The Liberation of Taganrog
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| A new scenario under development. |
Command Ops Stalingrad: Operation Hubertus --- Available For Download
German troops take cover inside the Tractor Factory. To begin, a very special thanks to Tim at Ranger X3X and Doug at Cry Havoc for their playtesting Hubertus, their edits/suggestions to the scenario and their help with the creation of a playable Soviet estab file. Operation Hubertus is the 1st of three scenarios I have planned for the Stalingrad front. It covers three very intense days of desperate fighting near the end of German offensive operations in the City. Historically, after Hubertus' completion, the Soviets launched a counterattack and encircled the German 6th Army along with a collection of Axis satellite units. At the time of this operation, the German divisions within Stalingrad were almost spent, with many under 50% of their manpower. A plan was suggested to and approved by Hitler to use Pioneer units to eliminate the remaining Soviet bridgeheads. The Soviet formations within Stalingrad were in even worse shape with many hovering around 30% of their...
Comments
I came across your blog at random, while doing a nostalgic search for Taganrog. I lived there for three months and have visited plenty of these former battlefields.
Downloading CO2's free version now, in the hopes that it can load your scenarios.
If you know of any book that covers the fighting there I would love to read it. Let me know if you have trouble loading up the scenario in CO2 and what you think of the scenario if you get to play it.
You're probably done with the scenario for good, but let me know if you want any tips on how the populated areas of the map could be 're-painted' to be more accurate. A good portion of the 'urban' zones would be better described as 'town' or 'village,' which would perhaps make the approach to the city more gradual. There's also some very dramatic topography with impassable slopes and cliffs on the peninsula itself, but this may not be tactically relevant, given the Soviet's avenue of assault. Only thing I can think of is a few defilades and an area of wetland (which was my backyard).
I'm afraid I can't recommend any books; even finding sources in Russian isn't that straightforward. But there is a free John Tiller demo of the Soviets' breakthrough on the Mius Front, featuring a large stretch of terrain to the north of Taganrog.
Actually, you could do a CO2 and Combat Mission: Black Sea double feature at an amazing landmark that was a battlefield in 1943 and last summer. It's a burial mound called Saur-Mogila, basically like a Mamaev Kurgan (of Stalingrad fame) on the steppe. You had the separatists re-excavating old German trenches, and MH17 was shot down from a field within sight of the summit.