Eastern Front:
The New Scenarios, Part III

Just as science fiction isn’t really about the future, so is history not really about the past. Both of them, as literary forms, are commentaries on the present, as seen through the lens of an alien society.

In the early days of board wargames — and by early days I mean the 1970s, when I was a teenager — there were many games published based on the Russo-German conflict of 1941-1945. The bulk of them, and a few that still appear these days, bear about as much relation to historical events and analysis of them as our Tears of the Dragon fantasy game. The word of defeated German generals was taken as gospel truth, with tales of hordes of “Russians” beating down the proud herrenfolk at odds of 20:1 or more taken literally. At the height of the Cold War, this was what we chose to believe. At least I’d like to think that, rather than cast the older generation of wargame designers as Nazi idolators.

The reality (that of 2005, anyway) is far different. As the new scenarios should show, there were plenty of instances where the Soviets laid some serious ass-whippings, as they say around here, on the Nazis. And the Romanians opened a few more cans themselves than the Germans and their sycophants might like to admit.

To be fair, in the 1970s and 1980s few researchers had access to better source material. And even fewer wargame designs, then as now, had the training to make use of them had they been available. The earliest scenarios in Eastern Front (in terms of when they were designed, not when they occur chronologically) share these flaws. “Okhvat Station” and “Tank Attack at Okhvat” were designed in, I think, 1981. They hold up surprisingly well, but their source material is purely German-derived. But I did check them over and found no major flaws, so I let them stand. Besides, I couldn’t quite bear to hit the delete key for scenarios I must have wasted hundreds of never-to-be-recovered youthful hours on.

The first set of Eastern Front scenarios solidified in 1998. Even the past seven years have made a difference: The new ones draw much more heavily on Russian-language sources (and some English and German translations) than the original 51. I do read a lot of languages, thanks to far too many years in servitude at Emory and UniWien, and like to show that off when I can. Some of the older scenarios have been revised to reflect this additional information.

Researching 51 scenarios stretched us in the late 1990s; for the next 65, I had a wealth of much more detailed data available and could easily have done another 65. I would not have been sane at that point, but I could have done it. I seriously considered removing all the 1942 scenarios from the original set and limiting Eastern Front’s scenarios to 112 set in 1941. That would have cost us the Tiger tank scenario, which I didn’t want to remove, and I did want to show Germany’s worst panzer division (the 22nd) in action in a couple of new scenarios set in March and May 1942.

Instead, we’ll put out a book of scenarios and background with additional playing pieces, much like Dreadnoughts. A formal announcement will come whenever Liz Fulda, our marketing goddess, allows.

Two of the new scenarios are by William “The Red Goblin” Sariego, designer of Defiant Russia and at least two more games due out from us this year, a third if I can beat it out of him.

Anyway, here are the write-ups for the final set of new scenarios. You can see the previous two installments here and here.

Mike Bennighof
May 2005

Assault Division

7 September 1941: With the Germans reeling back out of the Yelnia Salient, the Soviets sensed that a serious push could result in a major victory. The 78th “Assault” Division scrambled to form a new line northwest of Yelnia where the 263rd Infantry Division had collapsed a few days before, but Soviet tanks were bearing down on them.

Conclusion: The Soviet attack shredded the German positions, and the 107th pushed forward to try to cut off other German formations fleeing their now-exposed positions in the salient. In recognition of this feat and subsequent performance in the Moscow offensive, the 107th would be re-named 2nd Guards Motorized Division in January.

Island of Muhu

14 September 1941: When the Germans swept through the Baltic states in the summer of 1941, they left behind them the Soviet garrisons on the Estonian islands in the Baltic Sea. Once the front had moved on, it was time to eliminate these outposts far in the German rear area. Accordingly, the German and Finnish navies dusted off the 1917 amphibious “Operation Albion” and once again landed troops on the islands. On Muhu, a small island between the mainland and Saaremaa, the landing force encountered stiff resistance at the village of Saastna.

Conclusion: With the aid of the commando group, the Germans took Saastna. Soviet resistance broke soon afterwards, and Muhu fell into German hands. The Soviets withdrew to the larger island of Saaremaa, from which there could be no retreat.

Odessa: National Socialist Ardor

17 September 1941: For weeks, German staff officers had offered patronizing critiques or outright insults to every Romanian failure in the trenches before Odessa. Finally, the German command acceded to Antonescu’s request and sent troops to the siege lines. The infantry regiment and attached engineers were to train the Romanians in proper assault technique and lend their tougher moral fibre to Romanian attacks. A few days after their arrival, they went into action on the left flank of Lt. Gen. Nicolae Dascaclescu's 21st Infantry Division.

