Stalingrad South – 15th Sept to 20th Sept 1942 - Spearkrieg Game

Refight - Stalingrad South – 15th Sept to 20th Sept 1942

Stalingrad.  We’ve all heard about it and maybe seen some films about it of dubious historical value but entertaining nevertheless.  So, apart from it being so well know, why refight it?  It’s just a slog through an urban Hell, right?

Well, in some ways it is but for both sides it is about nursing resources, organising complicated attacks in a difficult environment and more importantly, the Germans CAN win it but it is very tricky.  As a wargame player, one of the interested for me is in understand the problems WW2 commanders faced and recreating that on the tabletop.  I’ve done this in for Normandy and Kursk and now I wanted to try urban combat.

At the club, we use a mix of Spearhead and Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC), a hybrid of my own construction which we call Spearkrieg.  Spearhead provides the core but we use command rolls to trigger movement and firing and a different Recon system (see link for more on Spearkrieg).  We’ve found that, with a few considered tweaks, we can recreate massive battles/campaigns involving more than half a dozen Divisions that can be played quickly and give historical results.

For Stalingrad, we will be fighting three campaigns.  The first is in the south of the city, the second in the middle and the final one will be in the north around the main factories and set several weeks after the first two campaigns.  The main source for maps, information and the Divisional strengths/TOEs is from the quite frankly superb book, Armageddon in Stalingrad (volume 2) by David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House.  Glantz is a excellent historian and produces academic texts full of all the stats and maps that we wargamers actually need.  They are a slog to read because of the detail but they are worth it for that detail, particularly for the Soviet side (e.g. division commander biographies are included and numbers men (by weapons) week by week for the divisions in Stalingrad).

This report covers the South battle around the part of the city that contains the much talked about the Grain Elevator.  The Germans are attacking with three Divisions: 24th Panzer Division, 29th Motorized Division and the 94th (Saxon) Infantry Division.  The Soviets have a mish-mash of units dug in around the city (see 10th Rifle Brigade, 35th Guards Infantry Division and 131st Infantry Division) but the hope of reinforcements 92nd Naval Rifle Brigade.

The map is based on a German military map I found on the web and seemed to match Soviet ones I found that weren’t as detailed.  I traced onto the map the Spearhead 3” sector squares, railway lines and deep gullies (see South Map).  The Germans had to set-up in the marked areas (or just off table) and the Soviets set-up, dug-in, anywhere 10” or more away from the Germans.
I’m not going to give a blow by blow account of the fighting but here are some maps and pictures showing the re-fight.

South map

Day 1
We forgot to take any photos but here’s the frontline.

The dice mark the front line (below it are the German positions) and to the left are Soviet infantry that are already known about (i.e. spotted) – there are more Soviets but they haven’t been spotted.

Day 2

The 94th (Saxon) Division infiltrate down the gully and attack the Canning Factory.

End of day 2 (dice mark frontline).  The 24th Pz Div have made good progress to the left of the picture.  94th Inf Div in the middle and right have pushed into the Canning Factory District but only have a toe-hold.  Of picture the 60th Mot Div are really struggling against the veteran SMG survivors of the 35th Guards.
Day 3

Soviet infiltration attack!  Day 3 (17th Sept) start with a soviet SMG company attack into the heart of the 24th Pz lines.  I guess those building weren’t as clear as the Germans thought.  Soviets have light grey helmets.

The sweep of the Day 3 battle.

The Day 3 survivors of 94th Div.

 

 Day 4

Doug Lowe, commander of Group Hellermann, 24th Panzer division finds that Dr Pepper is no cure for the Stalingrad Stare.  He wishes his Group from 24th Pz were being pulled out at the end of today as the rest of the division were historically.

Fighting around the Grain Elevator (middle bottom) and the 24th Pz almost clear left of the railway line but the 95th Naval Rifle Brigade has turned up (middle top)!

Looking north along the railway line.  The Grain Elevator and Station 2 are middle right.

 The Germans push on now the Elevator is captured.

Day 5
 

Only the 94th inf div and Group Hellerman of the 24th are left for the Germans to use to clear the last streets.  The other forces have been withdrawn to rest and be used in other areas of the theatre.

Day 6
 

The 94th inf div is left by Corps to clear the remaining buildings but it is too much to ask of this tired Division.  Here, Naval SMG platoons (left) hold Station 2 as the 94th attack from the right across the railway line.

Map showing the initial German Division positions and the frontline at the end of each day.  The result was a Soviet strategic victory because the Germans failed to clear all the sectors within the 6 days – but it was very close!

The butcher’s bill*:

Soviet losses

Platoon	Starting no.	Lost	Percentage lost
Infantry	135	114	84.4
AFV	6	6	100
ATG	6	6	100
Other support	13	13	100

German losses

Platoon	Starting no.	Lost	Percentage lost
Infantry (24 Pz)	24	16	66.7
Infantry (29 Mot)	33	7	21.2
Infantry (94 Inf)	42	22	52.4
Total Infantry	99	45	45.5
Engineers (24 Pz)	19	9	47.3
Engineers (29 Mot)	10	4	40
Engineers (94 Inf)	8	2	25
Total Engineers	37	15	40.5
AFV (24 Pz)	7	2	28.6
AFV (29 Mot)	2	4	50
AFV (94 Inf)	2	1	50
Total AFV	11	5	45.5
Other support (24 Pz)	10	3	30
Other support (29 Mot)	17	2	11.8
Other support (94 Inf)	16	2	12.5
Total other support	43	7	16.3

 

Sniper losses	German	Soviet
Regt HQ	2	0
Batt HQ	2	1
FOO	1	0
FAC	1	0

 

*Note: Soviet units could not break as per Spearhead rules but a platoon that was “killed” could only roll for recovery (on a 6) at the end of the day it was killed – failure meant it was lost for good.  The German units could break and be lost for the battle but their killed platoons could roll for recovery at the end of each day.  Resting German battalions for a day or two to recover was the sensible option!