line began to fade and the bicycle troops advanced.

Bicycle troops advance, and the 3.7cm AT guns can be seen 

deployed near their trucks above. 

The bicycle troops eventually made their way to the tree line, while artillery and ATGs fired away at the soviet positions further south.  Soviet rifle fire killed a German rifle section and one ATR during the advance.

To the north, the German bicycle platoon moved north along the stream bed, and then east along the foliage and trees to gain better view and range on the soviet recce forces.  Additionally, the two infantry guns re-deployed further north on the west side of the stream to support the bicycle troops.

The German IG18s are visible in the bottom left above while 

the bicycle platoon has advanced along the trees extending east 

from the stream.

Between the infantry guns and the bicycle troops, the Soviets were slowly whittled away, during this time, the two Kfz 13s advanced down the road and swung north to encircle the Soviet recce troops.  The Soviet troops were unable to score any hits on the Kfz 13s, while taking a number of casualties, with several sections eventually surrendering to the armored cars.

The two Kfz 13s are barely visible center right above, 

closing in onthe withdrawing Soviet recce troops.

To the south, German troops advance into the Soviet fighting pits and exchanged fire with the NKVD troops.  In the face of the advancing German artillery, the southern most NKVD section eventually threw down their weapons and ran into the woods.  The remaining NKVD platoon in the woods along the road finally retreated after watching the Germans church their way forward and losing contact with their CHQ.

The abandoned NKVD positions in the woods south of the road.

The germans rounded up the Soviet prisoners in the field, tended to their wounded, and regrouped before continuing forward,

Losses

In all, the germans lost only two sections, one rifle, and one anti-tank rifle.  The Soviets lost both companies, with 8 NKVD sections killed, and 11 recce sections killed and the remaining five captured.  

In a state of panic, one NKVD section simply evaporated into the countryside, and the withdrawing platoon will likely either be shot by their own troops or overrun by these same Germans later in the day.

Other Tidbits

The Soviets did not experience the German pre-attack artillery bombardment, so were intact when the Germans discovered their presence. Tthe Germans on the bridge were sighted on the same turn that they first saw the Soviets, the Soviets simply had no weapons with which to hit the Germans at 800 plus meters range. 

Additionally, the Soviet 9th Infantry Brigade lost most of its headquarters in the early German air attacks, and could not receive notification of the  of the German advance here, nor could they offer any artillery or other support.

The Soviet recce troops could not disengage with the Germans, as once they were off-loaded, their trucks were moved far to the rear for other duties, as the Soviets are having severe transportation issues on this morning.

Thoughts

The Soviets were pretty much loced in to holding their ground, not having much flexability or hope.

From the German side, this battle progressed more like I might have expected, than the last.  Once the Germans located the Russians, they allowed their firepower to take out the enemy without putting many of their soldiers in harms way.  Losses were roughly 10:1 in this battle.

German 2nd Infantry Division will continue its morning advance, and will likely find more of the Soviet 9th Infantry Brigade blocking it's path to the east.

Hoping to get the next battle a little further south, in and around Grodno, on the table this week.

Barbarossa, Turn 1, June: AAR 2 - Lithuanian Border

The commander of the 13th NKVD Border Company stood over the shoulder of his radio operator, waiting for any instruction  He had expected either the arrival of reinforcements or an order to withdraw to a more defensible position, but neither came.  Around him the entire world began to explode, as German artillery landed.  Deafened by the sound of the explosions, the world suddenly went black.

The Battlefield

Set somewhere along the road entering southwestern Lithuania, the 13th NKVD Border Company was deployed straddling the road entering Lithuania in hex 2125 of the Fire in the East game map. It would soon be under attack by the German 101st Motorized Infantry Battalion.

Looking north, the Germans enter from the south edge, 

with the Soviets dug in in the distance.

Russian Forces

1x  NKVD Border Company

    1x CHQ

    3x Inf Pltn, each with 1x PHQ, 3x Rifle Section

German Forces

Elements of the 101st Motorized infantry Battalion, attacking forces consist of:

2x Motorized Infantry Company, each with:

    1x CHQ, ATR

    3x Mot Inf Pltn

        1x PHQ

        3x Rifle Section

    1x Sup Pltn

        1xPHQ

        2x MG section

        3x 5cm mortar

1x 7.5cm IG Btty

1x 8cm Mortar Btty

The Battle

The battle started with an artillery barrage that lasted a half-hour or more.  When it ended the company had lost its commander, as had one platoon, and four rifle sections were no more.  They would have surrendered, but there was no one yet to surrender to.

