for Combat-Mission (SOCC-M)
Current Campaign
BOBRUISK BREAKOUT � 28 JUNE TO 1 JULY
SITUATION
While the 3rd Byelorussian Front was surging toward Minsk from the north, the 1st Byelorussian Front was attacking from the south. On 24 June the two Fronts launched their main offensive. Pressed hard in the Bobruisk area, the German 9th Army commander received permission to release his major reserve, the 20th Panzer Division. The rest of the 9th Army consisted of 10 infantry divisions divided into three separate corps. The 20th PZR Div was only at partial strength as one of its two tank regiments was in the rear outfitting with Panther tanks.
As the 20th PZR was committed, the Soviet 65th Army made a major breakthrough just south of Bobruisk. This penetration continued to deepen and Marshal Rokossovskiy (commander of 1st Byelorussian Front) committed the 1st Guards Tank Corps to exploit the breach.
The lead infantry elements of the 20th, followed later by the tanks, met the Soviets near Slobodka, south of Bobruisk. After a haphazard series of contacts, the Germans destroyed about 60 Soviet tanks, losing half their own number in the process. Meanwhile the Soviet 3rd Army committed its own reserve, the 9th Tank Corps, in an attack on Bobruisk from the northeast.
Due to Hitler�s �No Retreat� policy, German commanders were reluctant to withdraw the 9th Army from the forming pocket. By the 26th of June, the 20th Panzer Division and most of the 9th Army were effectively cut off in the area of Bobruisk. The 9th Tank Corps had sealed off the river crossings of the Berezina from the west, making orderly withdrawal impossible. The 1st Byelorussian Front had trapped about 40,000 German troops in a pocket about 25 km in diameter east of Bobruisk. A series of desperate breakout attempts were made, but the proximity of the Soviet artillery concentrations and the free flying Red Air Force turned them back with heavy casualties.
Hitler consented to the shift of the 12th Panzer Division from Army Group North to help lift the siege.
On 27th June, General Hoffmeister, XXXI Panzer Corps, was authorized to attempt a breakout. The breakout attempt by 5,000 troops began on 28 June, with a small number of tanks from the 20th Panzer Division. The thin Soviet infantry cordon to the northwest was ruptured, and wave after wave of German troops spilled out of the city. Additional Soviet infantry and tank units attacked these forces as they tried to reach elements of the 12th Panzer Division on the Svisloch River, about 20km away. The breakout eventually saved 15,000 troops, but they were mostly unarmed and demoralized, and of no immediate value in further defensive operations.
This campaign game attempts to reenact these three dramatic days in late June, 1944. The Soviet players will be attempting to cut off and destroy the German breakout forces. Their German counterparts will be attempting to breakout and launch a successful counterattack to relieve the surrounded forces. Due to the fluid situation and the fog of war neither force will get much more intel then is provided here. It remains to be seen through play if the German players can save their brothers in arms or if the Soviet players will be successful in crushing the Bobruiskers for good.