Velykyi Burluk, 1943
23rd July 2026, 4 Comments
The Second World War, Rapid Fire Reloaded, 10mm
Chris and I were left to our own devices this week, as everyone else was away. So, in my bit to get him hooked on Rapid Fire, I said on an East Front game, and gave him lots of tanks to play with. In this game, set to the east of Kharkov in the autumn of 1943, Chris took command of a reinforced Soviet tank brigade.
For my part I had an SS kampfgruppe with about half the number of toys, with orders to prevent a breakthrough. My one advantage was I had favourable terrain, and placed two thirds of my seven tanks in hull-down positions behind the crest of two small ridges. the rest deployed in and around the town of Velkyi Burluk.
The Soviets appeared on the eastern table edge, and Chris’ orders were to press on past the town and off the western table edge. He’d massed everything he had on the left-hand (southern) table edge, to gain a local superiority in numbers. My first move weas to call down artillery, but it seemed the battery commander was on his lunch break.
My tanks – all Pz IVHs’ weren’t on the table at the start. Instead I used concealment markers, and they were revealed when they opened fire. The nearest tanks on the southern hill opened up, and damaged two T-34s. In response the Soviet juggernaut halted and returned fire en masse, Damaging one of my German tanks. This wasn’t a great trade-off…
Next turn my whole line opened up from their hull-down positions – and paid the price. I knocked out a T-34 and damaged two more, but the Soviets fired back again, and scored a kill on my closest tank. to make things worth a battalion of SU-76’s appeared to the north-east of the hills, and began sniping at my tanks, while a formation of KV1s appeared on the eastern table edge.
The following turn my artillery finally got into action, laying smoke in front of the Soviet guns deployed on the wooded hill to the east of my two hills. Then all hell broke loose, as the Soviets suddenly surged forward, and reached the summit of the southern hill. In the point-blank duel that followed I lost all three of my panzers there, and only managed to damage one T-34 in return.
I’d clearly made a terrible mistake – leaving it too late to pull back to the town to my rear. the tanks on the northern hill, though, took out one of the damaged T-34s, and then pulled back behind the crest. My right flank though, was no more, and Chris pushed his tiny T-70’s on beyond the hill to occupy the wood to the west of it.
Fortunately for me I had panzer grenadiers in there, and they held for now, as I didn’t want to reveal the AT guns hidden in the town, covering my right flank. . I planned to pull my remaining tanks back covered by a Grille SP gun and a Pz. IV to the north of the two ridges, but by then the Soviet T-34’s had reached the northern ridgeline. Another brutal point-blank duel there ended with a damaged tank apiece and a knocked-out T-70.
As usual with our games, where ‘chewing the fat’ is as important as playing the game, we were running out of time… or rather the Soviets were. They had 12 turns to reach the far table edge, and it was now looking unlikely that would happen. Chris had lost a battalion of T-34s, but the rest were now dominating the centre of the battlefield, and the KV-1s and SU-76s were moving on up.
There was a slight pause in the battle as the Soviet tanks on the northern hill regrouped, after two of the damaged T-34s were forced to withdraw. That might well have bought be time to race back to the town, or the little wood to the north-west, covered by a tank and the Grille, but at that point we ran out of time to finish the game.
For the record, we called the game a hard-fought draw. In truth, though, I’d been pummeled, and by the end of the action I’d lost four of my seven tanks. two more were in danger of being cut off from the rest of my command. If the game had gone on Chris might have struggled to meet his deadline, but he’d pretty much trashed my kamfgruppe! Still, it was a really fun game, and we both enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, Chris sent me this, which neatly sums up his excellent game plan;
Hi Angus. I don’t recall your using artillery to.pound my guns, but I do recall your using it very effectively to put down smoke in front of them. The panzergrenadiers in the wood did unexpectedly badly against the tanks attacking them – there must be something in the rules enabling close attack with grenade bundles, charges and Tellermines. I was keeping track of turns and there was plenty of time for me me to finish off everything remaining on the map and exit – I’d suggest reducing the time available for the Russians to do so. I subsequently discovered that the SP 15cm I.G.33 on the lengthened Pz II was only produced as a trial batch of 12 and they only served in N. Africa. Bizarrely, at least one went on to serve with Egypt against the Israelis in 1948! It made for an impressive model in 10mm though.
You’re right Chris – I laid smoke, as it was quicker than ranging in a full ‘stonk’. In the rules the panzer grenadiers could assault the T-70s, especially if in cover, but these desperate grenade and tellermine attacks don’t always end well! As for time, I had a few more reserves still hidden around the village, and in the woods and farms on either side, so the straight run to the finish line wouldn’t have been quite that simple, Chris! As for the Grille, these ‘Crickets’ used the 38(t) chassis, and almost 400 were built, deployed in small numbers in panzer and panzer grenadier divisions from early 1943 on.
AT the end of the game you unmasked everything to photograph it. From recollection that was a Pz. III with the long 5.0cm to which the T-34 was practically immune frontally at over 100 metres unless using rate APCR. Armour on the Pz. III gradually increased with successive versions, but it was never anything to write home about. I think the Puma was long 5.0cm too, with paper thin armour. I’m not sure how the rules would simulate the s.I.G. 33 as it didn’t have rapid traverse and its trajectory was truly rainbowesque (its range was 900 metres short of our current 81mm mortar!). I wouldn’t want to be in anything it hit though. It even had an impressive HEAT projectile – 160 mm to 200 mm penetration against armor sloped at 30 degrees, depending on the muzzle velocity and rotation speed of the specific weapon firing it. I wasn’t aware that the 38(t) version came in both front and rear engined formats! I was only aware of the front engined one.
I didn’t quite unmask everything, Chris, mein kleiner kamerad – just the AFVs. I didn’t bother with the infantry and heavy weapon stands, nor the PAK 40s.
Still, you were on the verge of trashing my remaining toys by the time we packed up. I’ll leave the minutiae of armour penetration and projectiles etc. to you. I just want to have a good game, not run a computerised ballistic simulation. Roll a D6 to hit is good enough for me!