BCR Battles

Battle 1: 22 June, 1941

A Russian village is to be taken that is the junction of a couple roads.

Apart from a couple small hovels, the nearest building to me was the village church. It was on a bit of a rise and as the tallest building around for miles it seemed obvious to me that taking and holding it should be a priority. My dim-witted Soviet counterparts didn't agree. They had left the church mostly undefended with their troops scattered among the houses of the town, hoping that the copious amounts of barbed wire they had strewn about would be enough to slow my men down. They were wrong.

My men advanced steadily to the church and the houses surrounding it. They soon secured the church building itself and before long I was able to place three machine guns on the second floor overlooking every useful part of this little village. After that my men could advance confidently, but cautiously, from house to house, clearing out the poorly equipped and trained Soviet soldiers. Many were seen dashing away from us into the enemy rear.

Part of my objective was to secure the area to the right of the village as well. My progress was a bit slower over there due to the presence of several minefields and some patient ambushes that awaited us. I regrouped and proceeded more carefully, and was able to hold all designated points within half an hour.

The result was a Total Victory.

Battle 2: 22 June, 1941

I was rewarded for my clean victory with a follow up attack that night. I am told that we were in a very hilly rural area. I can hardly say, though, because as we were ordered forward in the dead of night a thick fog had settled and there was not a breath of air to disturb it. My men found that they could not see each other any farther than 30m, even when they knew where to look.

I should have called the whole thing off right then and there but I was anxious to prove myself to my commanders. I proceeded very slowly, pushing alternate units forward while their friends stood by to defend them. We went a long way without encountering the enemy, but as we neared our objective we kept getting ambushed at very close ranges. All the Soviets had to do was keep quiet until our backs were to them and then open fire with devastating effect.

Once actually engaged with the enemy I realized how futile this attempt was and ordered all my men to back off to a safe distance. My superiors were very upset with me, saying that this push was necessary to take advantage of the shocked and unprepared Soviet troops, and I had set them back. I will have to work hard to earn back their good graces after this total defeat.

Battle 3: 24 June, 1941

I rolled up a x5 large battle. I gamely tried playing, but found it to be too much for my computer to handle. So I cut all the numbers to one third and tried again. This time it was more reasonable. I may shift the large battle numbers around a little. I enjoy smaller battles and they're a little easier on my computer.

We have been moved into a very remote area. There are farms around, but the land is so hilly even those are rare. My orders were to breach a weak point in the Soviet line. Since I was leading the breakthrough I was given a lot of troops to support the action. I was given an additional infantry company as well as a platoon each of PSW 231 armored cars and panzer IIIGs. Extra artillery was attached in the form of two 81mm spotters and a 105 spotter as well as a 50mm mortar team. All these attached units were excellently trained, high quality troops.

I was told to expect air support from some Stukas which I was actually pretty nervous about. Early reports were that they didn't do a very good job of distinguishing between enemy troops and friendlies. But they performed just fine for us. They passed overhead a lot and never fired on us. I'm not sure exactly how much damage they did but my men did witness one large explosion after an overpass and so we assumed the flyboy hit something good.

The area was very hilly so I used that to plan an approach route where we would be hidden from the enemy until right on top of his lines. The plan was to punch in and then "roll up" the enemy to the left. I planned to use one company to search forward, the tanks and armored cars would follow close behind with the other company for support when contact was made. I organized two fire support groups of the mortars, spotters, and machine guns (each with an officer) to leapfrog each other from hill to hill.

I wasn't expecting any opposition at the first hill and didn't find any, so I set up fire support group 1 on the near side of the hill, shielded from enemy positions but with a view of the area my infantry would be advancing through.

In the mean time I moved two tanks up the hill to report what they could see from there. They couldn't see much it turned out, but the enemy could see them. A very distant gun opened fire on one of the tanks. I was told to expect poorly trained men but that gun had an excellent crew. From about 1km he hit my tank with three successive shots. On the first one he damaged the gun and I figured he was just lucky, but before I could order the tank to back up he hit again, causing a casualty, and again. The crew bailed out and I ordered the other tank to back off.

I moved A company through the valley between the first and second hills. Some very distant machine gun fire was reported but that was all. They all got to the second hill fine and hid behind it while I sent a couple men to scout around it to see what lay ahead.

I gathered up my company (B company for this operation) and all the vehicles and sent them on toward the second hill. At the same time I was getting fire support group 2 ready to go to provide support from the second hill. But just as my men got out in the open just beyond the hill a storm of light artillery began falling on them. It was not the output of a single mortar team, but must have been several or a long barrage from a rear echelon battery. I tried to see where it was coming from but couldn't tell. My men were caught out in the open with no cover to run to. Most tried to get back behind the hill but the shells kept falling for about five minutes and most just lost it and ran off. All of 1st platoon ran immediately, and 2nd and 3rd platoons were quickly shaken. If the shells had stopped sooner I may have been able to rally them but by the time it stopped all I had left were two squads. It was heartbreaking to watch my men break and run like that. That left me with effectively half the infantry I started with.

My 50mm mortar teams (who were part of fire support group 2) had all dropped their equipment, rendering themselves useless. Fire support group 2 had taken some losses so I ended up just grouping them together into one fire support group. I pulled back the tanks to give rides to all those who could take them, and got them to the second hill.

