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The Battle for Tartu

Written by Michael (Mike) Cannon

Sunday, 06 April 2008

I have been involved briefly in an ongoing campaign with several people across the US/world. We played a battle from the campaign out a few weeks ago and I am just now getting to the point where I can post the results. The overall campaign uses the GDW maps from the Eastern Front and CD3 as the battlefield rules. I am playing a Soviet Army commander. An interesting aspect of the rules is that they are "bathtub" style. This was a term coined by Frank Chadwick, I believe, to describe how he reduces divisions down to smaller sizes, so in this campaign, a battalion is a division and has limited divisional assets.

Here is a sample TO&E for the reduced unit sizes:

90 RD (90th Rifle Division)

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
1	90th Rifle Division	Exp	8		5.5
2	Headquarters
3	command
4	command	\	\	\
5	command infantry
6	engineer
7	82mm mortar	\	\	\
8	76L39
9	gun crew	\	\		x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
10	gun crew	\	\	\
11	limber
12	recon patrol	\	\	\
13	recon\infantry
14	quadAAMG truck	x
15	1st Rifle Company
16	1\1 infantry	\	\
17	1\2 infantry	\
18	1\3 Infantry	\	\
19	2nd Rifle Company
20	1 command\infantry	\	\	\
21	2\1 infantry	\	\	\
22	2\2 infantry	x	x	x
23	2\3 infantry	x	x	x
24	3rd Rifle Company
25	3\1 infantry	x	x	x
26	3\2 infantry	x	x	x
27	3\3 infantry	x	x	x
28	MG Company
29	1 MG	\	\	\
30	2 MG	x	x	x
31	3 MG	x	x	x
32	AAHMG Company
33	1 AAHMG
34	2 AAHMG	\	\
35	Artillery Battery
36	76L39
37	gun crew (ds)				x	x	x	x	0	0	0	0	0	0
38	limber
39	122L22
40	gun crew (ds)				x	x	x	x	0
41	limber
42	support
43	support	\	\
44	ammo wagon				0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	122L22

Second Battle of Tartu, July II, 16:30 – 22:00

Game played today with Mike Cannon doing the Soviets and me (Gary Rhay) playing the Germans (toss of a coin). Our table was slightly smaller than the map but it did not seem to effect the game. Game went to 2200.

Deployments

16:30 - Soviet air all arrives on time. The KG1/I Ju-88A was intercepted and destroyed by 20 PVO IAP/1 (wouldn't be the last of Mike's lucky rolls, drat) 1 DBAP bombs Tartu bombs all scatter but still hit 1 Shutzen/6 PzD, also pins the HQ 6 PzD and SS Tot/2. Note all hits were due to bomb scatter, no bombs fell on target.

Initial Air Raids

16:45 - 2 DBAP/1 bombs Tartu SS Tot HQ -1 morale (I mostly rolled great but had sporadic stinkers).

17:00 - 2 DBAP/2 bombs Tartu SS Tot/2 -1 morale. KG 1/II bombs woods but scatter hits SS Recon, hitting recon infantry and destroying the light truck.

More Air Strikes

17:15 - 2 DBAP/3 bombs Tartu hitting the RR station. 20 PVO IAP/3 arrives on patrol (one turn late)

17:30 - 3 DBAP/3 bombs Tartu, 6 PzD 75 mm IG hit and destroyed. SS Tot begins its movement

17:45 - 3 IAP/1 arrives on patrol

18:00 - 4 BAP/2 bombs Tartu pins 6 PzD HQ, Recon Mcycl and ATG. 6 PzD/2 is morale -1 (bad turn for rolls) 20 PVO IAP/3 strafes no effect

18:15 - Movement continues SS Recon spotting inconclusive.

18:30 - SS recon advances and armored car is destroyed by 76 mm fire. Recon infantry spots enemy.

18:45 - SS arrives in force, artillery falls on 76 mm and supporting infantry. 299 ID arrives at Tartu, 3 IAP/1 strafes column hitting ID’s engineers.

19:00 - General firefight between SS and 90 RD. Considerable Soviet artillery hits SS, SS arty and mortars force lead elements of 90 RD to fall back.

19:15 - Firefight continues, 679 EngR arrives at Tartu.

19:30 - SS Tot enters woods but encounters significant resistance, heavy artillery fire by both sides continues.

20:00 - River crossing begun by 299 ID screened by smoke fired by 6 PzD and 299 ID arty.

20:15 - SS assumes the defensive, 90 RD disengaging.

Germans Achieve Objectives

20:30 - 299 ID and 6 PzD attack across Emajogi River into 1B 1308, supported by heavy fire and artillery

20:45 - Attack continues under supporting artillery and last of the smoke. BT-7 hit, Soviets appear to be disengaging back into woods. 1 ID makes a passage of lines through SS T and advances cautiously towards objective, no enemy contact.

Germans Go Onto Defensive

21:00 - 6 PzD and 299 ID consolidate in 1B 1308, no enemy in sight, considerable automatic weapon and AT fire was encountered in attack and commander of 6th Panzer elects not to pursue into woods. 1 ID continues advance and 58 ID passes through left flank of SS T. SS begins reorganization and trucks move forward.

22:00 - all units have arrived at objectives and no enemy forces are in contact.

Ending positions: AXIS: 1210 - 86th ID, 1209 - 1st ID, 1310-1311 SS Totenkopf, 1308 - 6th Pz and 299th ID, 1407 - 667 Eng and 1408 - Pz Support and 18th ARKO.

Soviet: 90th RD departed 1109 at 2100, 21st NKVD (and all units from 1308 are in the nortern part of 1109 and 1008 at 2200.

Overall the Soviets did well and gave worse than they got. Germans were pummeled by the airstrikes, sheer mass of air and congestion in Tartu ensured some effect. German artillery was their big killer. OBs to follow.

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