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Enemy at the Gates

Gaming the Third Battle of Kharkov, Part 1

As you may have already gathered the struggle for Kharkov was massive attack by the Soviets, hundreds of thousands of men were committed to the whole offensive. Rather than try and recreate the whole battle with Flames Of War I thought I would look at some of the key features of the first half of the Third Battle of Kharkov and look at what interesting games can be created from them.

Third Battle Of Kharkov Part One...

Third Battle Of Kharkov Part Two...

The Initial breakthrough of Heersgruppe B’s lines

This can be fought as a Rearguard or Breakthrough after the breakthrough with elements of the Hungarians, Italians and Germans rallying to hold back the surging Soviet tide.

Forces

Soviet infantry forces supported by armour versus Italian Alpini infantry with German Armour support. For the Italian Alpini use the Bersaglieri Rifle Company on page 29 of Avanti.

Bersaglieri Rifle Company (MI107)  
2x Carcano rifle team


1 points

Rifle Platoon (MI108)
9x Breda MG & Carcano rifle team


9 points

Rifle Platoon (MI108)
9x Breda MG & Carcano rifle team


9 points

Rifle Platoon (MI108)
9x Breda MG & Carcano rifle team


9 points

Support Platoons  
65mm Gun Platoon
4x 65mm gun
Community Card...



10 points

47mm Anti-tank Platoon (MI106)
4x 47mm gun


8 points

Panzer III Tank Platoon (MG205) (Page 25 Iron Cross)
4x Panzer III (long 5cm)


28 points

Total

74 points

"And you... what are you doing?", Italian recruitment poster
Alpini in snow suits
Rifle Battalion (page 34 Enemy at the Gates)   
Rifle Battalion HQ (MS110)
2x M1891 rifle team



1 point

Rifle Company (MS111)
19x DP MG and M1891 rifle team
1x Komissar team
1x Maksim HMG team
2x PTRD AT rifle team



16 points
1 point
2 points

Rifle Company (MS111)
19x DP MG and M1891 rifle team
1x Komissar team
1x Maksim HMG team
2x PTRD AT rifle team



16 points
1 point
2 points

Rifle Company (MS111)
19x DP MG and M1891 rifle team
1x Komissar team
1x Maksim HMG team
2x PTRD AT rifle team



16 points
1 point
2 points

Support Companies

 

T-34 Tank Company (MS137) (page 19 Red Banner)
7x T-34 (76mm)


40 points

Total

98 points

With these two forces Hold the Line with the Soviets attacking would make the most interesting game.

Another factor to throw into the mix is snow and its effect on movement. The Second Battle of Kharkov took place in the middle of winter; the ground was covered with snow. The snow affects movement, especially for those on foot. It’s not so bad for the vehicles, though it can make hard surfaces quite treacherous. The simplest solution in games terms is to make Easy Going into Difficult Going, this makes doubling impossible for infantry. Tanks and other vehicles are affected as well representing the difficulty of control in the icy conditions and obstacles hidden in the snow.
 
The terrain is the usually Ukrainian plane, broken up by the odd village, river and wood, nothing too cluttered.

Defending the Donetz River

This makes for an interesting game, the SS Leibstandarte had taken up defensive positions along the northern bank of the Donetz and the Soviets have to breach the line to push onto Kharkov. Best played as a Hold the Line as I doubt the SS Leibstandarte would have had the time to set up something as elaborate as that required for the Big Push.

An important element in this as a game will be the terrain, the Soviets made several attempts to storm the SS Leibstandarte positions during the battle but failed to make headway suffering heavy loses.

Germans in winter gear
Defending the Donetz River

The Donetz was a wide sandy river often bordered by marshes, but mostly un-fordable on foot. The standard Soviet practice for crossing rivers was to find a river bend not easily defendable by the Germans, a mini salient with the river on 3 sides and only a thin strip of land connecting it to the rest of the river bank. The Soviets would pick off any German troops stationed on the bend with Machine-gun and artillery fire. They would then ferry across as many troops as they could fit onto their little salient before launching an assault from it on the main defending positions. In some cases men spent days waist high in swamp water waiting for the word to attack.

The best way of representing this would be to set the table up with the river winding its way across the width of the table, the bend winding its way into the Soviet (attacking) deployment zone. Make the river salient big enough to get a reasonable number of Soviet troops (see map). I would also allow the Soviets to deploy on their side of the river bank inside no mans land.
 
