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derflinger -> The Adventures of KG Derflinger (2/26/2005 4:24:32 PM)
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Back in 39, the Reich gave me 4000 Deutschmarks to build KG Derflinger. We thought the war would be short. It is now the second anniversary of that first bloody assault. October 1941, and we are facing another tough assault. This time it's in Russia.
In the two years since our first blooding, we have replaced nearly all of our equipment, with the exception of the Major's prime mover. Remarkably, most of the faces are the same. Well, not the infantry. We beat the Poles twice, the French twice, the British, in France and again three times in the desert. Then we were sent to the Eastern front. We've had two meeting engagements with the Russians. We counted 156 AFVs destroyed after the first battle, and 164 after the second. Those T-34's are tough, thank the gods of war they do not have very many of them.
This time the Furher has ordered a frontal assault. We are to prove the inate superiority of the Aryan race by charging into the center of the toughest defense the Russians can through up. We are instructed to not to stray from the road that crosses the battlefield by more than 800 yards, unless it is to pick up the enemy's standards. Those stupid bastards in Berlin, when will they learn? Well, we will follow orders...
Lt Gruber approached Maj. Derflinger, "Sir, here is the manifest of support equipment you ordered"
"Thank you lieutenant. Hmmmm. Damn it! Where are my Stukas? I see they gave me three extra batteries of 150's. And a battery of Rockets. hmmm, good thing they gave us an ammo dump. We're going to wear those darn tubes out. Well that will have to do." The Major examined the fine print.."No flamethrowers? And they call it a "company" of engineers? We are leading the assault, we should have priority! I'll bet that bastard Stransky is not short of flamethrowers."
"At least we got the whole company of assault guns, and they're the new E model sporting an MG34!" the lieutenant grinned.
"Yes, that is an improvement, but I can't believe they built the damn things without them in the first place. Lieutenant, have you the order of battle?"
"Yes sir. 2 plts PZIIIh, 4 plts PZIVe, 1 plt JPZ1b, 1 section each Stug B and Flampanzer. 1 plt sIG33 PZ1, 2 sections 88 Flak AT, 1 plt 76.2 AT, 1 plt 37mm AA, 1 plt 8-Rad, 1 secton 6-Rad. 7 SP morters, 3 Wurfrahmem, 23 251/1 and 3 250/10.
And 1 Co + 1 plt of SS and 2 plts of engineer. Our organic engineers do have some flamethrowers. And we have 2 plts of Spec Ops and 3 plts of recon."
"Very good Lieutenant, and don't forget about our ammo truck"
"Yes sir, and I must say sir, I still don't understand how you managed to trade all those mules for half tracks. That was a fantastic deal you made with that glue factory. I wonder what they were doing with all those 251/1s?"
"Yes, yes, lieutenant, it's time to get down to business. We have approximately five platoons of engineers, well, closer to four. We will load them on the Stugs along the front. 600 yards from the enemy lines. The front here is pretty blocked out so we won't see much of each other till we get quite close to their front lines. Good thing we got those extra three 150mm batteries - for a total of six! First thing a preliminary bombardment to turn over the mine field and quiet down the troops in the front line I think we will use four batteries, at the same time, we will put down smoke about 150 - 200 yards east of where we think the front line is. The Stugs will engage any enemy remaining after the bombardment while the engineers work on the mines. When we achieve breakthrough, the recon will lead the way followed by the SS riding on the tanks. Sometimes I wonder if those 251/1's are worth anything? We roll the barrage back over the Russians as we move forward."
"Piece of cake, Sir"
"Let's hope it's German chocolate, not Borscht."
"Uh, yes sir. Oh by the way Sir, what about all these 50mm morters you ordered? I think we've got 15 of them."
"Lieutenant, you've got a lot to learn. Suppression! We move the little morters up as close to the front as we can, and keep the Russian heads down while we clear the mines. Son, I don't know what to expect at dawn, but the Russian tanks we've encountered so far are better than the British, and with the exception of the 88 of course, they have the best AT gun around. I expect this will be our toughest fight so far. You best get a good night's sleep tonight Lieutenant, you won't be getting any tomorrow."
The Major retired to his maps and a small glass of schnapps.
So, I've got lots of morters and rockets on the board, and some big guns off board.
I have my doubts that any of my AT guns will be of much use in an assault. Nor the PZ1b, they are just too flimsy.
I have several tankers with experience over 100 and more than 40 kills each. My favorite recon got too close to a rocket attack in the last battle. Killed by friendly fire. And he had 8 kills. Well, just to be fair, I don't look (I try not to anyway) until the battle is decided...
Stay tuned for the next installment...
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