Hollow Triumph
By Yong Park

Scenario:     
Hollow Triumph  – Complexity 3 NIGHT scenario

Date:         
25 June 1944 – 11 Turns

Location:     
195 km E of Minsk near Bryle

Type:     
Meeting Engagement during Operation Bagration, an attempt to destroy Army Group Center in 1944.  Russians eventually succeed in this by destroying 90% of the divisions in Army Group Center.

Forces
German:         
KG Gebhardt of German 4th Army
6 plt Pz IVHs, 4 plt PzVs, 4 plt StuG IIIs, 2 Jgpz IVs, 3 Jgpz Vs, 3 plt Halftracks, 3 plt PSW recons, 4 FlaK Pz IV 37 mm AAs, 1 plt of 120 mm Mortars, 3 plt of Pzgrs.  No reinforcement was scheduled.

Enemy:    
2nd Belorussian Front with mixture of T-34 M43s and T-34M85s, Several IS-2s, Recons, armor vehicles, and SMG Guard units.  More IS-2 tanks, T-34s and SU-85 showed up later as reinforcements.

No air support was available.  16 Starshells were allocated

Objectives:    
No Exit Hex, All the victory HEXs were located in and around Bryle, Kamenka and Kugurina.

Major Defeat -25
Minor Defeat 100
Minor Victory 175
Major Victory 300

It started with Germans having 150 points.

Terrain:     
Heavily wooded area north and south of the valley on which Bryle, Kamenka and Kugurina are located.  There are hills on all sides except for west.  There are two main paved roads: one from Smolensk to Minsk and another dissects the map horizontally.  One river, Rudeya, runs parallel to the horizontal paved road.  This river is impassable.  Another river, Chernoye, is a shallow river located on the western edge of the map.  This river had no effect on the movements.

Opponent: Bill Hartman

My forces were in two groups: the Group one consisted of 1st Panzer company and StuG company and the Group two consisted of 2nd and 3rd Panzer companies.  

Group one slowly moved toward Kamenka.  Kamenka was located on a valley next to a hill and a forest so that the city was an excellent place to set up an ambush.  By turn 3, all StuG IIIs were in position next to the city.  2 plt of Jgpz Vs were waiting next to StuG IIIs.  

Group two moved toward Bryle to capture the victory HEXs located around the city.  By turn 3, Bryle was in our control.  120 mm mortar was placed in the woods behind the front to support infantry.  This was used to light up starshells as well since mortars are ineffective against tanks.

The Russian tanks started to appear around Bryle on turn 4.  A furious tank battles ensued with heavy casualties on both sides.  However, 2 panzergrenadier platoons with panzerfausts saved the day (or night!).  In Kamenka, IS-2 tanks began to appear and did damage to the Panthers.  I had one platoon of panzergrenadiers in the village.  It looks like Panzerfausts are the best weapon against IS-2 tanks.  

From the turn 6 on, this battle became more of a slugfest than a chess match.  With his T-34 M85s, the enemy made a full scale attack on Bryle.  Pz IVHs and T-34s traded punches in this town, but the Germans had more firepower in the end.  Jgpz Vs were the difference makers.  When the starshells were lit up, every shot from Jgpz Vs caused damages to the Russian tanks.  The best IS-2 could do was to disrupt a platoon of Jgpz V.

In Kamenka, the enemy’s effort was doomed due to a bullish nature of his attack.  Like the traditional Russian attack, he came into the town in waves with all he can.  However, his attack slowed down by turn 8 due to carefully deployed ambush in Kamenka and surrounding hills.  By the turn 10, the enemy lost almost all of the tanks and surrendered.

Result:          
Axis Major Victory – 512 points.

Lessons:

Panzerfausts are the best weapon during this time of the war.  They almost always do some serious damages to tanks and vehicles if un-disrupted.
Use Jgpz Vs on defense so that they can fire twice in a turn.  They are very effective on ambush.  Jgpz IVs are almost as effective.  Do not use these Panzers during assaults.  They are not very effective.
Use starshells sparingly.  You can never have enough, especially on offense.
The movement costs for these night scenarios are doubled.  Be careful when advancing.

Bill Hartman is a tough opponent because he will always push you to the limits.  Sometimes he can be overly aggressive so that ambush can be an effective strategy against him.  Do not give him an opening if you can.  He will take a full advantage of the situation.