Chain of Command 2 - Game Report 7

Battle of Memel October 1944

Introduction

By way of preparation to introduce CoC2 to Paul and Harry, Kevin and I thought it would be a good idea for use to remind ourselves of the rules! Rather than use the British I decided I would bring the Soviets out to play once again.

Situation

It is 10 Oct 1944. Five days into the operation launched by 1st Baltic Front against the positions of the 3rd Panzer Army and thence towards Memel, with the objective of splitting Army Group Centre and North. The ground being fought over was effectively East Prussia and the Germans were fighting hard to retain territory. 1179th Rifle Regiment (RR) of the 347th Rifle Division was attacking a small village of Bubiai, south west of Šiauliai.

Enemy Forces

Initial intelligence assessments were that the opposition would be primarily from Volks Grenadiers armed with a wide range of automatic weapons. It was not known if there was enemy armour in the area.

Friendly Forces

The CO of the 1179th RR gave the honour of leading the advance to Lt Gregory Boganavich's SMG platoon. He was supported by a Scout Section from the Regimental Scout Company and a SU-76 from divisional resources. The CO ensured that the Mortar platoon was in support. Given the importance of the mission, he sent along Commissar Malenkinov to guide Lt Boganavich.

Mission

1179th RR is to seize and hold the village of Bubiai.

Post Mission Report

The Scout Squad were deployed forward to provide a jump off point for the remainder of the platoon. However, negotiating the many fences in the corrals outside the village was something the squad were not prepared for!

The LMG section deployed in the woods to provide covering fire and flank protection for the SU-76 that was deployed to provide additional heavy fire support.

In the distance the LMG section spotted a Panzerfaust readying itself to fire and they tried, in vain, to suppress, the weapon before it could be brought to bear on the SU-76.

A duel ensured between the SU-76 and Panzerfaust team, which in the end the Faust one!

A mortar strike was called in to provide covering fire to allow the platoon to advance on the village.

One of the Rifle Sections was able to deploy with the aid of the Scouts and was in position to be able to bring fire to bear on a Volksgrenadier section that tried to outflank the village.

However, the fire from the grenadiers and supporting troops was sufficient to break the Scout squad and cause significant damage to the Rifle Section. It was starting to look like this avenue of approach was closed off.

Supporting the grenadiers was an HMG section which opportunely managed to deploy exactly where they would have the greatest impact!

Lt Boganavich sent the Platoon Sergeant with the remaining section left flanking to approach the village from the other direction. Although they had a covered approach they were also hampered by the hedges around the village.

Commissar Chilenkov motivated the LMG section to move forward and advance in support of the third section.

An unexpected threat to the right flank caused the LMG's to reorientate to this new threat. Meanwhile the third section have crossed the hedgerow and are moving down the road to secure the village. Before they could move (in part because the Germans rolled two sixes) the German HMG team had repositioned itself into the Gasthaus and engaged the section in the open, the casualties were severe.

The remaining members of the Section were able to advance towards the objective but the Germans were able to regroup and started to launch a counter-attack.

Outcome

The Germans were able to hold the objective, barely. There is no doubt that they would have been forced to withdraw once the remainder of the Soviet Rifle Company followed up.