The German artillery took it's toll.

Minutes passed and much of the smoke cleared before the Germans could be seen coming down the road.  By this time one of the Soviet platoon commanders had sort of rallied the remaining forces, and all stood firm, waiting for the German onslaught.

The Germans advanced across the open, mostly level landscape.  The only cover were a bushes occasionally separating fields, and a few shallow depressions.  The Germans moved to the nearest line of bushes, dismounted and found some cover.

Not able to see any Russian activity, they began their advance over the open ground.  The infantry guns offered covering fire as did the 5cm and 8cm mortars.

The Germans advance.

The Soviets began firing once the Germans were within 600 meters, too far really to have any affect, not having any sort of heavy weapons, and giving away their positions.

Both sides take casualties.

German infantry guns and mortars began firing, wildly at first, but eventually settled down and began to inflict casualties.  During that time, the Soviets managed to destroy about a platoon of advancing German infantry.

Two of the German 7.5cm infantry guns.

Slowly the Germans managed to close with the last Soviet squad on the German right, destroyed it, and started to work their way through the artillery-wrecked trenches.  Mortars and guns finished off the Soviets in the center, the few Soviets to the left began to surrender, with some being shot and only one platoon headquarters managing to be taken prisoner.

Last of the Russians of the German right fall.

Germans moving west, clearing the trenches.

Losses

The Soviets lost the entire NKVD Company which started the battle with no heavy weapons and nearly down to 50 percent strength.

The Germans lost 5 rifle squads, a PHQ, and one MG section

Final Thoughts

After a year of build-up, it was something of an anticlimactic battle; though, I imagine that any campaign is bound to have some of these.

The Campaign maps for Fire in the East are kind of bare with respect to deriving terrain for a miniatures battle, so before setting up the game, I hopped on Google Earth to check out the general location for this battle, and it was pretty much flat and empty; not many buildings, practically no trees, etc.  Maybe the FitE maps were bare for a reason.

The combination of the small and relatively simple forces involved in the battle, the lopsided nature of the matchup, and the lack of cover combined with the small scale, left me feeling a little lost and somewhat intimidated.  The result was that I mostly ignored doctrine and tactics, just kind of bumbled through it, and found myself repeatedly thinking, "Wow, that was stupid".

I also nearly forgot to run the pre-game artillery barrage, actually advancing the Germans a few turns onto the table, before realizing my omission.  Fortunately the two sides were well out of range of each other, so it wasn't a problem conducting the barrage a little late.

Regarding the battle itself, the loss of the Soviet company commander, and two of the three platoon headquarters to artillery left them on the verge of surrender at the start of the battle.  They simply didn't have the resources to last very long.

All things considered, a bit of a bumpy start to the campaign. 

Barbarossa, Turn 1, June: AAR 1 Initial German Air Attacks

The offensive started with German Luftwaffe attacks on Russian airfields and command hubs.  Losses were heavy for the largely unsuspecting Soviet forces, with 11 airfields being hit (one completely out of action), and four Brigade headquarters put out of action.  

In the early morning confusion, Soviet reaction was limited, with most forces awaiting orders from commanders, who were struggling to understand what was happening.

In this first phase of the conflict, the Germans destroyed 43 Soviet aircraft for the loss of 2 German aircraft.  Additional air attacks will continue as the turn progresses.

Even before the air missions had been completed, German ground forces had begun their attacks, starting with artillery bombardment against Soviet forces along the border.  Soviet forces were largely caught by surprise, not expecting the immediate attack despite the escalating tensions in recent weeks.

Those battles will be presented shortly.

June 22, 1941 Operation Barbarossa Begins: Initial Set-up

After much interruption and chaos in the final months of 2023 and particularly during this last couple of weeks, Operation Barbarossa is finally underway.  I've got the Fire In The East Maps on the table, my homemade unit counters deployed, and am working out the initial air attacks.  

I don't have a 6mm airbase, nor enough miniature planes to fill one, so the airbase attacks will be resolved using the system presented in Barbarossa 25, while the intercepts will depend on the number of aircraft involved, should they happen.  Once the air combat is done, I'll move on to the ground battles.

Here is a pic of the map at some point during setup:

I think all of the counters are on the map here, 

though final adjustments hadn't been made when 

this pic was taken.