Conclusion: After enduring weeks of Teutonic verbal abuse, Dascaclescu unleashed a torrent of scorn on his German liaison officers when the attached German troops broke under Soviet fire and fled the battlefield, forcing him to commit his divisional reserve to plug the gap. “If you were Romanian,” he raged, “I’d have you shot.” René von Courbiere in turn blamed Dascaclescu for not pressing the attack with his Romanian regiments to relieve pressure on the Germans, and on the Luftwaffe for failing to deliver promised dive-bomber sorties, a promise all the Romanian divisional commanders had seen unredeemed since the siege’s start. Neither man seemed willing to acknowledge that they faced one of the Red Army’s premier formations, dug in and fanatically determined to hold the Hero City.

Attack on the Isthmus

24 September 1941: While the German 11th Army moved eastwards onto the Nogai steppe, it detached one corps to attempt force its way into the Crimean peninsula. The Crimea held important resources and the key Soviet naval base of Sevastopol. The Red Army was determined to defend it, and had dug in on the narrow Isthmus of Perekop to keep the Germans out.

Conclusion: Heavy fighting ensued as the Germans pushed forward over the flat, sun-scorched salt pans. The Red Army slowly gave ground and the Germans achieved their objective of capturing Krasny Chaban, but at a frightful cost. The Soviets abandoned their forward positions and fell back to the “Turkish Ditch,” an earthwork that had existed for centuries but had last been maintained by the 18th-century Crimean khans.

Turkish Ditch

26 September 1941: Independent Coastal Army decided at the last minute to contest the so-called “Turkish Ditch,” an earthen embankment across the Perekop Isthmus connecting the Ukrainian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula. The 172nd Rifle Division hurried forward to man the line before the Germans could cross it, or throw them back off if they’d already arrived.

Conclusion: The Soviet tankers drove over the ditch and shot up several German units, but had been ordered to remain to its south and pulled back before dark. The Germans managed to penetrate the ditch at several points, but only at the cost of severe casualties. Unable to blame the Romanians this time, the 11th Army commander, Erich von Manstein, pointed his Prussian finger at the Luftwaffe instead.

Riders of the Khan

27 September 1941: Using their superior artillery, the Germans managed to grind their way down the Perekop Isthmus against desperate resistance. Should they manage to push forward to where the isthmus widened at Ishun, they could use their superior numbers to outflank and drive Independent Coastal Army all the way across Crimea. Determined not to allow this to happen, the army command threw its cavalry against the deepest German spearhead, at the town of Armyansk.

Conclusion: The Red horsemen briefly re-took parts of Armyansk, but lost the town again to a German counter-attack. The Soviet divisions would have to fall back again, and within a few days the Germans could expand their attack front from two to six divisions, and begin plotting their assault on Sevastopol.

Odessa: Ride of the 7th

4 October 1941: On the far left flank of the Soviet defenses of Odessa, an assault by the 7th and 8th Infantry Divisions finally broke through the tough trench system. Having used World War One-era theory in the attack, the Romanian high command followed the last war's procedure for exploiting a breakthrough. The 7th Cavalry Brigade surged through the opening and near the village of Lustdorf met a Soviet counterattack head-on in what became one of the war's largest cavalry battles.

Conclusion: After a furious saber-swinging battle better suited to 1741 than 1941, the Romanians recoiled from the Soviet counter-attack. Odessa still held, but the battle confirmed the Soviet high command's decision to abandon the city.

Forgotten Isthmus

28 October 1941: While the German 11th Army slugged its way down the Perekop Isthmus into the Crimea, fighting hard for each yard gained, a few kilometers to the east Romanian units watched the other two gateways into the region. When the Germans finally reported success, the Romanians moved down the Salkovo Isthmus. Someone had forgotten to tell the Red Army their will to resist had been broken.

Conclusion: In his memoirs, Manstein claims the Romanians arrived some weeks later, and credits the Salkovo advance to the German 22nd Air-Landing Division. The Romanian advance was slow and hard, and the Soviets did not give way until they chose to, and blew up the key bridge before the mountaineers could seize it.

Moscow is Behind Us

16 November 1941: As the Germans pushed toward Moscow, the Red Army fought ever more frantically to hold their lines and drive the invaders back. Raw formations of poorly-armed men and women, with little or no training, rushed to the front and suffered enormous casualties. Maj. Gen. Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov’s 316th Rifle Division, a Kazakh unit formed during the summer, hurriedly dug in across the Volokolamsk Highway. “Russia is huge,” commissar V.K. Klochkov exhorted the 28 soldiers in his post, “but there is nowhere to retreat. Moscow is behind us.”

