Korsun Pocket

[SS Hauptsturmfuhrer]

Colonel Stiegel uses the slight lull in the fighting on the hilltop to send a messenger to tell the northern attack group to go slow and be alert for further Soviet assaults coming from the northeast region where the infamous Top Hat hill looms.  The one damaged Tiger stays in the trees next to the burning truck while the two Tigers on the road destroy a truck and various groups of men retreating east.  The engineers position themselves in the trees and add their fire to cutting down the stragglers.  Artillery continues to interdict the access routes to the area to slow down advancing Russian forces which have not yet been spotted.  The textbook attack on the town instantly changes into a desperate defense when four T-34s come down the road firing all their weapons at the damaged tank.  In the exchange, the damaged Tiger is again hit at least twice by 76mm shells and is sprayed down with copious machine gun fire while all four T-34s are destroyed by the three Tigers' combined fire.  The damaged Tiger is now immobilized with further systems damage leaving only two remaining operational Tigers to support the engineers' attack into the northern town.

On Horseshoe Hill, only four surviving riflemen are between Colonel Stiegel the next Russian attack.  The air metal density index soars again when tanks and infantry again hammer into the battered German defenders.  The four men holding the line of trees repel enemy infantry attacks and then repeatedly close assault a tank before having to retreat leaving behind another casualty.  When the tank crashes through the trees, Colonel Stiegel himself leads an attack on the tank but fails to damage it.  A pair of big shells come shrieking overhead from the Nashorns to finally destroy the tank before it can overrun the commander and his staff.

In the south, the grenadiers continue moving forward along the road using trucks to move up mortars and an 88 while an MG34 cuts down enemy cavalry and men from long range.   Despite the interdicting fire from two guns on the eastern road, an attack by KV-1s and infantry grinds forward and is taken under fire by the grenadiers and armor on the plateau destroying one tank and causing casualties among the enemy troops.   The view from the plateau is poor and it is planned for the two Panthers stationed there to come down and join the grenadiers once they reach the crossroads while the two assault guns remain on the plateau to provide overwatch.

[SS Hauptsturmfuhrer]

Colonel Stiegel finally allows his reserve platoon to move up two squads to bolster his own sandbagged defensive position among the trees.  This leaves only one squad and a fairly immobile MG42 in reserve.  While the move is carried out, Colonel Stiegel continues to fire at broken enemy elements, so far accouting for 4 units eliminated.

Fighting on the hill and on the southern road is ongoing.  Russian tanks unload Tankodesantniki troops onto the hill in the face of determined German defensive fire from the soldiers entrenched in the woodland.  Four Russian tanks are destroyed and the crew from a KV-1 abandons after multiple hits from a Panther and they are hit by HE rounds from the same Panther.  These crews together with the Tankodesantniki are pushed back by German infantry fire.  They deploy smoke and retreat into the sandbag fortifications left by retreating German units, but the fire continues and most of the Russian troops become casualties. 

Several more KV-1s together with infantry advance from the southeast over the remains of their cavalry squadrons.  One is destroyed but the thick armor of the Soviet beasts resists anything smaller than an 88 round.  Both Panthers move up to the edge of the plateau in the south and trade fire with the enemy tanks.  One Panther shrugs off a hit while a KV-1 survives 7 direct hits on its side hull from 76mm AP shells.  Long range fire from a flakpanzer and the sniper on top of the hill to the southwest of Horseshoe cull the advancing infantry.   The enemy infantry direct most of their fire at the trucks moving grenadier support weapons along the southern road.

While the firefight is in progress, the grenadiers successfully make it to the southern road objective where they prepare a hasty defensive perimeter among the shell holes and pop smoke along their front.  It is unsure whether the Russians will continue to focus on Horseshoe or wheel about and try and retake the southern road.

In the north, all is quiet after the destruction of the four T-34s so the Tigers with the mechanized engineers quickly move up and secure the town objective.  One engineer squad is transported back to the Tiger stuck in the mud to try and free it.

[forgorin]

This is cool.