It was clear from the very beginning that this battle wasn’t going to be an easy victory. The terrain caused lots of problems regarding fields of views for the supporting units and it was expected to encounter lots of tanks, above all Panthers, from the German’ side.
The infantry advanced as planned, encountering the enemy after a few minutes and then starting a fierce battle, which would be relentless towards both sides right up until the last 20 minutes, when the Soviet’ taskforce, or at least what remained of it, got a small but big enough advantage over the German’ forces. Initially the German’ taskforce lost much more tanks than the Soviet’ side, but after that, quite unexpected, the German’ tanks and anti-tank units started to cause heavy casualties among the Soviet’ armoured fighting vehicles.
When the situation was stable in the south, where the heavy machine guns combined with what remained of the infantry companies were enough to hold the enemy at a distance, it was somewhat uncertain in the middle and started to critical in the north, where a small group of tanks all of the sudden started to capture the flags. Finally, after quickly re-grouping, this threat could be put to a stop and all that remained of the German’ forces were anti-aircraft artillery and fields guns, which couldn’t be dealt with due to the way too weak Soviet’ forces, and three tracked German tanks, that insisted on not letting them selves being captured nor knocked out.
The outcome of this battle hanged by a thread, even when the German’ losses far outpaced those of the Soviet’ taskforce, and it was only due to the sacrifice and violent resistance of the infantry companies that this battle could be won. If it hadn’t been for them, the German’ tanks would have been able to drive straight through the Soviet’ lines and capture all of the flags.
Losses:
The Soviet taskforce lost a total of 33 tanks, 2 anti-tank guns, 1 aircraft and 975 men, the great majority infantry, and the German taskforce a total of 124 tanks, 4 halftracks, 1 artillery and more than 900 men in total. Of the 124 German’ tanks lost, a total of 8 were abandoned by their crews.
The tank battalion lost 26 tanks and 20 crews. The tank destroyer battery lost 3 tanks. The tank destroyer platoon lost 3 tanks and 3 crews. The anti-tank gun battery lost 2 anti-tank guns and 3 crews. The support tank destroyer group company lost 1 tank and 1 crew. The IL-2 ground attack aircraft lost 1 airplane and 1 crew.
Claims:
The tank battalion claimed 69 tanks destroyed. The tank destroyer battery claimed 10 tanks and 1 halftrack destroyed. The anti-tank gun battery claimed 3 tank and 1 halftrack destroyed. The tank destroyer platoon claimed 12 tank destroyed. The infantry as a whole claimed to have destroyed 19 tanks and 2 halftracks in close combat actions, including a Tiger I. The support tank destroyer group claimed 2 tanks destroyed. And finally the supporting IL-2 Shturmovics claimed 1 tank and 1 artillery destroyed.
Of the total claims of the tank battalion, 52 were made by the T-34/85 tanks (23 lost), 11 by the T-5g tanks (3 lost) and 6 by the pre-production T-44 (surviving the battle).
Overall combat performance by the T-44 was considered very good, its frontal armour being practically in-penetrable even for the 75 mm KwK 42/L70 gun, and its 85 mm gun was just as good as that of the T-34/85. Complaints however were made about the mechanical reliability, which required much more work by the mechanics and crew than then other tanks, even the captured T-5g.
Battle result:
Although the Soviet’ forces controlled all the flags, the remaining forces were too weak to push towards the rear German’ lines and destroy the artillery remaining there, thus the result was a minor victory. However, during the circumstances - with the huge losses on both sides - this result was far better than a draw or minor loss.
Replacing losses:
The tank battalion, it was decided will step by step be transformed from a Medium Tank Battalion into a Heavy Tank Battalion, thus some of its losses were replaced with 8 IS-II fresh from the factory. One of these was given to a veteran crew, the rest to freshly trained crews. This together with the remaining T-34/85 tanks, which are to valuable at the moment, the T-44 pre-production tank and the newly captured German’ tanks, makes it a very mixed unit indeed.
8 German’ tanks - 1 Tiger I, 6 Panther G and 1 PzIVH - were found abandoned by the Soviet’ forces. The first seven were put into service at once, replacing the four T-5g either destroyed or put out of fighting condition, with the Tiger I being re-designated T-6a, due to the existence of the Tiger II, which would be renamed T-6b if captured. Again, the T-4h was given to another taskforce, due to its lower survivability under fire, compared to the T-5g.
Since none of the tank destroyer batteries veteran crews were lost during the battle, it was no problem replacing the three lost SU-85M tank destroyers with fresh ones from the factory.
The losses of the tank destroyer platoon however meant that only the two surviving crews got their ISU-122 fixed. With a new, upgraded version of the ISU-122s, with stronger lower frontal armour, this model will gradually replace the older ISU-122 tank destroyers after the next battle.
The losses of the anti-tank gun battery and the infantry were completely replaced.
New basic force:
Basic force:
-Soviet HQ + Boys Carrier (8 men)
-Tank Battalion (4 T-34/85, 8 IS-II, 6 T-5g, 1 T-6a & 1 T-44 pre-production - 91 men)
-Tank Destroyer Battery (5 SU-85M - 20 men)
-Tank Destroyer Platoon (2 ISU-122 - 8 men)
-Artillery Regiment (8 122 mm - 288 men)
-Anti-Aircraft Platoon (4 GAZ-AA 37 - 24 men)
-Anti-Tank Battery (6 57 mm L73 - 30 men)
-Infantry (8 infantry & 1 MG Companies and 16 Bazooka - 1.160 men)
Battle Four:
Rumania, September 1944 - Meeting Engagement
Support forces:
-Heavy Tank Battalion (10 IS-II - 40 men)
-Air Support (4 Yak-9T - 4 men)