Conclusion: The stand made by Panfilov’s men on the Volokolamsk Highway became one of the Red Army’s epic acts of mass heroism. Repeated tank attacks were met by infantry close assaults, as the 316th gave no ground and threw them back. Most of Klochkov’s men fell, but by day’s end the wrecks of 50 panzers littered the front lines. Two days later the 316th was re-christened 8th Guards Rifle Division in honor of their achievements.

South of Volokolamsk

16 November 1941: While part of 316th Rifle Division fended off the 2nd Panzer Division, yet another armored division attacked from the south. The Kazakhs gave ground slowly, helped by an armored train, rough terrain and fanatic determination that the Nazis had come far enough.

Conclusion: The Germans ground forward steadily, but the Soviets exacted a price for every foot of ground and the armored train laid down effective covering fire to aid in the retreat. The Soviets remained in good order, ready to fight again the next day. Things had changed for the German tankers since the heady days of June. This was not the same Red Army.

Tankers of Volokolamsk

17 November 1941: Despite the heroism of the 316th’s riflemen, tanks from 2nd Panzer Division found the gap between two of the division’s regiments. The 27th Tank Brigade had received orders to transfer to Gorkiy for rest and replenishment, but its officers would have none of that: most of their men came from the Volokolamsk region. They turned their handful of tanks toward the sound of the guns.

Conclusion: The unexpected reinforcement stopped the German advance long enough for 316th Rifle Division to re-form its lines. After the 17th the 27th Tank Brigade disappears from Soviet situation maps, returning to the front in April, 1942 at full strength after rest and re-armament at Gorkiy.

Fallen Hero of Volokolamsk

18 November 1941: On the southern flank of the 316th’s front, 11th Panzer Division slowly ground towards Moscow. Panfilov himself went forward to the Dubosekovo railway station to take charge of the defenses. There, he was killed by a shellburst while visiting a forward observation post. “Had Panfilov lived a few hours more,” 16th Army commander Konstantin K. Rokossovsky wrote later, “he would have heard that the division he had lead so gallantly into action had been accorded the title of Guards Division.”

Conclusion: The Panfilovtsy, as the division’s men became known throughout the Soviet Union, had held on once more. They gave some ground and yielded up the railway station, but remained in good order and ready to fight again. Today, the independent republic of Kazakhstan has removed most reminders of the Soviet era except one: Panfilov Park in the capital, Almaty, with its Eternal Flame of the 28 Heroes.

Last Stand at Volokolamsk

19 November 1941: With three German divisions pressing on its front, the 316th Rifle Division slowly gave ground. On the 19th all three of them launched a desperate attack, which the newly-renamed 8th Guards Division once again repelled.

Conclusion: The Germans had reached the end of their strength, even though the Kazakhs weren’t any better off. Party activists, kommissars and officers extracted one last effort from the newly-christened Guardsmen, and they repelled these last attacks. Few of the 316th men would survive to collect their Guard bonus pay.

Aryan Panic

27 December 1941: On the far eastern end of the Crimea, the German 46th Infantry Division waited on coast-defense duty while the rest of 11th Army broke itself on Sevastopol’s fortifications. On the day after Christmas, Soviet troops came ashore at the very tip of the Kerch peninsula. The Germans held their positions at first.

Conclusion: Though ordered to eliminate the Soviet beachheads, the Germans found themselves on the defensive again. They began to pull back, and the Soviets followed. The retreat soon became a rout. Erich von Manstein, the 11th Army commander, blamed the corps commander this time.

A Handful of Tanks

30 December 1941: The Soviet landings at Feodosiya in the southeastern Crimea, conducted in the midst of a terrible storm, caught the German command by surprise. They alerted the Romanian 4th Mountain Brigade, then operating against partisans in the Yaila Mountains, to march to the landing site. However, the Germans at first sent the Romanian unit far to the east to where other Soviet units had landed at Kerch, only correcting the information when the march was well underway. Exhausted mountaineers finally arrived in front of the town of Staryi Krim.

Conclusion: The Soviet attack pushed the Romanians back, prompting angry outbursts from the German army commander, Erich von Manstein, that they had fled from “a handful of tanks.” In his post-war apologia, Manstein neglects to mention that his sloppy staff work had sent the Romanian brigade dozens of kilometers out of its way, marching through a blizzard, but he retained the arrogance to blame the troops for not fighting well in spite of his command incompetence. Unlike Manstein, Maj. Gen. Gheorge Avramescu, the Romanian Mountain Corps commander, led from the front and stabilized the brigade’s positions around Staryi Krim.

Podlas Attacks

3 January 1942: With the Red Army on the offensive in front of Moscow, Stavka ordered its forces onto the attack all along the line. Just east of Kursk, Gen. P.K. Podlas of 40th Army sent three divisions backed by two tank brigades against the German line. German tank and motorized forces stood in reserve, ready to render aid.

