Band of Wargame Brothers: Outskirts of Stalingrad, August 1942

Outskirts of Stalingrad, August 1942

Ralph invited the Brothers around for a Flames of War (FOW) game. I know this is a very popular rule system and all the Brothers have vast arrays of troops, from Paul's Polish trains, to Chris' Afrika Korps companies. I don't have any...but I hope to remedy that soon!
The situation was simple- a Russian battalion with armour support- well 3 very understrength companies, a pioneer platoon, two SMG platoons and two platoons of T-34s were to retake a series of buildings with a large building at the far end of the table, beyond the park area- was to be the main objective.

The Table: The big building in the center front of the photo was the Soviet objective- They started at the far end.

The game started with a general advance by the Soviets with three main areas of advance. Paul's command on the left was initially pinned down by heavy MG fire as Nick (senior) poured fire into his troops but after Paul's NKVD Commissars executed a few recalcitrants the rest moved on and drove out the first MG company.
In the center my T34s drove through the open area of the park and Ross decide to reveal his trump card- 3 Pak 50s. They fired at the side of my leading tank platoon......and nothing happened. The shells all bounced skyward. He was not a happy man...especially as my infantry then swarmed over his concealed gun emplacements driving the crews off and capturing 2 out of the 3 guns.

The center of the table...and a cause of a major headache for the German defenders as it was too open and the T34s broke through.

German infantry take position in the rubble

Although it would cost a lot of Soviet blood to drive the Germans out of the ruins the end was only really going to be one way as the Wehrmacht had no way of destroying the tanks. Eventually, after giving the Soviets a bloody nose... they had to surrender the objective! A great game and lots of fun....the look on Ross's face when his guns couldn't penetrate the Soviet armour effectively was priceless! Thanks for putting on the game Ralph!

My T34s ride over a German machine gun position late in the game

A German HQ in the ruins of a Russian building

The middle of the table. German infantry were dug in on the western side of the park but were pushed out by a combination of tanks and infantry

Soviet tanks and infantry storm a building- Nick (senior) held this building with a platoon of German infantry- I eventually took it but at horrendous cost- 3 full platoons were destroyed storming this multi storey building.