We regrouped at the second hill and I set up overwatch for the move to the third hill. That was where we expected to turn left and get behind the enemy. There was a steep hollow back there that would have been hell to just walk in to. We aimed to the right of it and entered from the side.

The valley between the second and third hills had some wire in it but as we spotted enemy positions I put artillery or machine gun fire on them and the men were able to move around the wire without too much trouble. I also used the armored cars to support the infantry as they crossed the valley.

Contact was surprisingly light as we hit the third hill. Fire from a couple spots was quickly dealt with and the hill could still be used to shield us from the bulk of the enemy position. We then proceeded to circle around the base of the hill and hit enemy positions from the side. My men were tired and frequently needed to rest but once the tanks and fire support group were in place and blazing away I pushed them on. Weakness slowed them down, though, and I was forced to send unsupported tanks and a couple armored cars to grab critical positions. The enemy, poorly trained kids given a gun and thrown into battle, was pretty much broken at that point from heavy fire from tanks, machine guns, and artillery. Further resistance was light.

The battle was considered a tactical victory, but I consider it a personal loss after watching about 90% of my company flee the field of battle.

Battle 4: 24 June, 1941

I began with my troops behind a hill near the right. I split my infantry into two groups, each with a fire support group consisting of mortars, a machine gun, and a commander. The two infantry companies headed out around either side of the hill. They will cross the valley separately and join up near the large hill at the far right. I spread them out for the move through the open to make them a harder artillery target. If artillery is targeted on a group moving abreast they may walk past the center of fire before the shells start falling. But if I move them in a column, the next group down the line will be right there to take the brunt (a mistake I've already made a few times).

For five minutes the infantry crossed the open just fine and I decided to peek an armored car over the hill to see what he could spot from up there. That was not wise. A distant gun quickly spotted him and fired. He was hit and took one casualty but quickly fired back. Not quickly enough, though, as the second shot wrecked the AC in a ball of flame.

That made me mad. I decided to get even (and suppress anything up there so they couldn't fire on my infantry). I targeted a 50mm mortar on the area of the two guns now visible hoping that the crews would keep their heads down. At the same time I sent a tank around either side of the hill into firing positions to see if they could take out the guns. They rolled into position as the shells started falling and opened fire, with their machine guns! That might stop the crews from operating the guns for a while but I'd rather stop the guns themselves so I ordered the two tanks to fire with their main guns. Several shots ricocheted off my Panzer IV's front armor before the guns (a third was spotted) were silenced. Two were knocked out and one was abandoned ("See" I explained to the tank commanders, "That's what this big gun here is for").

By then my two infantry groups were meeting up at the far hill, so I began moving my fire support groups forward, mounting as many on tanks as I could to speed things up.

As they were waiting I pushed a couple squads from the support company around the hill to scout out the area. They spotted a trench, but couldn't see what was in it. We soon figured it out, though, when mortar fire began falling on my company. I waved them off to the side to get out of the line of fire, and told two platoons to advance on the trench (I would have liked to wait and mortar the trench before moving on it, but that's where the enemy's mortar fire was coming from so I had to go). Unfortunately, the two platoons ran right into a mine field. They diverted around it but their progress was slowed. Meanwhile, my company was scattering all the hell over the place with no semblance of organization. Fortunately those two platoons get it together quickly and soon shoot down both the mortar team and the battalion HQ that was commanding them.

I then began the process of moving all my infantry through the wire and around the minefields protecting the right side of the hill. The hill itself shielded us from enemy fire and the trench had been cleared so the movement, while slow, wasn't otherwise hindered. The only opposition we got was from a lone recon A squad that came running down the hills to our left. He charged toward the left fire support group that was dismounting and getting organized on that flank. He was in full view of several tanks, though, and after a good dose of fire from them he changed his mind and ran back the way he came.

There wasn't a good view into the enemy rear from the trench, so I sent a PSW 231 to look around. All he found was a wood bunker with a machine gun firing at him. So I backed him off and advanced a Panzer IIIH to deal with it.

Behind the enemy's front ridge was a deep valley, mostly open but with some trees on the far side. That's where his infantry had to be so I started moving my men through the valley, advancing and hiding in bounds. I knew that would be a tough advance but time was too short for a more circuitous route. I expected most fire to come from the woods, but in fact it turned out that there were more bunkers at the distant left. I ordered 82mm fire on their area and moved tanks into position to see them.

The infantry pushed on through a lot of fire. They came to a steep hill hiding a little house at the bottom. There was a machine gunner inside, but I had enough troops in the area to suppress him and take the house at that close range. Eventually the artillery arrived on those bunkers and really did the trick. Both were quickly abandoned.

As I gained confidence that I was past anti-tank threats I rolled my tanks and armored cars out through and around the back side of the valley. They put a lot of pressure on the infantry that was hiding in the woods. I also pushed forward from the house toward the woods after my troops were rested up. The tanks more than the infantry did the work, scaring the enemy troops off. During one minute I spotted at least a platoon's worth of men running from the field.

Resistance thinned out from there. A couple machine guns presented themselves on the ridge later. One was scared of, one was eliminated.