The final fight in the five battle campaign heated up as the Soviet army stood against the combined German and Hungarian force across a dirt road in a small Soviet town. So far, the Soviets had scored a small, but likely temporary, success by taking a farmyard. Although they controlled it, the men who stormed the muddy lot were forced back out.
The first stage of the battle was all about maneuver but now it was time for rhe fight.
A small house on the Soviet line was burning from a tank high explosive shell. The surviving Russians inside were in danger of being buried alive when the house collapsed, so they exited out the doors and into the adjacent yard where they were mowed down by a German infantry squad occupying the large blue house across the street. A Soviet medium machine gun firing out of a house behind the burning house tried to support the escaping Soviets and caused casualties to the Germans but couldn’t fully suppress them. The battered Soviet infantry squad routed from the yard and were done for the day.
On the opposite end of the village the Nimrod continued to shell the infantry across the street until a new threat lumbered through the woods across the road. Making its first appearance, a KV-1 rolled forward. Its first appearance would be a short one. An 88mm Flak gun that was hidden behind the large rail station opened up.
The giant shell cut through the front of the Soviet tank and KO’ed it one punch.
In the center of town things escalated quickly Two German infantry squads dashed across the road and into a large house that was left unguarded They then assaulted a Soviet infantry squad that was lined up next to the building and drove off the hapless men who ran from the yard.
The taking of the building, was a score for the Axis forces who now had a foothold in the Soviet line
Soviets 18 Axis 16. Ongoing Count 3
Taking a building and holding a building were emerging as two very different endeavors. The Germans were now trapped in the building as two Soviet squads converged on the yard around the building. The large wooden house was very defensible…but it also burned.
Two T-28 tanks-relics of the winter war-rolled into the village. One along the railroad tracks and the other behind the burning house.
One of the land battleships engaged the Panzer IV near the blue house The other engaged the Germans in the newly taken house. The green beast fired an HE shell which crashed into the German filled house. It started to burn.
Much as the Soviets did earlier, the Germans retreated out the back (well…the front) door and into the road.
While the other T-28 and Panzer IV dueled to a near draw-a shell killed one of the many turret gunners in the T-28 who was replaced- a much more decisive fight finished near the mud farm. The BA-10 struck the Nimrod and killed its driver. The Nimrod retaliated and killed the BA-10.
The Axis forces had the initiative along the line. In front of the churchyard, a German squad darted into the road hoping to advance in the cover of the original burning house. A Soviet squad responded by moving up one of the cramped side streets to engage.
In the middle, the Axis forces pushed a Jump Off Point forward and then used it to deploy an infantry squad into the road behind and to the right of the second burning house.
The advance, though impressive was a bit of a problem. What next? There were a whole lot of Soviets with a whole bunch of guns in those yards. Could the Axis troops place more troops and more fire in small areas to push in? It was going to be a hard thing.
The fight would continue.
Soviets 18. Axis 16 Ongoing Count 2
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