The Germans were deployed with Army groups Center and South more heavily weighted than in the actual attack, while on the Soviet side, the deployment is probably a more balanced.

I'm ignoring the very northernmost portion of the map, north of Lenningrad, as my map table is only seven feet long, and can't accommodate the upper half of the northernmost map, and i'm not including the Finnish forces (as I don't have the miniatures).

I expect to get through the turn 1 air combat during evenings this week, and hope to get the first land battles on the table next weekend.  Also, I can already see that I have some adtional bits to make. 

I'll start posting AARs as soon as possible.

Of Best Laid Plans...

So, during the Christmas break, I started setting up my 6mm Operation Barbarossa campaign on the map table,  and quickly realized that setting up was going to take much more consideration than I previously thought.

After spending nearly two weeks re-reading the lead-up to the offensive, considering what historical aspects to include, and where I could reasonably deviate from history without skewing things too badly, I set up the forces for the start of the game.  

I'm using the game maps from GDWs Fire in the East with custom made unit counters for the campaign.  I finished laying out the counters, set a number of small wood blocks around the edges of the map, and laid an acrylic sheet over the south half of the map.  I no sooner let go of the plastic, and maybe a hundred counters lifted off of the map and stuck to the plastic hovering 3/4 of an inch above the map.

"Oh, darn."

I lift up the plastic, tilted it a bit, and the counters slid down the plastic with a goodly number falling into a pile near the southern edge of the map.

"Crap."

So I sprayed an anti-static spray on the second sheet, laid it across the northern half of the map, and it happened again.

"Huh."

So now I have thousands of little men and tanks in the basement, eagerly awaiting their doom, while upstairs in the GHQ, a reserved, "Ummm?", is holding up the offensive.

The three cats who live here are fond of high places, and keeping them off of the table is simply not an option.  So, at the moment, I'm considering my options.

6mm Russian Buildings for Barbarossa

Though I have a fair number of Russian buildings, I really need more city and industrial buildings.  I'll take a look at my German and French buildings and see if I can't hijack a few for service in Russia, but think I'm just going to break down and scratch build and cast a few to give a little more variety.

Thse are some of my most recent additions.  The first group are the city/industrial type buildings from Levin Miniatures and are quite nice:

The next group are smaller houses also from Levin:

These look a lot darker in the photos than they are in person.   I guess one of these days, I should actually set up lighting for taking photos.

15mm Air Support for Cold War British 1958

Here are a couple of aircraft for my 1958 Cold War British forces in 15mm.  The first is a Hawker Hunter from QRF, a model I picked up from a hobby shop during a trip to Tennessee many years ago.

Second is a De Haviland Venom diecast, originally in Italian markings that I repainted.  Both models were finished with decals from misminis.com.

I should probably do a couple of Soviet jets now that I'm thinking about it.

2023: Having Changed My Methods

Back in September of '22, I presented a plan to help me focus on "only" ten gaming periods at a time, which I now refer to as the "10-plan".  Ten periods may not seem like much focus, but the bigger picture is that I actually have intent of gaming in at least 37 different periods.

In retrospect, this may seem like a silly or overly structured approach to the hobby, but it seems to be working.  I was more focused in my hobby adventure this past year, completing projects for my 1958 World War III  campaign, and starting with far less than I relized to complete my 1941 Barbarossa period project.  In fact, 25 of 49 completed projects from my to-do list were for 6mm Barbarossa.

Two period projects completed may not seem like a big deal, but given that in 42 years of gaming prior to the 10-plan, I "completed" only seven periods, I think the approach has been beneficial. 

Other work was limited to the remaining eight periods in the plan, with the exception of some 15mm African houses.  My imagi-African campaign, which is more or less "complete", was on hold, as I had need for some more 15mm African houses and buildings for the next game.

I eneded up trading out my 1970s Cold War project for Imagi-Africa on my list, and built the buildings, but in the process, realized that ongoing campaigns are going to need new bits from time to time to permit games to be played, so came to recognise that for the 10-plan to work, I would have to occasionally deviate to a "non-plan" project.  Afterall, the 10-plan is supposed to be a tool, not a barrier.

Another thing that I've wrestled with through the year, is accepting that the rising cost of miniatures and associated shipping fees, particularly from overseas is not-sustainable with respect to my miniatures want-list for my various projects.  So, I am going to drop a couple of periods from my big list, and scale down some other things, which will make the remainder more achieveable.

