The Soviet Kharkov offensive of February/March 1943 pushed deep into the German positions, liberating the city and creating an enormous and tempting bulge in the Soviet lines to the west of Kursk. The offensive was finally brought to a halt, but only after hard fighting. One last effort from Zhadov's 5th Guards Army struck at the small village of Ivanovka and involved elements of Pivorarov's 178th Tank Brigade, from Burkov's 10th Tank Corps. Available troops consisted of two weak companies of T34/76s, a platoon of heavy KV1e, a platoon of the brigade's motor rifles as tank-riders, a battery of 152mm howitzers and one of 76.2mm guns from corps reserve and various attached reconaissance and anti-tank troops. Also included was a smaller tank force with tank-riders, T34s and T70s, which boasted a half-battery of BM-13 Katyushas
Opposing them, a small battle-group drawn from Kruger's 2 SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Riech contained a scratch force of panzers, a pair of Tiger 1 Es, three Pz IVHs and two Pz IIIMs. A weak company of two platoons of armoured panzergrenadiers from the Der Fuhrer regiment, with their attached mortars, HMGs and a pair of PaK 40 anti-tank guns, plus a section of two 15cm Grille S.P. infantry guns, completed their order of battle. A battery of 10.5cm field guns lent welcome supprt.
(http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd448/Hertsblue/Wargames%20and%20Modelling/Kursk%201943/Ivanovka%201943/GermanLeft.jpg)
The German left
(http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd448/Hertsblue/Wargames%20and%20Modelling/Kursk%201943/Ivanovka%201943/DSCN0876.jpg)
The German right.
(http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd448/Hertsblue/Wargames%20and%20Modelling/Kursk%201943/Ivanovka%201943/DSCN0880.jpg)
The Soviet start-line.
Iovanovich, commanding the Soviet main body, elected to throw his entire weight up the left flank. His T34s, supported by the 76mm battery, forged ahead whilst the KV1s remained in reserve. Just to east of a low rise near the village of Ivanotherovka, they came into contact with the German panzers, commanded by von Stepan, and a lively firefight ensued. The Soviets took full advantage of their elevated position to nullify the superior German gunnery, and the combat was fairly even. Von Stepan, realising he was outnumbered, ordered a withdrawal to Ivanovka village.
(http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd448/Hertsblue/Wargames%20and%20Modelling/Kursk%201943/Ivanovka%201943/DSCN0881.jpg)
Meanwhile, over on the German right, Montikin, commanding the Soviet subsidiary force, was being plagued by faulty staff-work. Errors in order-transmission had seriously delayed his advance, and when it did begin he left behind his company of light tanks. The German artillery had also been firing steadily and accurately and causing consternation among the advancing tanks and their riders. Even more telling, the PaK 40s concealed in the copses had quickly got the range and forced two of the enemy tank crews to bail out.
(http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd448/Hertsblue/Wargames%20and%20Modelling/Kursk%201943/Ivanovka%201943/DSCN0882.jpg)
As night fell the Germans were still hanging on to their positions, but it had been a near-run thing.
(http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd448/Hertsblue/Wargames%20and%20Modelling/Kursk%201943/Ivanovka%201943/SovietThrust.jpg)
Models by Pendraken; large house by Timecast, roads by Fat Frank; arm by Ian.
Rules were a heavily butchered FOW with a new command and control system bolted-on. The game took about three hours to play with four players.
Superb!
Working my way (very slowly) to being able to do something similar in size, style, period and location. Not sure right now if I'm inspired by the standard you've achieved or dismayed by the prospect of achieving the same!
I'm aiming to use BKC2 rather than FoW but can imagine using similar forces.
Very nice.
Very nice looking game 8).
Great report.
great looking game!
Lovely looking game - very inspiring!
8)
Wow that really looks good. What is the make of the trees and houses they look fantastic?
Quote from: lekw on 12 August 2013, 06:11:20 PM
Wow that really looks good. What is the make of the trees and houses they look fantastic?
The trees, I believe (as they're not mine), are by Realistic Modelling. The houses were specially made for our club's 2000 demo game by Ralph Sellar who is an architectural modeller by profession. I bought them from the club at the end of the season.
Extremely nice!!
=D> =D> =D>
Thanks, are these the same houses that were in an issue of Wargames Illustrated a 10mm WSS game?
Very nice indeed, Ray 8)
Quote from: lekw on 13 August 2013, 02:06:13 AM
Thanks, are these the same houses that were in an issue of Wargames Illustrated a 10mm WSS game?
Yes, well spotted. :)
Quote from: Hertsblue on 12 August 2013, 11:46:05 AM
a small battle-group drawn from Kruger's 2 SS Panzergrenadier Division Das Riech
Not only are they Fascist Vipers, they are
smelly Fascist Vipers!
