Zabrodzie
18th/19th
August 1944, by Richard Baber
Now many of you know I`m no great fan of
“elites” on the wargames table and have never been an SS or “big cat” fan-boy,
but whilst I was reading Ewald Klapdor’s interesting “Viking Panzers” which I
was sent to review for Battlegames magazine I was struck by the number of
highly playable small unit actions depicted in the text. This particular battle
with a mostly infantry force defending against Soviet attacks seems like a challenging
table-top battle.
History
The Soviet offensive in the east was
increasing in tempo all across the entire front, in places spearheads or
advanced patrols managed to find weak-points or gaps in the fluid German
defensive line. One such break-though occurred east out of Mieczyslawow and
threatened the rear-left flank of 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking” by
cutting both the Wyskow-Warsaw road and the rail-line which ran about one
kilometer east of the village
of Zabrodzie
Zabrodzie at the time was occupied by the
train elements of 5th SS, gathered under the command of 1st
Tank Battalion’s headquarters company; the officer in charge was
SS-Obersturmfuhrer Senghas. Senghas immediately organized all combat elements
from the trains and HQ company and set about setting up defensive positions
along the rail-line and then fought a protracted defensive action over the next
two days against Soviet infantry supported by tanks, artillery, mortars and
anti-tank guns (firing directly). This action allowed panzergrenadier regiment
“Westland
Panzer Division
battalion and train organizations 1944
Stab Command Staff
Signals and Recce (the Recce here is a
platoon of tanks)
Engineers and Recce (the recce here is motorcycles and VW)
FLAK
Engineers and Recce (the recce here is motorcycles and VW)
FLAK
Supply Company Command Staff
Medics
Maintenaince
Fuel
Ammunition
Admin
Maintenaince
Fuel
Ammunition
Admin
Workshop Coy Command Staff
1st Repair
2nd Repair
Recovery
Armourers
Signals Workshop
Armourers
Signals Workshop
Spare Parts
Transport
Abteilung Stab - 7 Officers, 41 NCO, 111 Men
Supply Company - 5 Officers, 51 NCO, 103 Men, 2 Officials, 20 HIWI
Supply Company - 5 Officers, 51 NCO, 103 Men, 2 Officials, 20 HIWI
Workshop Company - 3 Officers, 39 NCO, 164
Men, 3 Officials, 21 HIWI.
From the AAR
we must assume that all of the battalion recce elements were not present at the
time (presumably committed elsewhere). Now assuming Senghas had to leave enough
men and specialists to guard or in the worse-case scenario drive away to safety
those valuable vehicles and supplies, I would give him maybe 200 men to deploy
as infantry. In addition he had two damaged Panzer IVs which were being
repaired (the main armament seems to have been OK) plus a couple of SP 20mm
flak. He also gathered together scattered elements of an engineer battalion and
a penal company and combined them into a 58 man company armed with SMGs, rifles
and pistols. From Senghas` AAR report we know
his men had few LMGs and had to take the guns off the damaged tanks as extra
weapons for his infantry.
To make this a table-top battle I decided
to give Senghas’ force the following organization -
HQ
OC,
2 other officers, RTO, 4 runners
1st company
3
x 10 fig platoons (1 LMG, 1 Panzerfaust) *
2nd company
3
x 10 fig platoons (2 LMG, 1 Panzerfaust) *
Ad hoc platoon (engineers
and penal troops)
12
men *
Support
2
- Panzer IV (main gun & co-ax MG)
1
- SP 20mm Flak
*
Infantry have a small supply of anti-tank rifle grenades and magnetic mines
|
Now for an interesting twist or just
esthetics you could have the village on the table-top and field all those
interesting supply, repair and communication vehicles. These could be used as
objectives for the Russians to destroy (or the Germans to save).
Now according to Senghas the Soviets
attacked in company sized groups of 50 or so men. Each attack supported by
mortar and artillery fire, including direct AT fire.
Battalion staff
3 rifle companies each
with (12-LMGs and 3-50mm mortars)
Mortar company with
(9-82mm mortars)
Machine gun company with
(9-HMGs)
Anti-tank rifle platoon
(6-14.5mm PTRD41 AT)
|
Battalion staff (CO,
2IC, RTO + 20 men)
3 rifle companies each
with:
CHQ (CO + 5 men)
2 platoons of (10 men,
2-LMGs)
1 platoon of (10men,
LMG, 50mm mortar)
Mortar company with:
2 platoons of (2 - 82mm
mortars)
Machine gun company
with:
2 platoons of (2 - HMGs)
Anti-tank platoon of (10
men, 2-PTRD41s)
|
Action timeline
August 18th
1500
The first attack with a couple of infantry
companies, directed straight at the German positions with little thought to
cover or tactics, supported by mortar and direct AT fire.
1630
The second attack, identical to the first
1830
Two companies attack out of the woods on
the German right, one from the woods on the German left. Both attacks supported
by artillery and mortar fire.
2000
Fourth and final Russian attack of the
day – Russian infantry attacking out of the woods as their earlier attempt
August 19th
1030
After a quiet night the next morning the
Russians attacked again covered by heavy support fire directed at left side of
the line. They attack from both patches of woods (in company strength), this
time supported by four tanks coming from the right (2 Sherman and 2 T-34/76).
1230
Russians attack again from both sets of
woods (2 coys each), they bring forward a 76mm AT gun to the edge of the right
hand woods to try and knock out the Panzers and support their infantry.
1600
Senghas was informed that the Russians
had broken through in the sector north of Zabrodzie on his right! From this
time his men receive constant harassing fire from the rear right flank.
1800
Senghas organizes his men and pulls out.
By forcing a march via a circuitous route around enemy held villages (in his
rear), he managed to get the entire train and units to safety and back into
German lines.
I`d like to thank Alan McCoubry and
Ashley Ralston for their help with Panzer HQ TO&Es.