Conclusion: The Soviet attack ripped a hole 30 kilometers wide in the German lines as 299th Infantry Division crumbled. Mobile forces from 16th Motorized and 3rd Panzer Divisions tried to stem the tide, and the Germans did manage to contain the edges of the breakthrough. The Soviets lost some of their gains, but heavy fighting would continue here, just east of Kursk, for the next several months.

Night and the City

8 January 1942: South of Podlas’ effort, 21st Army had struck 40 kilometers into the German rear area. Taking advantage of German confusion, the Red Army planned a night attack on the city of Oboian’ near Kursk. Inside the city, a battlegroup from the 88th and 168th Infantry Divisions had been alerted by the poor discipline of a nearby NKVD Motorized division and knew something was in the wind. But the Soviets held a powerful card: the 10th Tank Brigade, an experienced unit formed in August from the wreckage of the 43rd Tank Division, had just been completely re-fitted with factory-fresh KV tanks at Kharkiv Locomotive Works.

Conclusion: The Soviets brushed away the German defenses outside the town, thanks to the unstoppable KV tanks. Within the tight urban confines, however, tanks began to fall prey to hunter-killer teams and the Soviet attack lost impetus. When the NKVD division failed to appear as scheduled, the offensive fell apart, leaving Oboian’ temporarily in German hands.

And Quiet Flows the Vodka

21 January 1942: After a month of retreat, an aggressive German battalion commander decided to emerge from his division’s “Hedgehog” to inflict a quick sting on the surrounding Soviets units. This decision was prompted by a recon report suggesting that a nearby Soviet battalion had been mourning the anniversary of Lenin’s death with a bit too much vodka.

Conclusion: Frustration at having retreated for a month caused the attack, which served little purpose otherwise. After a short and intensive engagement the Germans withdrew to their defensive positions. The Soviets had an excuse for more celebration.

Crimean Winter

27 February 1942: The Soviet 44th Army in the eastern Crimea continued its attempts to drive forward to the besieged fortress of Sevastopol. A major offensive began in late February, with the heaviest effort coming on the northern part of the front, where the Romanian VI Corps held the line.

Conclusion: The Soviets pushed the Romanians back for several kilometers but could not force a total breakthrough. The 18th Infantry was exhausted, but still able to put up a fight in prepared positions. German and Romanian reinforcements would counter-attack the next day.

Crimean Counter-Attack

28 February 1942: Following their defeat on the 27th, the Romanian 18th Infantry Division re-grouped for a counterattack the next day, bolstered by a German regiment. The Soviets, meanwhile, saw their success as only the first stage in a breakout into the Crimea, and planned even greater advances.

Conclusion: The allied attack made very little progress, as neither command proved very willing to support the other. German troops briefly occupied the village of Kiet, but the Soviets kicked them back out in the afternoon.

Crimean Shield

20 March 1942: When the new 22nd Panzer Division arrived in the Crimea in the spring of 1942, army commander Erich von Manstein ordered it to hurry to the front for an immediate attack on the Soviets holding the Kerch peninsula. So far, the Germans had deployed no panzer units on the Crimean front, and the army command seems to have hoped to catch the Red Army by surprise.

Conclusion: The newest German panzer division collapsed at its first taste of combat, reeling back without doing much damage to the Soviets. Manstein quickly withdrew it for what he called “rest” in his post-war memoirs but actually consisted of the large-unit training the division should have had before leaving Germany. None of the panzer divisions formed after the invasion of the Soviet Union performed very well, though 22nd proved to be the worst of the lot, as the front-line units called on to provide cadres gleefully dumped their incompetents and malcontents on the new units.

Tank Battle at Parpach

9 May 1942: The German “Operation Trappenjagd,” designed to drive the Soviet Crimean Front completely off the Kerch peninsula, got off on 8 May and penetrated the Soviet lines at several points. Only then was the 22nd Panzer Division re-introduced to combat, striking through a gap in the Soviet lines already opened by the three infantry divisions of XXX Corps. The first part of the plan went off as scheduled, but then the Crimean Front flung a powerful tank-supported counterattack against the hard-luck panzer division.

Conclusion: The Soviet attack shook the 22nd Panzer Division and brought its advance to a grinding halt less than a day after it began. However, it served as a useful diversion (though it had not been intended this way) as the Romanian-German combined “Groddek” Brigade of motorized units, commanded by Romanian Col. Radu Korne, shot through the gap opened by the attack against the 22nd and totally disrupted the Soviet position. “Trappenjagd” would be an overwhelming success.