Back on the Russian front

Today we did a WW2 skirmish as the first game of the year. We ran a couple of understrength Red Army platoons against a Wehrmacht platoon. Both sides had armour support.
Ian took command, he had a squad led by an officer and a commissar and was supported by a Maxim MMG . Phil had a squad supported by a small group of anti-tank personnel.
Lawrence's squad had a 50mm mortar in support,  and my squad was supported by a group of 6 SMG armed infantry, who were escorting 2 T-34s (Tankovy desant)

2 Russian snipers moved forward to spot the enemy positions.

  Down the road, a wrecked Hanomag and a PaK 40 taking cover behind it.

They also spotted a Hetzer in an emplaced position. 

Other troops in emplacements were on their right. 

(An overview of the German positions) 

 Ian ordered me to lead through some woods followed by 2 other squads.

 I was to take the buildings and sweep behind the Fascisti positions.

After a careful check on the woods to my front... 

 ..my men cleared the woods onto the flank of the anti-tank gun.

Ian followed Phil's section in support of me. 

 My men spotted some Germans lounging by the wreck.

 A fire team ran forward supported by the rest of the squad.

 I lead with a grenade before the surprised Germans could react. 

2 of the Germans fell, the rest were still stunned.  

Phil had spotted 2 MG34s in an emplacement ahead.. 

Very accurate fire killed or wounded half and they fled back to the buildings.

My infantry tore into the PaK 40's crew.

 Phil's squad noticed some more Germans hiding in a wood beyond the buildings. 

 A panzerjager group were preparing to shoot.

 A burst from a DP machine gun -again very accurately!- sorted them out.

Phil moved on pursuing the MG 34 crews who had retreated. 

My DP team retrieved 2 Panzerfausts! 

The rest of my infantry cleared a house while the anti-tank team looked for the - as yet unaware - Hetzer. 

 I fired my flare gun, and our 2 tanks moved down the road.

 Phil had a mine-dog team. They sneaked forward and the dog was released.

 It actually decided to sniff the vehicle and cock its leg, before going under the vehicle as it had been trained to do.

The dog went up with a woof! (lol!),  but only slightly damaged the vehicle.

 The German MG teams despite desperate resistance, finally fell.

The Hetzer, leaking diesel, retreated, but the 88 and its supporting MG34 turned to face flank, and our attack. 

 I was able to infiltrate their flank via a building.

Ian's men surprised some infantry hiding by the Hetzers emplacement. His grenade overshot and missed. 

My men rushed the 88, supported by my DP team and the men in the house. 

 My last grenade caused mayhem.

 The Germans retreated from the assault.

The Germans Ian had engaged, charged into Ian's men and disabled one of them. The T-34s, having moved into town, now appeared. 

 The Hetzer and its supporting infantry, retreated off table.

Ian's men finally won the melee and took a prisoner (for the NKVD!) 

 Lawrences men had been guarding the flank of our advance, and now laid smoke with their mortar to screen our flank attack.

Outmanoeuvred, the remaining Germans withdrew. We had won!

When we turned over the remaining hidden markers, it appeared the majority of the German infantry were covering the centre of the table, and would have been massacred from the flank if the game had continued.

We only had 1 casualty! the Germans lost over a dozen, all told. Surprise, and a very aggressive assault (together with a good slice of luck at several points in the game!) made it seem easy!, we so nearly took a lot of casualties!

We all enjoyed the game a lot though!