Friday, January 5, 2018

Game, on the Frankfurt-Oder line 1955

Enraged by West Germany's entrance into NATO, Khrushchev orders elements of the 11th Guards Tank Division out of lower Saxony to attack along the Frankfurt-Oder line

Played at Dave's using CD3 Modern rules. We tossed a coin to see who command what. Heads, me the Soviets, Dave the NATO commander. The kit is from both of our collections



Forward British elements had to withstand two free turns of Soviet advances before help could arrive - about 90min in real time



The West German contribution - AFVs by Pegasus



3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade heading up supported by 13th/11th Hussars with their Fireflys 


B Coy, 3rd RTR


Dave's tank destroyers anchor the extreme left of the NATO line


Somerset light Infantry in travel-march formation make a hurried crossing of the river covered by elements of 120th Field Bty and their 25pdrs



67th Guards Infantry Regiment made a rapid advance across their designated front, causing a difficult gap to plug for Dave, who was still waiting for armour and air support to arrive


In the center, Guards T34/85s head full advance towards units of 3RTR, while their supporting tank destroyers make a bee-line for the West German contingent. AFVs by Armourfast




SU company eliminated 



Followed a turn later by the loss of the Soviet spearhead group, things were starting to go badly for the Russians.....



Both sides received air support about midway through the game




NATO bombing run on the Soviet RHQ, infantry AA platoons proved to be ineffectual - figures are a mixture of Orion and Esci



It should be noted here that late in the game, Dave still had two battalions of motorized infantry yet to deploy, whilst the Soviets had everything they could muster attacking across the entire front




The loss of the Comets from A coy did little to help the Soviet drive in this area. Supporting British infantry just moved into hard cover and sat there - figures by A Call to Arms



Tank destroyers forced a bridge crossing to support forward infantry from the Somersets and ran headlong into the Guards HQ platoons


The result... x1 each



We eventually only played 7 out of 10 turns, as by this stage the Soviet drive had pretty much come to a halt across the whole front. There was still a lot of fighting going on between various infantry units but the communist commander had almost run out of AFVs
Result: Decisive British victory.

15 comments:

  1. Al
    A fun looking game. Must get bak to some 'Cold war gone hot' scenarios myself (actually, must try to get back to carving out time for games... regardless of period .. sigh)

    Are they American M26s, or M48s I see in a couple of photos? Can't quite tell with the camera angle).

    Robin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice to hear from you Robin :)
      M26 they are Sir ..... less work more games, I am enjoying my retirement

      Delete
    2. Al
      Which kit manufacturer are they? YoU? retired? Pffffttt ..When did you get to that age? LOL

      Delete
    3. Great sense of humour Robin - I'm a full-time out patient at the veteran's clinic :)
      x2 Armourfast
      x1 Fujimi hybrid (monster mash)
      Great to hear from you and congratulations on your new(?) position

      Delete
  2. Nice report in an unsual period for me, beautiful pictures, especially with the planes imho...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great looking Game Mate! I love the air support and the armour is outstanding. Well Done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Col, best to you and Sharon mate xx

      Delete
  4. Looks like it was one hell of a battle. Great pictures Al.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks John, big fan of your own cold war projects

      Delete
  5. Great looking game. Can never go wrong with early cold war.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Pete, agreed. What if games are usually a lot of fun

      Delete
  6. Sweet! Now I inspired to do a cross over Bolt Action/Team Yankee game!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great period choice! And what an eclectic range of kit, lovely to see those early jets.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well what can I say but great game!
    Good choice of period and lovely collection of figures and equipment!
    Champion stuff!

    ReplyDelete