I need help with stopping Russian armoured fist! (German Taranovka campaign)

[Lemonade]

Hello!
I'm in great need of some advice from fellow generals regarding a battle I'm trying to fight without being massacred or pulling the troops out of this hell (and loosing ground).

The situation is as following:

Location and date: South-eastern outskirts of Taranovka village. Feb.12-13, 1943, 11:00. Turn 3/10 of the campaign.
Weather: Cloudy.
Tactical battle time limit: 1 hour.

Friendly forces: Elements of 320 Inf. Div.:
- 2nd inf.bn/command platoon (with 2xSdKfz.250/1. Very low on ammunition)
- 3rd inf.coy/1st platoon   (MG 42 damaged gun mechanics. Weapon rendered inoperable. Platoon very low on ammunition.)
- 4th inf.coy/3nd platoon   (5cm GrW36, dug-in, 1/4 load of ammunition)
- 4th inf.coy/4th platoon   (with 5cm PaK38, 1/4 load of ammunition)
- AT sqdrn/1st battery (2x5cm PaK38, 7.5cm PaK40. 1/4 ammunition load -> only 6x7.5cm PzGr39)
All of the troops with 1/4th of their maximum ammo supply. No artillery or aerial support.

Opposing forces: Armoured hell incarnate. 6th Guards Cavalry Corps. Basically: tanks, tanks and tanks (~10). Lend-lease Matildas II (mixed OQF 2pdr with QF 3 in. howitzers, seems almost like 50/50 to me) and Valentines, all in a large concentrated shock force. Astronomical numbers of infantry closely supporting the tanks. All this, plus lots of BM batteries and artillery, enough to make a moon surface out of at least a 500x500 meters area.

Operational situation: At 3:00 Feb. 12, 1943, three platoons, stationed to the northeast of Razdolnoe village, endangered by advancing enemy armour, are ordered to leave the ressuply post and proceed, under the cover of night, to the village itself in order to estabilish new defense positions on more favourable grounds.
Meanwhile, the remaining units of 320 inf. div. make they way towards Taranovka town, Bespalovka and Paseki villages. Enemy sends a cavalry recon unit to Taranovka, but is driven away.
7:00. Enemy makes a major push towards Razdolnoe with about two tanks and two platoons of cavarly. After long firefight, defending forces consisting of two platoons managed to destroy advancing infantry. Enemy tanks engaged friendlies from long distance. Low to medium casualties were inflicted to friendly platoons in within the village. Third platoon remained in reserve within the nearby forest.
At the same time enemy infantry made a hard push to friendly positions southeast of Taranovka, north of Bespalovka. The push was repelled, but 320/IV/1st platoon took some casualties, with eight heavily wounded or killed and three taken captive. Platoon's MG 42 team reported damaged machine gun. One halftrack of 2nd bn. command suffered a damage to its transmission.
11:00. Enemy decides to strike again at three platoons in Razdolnoe. Not supported by infantry, tanks decided to drive around the village towards the gully. Friendly forces regained some ground. No significant shooting occured. No friendly casualties.
Southeast of Taranovka: the enemy regroups and throws everything he has at undersupplied friendly infantry. The battle commences.

Tactical situation: As would Germans say: "schlecht". At least 9 tanks supported by two or more infantry platoons are closing in a concentrated group on friendly positions. Almost no AT support is available, with only three 5cm PaK38 guns (which may be considered Heeresanklopfgerät when facing Matildas and Valentines) and one 7.5cm PaK40 with only a handful of PzGr39. No other anti-armour weapons are available, if not to count several M 24 bundles scattered throughout the troops.

I wonder if it's possible to at least achieve a draw in this situation?

I've tried setting up the ambush in a small valley on the edge of the woods (see the image), but the troops were literally swept away from the face of earth by both - the tanks and artillery.
I could move my troops into town, but I'd surely end up with some of my platoons being routed due to enemy taking the territory occupied by my units at the beginning of the tactical combat. Not to mention that he would make a crater out of the Taranovka village with his heavy off-map artillery.

Any ideas from which side to bite it?

[Capt Sam]

Sounds really bad.

There is a gamey way to handle this:  Set up a tight ambush in a small place on the map (not on top of a flag, but perhaps overlooking an approach to a flag), and have a few infantry squads patrolling around the map, trying to stay hidden and *tagging* as many objectives as possible:  Tag one flag then move to the next, over and over.  Your ambush (and patrols) will likely be wiped out if discovered, but if you can continually tag objectives, you might not do too badly.  Maybe you can play a game when the AI is always back-tracking to regain lost objectives.

Of course, you might get positioned badly if you collect flags on the wrong side of the map, or you might cut the AI off!  Sounds kind of gamey but I really don't think you can accomplish much by fighting in this situation.


