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.