KUBAN BRIDGEHEAD
The Taman Peninsula, Southern Russia, September 15–16 1943: Part 1
Each Command Decision aims to offer a series of playable options in timeless military scenarios. Command Decision is designed so you can read the situation and figure out your own command decisions if you were leading the troops on the ground. You can either work through the various options or use the mechanics to create the precise circumstances of the table top engagement. The scenarios may have particular historical themes and settings, but you can easily adapt the mechanics to suit your own preferences and collections. This is part one of a two-parter!
SITUATION REPORT
Following the loss of the German 6th Army in and around Stalingrad, the Germans were forced to pull back out of the Caucasus and head towards the Kuban area. It could be easily resupplied across the Kerch Straights from the Crimea. The Germans and Romanians dug in between the Sea of Azov in the north and the Novorossiysk in the south.
The Germans and their Romanian allies are about to launch Operation Kriemhild, the withdrawal of
all forces from the Kuban Bridgehead to the Kerch Peninsula (on the easternmost tip of the Crimean peninsula). It is due to begin at 1200 on September 4. They will fall back in three steps towards the harbours on the western edge of the Taman Peninsula directly across the Black Sea from the Crimea. Each time the length of the line is shortened more units can be withdrawn from the front and ferried across the water. It is 1900 on September 15 and the first major withdrawal has just begun.
ROLE AND COMMAND
You are Sergeant Rolf Steiner, a Wehrmacht platoon leader holding part of the line to the north of Novorossiysk. Your company commander, Meyer has been ordered to leave one platoon behind by the battalion commander, Stransky. Your platoon is the most experienced in the battalion; you wear the Iron Cross and you are often picked for reconnaissance missions. It has been decided that you will be the rear-guard for the battalion and that you should expect an imminent attack from the Russians.
GAMING THE ATTACK
This scenario simulates the scene from the movie Cross of Iron, where Steiner and his men, supported by an MG, a mortar team and an anti-tank gun are abandoned on the German front line after the fall-back when Stransky cuts off communication with them. This is a pure defence versus attack and the Germans should be forced to hold their positions for a period of time before they can withdraw from the table. The map and the deployment section below details some unpredictable variations in the game to make it more challenging for both sides and to allow more than one play of the scenario. On the map, the Germans have the advantage of being on slightly higher ground. German units in the two centre squares at the front of the hill should be allowed to target any Russians behind the two open woods on either flank.
GERMAN DEPLOYMENT
We assume that the Germans have four elements (excluding Steiner himself who should be placed with the first squad) including Anselm, Maas, Schnurbbert and Kern. The Germans must deploy first. The German player rolls a d6 to determine their start positions (marked in blue on the map):
RUSSIAN DEPLOYMENT
The Russians have roughly the same number of men (they do have one extra squad). Their entry onto the table is determined by firstly throwing to see the arrival times of the units and then rolling a 1d6 to determine which of the six red numbered entry points indicates where they appear on the table edge:
GAMING
This is ideal for game systems such as Bolt Action and Chain of Command. You need a ruleset that caters for engagements at platoon level with minimal support. It is possible to upscale the engagement and use Rapid Fire or another set that focusses more on battalion level fighting. If you take this approach you will need to upgrade Steiner’s platoon and paltry support for a weak battalion of German infantry with some MGS and an anti-tank gun to support them.
Warlord released a special Steiner figure to coincide with the release of their Ostfront ranges in 2015; at the same time they suggested the following tweaks to their Bolt Action rules to simulate the battlefield influence of Steiner:
The first special rule can be applied in this scenario, but the second one will only be applicable in next month’s Command Decision.
One Russian squad may tank ride each of the T34s. They can be targeted with weapons fire and do not receive any cover bonuses as they are effectively hitching a ride and are not inside the armoured vehicle. If the T34 is hit by German fire (regardless of any damage done to it), the tank riders should be tested for casualties as if they had been hit by an HE round.
ARMIES
The classifications for the two small forces use Chain of Command, but the Bolt Action squad sizes are very similar and have almost the same composition.
The Germans should be given 1 x Minefield, 1 x Barbed Wire and 4 x Entrenchments.
The Russians should also be given a pre-game barrage. If one of the squads is wiped out, it can be recycled as a reserve and enters the table on one of the six d6 determined points one turn after the squad has been eliminated.
HISTORICAL ALTERNATIVES
This is the archetypical delaying action that became commonplace on the Eastern Front from late 1943. However, it has echoes of older conflicts on Russian soil. The forces could be easily adapted for 1812. The three squads of Germans become three companies of French infantry supported by a single artillery piece. The Russian infantry are simply rearmed with muskets and the tanks become small squadrons of Cossacks.
All of this is perfectly playable using Sharp Practice from the same rule-writing stable as Chain of Command. Alternatively just step back two years, remain in Russia and switch the roles around with Russian troops desperately covering a breakthrough by German forces, simply replace the T34s with a pair of Panzer IIS or IVS. Again, reverse the roles and Tsarist Russians could be holding back advancing Germans in October 1914 around the Battle of the Vistula River or the Battle of Łódz´
the month after.
Peter the Great would also recognise this type of engagement as his infantry and Cossacks close in on a Swedish rear-guard in the aftermath of Poltava in 1709. Or perhaps a Saga based battle between the Rus and the Mongols in the C13th?
KUBAN BRIDGEHEAD: FACT CHECK
The Russian 18th Army launched an amphibious assault on Novorossiysk on the night of 9 – 10 September. They established some beachheads and reinforced them over the next few nights. This allowed them to punch through the Romanian 20th Mountain Battalion holding the coast road. The Russians failed to capitalise on their gains and the Germans withdrew from Novorossiysk in fairly good order during the night of 15 – 16 September. This fall back allowed the 10th Romanian Division and the 1st Romanian Mountain Division to be evacuated from the peninsula (completed on 23 September).
Despite their best efforts the Russians were so far ineffective in rolling up the defences and capturing the Germans and Romanians on the peninsula. They were determined to disrupt the orderly withdrawal operations. There were still 65,000 German and Romanian soldiers, 800 motorcycles, 1,100 cars, 2,000 trucks, 600 tracked vehicles, 600 trailers, 5,400 horse-drawn vehicles, 15,000 horses and 900 guns trapped on the peninsula.
CROSS OF IRON: THE MOVIE
Loosely based on this campaign, the movie was directed by Sam Peckinpah and starred James Coburn as Steiner and Maximilian Schell as Stransky. James Mason and David Warner played more senior officers in the battalion. Stransky is desperate to win the Iron Cross and tries to take credit for leading a counterattack. Steiner refuses to support his claim and when the battalion is ordered to withdraw, Stransky neglects to tell Steiner and his men, leaving them alone on the front facing the Russian attack.
Unfortunately the movie was a box office flop, coming out in the same year as the first Star Wars film. A critic said of Cross of Iron that it “is a forgotten masterpiece that has never really managed to overcome its troubled and expensive production.” If you haven’t seen it, you must!
Next month we’ll follow Steiner west towards Taman and safety. ■