Olita Pictures

 This game was played in my conservatory on 2/1/12. John & I were the Soviets with John starting with the forces west of the Nemen River. Dave controlled the Germans. Nearly all the kit was mine but one of the reasons for playing this scenario was to get John's new T-28s on table

2nd Battalion 9th Tank Regiment in position to the east of the Nemen. The crossroads in the foreground is objective E

Small Soviet blocking force defending the egress from the railway crossing in the North. SHQ 45mm & motorcycle, Ostmodels Komsomolets

T-28 of the 1st Battalion 9th Tank regiment defends the path to the railway bridge supported with a couple of stragglers from the 126th Rifle Div. SHS T-28

126th Rifle Div Stragglers in the forest, soon to be taken command of by the depot command stand

T-28's in the clearing in the forest clearing covering the approach to the road bridge over the Nemen. The clearing is actually part of the Olita barracks training ground

5 Kompanie enters the battle. Fujimi PzKfw-38(t)

Confrontation on the training ground. The German commander chose to ignore the 126th Division's stragglers and blast past them to engage the the more dangerous T-28s. This would prove to be a mistake...

Everything runs off. The combination of close assault by the 126th and fire from the T-28s causes the 5 Kompanie to fall back shaken. The 126th after a brief period of bravery also make a run for it and the T-28s also retreat

Stuka bombs the 2nd Battalion 9th Tank Regiment. In the early part of the game the Luftwaffe were constantly over the battlefield.

T-28s morale deteriorates. This T-28 having retreated over the Nemen.

8Kp and the Pioneer lead the advance (Vac-u-cast Pz-IV)

The Pioneers are first across the Nemen, MMS Pz-II & Fujimi Pz-I

A pair of Pz-38(t) from 5 Kp (yes I know the numbers are wrong) having recovered their morale have crossed the Nemen via the railway bridge, threatening the Soviet northern flank. As 5Kp ignored the Soviet engineers so behind them the bridge is destroyed

Battle of the Bridge. Things are looking like they are going the Soviet's way but the morale phase would see the T-34's run off after being attacked by the Luftwaffe

PzKfw-38(t) starts to mop up the T-28's having killed one and forced back the other. However the staff of the 9th Brigade is on hand to order the last T-28 away to escape the clutches of the Germans

German traffic jam waiting to cross the Nemen road bridge. Cromwell SdKfz-10, SHQ Kfz-11, Moonlite Bedford and MMS SdKfz-10/4

5Kp approaches the Soviet flank guard. the Soviets firing was to appalling, the 45mm missing the 38(t)'s. the retaliation was much better aimed and the gun succumbed to machinegun fire.

German Regt Stab, having crossed the bridge moves north to join with 5Kp. Its a testament to the poor state of the Soviet defences at this point in the game that the German commander felt able to lead his advance with a mostly unarmed PzBefWg-III (MMS) and a PzKfw-I

The depot command, having gathered up all the stragglers of the 126th RD leads a counter attack south towards the training ground supported by the remaining T-28

Elements of 8Kp, having crossed the Nemen, reach the rail line

Schützen deploy to fend off the 126th RD's counter attack

The Kradschützen move up behind 8Kp. This is the favoured German advance route as it avoids the remaining T-34's. Unfortunately for the Soviets the T-34's battalion commander was an early casualty which means the divisional commander is scrambling around to gather the T-34's into a coherent force

The lone PzKfw-38(t) attacks the rear of the 126th's counter attack while the schützen demolish the green infantry

The BT's of the 4th Battalion arrive at the battle and are immediately thrown in to a counter attack against 5Kp. The results are not pleasing for the Soviets. BTs are a mix of Ostmodels and (old) Milicast

Most of the BT's would fail their morale and rapidly re-deploy to the rear

The 4th Tank Battalion re-groups and tries again but the Germans have taken the ridge overlooking their advance route

In the mean time the 3rd Battalion arrives from the the south

The Northern counter attack is thwarted and the BT's fall back shaken. The only good news from the Soviet's point of view is that the 5Kp has also fallen back and there is no German commander any where near to rally them

The VVS finally makes an appearance and bombs the German reinforcements crossing the Nemen. I-153 by Smer

The divisional commander having finally rounded up the T-34's orders a counter attack to the North. Unfortunately it's too late to co-ordinate with the 4th battalion. T-34's mostly Fujimi. The M1940 is from Liberation, the up armoured turret from Vac-u-Cast

The lone Pz-38(t) having polished off the last T-28 finally hunts down the 9th Tank Regiment's staff by the railway bridge

The T-34's counter attack in the north continues

The 3rd battalion's counterattack is a little better co-ordinated and forges towards the Nemen bridgehead.

The morale bugbear bites the Russians again and the Northern attack is forced back.

The southern attack fairs a better, though the T-34s break and run. However the Germans need vehicles over the railway so the ones around the bridge are not really the Soviet's prime target

Forces from the south push north into the flank of the Germans on the railway. However three BT's isn't really enough to make an impact and their long range shooting, being trained, isn't good

The game ended with the Soviet forces in disarray and the Germans firmly in control of the battlefield. However when the victory points were totalled it was 12 each so the game was a draw

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