Pictures from the Kuban Landings
M3L Stuarts just landed (Matchbox kit)
88mm awaits the Russians (Hasegawa kit)
Romanian R1 tankette rushed to reinforce the front (Cromwell resin model, infantry are FAA)
Defenders of Ozerejki. (SHQ Dutch painted as Romanians)
First clash in the woods. Russians charge forward waving their hands in the air to try and scare the already shaken Romanians. The Russians were not aggressive enough at this stage and the Romanians managed to rally most of their troops. Romanians are FAA, Soviet plastics from Revell, Matchbox and Esci
Romanian Artillery of the 20th Artillery Regiment, due to a poorly placed FO they didn't do much firing in the initial stages of the game. 75mm is SHQ, 100mm is Skytrex. Limbers by SHQ and Hat. Most of the figs are FAA with the exception of the 100mm crew which are from SHS.
Special Landing Group moves up. Mostly Revel figs.
10th Division's commander flees before the Russian paras. SHS figure on a plastic horse from the Esci/Italeri Russian infantry set. Unfortunately the SHS supplied horses are somewhat anatomically challenged.
75mm turns to make sure the Special landing Group don't decide to heroically charge the guns
The Soviets line up to charge the 88mm
Soviet forces seize the 88mm position destroying the gun. Unfortunately they promptly failed their morale check and retreated but it did clear the way for the Stuarts
M3L's assault South Ozerejki and manage to force the Romanian defenders back from the edge of the town. However the Russians had too little infantry support to risk committing their precious tanks inside the town
Russian infantry force the Romanians back from the outskirts of South Ozerejki (Revell figures)
Romanian regimental heavy weapons making up their second line of defence. (SHQ Bofors 37mm)
The R1 flees South Ozerejki followed by the Stuarts
The Special landing group take North Ozerejki and head for the rear of the Romanian regimental weapons.
After the Stuarts kill the pretty much defenseless R1 they impetuously charge the 37mm; and pay the price.
The end of the game: although the 37mm kills the final Stuart, the regimental weapons are destroyed by overwhelming numbers of Russian infantry. the way is open to the artillery and HQ in Glebovki
The game was fought between Keith Higgins and I on 20/11/05. It was a close fought battle which at times looked like it could go either side's way. Unfortunately we didn't get time to fight to a complete conclusion. At the end the russians has busted through the Romanian second line on the right. On the left they had finally cornered the 2nd Battalion 38th Infantry and were busy destroying it, leaving the way open to Glebovki. The Romanian artillery was intact in Glebovki and the DHQ had been reinforces with a handful of stragglers. The final struggle for Glebovki would have been a titanic struggle which could have gone either way