27 Miles to Moscow

3/12/41

v1.1

On the 1/12/41 the Germans launched their final assault to capture Moscow; a pincer move either side of the main Moscow road by XX Korps. The northern pincer made very little progress but the southern pincer, lead by the 258 Infanterie Division, broke through the forces of the 222nd Rifle Division and pushed east

The weather was atrocious with temperatures down to -30 Celsius and the advance was slow. The German forces lead by Voraus-Abteilung Bracht reached Yushkovo on the second, and that was as far as they got, still 27 miles from Moscow.

On the 2/12/41 the Soviets planned a counter attack to annihilate the German penetration. The final Soviet reserves were gathered for the offensive under the command of the 33rd Army. All did not go to plan, the commander of the 18th Rifle Brigade lost his troops which delayed the attack. General Ephriam could not afford to wait for the brigade and the attack went ahead without them. At 3pm a katushka barrage signalled the attack and the tanks of the 136th and 140th tank battalions rumbled forward to crush the freezing Germans

Map and Order of Battle

German Deployment

All German forces start on board. Due to the freezing conditions and inadequate winter equipment most of the German forces must be deployed in a BUA (where there are nice warm stoves). The small BUA on the railway line is not available to the Germans.

Only outpost stands, towed guns and the StuGs may be deployed outside the BUA's, within 12" of any of the large BUA's. However if the towed guns are deployed outside the BUAs their crews are not and will still be within the BUA

Note the lack of tractors for the guns. There are tractors but they are immobilised due to the cold.

Soviet Deployment

The only stand on table to start is the HQ of the 33rd Army which is in a log bunker (-5 cover) placed anywhere adjacent to the railway line

136th and 140th Tank Battalions and the HQ of the Separate Tank Group enter the table turn 1. They may enter anywhere between points A & B

The 23rd Ski Battalion is a reinforcement. The 23rd enters between points C & D Roll for the battalion's arrival . On turn 2 a roll of a 6 (d6) indicates arrival; turn 3 a roll of 4-6 and on turn 4 they automatically arrive

The 20th Tank Brigade is a reinforcement and arrives between points E & F. On turn 3 a roll of a 6 (d6) indicates arrival; turn 4 a roll of 4-6 and on turn 5 it  automatically arrives.

Note the 13th and 16th Guards Mortar Regiments fire one volley at the start of the game (see below) then play no further part

Terrain

For the most part the terrain is open and covered in a moderate covering of snow. The snow has no effect on movement except to half the speed of wheeled vehicles

The red lines are roads and the blue are frozen rivers. As they are all covered in snow there is no need to model them on the table and they have no game effect. Where the river is flanked by brown dots it is in a gully. The gully cost a BMA for all troops to cross but is impassable to wheeled vehicles and manhandled guns. The gully gives light (-1) cover vs. small arms.

The green areas are woods. These are light (-1) cover and half the speed of all vehicles. Ski troops are limited to a 6" BMA within

The grey areas are built up areas. These are mostly wooden buildings and give +2 cover. The big squares are 4"x4" BUA, the smaller square is a 1"x1" BUA (railway station), capable of holding a single stand. The simple town fighting rules are in effect.

The broken brown lines are ridgelines. These break LOS. Any AFV stand touching the ridgeline is considered hull down (-2 cover)

Special Rules

The game starts 3pm. There are 4 daylight turns. Turn 5 is a twilight turn , visibility 12". Turns 6 & 7 are dark: visibility 4". Troops do not drop a quality or morale level in the dark

Soviet ski stands have a BMA of 9" when not in woods

The Soviet katyushka fire once in the game: in the artillery phase of turn 1. Each regiment may target a town, the template must be centred on the centre of a BUA. Within a regiment templates must be adjacent and may not overlap. The fire automatically arrives and will cause casualties at full effect (ie is not considered H&I)

The outpost stands are single figure stands which fire as other. They are not recce or self ordering. Rules in 24.1.3 apply to the outpost stands (8" fall back when shot at, -1 to hit)

Victory Conditions

Each 4x4 BUA is a victory location, At the end of turn 7 each 4x4 BUA that is exclusively occupied by one side or another counts as 1VP.

Exclusively occupied means that one side has at least a stand in good morale wholly in the BUA and the enemy have no stands in good morale wholly within the BUA.

Good morale is NOT shaken and NOT demoralised

The side with the highest points wins

References

The axis history forum has information on the battle from the German side: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&p=1302333

Good maps of the operation can be found at: http://chinascout.ru/lib/field/safir.html. The terrain has changed considerably since the war. A modern map from http://maps.poehali.org/en/ was used to fill in some of the topography

http://kitowras.livejournal.com/379169.html has a detailed account of the battle from the Soviet side. Isaev's memoirs http://militera.lib.ru/h/isaev_av5/05.html have some additional details, though its noticeable the two accounts differ on Soviet tank strengths