In any event, here is the status of the 10-plan periods at the end of 2023:

Two periods are more or less complete:

    6mm 1950s Cold War - Various units, buildings and other bits were completed, and the campaign is under way.

    6mm WWII East Front Barbarossa - The campaign is beginning, and the scope has been somewhat expanded through the year with extra units and equipment, and the inclusion of Romanian forces.

One period was almost completed:

    15mm Cold War 1958 - I still need to build a half dozen or so buildings to wrap this up, but infantry, aircraft, and vehicles are complete, and additional terrain was added as well.

One period was temporarily removed:

    15mm 1970s Cold War  -  This project was pulled from the list, temporarily replaced by 15mm Imagi-Africa, as I needed buidings for a campaign scenario.

I've had failing enthusiasm for this Cold War project during 2023, largely due to frustration with figures/miniatures availability associated with companies/lines being sold.  Efforts to round out armies with printed models have generally resulted in failure, between uncured prints from multiple sources now, and prints that require so much cleaning, that it would be faster to master and resin cast them.  

After deciding to reduce the scope of this a little, and focus on rounding out currect forces with small additions, rather than building out vast armies for every nation, I'm going to move on with it.

The following six periods saw varying degrees of progress and will carry over to 2024:

    1/3788 Star Trek/Star Fleet Battles - Klingon, Federation, and Romulan fleets, I purchased, and received as gifts, a number of new miniatures, and have recently started painting some of them.  It looks like the Federation fleet will be taking shape this year, and maybe the Klingons will see a little growth as well.

    15mm WWII East Front, Barbarossa -  Similar to the the 6mm Barbarossa project above, though not quite complete.  This is a period that will be slightly reduced in scope due to the figure cost issue, and I'm expecting to wrap this up in 2024.

    15mm France 1940 -  I finally gave some attention to miniatures and terrain in December.  There isn't a lot to be done yet, and this is another period that should be wrapped up in the coming year.

    15mm Soviet-Afghan War -  I did a lot of planning/design work on this in 2023, and am ready to go into a terrain building frenzy which will bring this to complete status sometime in 2024.

    20mm Vietnam -   Worked on some bits through 2023, and finally settled on a campaign setting late in the year.  I expected this to be a big project for 2024; however, this is another  period that is going to be hit by the shipping/figure cost issue (which kind of surprised me).  As a result, I need to do a little "recalculating" regarding how this will be developed in 2024.

    28mm Post Apocalypse -  Didn't really get much done here, but have some terrain projects that I'd love to complete for a number of scenarios.  I'll need my big table for a while to work on these construction projects, and hope to make some progress after Barbarossa sees some action.

Two new periods will join the 10-plan in 2024

       28mm The Wind and the Lion - This is something that I've wanted to game since before I knew that the hobby was a thing.  I plan to expand the scope beyond that of the the movie, based on the writings of Rosita Forbes and others.  I can repurpose some of my Span-Am War and Boxer period figs and many of the additional figs can be sourced in the US Saving a little shipping fees at least, thus this seems like a period that can survive my recent purge.

    6mm France 1940 - This project goes hand in hand with the 15mm project for the same period, and is actually very close to completion upon addition to this list.  

Playing Games

Every year, I expect that the frequency of my gaming will increase, and relatively speaking, it doesn't.  2023 was no exception to this, having played only nine games through the year.  Double that of 2022, but not really what I was hoping for.

With my Barbarossa campign launching, I expect that number to be somewhat higher in 2024, but really, who knows?  The reality is that particualrly over the last three years, I've really enjoyed working on projects, and gotten a lot done.  I'm enjoying my hobby, so not going out of my way to fix something that isn't really broke.

Painting

It was another strong year on the painting from, having purchased or received 968 figures and painted 1258, mostly 6mm on both counts.  Nearly a thousand of these were for my 6mm Barbarossa project.

I'm guessing that this will be my last 1000 miniature painting year, and expect both of those numbers to be lower in 2024.

Projects

With respect to my hobby to-do list, "project" is relatively unqualified term, and may range from completing a single model to making hundreds of pieces of terrain, I completed 49 "projects" from my to do list in 2023, which is down a little from last year.  It was stiil a pretty productive year, about 1.5 times my average rate prior to 2020.

In all, 2023 was a pretty productive and enjoyable hobby year, despite losing most of the last three months to the chaos of life.  Time to explore 2024.

Hope this wasn't too boring, and thanks for reading.

Happy New Year to all, and hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season.