This is probably easier to do in the dark, where you can hide and let some armor actually pass you by and then hit them from behind with AT weapons.  I've had all kinds of crazy AT engagements at night, when the armor is almost blind until the last moment.  Your patrols might run into trouble, of course.  Doesn't look like it is dark in your situation, so it is even harder.

[Xambrium]

5cm AT is ok vs matildas, 3,7 are Heeresanklopfgerät

I managed this situation several times fighting only from the buildings, rails and roads covered by the ats.
After some turns the russians get out of fuel, good for the operation but bat for actual combat situation if the "out of fuel tank" is defending importand locations. A moving tank is much better to kill in a city because he runs from one ambush into the next..

[Lemonade]

Capt Sam, yours and Xambrium's suggestion gave me an idea... While I cannot use the city as a static defense, as I would be surely squeezed flat by russian artillery eventually, I could perhaps manouevre with some of my infantry squads between the buildings in hope of capturing as many major objectives as possible, and also set up some small ambushes to handle a tank or two if enemy notices my troops. Still, the problem I see with this, is this bloody artillery. But perhaps AI won't call artillery on his own units if I manage to get close to his units, which I believe he will leave in the buildings to defend the objectives.

Capturing other objectives, outside of town, is unfortunately out of the question. At least not with infantry, because there's too much open space and my troops are very tired. Perhaps with one of my 250/1's that is still intact and drives pretty fast? Worth trying.

The only advantage I have is in the speed of enemy tanks, which is pretty low. They can still outrun my infantry though, but it's far better than dealing with a band of T-34s rolling full speed down the hill.

Xambrium, in this particular case I think it's ok to call 5cm PaKs like that simply because... they're out of PzGr40 ammunition. They have only a couple of standard Panzergranate available and this, judging from the penetration charts, isn't enough to pierce Matilda's frontal armour. Only hull side, hull rear or superstructure rear and from a very close range.

[lavish]

Try to fight in dense forests with infantry and in the town with infantry supported by AT-guns. Try to place the AT-guns (or groups of them) in the town or near it so that their arc of fires are overlapping AND in a way that if one gun (or group of guns) engages a tank from the front, the others may get a chance to hit it's side. If the tank turns to face the gun on its side, it will expose its side to an other.  It's difficult and requires some flexible planning, guessing and luck. I try to ambush those matildas with infantry and open fire with the guns at same time. If guns on one side of a tank cannot shoot, try relocating them temporarely. If doing so, you may lose some ammo if you move your guns away from their initial position (all of their ammunition is not carried with them, only available near deployment position). The main goal is to delay their attack until your tanks arrive. And yes, there will be a great shortage of ammunition, but there's no other way.

[Lemonade]

Hey, what do you know! I've succeeded in routing enemy tank platoons and some of his infantry without even firing a single shot. I decided not to resist the enemy and avoid him completely instead.
Took him in prongs, with 4/4 inf. platoon advancing south through Taranovka and a recon squad moving on foot towards south eastern objective.
I had a problem during deployment phase, as it turned out that only 4/4 infantry and the ATG battery can be placed in Taranovka at the beginning of the battle. The rest of my forces had to walk about 1 km west to their rally point. It was a long march and not without antics.
Someplace during the march, most of the soldiers from two platoons, decided they need a social break to smoke some ciggies and drink hot coffee from the field kitchen. All this in the middle of the road. It took some effort to force them to proceed further (many defend orders for every squad to walk in a different dirrection seemed to do the trick). Definitely pathfinding problems.

I made one platoon join three 5cm PaKs near the church, and the second one to reinforce 4/4's positions. Then, with 4/4, I made a careful push south, having one squad acting as a vanguard. In case of spotting the enemy, this squad supposed to pull back in order to regroup with the rest of the platoon.
At the same time, I told the scout team to proceed cautiously towards the southeastern objective.
Luckily I did not encounter a single enemy soldier guarding the town objectives, so not only I was able to capture them, but I also reached Hill 209!
At the end of the battle, the enemy was left with only one objective. No shots fired.

[randall.flagg]

Maybe the mail was being distributed.

[Dane49]

Yes,once the troops in road march formation(fast move) get to their objective or rally point,they tend to bunch up and after you give them new orders it takes them a few minutes to sort themselves out again.Usually what I do if the rally point is where i want them to defend is shortly before the lead element gets there(Rally point) I issue a defend order.If I want them to push on I set a new way point further ahead before they hit the 1st rally point.Otherwise it looks like all the troops are in a huddle discussing where they are on the map and blaming the Lt. for getting them lost.

[Flashburn]

But Goring in drag out front of your forces...........that should stop them. 

Sorry, could not help myself.