Kursk re‐fought in 20mm using Rapid Fire! 

The Battle of Kursk, fought in July 1943, was the swan-song of German offensive operations on the Eastern Front. Over the weekend of June 19-20th 2010, Peninsula Wargames Group re-fought three scenarios based on this titanic clash. On Saturday, two scenarios were played – one based around the village of Cherkasskoye, and the other around Ponyri and Hill 235.5. Both of these games represented the German attempts to penetrate the Soviet defence-in-depth, and the Soviet forces in both cases were entrenched, with anti-tank ditches and hidden minefields. On Sunday, we re-fought Prokorovka, a game which saw over well one hundred tanks on a 12’ by 10’ table; the largest amount of armour our club has ever used in one game, in keeping with the historical status of the battle as the largest tank battle of WWII.

Cherkasskoye This game saw the Germans attacking from the bottom of the map, with the Russians in the three trench lines (brown) on the slopes of a hill. The village, the objective of the scenario, is at the top of the map. The defending Russian forces comprised an infantry regiment (three battalions), with a field artillery regiment of four 76.2mm field guns, four T34’s, and a reserve tank brigade of 13 T34’s, scheduled to arrive at lunchtime. Additionally, the “brigade” of partisans (actually of battalion strength) were deployed in the village.

The Russian narrowed the battlefield with anti-tank ditches on either flank, forcing the Germans (who had insufficient engineering kit to fill the ditches) to focus their attack in the centre. The Russian deployed their minefields in an echelon pattern from the centre outwards, and this would turn out to be a key feature of the battle.

The German attack started well, with a special March Move permitting the German forces to close up rapidly, and by around turn three, they were probing the first trench line – and running foul of the first minefields! The picture opposite shows the AT ditches

(represented by the Dragon’s Teeth) and the first trench line, with the brown square the first of the hidden minefields (which were only deployed once the Germans entered them).

Within a few moves, the Germ ans had overrun the first line of trenches, routing one of the Russian infantry battalions, but then things started to go wrong. The Germans cunningly used the abandoned Russian trenches – but the even more cunning Russians had pre-registered these as artillery targets, and artillery fire came crashing down on these troops. (On a historical note, the Germans did this as a matter of course to the Americans and British in Normandy!) Furthermore, the German forces were becoming extremely bunched up, and fire from Stalin’s Organs (Katyushas) could hardly miss – and didn’t! Even worse, the Germans kept moving to the right, blundering into one and then the next echeloned minefield (clearly visible on the photo below, again taken from the Soviet positions). Although they took suprisingly few casualties from this, it was clearly having a very adverse effect on the morale of the German players. The Germans finally made it to the 3rd trench line, only to immediately run into the Soviet tank reserves (bottom of photo), which were only committed in mid-afternoon (and immediately took rather heavy casulaties from the Panthers, it should be said). The German infantry were all over breaking point – one battalion surviving several successive tests – and with the objective still defending by two untouched infantry battalions, the Germans conceded.

 

Prokorokva 

For this epic battle, some 60 Soviet tanks faced off in an encounter battle against around 45 Germans tanks. Both sides had some infantry – three small MR battalions on the Russian side, and a two battalions of Pz Grenadier on the German side (one armoured, one lorried). The Russian entered from the top of the map, the Germans from the bottom. The Russian plan was to hold their right flank with a few lend-lease Churchills and SU152s, with three tank brigades (mainly T34’s) supported by two MR infantry bns smashing round on their extreme left flank (some of this wall of armour is visible in the picture below). The Soviets kept a reserve of another tank brigade and a MR bn in the village of Prokorovka (top of the map), control of which was the objective of the game.

The German plan was to advance up the centre, protecting their limited infantry with their plentiful armour, with the few Panthers and the Tigers on the German left and right flanks respectively, firing in long range support.

The German plan almost immediately went wrong when the German sub-commander on the right pushed the Panthers up close and personal – they survived with some exceptional luck until almost the end of the game, surviving no less then four Shturmovik rocket attacks! – and on the other flank, the Churchills occupied the woods near the river outside the town and surviving despite great odds, sucking in German armour. The German thrust and the Soviet wall of armour (picture below)

met in a historically gratifying clash on the right-middle of the table and a frantic fire-fight ensued. Although the Germans did well initially, with Russian tank losses mounting alarmingly by lunch-time, the Germans had taken their eye off the ball (the objective, in this case); the armoured Panzer Grenadiers had taken shelter in the wood in

the middle of the table (where they would eventually be heavily bombed by a Tu-2 medium bomber arriving late in the game) instead of pressing on to the objective; furthermore, instead of protecting an infantry advance, the German armour was fully committed to engaging the hordes of T34’s (picture below). (When a small attack was finally launched by an Pz IV company down the centre, it was immediately destroyed by some of the Russian tanks in reserve.) By bound 13, it was late afternoon, and the Germans once again conceded. Their losses were also mounting quickly at the end of the game, and, when total tank losses were counted, the Russians had lost the equivalent of some 25 tanks (about 40%), but - rather surprisingly - the Germans had lost even more, close on 30 (around 66%). By all measures – failure to take the objective, absolute losses, relative losses, it was another Soviet victory, finishing the weekend 3:0 for the Russians.

Conclusions 

Whilst those playing on the German side might not have been as ecstatic as the Russian commanders by the end of the weekend, all agreed it had been a memorable weekend of gaming. The Saturday scenarios certainly captured the feeling of the German historical experience at Kursk – apparently never-ending layered Soviet defences, and the accursed minefields. (Ironically, in both these games, had the Germans attacked up the centre and adopted the historical Russian tactics of simply driving through the minefields, and, they could well have put the Russian defenders under much more pressure). The Sunday scenario did justice to the largest tank battle of WWII. All the games also showed once again the

key role of infantry, even in what is largely remembered as an epic tank battle – and both historically and in our games, the lack of German infantry was decisive.

Many thanks to all involved, especially Michael Karsten who designed the three scenarios and set up the forces lists within the space of a week or two!