A Beating At Bikkelheim Farm

 You may recall from a previous post that a beleaguered platoon of Volksgrenadiers were tasked with stemming or at least holding up the Red tide descending on the Reich, although inexperienced buoyed by the promise of the long awaited Wunderwaffe and that they would be supplied with automatic weapons, and anti-tank gun support backed up by a Jagdpanzer IV with the 75mm  L70 gun hopes were high.

The Germans set up dug in around the farm, an infantry squad, PAK40 and 75mm infantry gun, another two squads, a panzerschrek team and the Jagdpanzer IV were left in reserve to avoid any Soviet bombardment. The Germans relied on a minefield on their right and the boggy ground and wood on the left to deter any Soviet flank attack, but there was no need the Soviets chose the usual sledgehammer approach  anyway and steamed forward on a broad front towards the farm.

M - Minefield, 1- dug in squad, 2 - PAK40 and 3 the infantry gun, red arrows show the Soviet thrust.

The Germans got off lightly from the Soviet bombardment with just a few pins, was their luck in, it appeared so when the PAK40 set fire to and immobilised the lead T34, unfortunately for the Germans the crew put the fire out. Never mind the next shot would finish it, but no, the turkey shoot feared by Comrade Georgi was not to be, it would fail to hit again for two turns before being knocked out by combined gun and mortar fire.

Although the dug in squad survived and rallied after the bombardment their nerve was rattled, machine gun and rifle fire resulting in them keeping their heads down and they were finally wiped out by a Soviet close assault, a squad was sent to reinforce them but was caught in the open, their inexperience showed and they too were wiped out. Perhaps the jagdpanzer could turn the tide? No, every shot bar one, and that bounced off, missed!

Surely the German luck could not be that bad and the troops on the left would help win the day with infantry gun, panzerschrek and automatic rifle fire, no prizes for guessing the answer to that folks.

Turn six saw any German hopes dashed when the cheeky little T70 slipped past the jagdpanzer and took a side shot, KABOOM! it was all over, an overwhelming Soviet victory.

It all looked good on paper but the German troops were just not up the job in hand, the Soviets edged ever nearer to Berlin.

Head over to Georgi's blog for the Soviet view. Despite my usual abysmal dice craft it was a great game that with better luck could easily have gone more in the Germans favour.

Until next time keep safe and KBO.