Just like the previous battle, this battle also turned out to be a hard one. And the decision to use two lines of dragon’s teeth this time turned out to be a good one, since it bought the Soviet’ taskforce just enough time to turn a possible defeat into a decisive victory.
To begin with a small number of tanks appeared in the centre and soon the captured T-7 proved their worth, scoring the first kills by destroying Panther tanks with hits in the frontal armour at distances greater than 1.500 metres. It soon became clear that the German’ forces were focusing their attacks in the centre and south, making it possible for the forces in the north to make a careful advance through the double lines of dragon’s teeth while at the same time sending their tanks and tank destroyers south.
As the German’ losses in tanks grew, so did their determination to counter the fierce resistance by the Soviet’ taskforce. The tanks and AT guns on the centre hill received a lot of artillery fire and the Germans also kept countering the Soviet’ artillery, causing some casualties among their ranks as well. Soon the battle turned into a battle where both sides played a deadly game of cat and mouse making snapshots at the enemy tanks when ever possible. At the same time, the German’ Me 109 fighter-bombers continued to attack the Soviet’ ground forces over and over again.
In the north the infantry units continued to advance behind German’ lines undetected, but in the centre and south the Germans slowly but surely pushed their way through the lines of dragon’s teeth, which piece by piece being were opened up by the rugged German’ infantry. It was clear that there was going to be a breakthrough, the only questions were when and where. At the same time the pounded Soviet’ artillery couldn’t focus its fire enough to be able to counter this, forcing it to fire at a few German’ tank concentrations one at a time.
In the north the Soviet’ infantry managed to destroy three mortar positions and shortly after that also managed to reach the rear centre German’ lines, destroying a forth mortar position. Here they also encountered the German HQ, which finally was destroyed after a long drawn out fire fight between them and the infantry.
This couldn’t have come at a better time, because by now the German’ forces had managed to breach the double lines of dragon’s teeth in two places, sending lots of tanks through the south hole and a handful through the centre hole. The north group was easy to destroy by the ambushing IS-II tanks, but the south group took longer to grind to a halt, also since the captured T-7 tanks had run out of ammunition and largely had been forced to turn back. But as luck would have it, the German’ forces were stopped just in time without a single flag lost to the enemy.
Losses:
The Soviet’ taskforce lost 11 tanks and armoured vehicles plus a total of 530 men and the Germans lost about 1.000 men, 137 tanks and armoured vehicles, 3 halftracks, 4 mortar positions plus 1 Me 109 shot down. Of the German’ tanks lost, one was a Tiger II captured intact, and this tank was taken up by the Soviet’ taskforce as soon as possible.
The Soviet’ losses included 6 IS-II with 4 crews, 3 T-5 tanks with crews, 1 SU-85M with crew, 1 ZSU-M15 with crew plus 1 AT gun crew due to the German artillery.
Claims:
The heavy tank battalion claimed 74 tanks and 1 halftrack destroyed. The tank destroyer battery claimed 12 tanks destroyed. The infantry claimed 17 tanks, 2 halftracks and 4 mortar positions destroyed in close combat actions. And finally the artillery as a whole was credited with 34 tanks destroyed after inspecting the wrecked German’ tanks after the battle.
Of the total claims made by the heavy tank battalion, 19 were made by the captured T-7 tanks and 56 by the IS-II tanks.
Battle result:
Despite the odds the Soviet’ taskforce managed to hold their lines, stop the final attack on the flags and also infiltrate behind the German’ lines, thus this battle also turned out to a decisive victory.
Replacing losses:
The heavy tank battalion got their lost tanks replaced without any problems at all. The captured T-7 was given to the commander with crew of this unit as a reward after faithful service after leading the unit to many victories.
The tank destroyer battery was completely reequipped with the new SU-100 and its crews retrained. This new tank destroyer should give the successful unit more punch in the future battles to come.
The three lost T-5 tanks weren’t replaced, so the medium tank platoon will have to make due with just two T-5. Compared to the other units of the taskforce, this unit has suffered more losses and bad luck and it’s future fate within the taskforce will be decided in the near future.
The destroyed ZSU-M15 was replaced at once.
The losses suffered by the infantry and artillery were completely replaced.
Finally the decision was reached to replace the destroyed armoured forward observation vehicles with two independent 203 mm batteries. This should provide the taskforce with an extra punch when supporting the rest of the units during the battles to come.
New basic force:
Basic force:
-Soviet HQ + T-5g APC (8 men)
-Heavy Tank Battalion (27 IS-II & 5 T-7 - 133 men)
-Tank Destroyer Battery (11 SU-100 - 44 men)
-Medium Tank Platoon (2 T-5g - 10 men)
-Heavy Artillery Regiment (4 122 mm & 4 152 mm - 288 men)
-Heavy Artillery Batteries (2 203 mm - 112 men)
-Anti-Aircraft Platoon (4 ZSU-M15 - 16 men)
-Anti-Tank Battery (6 57 mm L73 - 30 men)
-Infantry (8 infantry & 1 MG Companies, 8 snipers and 8 Bazooka - 1.152 men)
Battle Seven:
Hungry, December 1944 - Advance
Support forces:
-Heavy Tank Company (10 IS-II - 40 men)
-Tank Destroyer Battery (11 ISU-122s - 44 men)
-Air Support (4 Il-2 Shturmovic - 8 men)