Ponyri Station

7/7/43

v1.3

On the 4th July 1943 the Germans unleashed their summer offensive on the Eastern Front: Operation Zitadelle, a pincer movement aimed at cutting off  the Kursk Salient. The Soviets were prepared, waiting, and made the Germans fight for every inch of soil. On the northern side of the salient some of the fiercest fighting took place around a town called Ponyri Station. The battle for the station started on the 5th and finally petered out on the 8th. The decisive day was the the 7th when the Germans made a pincer attack on the town from the east and west with the 292 Infanterie Division and the 656 Panzerjäger Regiment participating. The heavy reinforced 307th Rifle Division held the town and surrounding area for the Soviets.

The scenario starts half way through the day. The Germans have struggled into to the northern part of Ponyri station in spite of very heavy Soviet artillery fire, however they are still short of their day's objectives. The Soviets have unleashed a counter-attack to wrest Ponyri station from the invaders.

Map and Order of Battle

Soviet Deployment

The Soviets deploy first.

All stands are deployed in the areas delineated by the pink dashed lines

The 1019th Rifle Regt is dug in entrenchments (2L shift)

German Deployment

Most of the German units are deployed in the zones delineated by the pink dashed lines.

Kampfgruppe 653 sPzJgr Abt is a reinforcement. It enters the table within 6" of point A the turn after either: 1) The 292 Div Btl is touching the 1st of May Farm at the end of the enemy defensive fire phase or 2) 292 Div Bat has lost two SP.

Terrain

The map is a 3ft x 4ft area if playing 6" = 1km. North is to the top of the page.

The red lines are roads, they are all poor dirt roads and have no effect on the game.

The thin blue lines are steep streams.

The brown squares are mostly wrecked scattered  BUA

The dashed brown lines are level 1 ridge-lines..

The broken black line is a single track railway it has no game effect

Air Support

Both sides had many aircraft in the sky on the 7th July. The players get aircraft on a random basis. Each turn roll for air superiority (d6) on a 1-3 the Soviets have superiority this turn, on a 4-6 it belongs to the Germans. Roll at the start of the German turn

The side with superiority rolls on the following table (2d6): 1-7 no aircraft, 8-9 1 ground attack aircraft, 10-12 two ground attack aircraft.

German ground attack will be Fw-190A5, Ju-87D or Hs-129B. Soviet ground attack will be Il-2m

Special Rules

The game runs for 8 turns with a 50% chance of an 9th turn. Roll the chance at the end of turn 8

Soviets deploy first, Germans move first

Both sides had enormous amounts of artillery fire, most of which is not shown in the OB. Any stand that starts or moves within any BUA of Ponyri station is disrupted. BUA Y is part of Ponyri Station, the farm is not.

Victory Conditions

There are 3 victory locations

• The station (the BUA marked X)

• 1st of May Farm

• Ridge BC

To win the Germans must gain the ridge and both of the other locations.

For a draw the Germans must gain the ridge and The station.

Anything else is a Soviet win

To control Ponyri station or the 1st of May Farm there must be no Soviets base within or touching at the end of the game.

To control ridge BC the Germans must have a base touching it at the end of the game.

References

129th Tank Brigade: http://tankfront.ru/ussr/tbr/tbr129.html 

307th Rifle Division: http://www.poisk-pobeda.ru/forum/index.php?topic=3631.10;wap2

Objective Ponyri - Martin Nevshemal