The Soviet force will probably benefit from a Platoon of Scouts. The Scouts and a Strelkovaya Company (or for this game maybe I’d suggest the SMG company) could penetrate further inland from the salient using Infiltration (use the Spearhead special rule with the Scout Platoon.

Terrain

I’d throw some more snow at this one, plus I’d make the river edges swampy (very difficult going) so the Soviets don’t get too confident. Also see the map for suggested river set-up.

Forces

Defending will be the LSSAH Leibstandarte. Using the Iron Cross SS-Grenadier Company command card.

Defending Force
LSSAH Leibstandarte
Panzergrenadier Company

SS Grenadier Company
Page 27 Ghost Panzers
 
Armoured Panzergrenadier Company HQ (MG241)
2x MP40 SMG team
SS-Panzergrenadier Company command card



2 points
5 points

Armoured Panzergrenadier Platoon (MG242)
7x MG34 rifle team
Panzerknacker command card


10 points
2 points

Armoured Panzergrenadier Platoon (MG242)
7x MG34 rifle team
Panzerknacker command card


10 points
2 points

Armoured sMG34 Machine-gun Platoon (MG243)
4x sMG34 HMG



6 points

8cm Mortar Section (MG212)
2x 8cm mortar


3 points

Support Platoons  
Panzer III (Uparmoured) Tank Platoon (MG206)
4x Panzer III (uparmoured)



32 points

Total

72 points

Attacking Force
Elements of the 3rd Soviet Tank Army

Rifle Battalion
Page 33 Enemy at the Gates
 
Rifle Battalion HQ (MS110)
2x M1891 rifle team


1 point

Rifle Company (MS111)
19x DP MG and M1891 rifle team
1x Komissar team
1x Maksim HMG team
2x PTRD AT rifle team



16 points
1 point
2 points

Rifle Company (MS111)
19x DP MG and M1891 rifle team
1x Komissar team
1x Maksim HMG team
2x PTRD AT rifle team



16 points
1 point
2 points

SMG Company (MS113)
15x PPSh SMG team
1x Komissar team



15 points

Scout Platoon (MS124)
5x PPSH SMG team


7 points

Maksim Machine-gun Company (MS114)
6x Maksim HMG team


4 points

Support Platoons    
Heavy Tank-killer Company (MS133)
2x 76mm gun

8 points

122mm Artillery Battery (MS131)
4x 76mm gun


8 points

Total

81 points

The Soviets should use their guns and machine-guns to soften up the Germans before punching through their positions with the infantry.

The Germans should dig in and hold fast, letting their superior weight of fire do the work. The Panzer IIIs can mop up the leftovers.

The Fighting in Kharkov

Well the obvious game to play is something involving street fighting. This gives you a chance to run your infantry around with out any of them troublesome tanks getting in the way. Grossdeutschland’s fighting in the northwest against the out flanking Soviet 40th Army is just the thing.
 
You don’t need a lot of industrial buildings, but that would be cool, you can slog it out in the suburbs using your every day wargaming building, just a lot more of them on the table.

Soviets in winter camouflage advance on the Axis positions
SS Panzer III in the suburban streets of Kharkov

Terrain

Because of the snow and ice the roads and other spaces between the buildings should be be limited to a maximum speed of Terrain Dash while the buildings and rubble can use the rules on  Page 43 of the Flames of War rulebook, or the city fighting rules in Iron Cross and Enemey at the Gates.

Mission

No Retreat would be the best mission to fight out the encounters between the Grossdeutschland and the 40th Army. GD should be defending, but you may like to try some counter-attacking games with the Soviets hastily defending.

No special rules others than the snow are needed; the buildings and snow should make things interesting enough.

Table set-up

Make sure the table is covered with buildings with a few roads and lanes running through and the odd open space to represent gardens and parks.

Then just go at it as per the No Retreat Mission on Page 110 of the Flames Of War rulebook.

Forces

I’ve left these forces up to you, but infantry heavy would be the best bet for both sides. Some limited armour might make the game interesting, but remember Cross tests through the rubble will hinder vehicles.

Well I hope I’ve given you some useful gaming ideas, give them a go and feel free to let me know what you think.

German troops checking a street for Soviets

 

 


Last Updated On Friday, December 24, 2021 by Wayne at Battlefront