Scenario - The Weissenberg Counter Attack

For the last 3 years I have participated in some fairly large games with a group of people I met through the Guild Forum.  As you might have noticed my personal poison is Cold War, this year the intent was a bit of a downscale and 4 of us with a mix of Soviet and German Armies got together in August to play. The German Team were Mausman and Panzerfaust 200 whilst the Soviets were Played  by Elhiem and myself.  The detailed Scenario can be downloaded from the link at the end of the post. 

I started work on the scenario in January, determining that the Scenario was going to develop from an attack into Southern Germany along the Boundary of II Ge Corps and VII US Corps by a Front based on the CSLA and the Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia.  The intent being to keep the top level detail the same and play scenarios against US, Germans and Canadians.  The Canadian Brigade constituted a CENTAG reserve that would support into these Corps areas.  The Central Group of Forces was selected as my Soviets are mostly equipped with T-72s.

I roughed out the the Fronts advance and Laydown based on a look at the likly crossing points of the mountainous Czech border.  I placed the Soviet 22nd Combind Arms Army as the Northern of the two Armies in the first echelon, with its two first echelon divisions straddling the inter corps boundary. 22 CAA would take the less than Optimal Weidhaus gap shown below, more gaming opportunities around that route I suspect.

As this first game was a Soviet German combination I deployed II Ge Corps with 4 PzGren Div in the North and 1 GbJgr Div South (where the mountains were).  The laydown of 4 PzGren Div, placed 10 PzGren Bde North, 56 HS Brigade Centre and 11 PzGren Bde South with 12 Pz Brigade in reserve.  I have yet to consider the US VII Corps laydown.  The detail of this can be found in the Google Earth .kmz file included as a download at the end of the post.

At this point I was not sure what sort of a game we wanted to play although the previous years  game was originally intended to be a Soviet defence and I was in the middle of finishing a Divisional AT Battalion that I was quite keen to see fight.  I roughed out the Manoeuvre of 18 Guards MRD through 10 PzGren Bdes area and started looking for potential spots where action would occur, based around the concepts of a German covering force pulling back onto a main defensive area and an intent to base games around the Soviet use of forward detachments to enable tactical manoeuvre which allows for some interesting approaches to task organisation on the Soviet side, and is covered well in David Glanz's The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Maneuver: Spearhead of the Offensive

The battlefield size we had in mind was 16" by 8" which I was mapped to an area 4km by 2km, selected from Google Earth but based on the larger scheme of manoeuvre outlined below. In order to meet the need for a defensive game, I exploited the breakout of 18 Guards MRD from the bridgehead it established over the Rhien-Main-Danube canal as it bypassed 10 Pz Gren Bdes main defended area around Neaumarket. and then exploited into the depth of 4 PzGren Div.  At this point the Germans counter attacked with 12 Pz Brigade and the scenario developed around an attempt by 18 Guards MRD to block this action in the area of Wissenberg.

In order to give players some control over where the game would be fought 12 Pz Bde was given a choice of two routes and on each route 18 MRD had two blocking options.  For our game the Germans chose the Western Route and the Soviets chose to fight on the Northern of the two options provided.  Alternatively the two positions can be played as a mini campaign with the an initial Soviet force on the Southern table withdrawing to the Northern Table in truth you could easily create a 4 game mini campaign which could include subsequent actions depending on outcome.

• Game 1 Delay battle Treuchtlingen
• Game 2 Block at Wiessenberg
• Game 3 (German Victory in Game 2) German Counter Stroke into Flank of  210 Tank Regiment
• Game 4 (Germans blocked) Counter Attack by 91 Independent Tank Battalion

In the later Games, it would seem logical to introduce the lead elements of the 2nd Echelon, Divisions.  effectively the thinking through of the high level manoeuvre provides the context for force composition which would otherwise be provided by history.

The broadscope of the play was that the mixed (121) and Pz Grenadier (122) Battalions of 12 PzBrigade reinforced by an airmobile Jager Battalion from division and elements of divisional recce and artillery had to secure the route to and start line for the Two Panzer battalions to strike into the flank of 18 Gds MRD.  The Soviets on the other hand were aiming to delay this from happening for three hours and had:

• A Motor Rifle Battalion (BMP), 
• 3 Air Assault Companies,
• An Anti Tank Battalion 
• A Mobile Obstacle Detachment
• A Recce Company 
• A company of Tanks 
• 3 Artillery Battalions 

with which to do this along with a T-72 Bn held in reserve, the deployment of which altered the victory conditions. As the concept was hasty defence the Soviets were only provided with limited field defences and obstacles. Though they had the ability to deploy more in game using Engineer and Artillery assets. 

This is the first of a series of Scenarios that I intend to develop around this broad theme others may include the covering force action, the Neumarket defence, the river crossing and the meeting engagement that developed following this action.  Each will be preceded by a look at some of the relevant Tactical Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) along with a look at the Scenario and followed by an AAR.

References:

TTP - Soviet Forward Detachments as a Covering Force
ORBAT - Soviet Task Org, Fronts in the Western TVD
ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability, Part 1 Overview and Lift
ORBAT- 1980's MRR and TRR, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
ORBAT - Soviet Divisional Units, Part 1MRD Anti Tank Battalion

Downloads:

The Wissenberg Counter Attack, This is a big file 30mb (too many pictures)
Wissenberg Google Earth KMZ file
Soviet Military Maps