Operation Uranus was in full swing. Russian mechanized formations had smashed through and effectively destroyed the poorly equipped armies of the German allies protecting the flanks of the 6. Armee at Stalingrad. One exception was the Rumanian Major Rasconescu's battalion, which retreated in good order with all its equipment. At the airfield at Obliviskaya, the home of the Fliegerkorps VIII headquarters, Rasconescu's unit was dragooned into Gruppe Stahel. On 26 November the Russian 8th Cavalry Corps hit the airfield.
Attacker: Russian (Elements of 8th Cavalry Corps)
Defender: German / Romanian (Elements of leichte Flak-Abteilung 774, 9. Flak-Division and I. Bataillon, 8. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division and Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 and elements of 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, Romanian 6th Infantry Division)
Even having played (and won) this scenario, I'm not sure if I like it or not. Very unusual in that the Russian attackers - mainly a cavalry force - are try to destroy German aircraft either on the ground or as they take off (SSRs cover). I tried to threaten the flanks by keeping a couple of cavalry in reserve, but my main attack was through the centre. More by luck than judgement, this turned out to be the right approach, as I was able to position my guns to fire at the German aircraft from long range (even with their short barrels), and even get some infantry close enough for IFT shots. Needed some low rolls, but I had enough of them.
One German plane got off the ground but had limited success with its subsequent air attacks. Two more were shot down as they took off, and a third was destroyed on the ground by a 75* Infantry Gun at long range - sufficient to give me the win. Not easy to see how the Germans could prevent this, although a more up-front defence to hold the centre might have been a better try.
2024-06-22
(D) Simon Staniforth
vs
Andy Bagley
Russian win
The “mystery” scenario at Double One tournament 2024. My opponent has already written this one up. I agree, I was so concerned about the Cavalry sweeping round the flanks to get to the airfield that I failed to sufficiently cover the centre (particularly with the AA Guns) from where he was able to destroy the aircraft taking off (HMG / mortar / squads all having shots) and ultimately knock out the third for victory with long range artillery fire.
2024-06-22
(D) Paul Legg
vs
Michael Urquhart
Russian win
Double One 2024 Main Round 2
Having 3 boards to defend, albeit width wise with 8.5 Romanian squads feels very daunting. I setup to place the mmg and lmg to lay fire lanes to interdict the massed cavalry. Unfortunately the eastern squad cowered and the advanced cavalry were able to penetrate to the valley east of the airfield. The first plane that took off was able to get in a good attack on them as they obligingly lined up line astern. This resulted in 3 broken squads, although all 3 passed their bailing out checks. That was to be the only aerial attack as in turn 3 no target was spotted and on turn 4 the mgs malf'd. The broken squads would come back and take out one of the parked planes and imobilise a 2nd as it took off. The final plane was destroyed on take off by a critical hit from my own mortar which had been captured the turn before.