:P
Oh, and nice setup too. Though, nice as they are, those types of houses do look a bit out of place on an Eastern Front game. Whereas the Timecast house is spot-on.
P.S. Leon does offer some excellent alternatives...
Quite possibly, but the Soviets weren't exactly lavender-fresh either ;)
Hi there
really enjoyed reading your battle report and a cracking table setup
Take care
Andy
Excellent battlefield , great work and a good read,
kev
Great stuff Ray !
Cheers - Phil.
I thought they looked familiar. Love the pictures in that Wargame Illustrated article and refer to it often for inspiration. Got me painting an imperialist WSS army in 10mm. Great scenery.
Quote from: OldenBUA on 13 August 2013, 07:54:39 AM
Oh, and nice setup too. Though, nice as they are, those types of houses do look a bit out of place on an Eastern Front game. Whereas the Timecast house is spot-on.
P.S. Leon does offer some excellent alternatives...
Yes, I know. It's all down to money and time. They will be replaced in due course. I still haven't found anyone who does a simple Russian church yet, however. :(
Leven Miniatures (http://www.levenminiatures.co.uk/) do some great 6mm Russian buildings (and lots of other nice 6mm scale stuff too) and have a note saying 10mm are planned. I live in hope.
Of course once Pendraken have their resin casting sorted out maybe they could be persuaded to do something like this
(http://www.levenminiatures.co.uk/images/6mm/churches/6mm_village_church.jpg)
or even
(http://www.levenminiatures.co.uk/images/6mm/churches/6mm_byzantine_church.jpg)
but in 10mm.
If you send an email to Leven miniatures he might help you out...hes produced some stuff for me in the past when I have asked...I also think he's a member of this forum
Don't Timecast do some Russian Churches?...
Quote from: Fenton on 14 August 2013, 01:47:03 PM
Don't Timecast do some Russian Churches?...
In 6mm and 15mm but not 10mm - as far as I know.
I have some of their stuff, a little pricier than the Pendraken resin but very nice.
Their Russian Churches are in their Napoleonic range
Why didn't I think to look in the Napoleonic section for a WW2 church :-)
More what I'd imagine a monastery might look like than a village church.
(http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/range_21/21_ru1.jpg)
Looking at the Pendraken range in the light of the Timecast offerings, the Antietam church (which I ordered by mistake and Leon kindly swapped for the item I'd actually intended before sending the order) isn't far off what I'm now imagining for a Russian village church.
Quote from: Hertsblue on 14 August 2013, 09:52:35 AM
Yes, I know. It's all down to money and time. They will be replaced in due course. I still haven't found anyone who does a simple Russian church yet, however. :(
Fully understandable. I also find that having a lot of terrain for different periods and places also eats up storage space. Though 10mm has some advantages here.
Timecast also have a small Russian Church?
(http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/range_21/21_ru3.jpg)
Though something like this would be very nice, ofcourse.
(http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u26/OldenBUA/P8250653_zpsc0164b9b.jpg)
Or even something like this:
http://www.richarddavies.co.uk/woodenchurches/images.html (http://www.richarddavies.co.uk/woodenchurches/images.html)
Although these all seem to come from the far north of Russia.
Quote from: OldenBUA on 14 August 2013, 06:29:37 PM
Timecast also have a small Russian Church?
(http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/range_21/21_ru3.jpg)
This is why I thought of the Antietam Church
(http://www.pendraken.co.uk/ProductImages/PS32.jpg)
A little work on the bell-tower might do it.
For the Pendraken option - it's cheaper and I'm going to be ordering more Pendraken stuff sooner rather than later so postage will be wrapped up in that.
Against - Not currently Available :(
The picture I included is from one in the open air museum near Kiev, and was originally located in West-Ukraine (Carpathia) if I remember correctly. There were several others as well, but I didn't get to see them all (it's a pretty big place, and divided into several regions). Wooden churches still exist in their original location in many places, they're not limited to Northern Russia.
Pyrohiv museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrohiv)
Actually, the Timecast pair look most suitable. I must confess that I would never have thought of looking in the Napoleonic section for them. Thinking about the matter, most of the churches in the Ukraine would have been abandoned, since religion was banned under the Communists.
Quote from: Hertsblue on 15 August 2013, 07:55:53 AM
Thinking about the matter, most of the churches in the Ukraine would have been abandoned, since religion was banned under the Communists.
Well, yes and no. The greatest number of churches that were still open in Communist times were located in Ukraine. But it's still a fraction of the total number of churches before Communism.
QuoteAccording to both Soviet and Western sources, in the late 1980s the Russian Orthodox Church had over 50 million believers but only about 7,000 registered active churches. Over 4,000 of these churches were located in the Ukrainian Republic (almost half of them in western Ukraine).
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Soviet_Union).